2012 Books for 5th and 6th grade

Textbook Review 2012 - Cheonjae Book 1 (함순애, Frances Sohn)

Textbook Review 2012 - Cheonjae Book 2 (윤여범)

Textbook Review 2012 - YBM Book 1 (최희경, 오마리아)

Textbook Review 2012 - YBM Book 2 (김혜리)

Textbook Review 2012 - S-Daegyo (이재근)

Textbook Review 2012 - Geumseong (고경석 Cameron M Wood)
      
Textbook Review 2012 - Mirae-En (이재관)
      
Textbook Review 2012 - Gyohasa (김정렬, Vande Voort Heide Marie)

Note: The numbering of the YBM and Cheonjae books is arbitrary. Those two numbered as 1 were on my desk in reach of the keyboard, the other 2 were on another desk.

I've looked over three of the 5th grade textbooks: 대교, 금성출판사, 천재교육. Here are my initial thoughts.

1. 대교- Some of the phrasing in the book is really weird. For example, The lesson on subjects teaches "I have a music class." "I have a math class." On a much smaller note. the teacher's name is Mrs. Gim (김). Haha it doesn't bug me that they have a korean teacher. It bugs me that they don't call her Mrs. Kim. I know their is a big push to make hangeul translate 1:1 with certain english letters recently (ㄱ always = G or ㅂ always = B), but I have yet to meet someone who calls themselves Bark (박) or Gim (김)

2. 금성출판사-  Some of the activities in the book look new and could be fun to try. make a fortune teller etc. They provide culture lessons in the book for the students to read. At my past school, my coteacher would always push me to make a cultural point for each lesson. Some just don't have a cultural difference.. like "How many cows" was a tough one. But it provides it in Korean for the students and can be a fun quick read. I also like that because it challenges students to think outside their own country. Gain a world perspective. The Cd-Rom includes a link to each cultural point to continue on with movies or more information. Could be fun now and again. This is the only textbook that includes a foreigner on the writing staff. Not necessarily important, but the other two books i looked at today had weird phrasings. In my initial look through this book, it did not. Some drawbacks, they include in one of the lessons a point where students can learn to transliterate their names (students have loved that in the past) but on the character sheet, all of the names are written only in korean. More importantly, my coteacher said not many korean teachers like using this company's book. I guess people using their 3rd and 4th grade books can attest to that.

3. 천재교육-  Textbook provides lesson plans in both English and Korean as well as directions for the activities in both languages. I can't tell you how frustrating it can be to open up the teacher's guide and have it make less sense than the Student book. When it gives all the instructions in Korean and you have to guess from the pictures what the activity is for the day. For example (Teacher: 얼마나 나무 우드척가 나무를 척 수있다면 우드척 척 수 있을까? Students: (Students answer freely in English)) The lesson plan layout is a little suspect. Every lesson plan involves a 5 min introduction and a 5 min closing. That's fine but their example was "Hi Class. How's the weather today?" That does not take 5 minutes. Sure a good introduction should be about that time and a good teacher can make their own, but that they would think that question alone fills the allotted time made me wonder. So I looked deeper at  one lesson. For the Who are you lesson, one activity is a maze. They said it would take 13 minutes. Followed by another reading/coloring activity that would take 7 minutes. To be fair, both parts of the activity look fun and are more original than the fill in the blank sections of some past books. But this was the main activity. Not the writing practice etc. Anyway, I grabbed a random 5th grade student. She is quite a good student. Not fluent, but good. She finished both of the set activities in about 7 minutes. That means a gap of 13 minutes of content + making your own into and closing which they don't properly provide. So the content of the book can be lacking

Good luck with picking a textbook.  My school had them out on Thursday.  I gave them a look through after lunch, and save 2 that I thought weren't good, they were all very similar.  Do you know if 3rd and 4th grade are going to have multiple options again?

Lever:

My understanding is that for grades 3 and 4 the options are the same as they were last year for this year. The books are however purchased on a year-by-year basis so if you were really unhappy with your school's choice, and wish to push for a change of 3rd and 4th grade textbook too, now would be the time to do so.

For the record, the book marked as YBM #1 I believe is the followup (according to my school) to the YBM Si-Sa (Monty and Bora) text a lot of people chose for this years 3rd and 4th graders. Gets a bit confusing when the publishers have two out. Similarly, many of the others are follow ups. For those who cannot read hangul yet (tsk) the Mirae-En one is the follow-up to the Buzz/Bibi/Bomi text, with some of the same authors following through. Don't know about the other progressions though. Chonjae #1, Geumsong and Gyohasa should be easy to match up with their lower level counterparts by matching the foreign authors' names. The curriculum is set nationally so it shouldn't matter much if you mix and match anyway.

Steve:

If you have a specific request, I may be able to scan in the syllabus pages from one of the sample guides on Thursday or Friday this week (its far less than 10% of the book so its fair use I guess). The schools should've received them though for most of the books I'd have thought. Some samples did come incomplete to one of my schools. Ask around I'd say, else you're using guesswork to determine the teaching goals, doubly so if the student books are light on the written English.

Could you add a poll to this thread? We are still in the selection process now and I would like to see what book others are choosing?

So far we believe the YBM books are the best. Seeing as CheonJae moved their lessons up to 7 periods. Insanity!

Hey Lever,

My school is neither big nor well off, in fact we're quite poor~! I believe the CDs and books were sent out as packages, but they may have been sent from the district offices, in which case it'd be up to them. I'm in 강서구 Gangseo District.

I'm really disappointed so many people chose the pretty YBM books, I figured a lot of people would be won over by their design and I'm surprised that people have chosen the the orange 천재교육 book which is filled with masses of complicated activities requiring lengthy Korean explanations. I believe but cannot remember, that the CD for this one was particularly awful with lots of spoken Korean.

Anybody who has tried to learn a second language will agree that hearing your native tongue during language learning lessons is the fastest way to switch your brain back into your native language. Written native tongue does not affect the brain in the same way spoken speech does.

Of the CDs, the standout by far is the Green 천재교육 (윤). I've since switched my lessons to using a combination of the current textbook and the Green 천재교육 (윤). Without asking them, the students have been telling me after class 'teacher, today very good.' I have used 5th and 6th grade versions of this book in class, the songs are easy to follow and well received. The dances are interesting for physical learners and also easy to follow, review games are good and there is NO SPOKEN KOREAN on the CD. (except for lesson selection page) I've also used the Reading and Story Time (roleplay) sections and they have been very well received.

Someone complained that the Green 천재교육 (윤) doesn't use contractions, it says "It is mine" "They are not" instead of 'It's" and "They're not" but this isn't a bad thing. Have your high level students answer questions with the contracted forms and be happy that your lower level students will have an easier time understanding the text.

As far as textbooks go, the Daegyo (대교) text has a few useful resources but the CD is one of the worst.
As far as REJECTED TEXTBOOKS go... KEEP THEM!!!!!
I've hoarded all of the textbooks and have them on the shelves as additional resources. Keep the CDs too and switch it up. Most have similar chapters and if you don't like an activity, switch it out with photocopies.

In response to the comment on Green 천재교육 (윤) being 7 lessons, if your students need to move faster, just speed it up! It's not that hard. Teach L1, 2, 3+4, 5, 6+7, whatever is appropriate for your kids, but use the best resources! Sheesh!

I've been told the reason why the YBM books get chosen a lot is because they are a "good brand". There seems to be a widespread belief that because they are a large company their products are simply free of errors.

I totally agree with you there Paul and in regards to switching between textbooks, i'm not suggesting it becomes a daily activity. Just keep them on the shelves for when you suddenly discover pages 130-131 appear to be teaching slave labor and need a substitute activity! Mostly they're excellent for finding better songs, anyone stuck with one of the good awful books would do well to save the 천재 CDs [and others] for song substitution.

Wow, I think it's awesome that you were given the chance to help choose a book, unlike myself...I was chosen my co-teachers. I'm going to have a look through to see which one they chose. But, I do agree with an earlier post that my last years 3 &4th grade books had entirely too much Korean and not enough english. Though, I saw that it helped one of my co-teachers out a lot who speaks little English.

The teachers guide is very helpful.  SOme of the games in the teachers guide are not that helpful/or boring.  I think it would be better if teachers provide another game depending on the developmental level of their students:)