Korean Job Discussion Forums

[yellowdove]

At my new school, the kindergarten books I have to use are far too advanced for their level. I am a certified teacher, but honestly anyone could see that these books are too hard for these kids. They have been used in the past at this school, but a Korean teacher has taught them, which allowed the Korean teacher to explain in Korean the words and the instructions for the workbooks. Now the books that the English teachers last year were using, the Korean teachers are using.

I know I am only two weeks into my job, but already I can see that this is going to be a problem. The kids are going to bring home the readers, attempt to read these HUGE words for their parents, and when they can't do it I'm going to be blamed.

For example, I looked ahead in the reader and 'Toad and Frog Together' is two stories ahead. I used this story with my kids in my last school who had already graduated from a really good Kindergarten, who could read and write at just about an American 1st grade English level, and they struggled a bit with it. Now I'm expected to use this story with 6 year old children who can't even read the word 'fin'.

My question is - what do I do? Do I find a proper American pre-k reading program and suggest it to them as a way to help these children progress at a more steady level? Do I ask to be switched back to the books that last year's English teachers were using, because I can't instruct these kids properly? Or do I just suck it up and wish for miracles? I know I'm a good teacher. I'm a great teacher. But there is only so much I can do.

How do I approach this situation delicately, so that the school doesn't get offended? And please, no sarcastic remarks. I'm not in the mood, nor will they be of any assistance.

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

Maybe this is too obvious to constitute advice, but if there's someone at your school who seems reasonable to talk to and won't get offended, then they're your best bet. I don't know your co-workers, but sometimes they can be a lot more reasonable than they seem.

If the students parents' have already paid for the books, then you're probably stuck with them... but if that's not how it works where you are, you might have more options.

If you're stuck, then I suppose you could try to downplay the books and focus on supplementary material (of your own design or from elsewhere). Sometimes you can do a 'thematic' link... but I'm not sure how much freedom you have.

The workbooks should be completed (if the parents paid for them and they're not touched, it will be bad), but this can be done as a sort of quick and semi-painless walkthrough as a group (basically, spoonfeeding answers-- they're used to it, trust me... but in this case, it's more like shovelfeeding)... and then when they're finished you can give them something more appropriate.

Are there tests? What sorts of goals are in place for these students? Believe it or not, sometimes there are no goals, except 'learning English'... which gives you some slack.

Maybe you know better than I do, but if there was no one that I felt that you can talk to, then that is what I would do. Potentially, if you can get results with the supplementary stuff, someone will take notice.

[yellowdove]

You bring up a good point about tests. There are none. So yes, I guess that does give me some slack.

The books have been bought, and are apparently so expensive I don't get my own copy. *sigh* But they will only last 6 months. Maybe I can suggest something simpler, and not so expensive, and that will appeal to the school.

In our contract it says that supplemental material is supposed to be approved by the employer, so I am not sure how much I can get away with it. But I can try. I think my boss wants me to just be able to send home some sort of art/writing project at the end of each unit, so that the parents have something substantial. The workbooks will not be sent home, and I don't have to use all the pages.

What bothers me is that my supervisor even recognizes that the books are too hard for the children. She is almost as new as we are, though, only two months into her job, and I think she feels as though she has no leverage as well. These books have been used a lot, but there are no set lesson plans for them, just 'teach from these books'.

Maybe I can sit down with her and explain that the books are too hard, and that we should find something that might be better for them. Maybe if we team up we can approach the director and explain the situation.

Thank you for your suggestions, any more from anyone else would be appreciated as well.

[winterfall]

This is the norm in public schools. It's a complete waste of time. Welcome to Korea.

Focus on core vocabulary words they should know. Check out word lists for the 1st 1000 and the 2nd 1000, generated from the Contemporary American English Corpus. The 1st 1000th and 2nd 1000 are lists of word families that recur in english the most often. Once you find the list, you'll have to manually divide the words into themes like emotions, grammar forms, etc that are appropriate for your students. You can find these lists easily and for free online. However, bear in mind the lists assume you know proper and common nouns like tree, Car, etc. These are things that you may have to teach your students as well.

This explains what I'm talking about as simply as possible

http://www.wordfrequency.info/uses.asp

If you need to prepare an argument justifying why your using these words. Type any random english sentence or paragraph into this

http://www.lextutor.ca/vp/

And it'll highlight which words come from the 1st 1000 and the 2nd 1000. This program in particular uses a word list from a slightly different corpus. The BNC. The difference is slight but still noticeable. Regardless, I believe you should still use the Contemporary American one even though your using a British based one to argue for it. Because, the American one is the most frequently updated Corpus, so far at 400 million word families and just the fact that Koreans in general prefer american english over british.

Whether they learn these words form you not, they're gonna run into them eventually. Sooner is better, If they don't ever learn em then well... I guess I'll be seeing them in my tech school when they grow up

[northway]

You're teaching Storytown, I take it?

[yellowdove]

The vocabulary list is a good idea, I have a feeling that would be okay.

And no, I'm not teaching Storytown.