Teacher Discussion Forums

I've been in Korea for about half a year now. I finished my first year of university and decided to take the year off to become more accustomed to my home culture. On the side of learning Korean and doing church business, I decided to take on a parttime English teaching job. A friend introduced a job opportunity to me and I gladly pursued it and was eventually taken for the job.

I'm teaching at a church and I didn't really know much about the position or how to teach going in. I know it's silly to go into a job like that but it was my first time so I didn't know any better. The church put up an English program for first and second graders without really establishing any real foundation or any real guidance on how to teach. The vision, besides the obvious, is very unclear and undefined. All of the responsibility was placed on the shoulders of myself and another teacher who is also unqualified yet has a couple years experience. We're constantly burdened with the feeling that we're not teaching the kids our maximum potential due to inexperience, ignorance, and lack of resources, and I would like to ask your help and input on this scenario.

Should us two take it upon our own shoulders to develop a program for the children or should we appeal to the people who hired us, the church, to take on most of that responsibility?

If we are to devolop a program, what do you think is the best way to teach that age group and with what resources?



If you could give your feedback, I'd greatly appreciate it!

People here could give you lots of practical advice that you can implement immediately. If you look through the posts on this site specifically the "activities and games" forum and the "elementary education" forum, you will find lots of ideas. As a starting teacher, you need to read, read, read, and since this is truly your first assignment, I would also do some reading. Gather up lots of ideas and try them out. You will find what works for your situation and style.

You can do it! We ALL started in a similar way. You have to throw yourself into it and have fun.

I think you need to think it through a bit and set down and draw out at least an outline of a curriculum. What kinds of things do you want to teach and in what building order. Then you can choose the vocabulary that will get your students where they need to be.

I think it's up to you to get this done and will help you, the people who proceed you, and the students you are teaching.

I have a lot of resources on my web site but I haven't posted a curriculum yet. I just started the web site last April and it's going to take me some time to get everything up. If you would like me to help you out please email or PM me and I'd be glad to help at least get started and you can go from there.

- Mark
www.mes-english.com

1) divide the kids into groups according to level. One class for wangchobo (complete beginners) who barely know the alphabet and can only put one or two word utterances together. One class for kids who can make okayish sentences. One class for kids who can make pretty decent sentences and sometimes string them together. You probably won't have kids with a higher level than that.

2) teach phonics to everyone. This includes phonological awareness activities like rhyming, blending sounds together to make words, taking words and breaking them up into their composite sounds, identifying what sounds are at the beginning, middle, and end of words, etc. Phonics also includes talking about what letters match up to which sounds, short vs. long vowels, silent-e syllables, etc. Really good phonics instruction helps with reading, spelling pronunciation, and listening comprehension so everyone should get it.

3) Make sure the kids know the communication basics: to like, to want, pronouns, to have, negation, plurals, present tense, past tense, future "tense", present progressive, eat, drink, sit, stand, study, read, write, sleep, play, mom, dad, sister, brother, friend, and. Foods, animals, and colors are popular, too.

4) use lots and lots of games to reinforce your specific lessons of the day. Total physical response (TPR) games are good for following directions, prepositions, and adverbs. "Find the..." games are good for adjectives (find the little fish card. find the curly brown haired girl card.). Charades is great for present progressive verbs. Hangman is good for practice spelling new vocabulary words.

I would imagine that your church would also wish that you promote the ideals of your religion at the same time as teaching the children English. There are a lot of books written for teaching English with a religious theme - learning stories from your holy books and so on. It would be good to get on the Internet and see what is already developed before you spend hours trying to develop your own curriculum. There are prepared curriculums with movies and videos and worksheets already developed and most are free from the parent organizations.

I would recomend "Words thier Way" and "Kid Writting" both of these books are core resources I use. I also use "Word Journies".

"Words thier Way" and "Kid Writting" both provide curriculumn outlines as well as resources that you can use in your classroom.

There is also lots of quallity childreans' literature out there with Christian themes that you can use.

My initial thought after reading you post was "relax and trust in the lord", you have been provided with more tools then you realize to teaching your children. I was amazed when I took my Elementry Education classes at Penn State. I really didn't learn anything new, but I was provided with lots of tools.

Use the resources that you find on the internet
Use books and established curriculmn. You don't need to reinvent the wheel. Using something that someone else has already set up.
Trust you judgment and most important have fun with the kids. If you are having fun with the kids -they will learn.

Hi!
You seem to have a seemingly overwhelming task and you have gotten many great ideas on this site. I know you are still thinking, "Where do we start now." Your first task is to win the children over by showing them that you have a plan. Next, they need to work with you to become a community of learners. Only then can you have their attention to implement the ideas you are reading about. Check out my new book on www.brandnewteacher.com It has been published by Vested Publishing and could very well be a basic guide that will help you begin your successful program. Good luck to you. Carol Keeney

hang in there!!

www.livinglanguages.net

Go to an ESL bookstore (there were two in Pusan and 3 in Seoul last I checked) and see if any books give you ideas. Ask for a budget and buy 4-5 of them. Try to get coursebooks like Interchange or Side By Side, as these have the greatest variety of exercises, which will help you find our own teaching style.