Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

Today I found out I have two classes of 42 incoming HS students this week. Does anyone have any ideas for how to run a class apart from just running it like a large middle school class or just doing songs or DVDs? It would be great if we could do something fun in an orderly fashion but apart from songs it seems well nigh impossible. Also the classrooms are way too small, and there's no room to walk around or even do group work. I could do the usual semester routine of phonics / vocab / dialogue / listening excercise and then a game or song but something more lively that a class can do without too much disorder would sure be nice.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

[sock]

Something you can do in a small space and adapt to pretty much any level: get (or make) some cards. I just bought some simple flashcards, the kind you'd use to teach elementary students common vocabulary. I let the kids choose their own groups. Everybody gets X number of cards, and they take turns describing what's on the card (in English) without actually saying what it is. First person in the group to correctly guess gets the card, then it's the next person's turn to describe their card. I set a timer for two to five minutes, and when the time is up, the groups stop and switch their cards.

Do you have access to anything like a video camera? It can be fun to have kids make fake commercials (in English). You can either bring in various props, assigned randomly to each group, or you can have the kids make up their own ideas and, of course, write their own scripts. You would have to use more than just your room, and there might be issues with supervising so many students in more than one area. But it is really fun to do, if you can pull it off. You can also have them act out various common childhood stories like "3 little pigs" and whatnot.

Something else I've done with lots of kids is make a "service" scavenger hunt. I ask permission of the other teachers in advance. If it's okay, I'll make up a list of 5-10 things that each group has to do. For example, I had middle schoolers grade 3 and so I assigned them to teach some of the younger elementary students at the camp a game in English. I had them sing a song (any song, but must be in English), read a short book, clean a classroom, do a random act of kindness for the building adjosshi/adjumma, etc. Each task requires a signature of an adult in order to be considered complete. The kids really liked it, more than I expected, and it gave them a chance to go out and be active and still use English. The other teachers welcomed a short break and liked for their students to have a chance to interact with the older/more advanced students, as that rarely happens in Korea. I just divided my class into two groups and I was lucky enough to have a Korean teacher who accompanied one group and I went with the other.

In my own high school foreign language classes, my teacher did a lot of games like "family feud" or jeopardy, and that was fun. Only required a little bit of prep (go to family feud's website) and some kind of projector or multimedia/powerpoint setup. You could also have a spelling bee or a "vocabulary bee." Maybe not too thrilling but different enough to keep their attention for awhile.

Relay races are fun but have little educational value. Passing the orange/small balloon using only the neck & chin or shoulder is exciting for kids that age. Have them race in the halls carrying an egg/pingpong ball/cotton ball on a spoon held in their mouths. Push a small piece of candy on the floor with your nose, stuff like that. Give them ten minutes of mindless fun in every class and the phonics/vocab/dialogue tends to go down better. But, many of these are coping strategies more than they are teaching ideas.

That really sucks. I feel for you. If it goes to hell, I suggest teaching them English text message abbreviations and then insisting that they just sit for the period and text their friends in English.

[Yu_Bum_suk]