Korean Job Discussion Forums

[agraham]

Does anyone else have this problem:

I'm a new teacher here at this school. My youngest class has a couple of new students and a some that are starting thier fourth or fifth semester. This lowest level class has been using a more advanced text each semester. The parents insist on seeing thier students advancing, and of course the director knows which side her bread is buttered on.
So I have a text for this class which teaches for example how to compose answers to the 'WH' questions; meanwhile one of the students literally cannot spell his own name.
I'm try to cheat the system by spending the first half of the semester 'reviewing' the basics and then I'm going to try to power through every exercise in the book during the second half. This text is already designed for a fifty hour course instead of a twentyfive hour course, which means I'm going to have to finish this book in one fifth of the ideal time.
Of course the problem won't be any better next semester when the text will advance once again and the students won't have absorbed this one... *sigh*

[jazblanc77]

Do some reseach and figure out some books at a relatively similar level and keep side stepping them into new books. This way, the parents see a new book coming home while you have a little more time to drill the basics into their heads.

In ESL classes, I used to do this with three different curriculums, English Time, Let's Go, and Smile. The numbers correlate perfectly between English Time and Let's Go but are a little different so the parents didn't really see that they were being duped. I used Smile for super challenged classes because the level numbers on Smile books could be one or two levels down from the Enlgish Time/Let's Go series ie. Smile 3 = English Time 1 or 2 while English Time 3 = Let's Go 3. As long as they don't think that you have given their kids a level down, they won't really care. If they do, just lie to them and tell them that the new book is more difficult.

I don't know if this will help you much but this is what worked for me in the past. After a year or so like this, you might actually be able to get them back up to speed.

[No L]

I did the same thing with four series: Smile, Let's Go. English Time and Up & Away. I did each level in that order. It's great for review too. Oxford actually recommends using both their Let's Go and English Time series (then again, they want to sell books). ET is a little more difficult then LG. Also, this way, there are smaller steps between levels.

I had a couple of lost students in an advanced class before. I just gave them a lot more help with everything. Repeating to answer questions, coping to answer workbooks. Several months later, everything just clicked and they could read, etc almost as well as the rest of the class.

[agraham]

Thanks guys. I actually tried to move the kids over to Up & Away this latest semester, but my boss-teacher has a "no Up & Away" policy. Apparently the clean design and layout of the Up & Away series makes the books look too simple. Ironically some parents who can't read what is on the pages look at the pictures and say "This book is for retards; my child is a genius." Doubly ironically, parents just love the Domino series and I hate it.
I will check out Let's Go and Smile for next semester.

[jazblanc77]