I've been using these books for 1st and 2nd grade for a year now and we finally switched our 3rd year book to match the series.

Personally, I have found the books quite helpful in serving as a guiding curriculum. I am required (loosely) to cover the listening and speaking, which I usually do over 2-3 weeks. I usually start my lessons with listening from the book, followed by elicitation of the vocab mentioned in the speaking sections. I prefer to make my own, more fun activities based on the things they're supposed to learn. Over the course of 2-3 weeks I try to get them what they need for their exam, some dialogue based on the vocab presented in the book (I often use the Talking Break, especially for the lower level classes), and at least one game to practice the grammar point they're learning with the Korean teachers. I've found that the speaking section usually ties into one or two of the grammar points, so it helps me justify doing grammar based games to my CTs.

The Activities books are rather useless when used alone because they're boring or unrealistically planned, but they have served as inspiration for me.

I've only flipped through the 3rd year book briefly, and I have to say I'm kind of disappointed. Our book last year sucked soooo badly, I had really pinned my hopes on this one. However, after reading the extremely awkwardly written "10,000 hours" reading passage (not to mention the twisting of history-Mozart WAS a genius and did not become one because of 10,000 hours of effort!) I'm worried.

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That said, I'd like to ask for people's feedback on one idea I had for 3rd Year Lesson 1: The Dating Game.
As I flipped through and saw the phrases in the speaking  "why don't you" "I'm looking forward to" "I'm interested in" it all started to sound like a dating service or something-haha! So, I thought it would be kind of funny to write up dialogues between famous people on the dating show and have the kids act it out. Ex: G-Dragon is the bachelor seeking and the 3 bachelorette candidates are Sandara, Hyuna of 4Minute, and Sunny from Soshi.

My question: Do you think it's too embarrassing? I have a pretty comfortable relationship with my students, but I don't want to underestimate their ability to be shy-even in 3rd year.

Thanks for the input!

peasgoodnonsuch: I think some of my 3rd graders have boyfriends and girlfriends (from what I've heard from my gossip girls at lunch), but it's still very much a taboo thing, and my kids (boys and girls) will turn beet red if accused of having a boyfriend/girlfriend.  Maybe your kids are more extroverted, but talking about dating AND acting out stuff might be a little much.

There was this awesome valentine's day lesson posted last month, that included a worksheet where students weighed various qualities in a desired partner - would you rather have a beautiful girlfriend who is mean, or an average looking girlfriend who is very sweet? and questions like that.   My kids got waaay into this activity.  Maybe you could do something like that?  Here's the thread; I think the worksheet might be a couple posts down. http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,3485.0.html

Does anyone know what the Speaking instructions are for the page about school clubs? My teacher's book doesn't provide a translation and neither does the CD-ROM...


****Excuse My Vent****
GAH! Why aren't the language points separated out more in the material?? I like to teach one point at a time, but all the listening and speaking sections combine them. If the CT's haven't taught them gerunds yet, I can't very well do the "I'm interested in" bit and still expect them to get it. Grr.... And what on earth does the present perfect progressive have to do with anything else in this chapter?! My poor little 3rd years will have their heads swimming with "ing"...

^^Thanks!

Whoever is modding this thread, please add this lesson to the first post under Grade 2,  "Invasion of Christmas Island": http://waygook.org/index.php/topic,2105.0.html

This saved my bacon last semester!

Wow, I'm so glad to see that others have this set of books! For a while I thought I was the only one. I didn't use the books last semester but this one I'm definitely going to. Thanks for uploading guys. I will contribute material periodically as I start creating plans to match the book. For the first two weeks I'm just doing introductions, rules, and classroom language.

Cheers

I dunno about you but all my kids LOOOOVE Twilight (sigh), so Bella / Edward would probably go over like gangbusters. 

Quote from: summerthyme on March 03, 2011, 10:43:23 AM

I think the toughest thing for me about these books is trying to pinpoint exactly what the book is trying to teach in each lesson. 

From my understand, here are the "targets" of the first lesson for each grade:

MG1 - Introducing oneself, what one is and likes

MG2 - Introductions of self and others, giving and accepting apologies

MG3 - "I'm looking forward to..." (future & lengths of time), "I'm interested in..." (expressing how you like things?)

Does this make sense to anyone else?

i think that you will be walking in quicksand if you attempt to tease out some logic or overarching plan in these lessons. i would suggest using the teacher's book for ideas if you are stumped. i don't think there is any idea governing each lesson. last year, i approached planning for the 2nd grade book the same way you are now and i was flummoxed, but now i'm of the belief that the best way to teach this book is to use a variety of short tasks/communicative activities, in groups, that use one or more of the speaking points in the lesson.

I'm excited so many other people use these textbooks.

This might not help a lot, but you can find the lesson objectives on the computer program that goes with the textbook. When you open the program, click on the tab on the left, called 교사전용 자료실. A new page opens and there are 6 categories that have a link "GO-->". Choose the one from the second row in the second column, and it will take you to a page where you can look at proposed lesson plans for each part of the book. They aren't amazing lessons by any means, but they do explicitly say what the point of the lesson is.

Cheers

I'm excited so many other people use these textbooks.

This might not help a lot, but you can find the lesson objectives on the computer program that goes with the textbook. When you open the program, click on the tab on the left, called 교사전용 자료실. A new page opens and there are 6 categories that have a link "GO-->". Choose the one from the second row in the second column, and it will take you to a page where you can look at proposed lesson plans for each part of the book. They aren't amazing lessons by any means, but they do explicitly say what the point of the lesson is.

Cheers

thanks for pointing that out, though it seems like the cd lesson plans just formalize the suggestions in the teacher's guide. i was alluding to the often disparate nature of the three dialog parts. i still don't understand why giving congratulations is taught along with ordering food. to my mind, expressing dis-/satisfaction, paying for something, or even discussing future plans(from the previous lesson) would have been much better compliments. i hope to see other lesson plans. my school is book-obsessed this term, yet i'm interested to see what the teachers who have a little more leeway may cook up.

^^Thanks summerthyme - I'm going to try and incorporate some elements from your ppt into mine, like the sentence scramble!  It's pretty tough to make the phrase "I'm interested in..." interesting

Quote from: flips on March 10, 2011, 03:13:02 PM

thanks for pointing that out, though it seems like the cd lesson plans just formalize the suggestions in the teacher's guide. i was alluding to the often disparate nature of the three dialog parts. i still don't understand why giving congratulations is taught along with ordering food. to my mind, expressing dis-/satisfaction, paying for something, or even discussing future plans(from the previous lesson) would have been much better compliments. i hope to see other lesson plans. my school is book-obsessed this term, yet i'm interested to see what the teachers who have a little more leeway may cook up.

Yes, this is more of what I was talking about.  I have difficulty constructing a single lesson out of Introducing Someone Else and then Saying You're Sorry.  This week I just put a big divider slide on the powerpoint and sort of went "OK!  And now for something completely different!"

Yeah really.  Anyone moved on to lesson 2 for the 3rd graders yet?  Any successful combinations of "hey Mom's nagging me" and "crazy hair day in Canada"?