Korean Job Discussion Forums

[crazylemongirl]

My principal has decreed that my higher level students look too bored in class. I'll admit that they are. Unfourtantly I teach classes of 40 where 25% are speaking at intermediate level and another 25% barely know their ABCs and the other 50% is somewhere in the middle of these extremes.

Reflecting that at any one time I basically need to have as much of the class understanding as possible so that things don't descend into chaos my lessons are dumbed down so that it doesn't go too far over the bulk of my students heads. I tend to structure my lessons as follows.

Vocab. Most of it will be stuff that most of them already know but I throw in a few extra words.eg if it's weather. I'll put in things like humid or overcast alongside the usual sunny and windy.

Plug the vocab into a sentence or phrase from the dialogue sentence from the students dialogue.
They then practice the target sentences and vocab. The last part the students usually do some group work which might be practicing the sentences in an interview or some sort of game.

I always try to throw in some open ended questions to let the higher level ones show off. And the team work is a chance for higher level students to help the lower level ones.

Obviously this is an occupational hazard of large public school classes that aren't streamed. So how would i do this.

[the_beaver]

Admittedly this might not work with high school students, but what I've done in the past is break the class up into groups according to level and given the higher level ones more difficult tasks and the lower level ones easier tasks.

[crazylemongirl]

[Cherry Ripe]

Crazylemongirl - this principal of yours is certainly giving you a hard time of late!! I think it's impossible to have all kids peachy keen 100% of the time. And I don't think it's necessarily a reflection on your teaching. Further, it sounds like you already take into account the students differences and pitch the lesson accordingly.
However, I must say that the old substitution dialogue routine is something I rarely use, or if I do, I only use it for a small part of the class. I find it boring myself! I'm a big fan of games - with kids in teams and something worthwhile as a prize. For classes before lunchtime, the reward is being first in the lunch queue (kids have lunch in classroom). Since you teach 1500 students I guess handing out candy everytime could be expensive - you could have a point system and reward the winning team at the end of the month. Or you could hand out fake dollars as rewards to exchange for a prize later...
BTW Have you tried the "Find someone who..." activities? How about taking the class to the school's auditorium and getting to do a game that involves running (eg. Dictation race, team spelling games - you could put poor spellers with good ones)...?

[crazylemongirl]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

And here I thought I had problems with hogwan kids in classes of 10 where I have to get the most advanced kid to translate instructions to the least. I've recently found that handing out puzzles works well. The better pupils can finish it in class the not-so-advanced ones can take it home if they want. This is also a good way to get the more advanced ones to help out their lower-level friends.

[PolyChronic Time Girl]

Crazylemongirl.....I understand your pain. I taught 40+ high school boys last year (and I also was the only teacher with no help whatsoever from administration). The school doesn't understand that it's double the challenge to be a female teacher teaching 40+ boys. With that many students, you are bound to have some English "casualties." Your principal just sounds like a power-loving ajeoshi who likes to push women around...at least my principal was like that last year. He even told a Korean female teacher that her high heels make too much noise and that she has to regard him as a father.
At the end of my teaching boys, I decided I was going to focus just on the students who want to learn and basically ignore the students who were lazy/discipline problems...because it wasn't fair that the good ones were being cheated out on learning while I was busing telling the bad ones to be quiet. or focusing all my energy on devising discipline tactics( which took all my energy).
Hope it fares well for you...don't worry about your principal...just smile and bow like a good little Korean girl and he should love you for it (my principal did). Besides he needs you more than you need him, so he should put a sock in it.

[Gollum]

I've found that they magically often bring this sort of thing up near negotiation time, so they can argue that you're not good enough for a raise, etc...

[crazylemongirl]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Koreabound2004]

My high school is co-ed, but the classes are segregated. So I have some classes of 30-40 high school boys...no coteacher in class for the majority of them. And being female usually means getting very little respect with the boys. It can be absolute torture.

I agree with the other poster, not every student will be interested in your class..esp. boys, and considering that my students are not given grades by me for anything I do with them, and the fact that no matter how well they do they will still pass on to the next level...there is very little to motivate them in my classes...plus add on that I am female, and they also know that I won't physically punish them.... this all equals a recipe for DISASTER in my books.

I try to use games occasionally, ones that I can use for every class....and offer a single candy to the winners...not so bad...or I print off articles that I think may be of interest to them(foreign holidays, etc), and I get the boys to take turns reading lines from the articles...if I have a bad student, I make him read the whole article in front of the class...and later or as we go we usually discuss the articles, and I clarify the terms that are difficult. Sometimes I cut up articles into strips, and highlight the hard words, and give a strip to each student, and get them to look up the definitions of the hard words, read those defs, or make dialogues using such words and present them.
Recently, I have been playing word bingo, using words with sounds that really get them confused P/B's R/L's for example....it really forces them to listen, and when they win, I have them call out the words and really make them pronounce them properly...they enjoy it, and it helps them work on their pronounciation and listening. I don't call out words unless you can hear a pin drop, and the kids who want to play will ensure that the others are quiet or involved. Amazing what they will do for candies or just to win....and these are 17-19 year olds.

As for the kids who don't want to participate...that's not your problem...you can only do so much...but don't let it get to you or stress you out too much. My K-coteachers usually ignore them too, or let them sleep...

Men on power trips here can be quite ridiculous toward females...90% of the staff at my school are males too...so I get a double whammy. I am dealing with them, and it's making me stronger, believe me.

[steroidmaximus]

Sounds like your principal's got a burr up his tail pipe about something, not your teaching style. Did he talk to you last year? Was he there last year? Did he make a pass at you? Does he want to make a pass at you but is too intimidated? hmmm. . .

[crazylemongirl]

[Derrek]

Hey, CMG, I have found that this years' incoming 1st year students are a real pain in the butt compared to last year's students. They are louder, more obnoxious, and listen to teachers less. My Korean co-workers said the same.

Maybe some of your new students are complainers, and the principal has heard from a mother or two.

Did you get a salary raise? Perhaps you were put on radar because of something like that?

[steroidmaximus]