Korean Job Discussion Forums

[blunder1983]

Well my new first years are all really cool. In one class though I have a girl who has been in Alaska for 3 years (shes only 12 now so its a substantial amount of time for her). Of course this means while the rest of the kids are struggling away valiantly with problems she has them completed in a heart beat.

I like having a great student and it seems a waste to just leave her with the stuff I have for my mainstream students. I want to give her extra work without causing the other kids to get jealous of the extra attention. Already the class is annoyed with her after her sterling performance in jeopardy last week.

So any suggestions on how to up her lessons in a non obvious way? I've suggested she borrow some English books I have but it still doesnt deal with the class issues.

Oh for the want of ability graded classes!

[ilovebdt]

Do you think your school would let you teach her one to one?

[Hobophobic]

One of my grade 2 kids is better than most teachers in the school, and he takes the afterschool program with the grade 6 students....and puts them to shame...

We are trying to work it so he can skip to or sit in on the higher grades for English only...we'll see...

[Hotpants]

If the student has no problems with confidence, then she could perhaps actually help you with teaching.
Get her to come up with test questions for the students, to find interesting reading texts to bring in and use in class, and to get her to assist students who have problems writing. She can also be the quiz master in any future quizzes rather than being the contestant.
Alternatively, if it is possible, she should go to a higher grade class, or in the case of a similar case student that I had, once the parent realized how low the other students were by comparison, she took the child out of the class and sent her for the hour at a piano academy instead.

[idealjetsam]

If it's a public school, I recommend you talk to her one on one about not dominating the class but reassure her that you know all about her ability level and will continue to work with her and encourage her as often as possible.

She has a double-whammy being a returnee and fluent in English, and getting along with classmates is incredibly important here. Also, due to her three years abroad she may not realize just how important it is. I have seen lots of high school kids come back from the States or Singapore or wherever thinking they can walk their own walk, only to find out they are more Korean than they previously thought, but only after they have already been totally ostracized or at least been given a hill so high to climb toward re-acceptance that it depresses the hell out of them. And I think we all know our kids don't need any more pressure than they already have on them.

At my old high school, we had after school programs: essay and debate classes and such, where the good kids could keep their skills in tone. At my middle school now, I meet with the kids who want to go to foreign language high schools once a week after classes to go over interviewing and basic essay(TOEFLish level) skills. However, for some of them it doubles as a "We-are-the-returnee-or-good-at-English-nerdy-kids" support group.

Student: "Hi, my name is Hee-Jung. And I'm good at grammar."
Class: "Hi, Hee-Jung."

On another note, one of the ironies facing these kids is that they are often at a disadvantage when taking the Korean style English exams. Either they don't how to study the material like the other Korean students, or they overthink the test questions as there are usually several possible correct answers visible to a person that has a good or natural sense of English(this usually counts out the Korean teacher who made the test), or they are so busy moving on and chatting and writing and reading with the Native Speaker, they just don't pay attention to the course material, and then they just fail. No matter their level of English, they still have the study habits and maturity of young teenagers, and won't realize how to focus and prioritize until it's too late and the fluent kid is riding high on the hump of the grade curve. (Hopefully not sliding down that Dromedary's arse...)

This, again, is if you are teaching in a public school, which it sounds like you are. If it's a hakwon they should find a better class for her, or her parents should move her to a more suitable academy.

But if it is a public school, I wouldn't worry: her parents will surely be supplementing her English education at the best hakwon in town, and it's ultimately their responsibility and you may be devoting a lot of effort toward solving a problem that doesn't exist.