Korean Job Discussion Forums

[laogaiguk]

Some of my students told me because of summer camp (only 10 to 12 in the morning), they don't have to go to any morning hagwons. They also don't have to go to afternoon ones either because the school is way out in the country and they can't make it in time. They love summer camp.

Well, they also love it because I make it fun. They are probably only learning maximum 50% of what they could be if I was teaching like I do during normal school hours, but I just can't make my kids study like that in the summer. It's all games, though with English inbedded in them.

Finally, I guess the old teacher only ever stood at the front of the class and made them write things. This was a foreign, North American teacher. The things they tell me about him would make even the worst of the Korean teacher's styles of teaching look good. No wonder they got rid of him.

[LateBloomer]

With the right games, kids can make great progress in summer camp and really enjoy it.

I only have each grade level (elementary school) for one week.... but I have them play games that keep them talking all the time. It has been very rewarding to see those who were too shy to say anything audible on day one, happily speaking in sentences by the end of the week.

[cmr]

Can you name/explain those games? That could give me and others ideas.

[LateBloomer]

cmr,

Sorry for the delay in responding.....I hadn't gotten back to this thread and didn't see your message until just now.

To give you some background: I was teaching grades 3, 4, and 5 in a public school. What I did works best with smaller classes--a dozen at the most--and it works better if you can arrange the desks/chairs in a semi circle around you. Most of the time I sit in a chair in the middle of them. I get them to pass a ball around from one student to another. (You can do it without a ball, but it does help them to focus, especially when they're new at it.) The one who has the ball has to say something like. � Hi, My name is John. What�s your name?� and the student next to them has to answer and repeat the pattern. Or another version is�..�I am Suzy. You are Julie....I am Julie. You are Sam. (or "She is Julie") Some of my student had new English names so they enjoyed practising them.

They especially like variations of this game which give them the freedom to decide what they want to say. In their regular classes, because they are forced to do group repetition of pre-determined sentences, most of them don�t get a chance to speak individually. So, they aren�t used to having the freedom to think for themselves.

One of the variations is the �I like� game. The first person says, �I like pizza (or whatever). What do you like?� Then each student has to say two things they like. Then it changes to each student telling the class what the student beside them likes��She likes dancing.� Then I get the girls to tell me what the boys like...."They like baseball" After awhile the kids really started to use their imaginations. Some of their answers were quite funny and designed to get a reaction. Some of the boys said that the girls like �monsters� while the girls said that the boys like �dancing�.

There are endless variations to this concept. You can use it to teach "please, thankyou and you're welcome." Or, I have used it to help them practice "a and an". Each child says a letter of the alphbet, thinks of a word starting with that letter and then says whether it should be "a" or "an" ("a cat" an orange") I correct their grammar and pronunciation, when required. I was really surprised at how much they seemed to enjoy it. When the class ended during the "I like" game, they would ask if they could do it one more time.

I hope this helps. If you want more information or some other ideas, let me know. I did a lot of research into games because I didn't just want to amuse the kids....I really wanted them to learn something in the short time we had--just a week with each group of kids. I also developed some quizzes to gauge just how much they were learning. If you want some of those, pm me.