Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jst]

Public elementary school seems like it would be an enjoyable teaching experience, but I've heard "horror" stories about grade 6 students.

How do grade 6 students in elementary school compare to middle school students?

[jrwhite82]

On the whole, I find Korean upper elementary students to be less socially and emotionally developed than American students. It's not a bad thing. It's just different. Students will fall across a broad spectrum of development. There are four basic pieces of a student: PIES

Physical
Intellectual
Emotional
Social

So just because they are the tallest and into puberty already doesn't mean that they are the most socially developed. One of the biggest boys in my school is one of the most socially immature. He refuses to talk to me directly, instead he holds up his Koala pencil case and speaks through that.

Some students are going to be extremely bright, but will cry more than most 1st graders.

Basically, the best thing you can do as a teacher is learn about your students as individuals. Learn their personalities, what makes them different from one another, and then treat them accordingly.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

I'd say they're about the same... the only difference is that in grade 6 they basically own their elementary school and are more like young adults among children, while in middle school, everyone is a young adult...

The whole behavior thing is pretty up in the air because really it depends on the individual personalities and how they mix as opposed to anything you could possibly generalize.

Pros:

-you can do more challenging/exciting things with them.
-they are largely self-sufficient and you don't have to be their mom.
-they are beginning to show signs of personal responsibility.
-they're sort of expected to be wild/insane, so your fellow teachers will be more likely to sympathize with your problems.
-you can sometimes get away with being more boring.
-you can trust them to work on their own, so you can assign projects which takes the focus off of you.

Cons:

-puberty (this is a big one)
-can be difficult to impress/engage
-will sometimes get upset if you treat them like babies
-are busy with all sorts of other things like hagwons and clubs and such so they won't always 'have time' to focus on your class.

My experience is that grade 6/middle school is where you have to stop treating them like children and start treating them like adults... they like games and stuff but they're more choosy about what types of games. I try to do as many projects as possible where I'm more of a monitor as opposed to a lecturer and they have a lot more responsibilities. They need guidance, but don't do everything for them. I think that this works pretty well...