Author Topic: Middle School English Books (Ji Hak Sa) (Read 396787 times)

DevilMogun · « **Reply #100 on:** March 24, 2011, 09:49:23 AM »

Has anyone else noticed that if you do seriously work with the 'speaking' elements of the books it limits you to a few simple phrases? My students, though they may sometimes pretend otherwise, can churn out the stock phrases anytime. What I would like to do with them is get them into the habit of formulating gramatically correct and meaningful sentences. So I see in Grade 2 Chapter 2 they are learning past continuous, 'when' and simple past which lends itself to some good speaking lessons, but the book speaking activities are the same old 'I like to play soccer' nonsense.

I could (and probably will) ignore the book and teach my lesson my way, but I've just insisted again that they remember to bring their course books next lesson and know I won't use it.

It is interesting to see the difference in the reading/writing level compared to the speaking level though. It reflects the general attitude to learning English and unsurprisingly the English abilities of many Koreans.

On a different note:

Quote from: dsob on March 23, 2011, 07:54:37 AM

The scheme of work is particularly useful to me DaryIM - thanks.

I might use some of your ppt cos they are very good but I have taught most of these lessons by now... Anyway, keep up the good work and the updates here please :D

...thanks for the encouragement. I find the scheme of work good for keeping track of the different games and activities I've used if nothing else - keeps me from getting repetitive and boring. As I teach the same lesson to 4 or 5 classes in each grade, I keep on modifying and improving the lesson so I am also updating the file on the website too. It will always be too late for this year I think, but will hopefully be there for next time around - or for butchering and rehashing as part of other lessons :)

Lexington · « **Reply #101 on:** March 24, 2011, 03:10:58 PM »

You guys, this thread has been an absolute life saver. I spent the first month of school with no computer and no access to MS word (my laptop managed to delete MS office by itself... sentient ???) so I am so indebted to everyone who contributed!

Now I'm settled into my office with my own computer once again, I'll have to pay all of you back. I'm working on G1 and G3 Lesson 3 and 4 right now, so I'll upload them when they're done, hopefully at the start of next week.

Again, thank you sooooo much!

Quote from: DarylM on March 24, 2011, 09:49:23 AM

Has anyone else noticed that if you do seriously work with the 'speaking' elements of the books it limits you to a few simple phrases? My students, though they may sometimes pretend otherwise, can churn out the stock phrases anytime. What I would like to do with them is get them into the habit of formulating gramatically correct and meaningful sentences. So I see in Grade 2 Chapter 2 they are learning past continuous, 'when' and simple past which lends itself to some good speaking lessons, but the book speaking activities are the same old 'I like to play soccer' nonsense.

I could (and probably will) ignore the book and teach my lesson my way, but I've just insisted again that they remember to bring their course books next lesson and know I won't use it.

It is interesting to see the difference in the reading/writing level compared to the speaking level though. It reflects the general attitude to learning English and unsurprisingly the English abilities of many Koreans.

Yeah, After my introductions lessons I tried to do some previously created general lessons until I could sit down and work from the text book (see computer issues above), but my co-teacher was practically apoplectic. I think it's more about the test results than actual English a lot of the time, and the tests are based on the phrases used in the books.

dsob · « **Reply #102 on:** March 25, 2011, 11:02:47 AM »

Grade 2 - Lesson 4 - Our family vegetable garden

This is mainly doing the activities in the book but I have made a worksheet to introduce their families and talk about their interests.

Smaug · « **Reply #103 on:** March 25, 2011, 01:38:23 PM »

Grade Level 1 Lesson 2 At School What is you interested in Holmes?

PinkPrincess · « **Reply #104 on:** March 25, 2011, 01:40:13 PM »

Hey all! Trying out some different games in my speaking class. I see that many people have had success with the talking battleship in regular class so I'm going to give it a try next week. I used it a few times last year for afterschool classes and the kids really enjoyed it.

Again, my lesson is by the book but I'm adding additional phrases and dialogues to spice it up a bit.

PPT: I'm also working on vocabulary, so students will look at pictures and tell me the 'hobby/interest'. Then one student will read the sentence, everyone repeats. Continue on with different students.

Worksheet: Battleship board is for 2 games, if time. On page 2, part 1: warm-up. Part 2: dialogue practice.
**If time allows, I may try and play a class battleship - maybe group 1 vs. group 2 and so forth with a huge battleship board. Could be interesting and competitive!!

alexandrateacher · « **Reply #105 on:** March 28, 2011, 08:31:36 AM »

Just thought I'd post what I'm planning on teaching this week. A little but of modified stuff, plus a touch of my own.

Feel free to change whatever you want :)

dsob · « **Reply #106 on:** March 28, 2011, 10:48:50 AM »

Quote from: dsob on March 21, 2011, 02:51:43 PM

Grade 3 lesson 2 - what are friends for?

I've made a battleships game for the students to play. They create a timetable then have to reproduce their partners timetable in order to beat their partner. Hope you like it! This lesson is just for the speaking part of the book

I just used this lesson of mine and it went down very well. The kids were all talking and they seemed to have a good laugh. I wrote some additional vocab on the board so instead of saying 'No', they say things like, 'I dont think so!' and 'I'm afraid not' normally with a wag of the finger as well... It was good fun and the best lesson I've designed with no outside help so far so I hope you enjoy it.

Oh and hch, the presentations from alexandra worked for me.

jamaal832004 · « **Reply #107 on:** March 28, 2011, 10:56:46 AM »

I know this might seem like a silly question.

What the heck are all these battleship and bomber games people keep talking about.

Any other games that are easy to play and understand, please let me know. lol

alexandrateacher · « **Reply #108 on:** March 28, 2011, 11:03:02 AM »

The battleship game was posted above by AmberWhitely. I'm definitely using it next week with my children.

I'm going to complain for one minute- I really hate this book. Sometimes I feel like I'm stretching out the material and sometimes I feel like there are so many topics to cover in one lesson. The authors really could try to make the material fit together a weeee bit more. I mean we're talking about organic veggies and hobbies all in one... so strange!

jauntwithjo · « **Reply #109 on:** March 28, 2011, 11:24:36 AM »

Quote from: jamaal832004 on March 28, 2011, 10:56:46 AM

I know this might seem like a silly question.

What the heck are all these battleship and bomber games people keep talking about.

Any other games that are easy to play and understand, please let me know. lol

I teach at the border of seoul, so my students are low level across the board. They have no problem understanding the Heart, Bomb, Gun game at all. Have you tried actually downloading a ppt game and looking at it? Most templates, pre-mades, include an instructional slide. You have to split students up into teams and then give teams (depending on size and number of teams), a certain number of hearts before the game starts. Everything else after that should be self explanatory when you see the ppt.

@alexandra: I end up skipping around, and then going back so grammar points and vocabulary topics flow better.

DevilMogun · « **Reply #110 on:** March 28, 2011, 12:33:53 PM »

Quote from: alexandrateacher on March 28, 2011, 11:03:02 AM

The battleship game was posted above by AmberWhitely. I'm definitely using it next week with my children.

I'm going to complain for one minute- I really hate this book. Sometimes I feel like I'm stretching out the material and sometimes I feel like there are so many topics to cover in one lesson. The authors really could try to make the material fit together a weeee bit more. I mean we're talking about organic veggies and hobbies all in one... so strange!

I'm feeling the same. Either I'm trying to cram in too much tentatively associated stuff or dragging out stupid stock phrases. The audio dialogues are pretty dire too - those kid actors are embarrassing. The only one I've really used to good effect so far has been Hubo the Robot - my students loved lipsynching in a robot voice. I'm not sure how effective any of the rest is, but the fact that my lessons are now connected with the course book does seem to make the students take it all a bit more seriously.

On a slightly different topic - has anyone else found the English language lesson plans on the CDs? I stumbled across them when flicking through looking for speaking activities. The objectives and goals for each 'Lesson' (ie chapter) are detailed for the whole chapter and then broken down into lessons. It is laid out in the Korean style with full dialogue of teacher and students so may come in handy for the annual observed/assessed lesson with a bit of modification. Only problem is it is all in HWP of course and can't be copied and pasted or 'saved as' or exported.

Cereal · « **Reply #111 on:** March 28, 2011, 01:18:40 PM »

I too use those books for my Middle School, the students of which can speak the parts but comprehension can be problematic.

My problem is that the co-teacher wants me to handle the speaking sections of the text and the activity, and only the speaking sections. She takes care of everything else. She also butts in and starts explaining things in Korean to the kids. That is actually okay because they don't understand English all that well for the most part.

I think the majority of them will likely head for the rice paddy, or garlic patch in this part of the world, when school is finished. The brighter ones may stumble into a lower tier technical school.

I'll help and trade all I can, and thanks.

blinden · « **Reply #112 on:** March 28, 2011, 01:37:10 PM »

This isn't really relevant to the textbook but I found a ppt for each of the months on the calendar from my predecessor saved on my computer. I figure it's a nice, short thing to show them at the beginning of each month. Here's the one for April.

GrenWhit · « **Reply #113 on:** March 28, 2011, 01:50:15 PM »

Advice for newer teachers in lower level schools:

Last year I hated this book and did everything I could to teach more than the simple concepts given. After some additional training and much trial and error, I've come to the conclusion that the book isn't so bad. Each chapter has two 'genres,' if you will of target dialogue. As the NET, that is what you ought to be responsible for. Each page of the listening and speaking section will typically have one example of each type. I split my lessons up by dialogue rather than pages in the book. For example, Grade 3 Lesson 1 is basically catching up with friends, and giving advice. Each genre has 2-3 target forms (advice - "Why don't you _?" "Try to_.""You'd better not_.") Now each day involves listening and speaking a specific, related, set of phrases/words.

Last year I gave my kids too much credit. English is difficult. I don't need to add new phrases to spice it up; I need to make sure they understand and remember phrases that will improve their fluency. If we get there, then I start working on accuracy/expansion. Google the term 'scaffolding' if you aren't familiar with it. Don't worry about the grammar, that is your coteacher's job.

Oversimplify. If you think that's nuts, try teaching yourself everything you have planned in Korean some time.

P.S. This isn't directed at anyone, I'm just noticing a few similar vibes to what i went through my first year teaching EFL and offering up how experience has changed my philosophy.

dsob · « **Reply #114 on:** March 28, 2011, 02:33:28 PM »

I don't dislike the books that much. You just need to highlight the important phrases and try to point out difficult words and explain what they are.

Just had a massive pain the ass lesson - stupid kids really couldn't be bothered today. Doesn't help that I have a headache and cold... grrrr (little bitch and moan to get it off my chest - sorry)

juskajo · « **Reply #115 on:** March 29, 2011, 10:28:18 AM »

most textbooks around here are like this. they're gimmicky and are designed to sell rather than teach.

but for the most part, GrenWhit is right. as dull as each lesson seems to us, it's still quite a bit for the kids to retain. also, a lot of textbooks contain expressions that are painfully awkward-sounding, if not wrong altogether. this one isn't so bad in that regard.

DevilMogun · « **Reply #116 on:** March 29, 2011, 12:27:55 PM »

I don't dislike the books generally, in fact I asked my co-teachers to let me do the speaking elements so that my lessons had some degree of relevance to my students. After the books we used prior to these, they are fantastic, so I'm not complaining about that.

I also appreaciate that there is an awful lot for the students to take in - I think that's what was being said in the first place. Each chapter has two or three themes going on and the grammar, reading and writing is at a level WAY beyond most students.

My gripe is that while the reading and writing element teaches the difference between 'who' and 'whom" (which incidentally half the Year 9 students I taught in England wouldn't have known) and the uses of present perfect and past continuous, the speaking element remains at 'My name is ...how are you I'm fine thank you how are you'.

This was pretty much in evidence this week when I met some middle school girls from my town. They asked all the same questions the elementary kids ask, nothing more, nothing less. When I asked them which school they went to, they had no idea what I was asking. It's not a phrase from a text book.

Being a language numpty, having failed miserably at learning no less than 4 languages so far, I know the need for repetition, visual prompts and chunking. I also know the value of context and usability. Any words that I learn out of context and never use again I promptly forget. What I would like from the text book is more useful phrases to speak and fewer complex sentence constructions to write. Of course it's not going to happen as the whole exam structure is geared towards reading and writing English. It just seems so crazy to employ us foreigners at great expense while the book - and the system as a whole - diminishes the importance of speaking English to a few pat phrases, many of which the students will never ever use. "I've never heard such a stupid expression!"

sonya · « **Reply #117 on:** March 29, 2011, 12:46:42 PM »

Grade 3 Lesson 3...Making plans

We borrowed from eatyourkimchi battleship, asking questions game and switched it to making plans battleship.

We ended up printing off a bunch of blank ones and just drawing in the battle ships with a high lighter. We put them into plastic sheets so that students can just mark the outside with hits and misses in marker that can later be washed off.

Sonya

juskajo · « **Reply #118 on:** March 31, 2011, 09:49:43 AM »

Lesson on extreme sports/hobbies

You can work this into the grade 2 unit on hobbies. Wingsuits and base jumping are typically more attention-grabbing than vegetable gardens.

dsob · « **Reply #119 on:** April 01, 2011, 10:52:31 AM »

Grade 2 - Try Yoga - lesson 1

More suggestions using "you should" and asking what's wrong...