Korean Job Discussion Forums

Nina · Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Location: Ulsan

I have the horror class from Nam. They are the typical apathic middle schoolers. They drive me crazy.
Now, Ive tried many things to get their interest but nothing. Its like talking to a brick wall, a very rude and bithcy brick wall. I am going to introduce class rules and a 3 strikes and get the hell out of my class policy as things have just gotten crazy and Im going to go atomic on them soon.

Please any help would so be appreciated before I go crazy and have to just give up on them and this place!

Harpeau · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Location: Coquitlam, BC

Strike 1~ sit a guy next to a girl or vice-versa. Heaven help you, sounds pretty rough!

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

What A/V resources do you have? Do you have to teach from textbooks?

Nina · Joined: 06 Feb 2006 Location: Ulsan

Well, i might be overreacting slightly. Today is a one of those despondent korea days!

Its a conversation class mainly, but there is a txt book as well. We do songs and stories and comics and other supposedly fun things my other classes like but no avail.

mumblebee · Joined: 26 Jun 2004 Location: Andong

I have had middle school classes like the one you descibe. No amount of ice breaking helped, in fact, it may have made the situation worse.

I work with a Korean partner at my hagwon, and she picked up on all kinds of dynamics in the class that were opaque to me. For example age differences of even one year make a difference to the students, so if the oldest student is silent, the others often feel they shouldn't speak up, even if they know the answer. Also, we had one rather scornful girl in the class, and she effectively intimidated all the other students. I couldn't pick up on this, but my partner commented on it right away.

What I have learned is not too expect much in the way of sponateous response, even in conversation classes. You have to needle the students very directly..."Ji Eun, what does your family do for birthdays?" Wait for Ji Eun to answer something. Don't let her off the hook. Once the students realize they do indeed have to speak, they will start to respond a little more quickly, just to avoid being the centre of attention while you wait for an answer.

If your class is large enough, pair the students up and give them a list of questions they must ask their partner. Give them a time limit so they get started right away. Visit each pair individually to keep them on task, and to take the pressure of being observed off of everybody else for a few minutes. Then get them to share their partners resposes with the class. It may be easier for the students to not talk about themselves.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

I've found that my middle school classes really like making up their own dialogues. We'll do the textbook dialogue, but before class or while they're working in pairs I'll re-write it on the board leaving the names and a bunch of things blank. Then we'll re-write it with all sorts of ridiculous things and then practice it in two groups. I find the whisper game is great for getting students excited: I whisper a short sentence (using the day's phonics words) to the last student in each row, they go down the row, and the first student writes it on the board. It can get a bit disorderly but it's great for the end of a lesson. All seven of my MS classes really like these things. I really find that doing different viarities of the same sorts of things is the best way to keep everyone enthused.

Junior · Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Location: the eye

Hater Depot · Joined: 29 Mar 2005

I have never, ever gotten kids to do pair work without either doing it 100% in Korean, or just at best making a really half-assed job of it. I've seen Korean teachers fail just as miserably. If anybody has any tips on how to make it actually work, please share them!

gang ah jee · Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper

I_Am_Wrong · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: whatever

Junior · Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Location: the eye

I_Am_Wrong · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Location: whatever

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

LateBloomer · Joined: 06 May 2006

Try to get them "where they live". Because regular Korean public school classes are so structured, if you can encourage the kids to use their imaginations, they can really"get into it". In my summer camp classes, they loved to talk about things they liked, and things they disliked, who their favorite sports heros were, what they would buy if they had lots of money, (if I gave you 5 million won...what would you buy. their favorite singers. sometimes I would start them off buy telling them what I would buy, things I liked etc.) I'd ask the boys what they thought girls like to do and vice versa. Some of the answers were goofy and intended to get a reaction....but at least they were speaking English.