Korean Job Discussion Forums

[some waygug-in]

My boss is pretty strict about making sure that we are always using the textbook, but the students ...........well, it's like pulling teeth to get them to take out their books sometimes.

I know a couple of games that use the book, but I'm hoping there are more.

Find the longest word/ sentence game:

each team has to find words or sentences that start with successive letters of the alphabet. The longer the word or sentence, the more points.

It really gets them looking through their books and they have to read their answers back to me and then spell it out. It's not really studying tho.

Pictionary using the textbook as the source of pictures.... but this gets old fast.

I can also do word bingo with vocab from the text, but it's not really using the text much.



I tried the word battleships today, but the students couldn't understand how to play. I spent more time trying to show them how it's supposed to work than actually playing it........


I tried to make a Jeopardy style quiz game with material from the text, but the students were totally lost. Unless the questions parrot the dialogue from the book, they have no clue what I was asking.

Anyone got some others?

[ajuma]

What book are you using?

Whatever book it is, figure out what nouns, grammer, whatever...that they're trying to get across and make a game to reinforce what's going on in the book. For example: colors.

After they learn a few colors, have them (teams...one from each team) stand up and touch the color of something in the room. For added learning (or higher levels), make them say a sentence "The desk is brown." "Mary's coat is blue."

I'm not trying to flame you or talk down to you, but do you make lesson plans? If you look over the lesson, you should be able to think of or google and find something that will go along with almost every lesson. As long as the books are open on the desk, how can your director complain!!

[jacl]

Make a game that's not related to the learning. They learn but play a game at the same time. Use dice. Each person has their turn and they roll the dice. They say it, they hear it, you repeat it, and they repeat it. Good to do in teams. The winning team gets a prize or more stickers. The losers get stickers, but not as many as the winners. Always give your kids candy. And buy them pizza or chicken every few months. Play card games with 10 or 15 minutes left in each class to make them pay attention or participate more willingly during the learning sessions. Test them (spelling, vocabulay, sentence writing, etc.). Give the ones that get 100% more stickers. I give candy to kids every ten stickers. Kids that get 100% on a test get 3 stickers.

[ladyandthetramp]

[jacl]

Make the kids happy while they learn. Use your head. The boss will figure it out after a while that you're doing more good than harm. Don't make life hard on yourself by making the class boring.

[john]

You might read the textbook story to them first or have the students read the story themselves and make sure they are familiar with the vocabulary. I like to use word searches or synonym matching to introduce vocabulary.

Retype any story from the textbook into a word document or your favorite word processor. Cut the story into sentences, paragraphs, or fragments of sentences as you feel is appropriate for the class level. Oh yeah, make sure they cant put the story together by looking at the way you cut the paper. I double cut or mix the sentences in the word processor before I print.

Teach them how to communicate and negotiate while putting the story in the correct order. For example, ��I think this sentence is first/next/last.�� ��Maybe this sentence is near the beginning/middle/end.�� ��I agree/disagree/don��t know/not sure.��

If you have the students in small groups of 4 for example you can have 2 students go to another group and check the other group's work. ��Why do you think this sentence goes here?�� ��I think this is wrong.�� ��I agree/disagree/don��t know/not sure.��

Another cool thing about teaching continuity and discourse between the sentences and paragraphs is that it might help the students writing and thinking. You might have the students write their own story, usually in pairs or groups and then cut their stories up into sentences and have other pairs or groups try and put the story back together. They might critique their own work.

[schwa]

Does the book have an alphabetical vocab index at the back?

Teacher chooses & marks a "secret" word. Tell the kids the first letter & they take turns (individually or in small groups, depending on class size) trying to guess it.

This gets them all scanning the word list trying to read your mind.

When someone guesses the word, they get a point. Then they get a chance to use it in a sentence for one more point. If their sentence is long, interesting, or funny, give bonus points.

I've used this with young kids & teens & it goes over well.

[winnie]

Best game I've done with the textbook is called "textbook scavenger hunt"

I go through their text and write out a description of a picture:

For example:

Find a photo of a map of Africa Page___________

Find two people hugging Page_____________


So they will be flipping through the text like mad....they love it. They have to write down which page number the photo you described is on.

I usually give them about 30 things to find for a 50 min class, depending on the level.

You can usually do it a couple of times with them, just using different descriptions the next time and diff photos. It really keeps them occupied, and the class will be quiet too.

First one to finish, gets a sticker.

[jacl]

[some waygug-in]

Normally I would do some planning, but so far in this place I never know which class/level I am supposed to teach next, so it's pretty hard to plan anything. The director refuses to buy any picture cards or any of the extra resources that go with the text, so I can see why the kids are bored with it.
I will buy some once I get paid, but for now I have to make due.
It's not that I want to spend the entire class playing games, I just want to have some fun activities that use the book, so the students won't be so opposed to taking their books out and looking in them.

We do enough "repeat after me" things with the dialogues, and I like doing the songs in the back. (something the last teacher refused to do )



We are using English Time, which is a great book. (as far as books go)

The problem is that as soon as I get away from the dialogues .... they
are clueless.

Example:

I made a Jeopardy quiz game using ET4 as a base for the questions.

I had questions like ,"What is the 4th planet from the sun?"

What is the biggest planet? , What is the closest planet to the sun?

etc.

They found that pretty difficult because that type of question is not exactly part of the dialogue of the text. This place has the students memorizing dialogues and thinks that the students are learning.

I guess they are getting lots of reading and pronunciation practice from that, but their comprehension levels are way behind their actual book levels.

Perhaps I just need to give them more time to get used to me. It's only my second week and it will take us time to get used to each other.

Anyway, thanks for your help everyone. The scavenger hunt idea sounds cool too.


I just thought of this one:

divide the class into teams.

They have to race each other finding 5 "p" words.

When the first team shouts finished, they stop and we compare lists.

[jacl]

[Privateer]

Games that involve use of the textbook:

1. You can have them do a role-play and every time they make a mistake hit them on the head - with the textbook.

2. You can have students make a circle and take turns shouting out examples of words in a certain category so, for example, if the category is 'colour' students have to shout out names of colours. One student shouts out a colour and then nominates a new student - by throwing the textbook.

3. Rehearse the day's vocabulary or sentence structure by having students line up in two or more teams. You ask a question and the first two students in line compete to see who can give the correct answer first. Instead of using a buzzer, students have to run forward to a desk or chair in front of you and - touch the textbook.

I'm sure there are many more creative uses of the textbook you can come up with. The above examples are meant to show that every textbook can be a valuable classroom object.

N.B. In certain cases it may be possible to find further uses for the textbook by opening it up and looking inside.

[jacl]

Tongue in cheek:

If they get the answer wrong, you can use a tazer gun. That'll set things straight. Hitting them over the head with a book is not really as effective. Put the fear of God into 'em. Then eat candy and pizza in front of them and don't share.

So, to make my point, don't do anything that involves hitting. Be it light or not.

So, to further make my point, don't be a fucking retard.

[Privateer]

Ah yes.

For the benefit of the literal-minded:-

"Hitting" on the head with textbooks should actually be taken to mean tapping lightly.

[some waygug-in]

Thanks all for your contributions.

I'll see what I can do.

As one who has used games a lot in the past, I find it difficult to confine myself to such a ridgid program. Perhaps it's all part of getting used to the new teacher/new school and all.


There are still the standards: Spelling Wars, typhoon, 20 questions, pictionary.

Peace