ToO MucH beGiNNing EsL MAKes tEaChER a dulL GirL!

Blog updates haven’t been happening exactly according to plan. This is mainly due to a pretty heavy job load I’ve had for the past few weeks. I have basically full time teaching hours, but I end up working over 40 hours a week planning for classes. I have also been trying to hit the gym regularly 2-3 times a week. The result is: I get home exhausted and hungry, and I just camp out in front of an episode of Dexter with Robert and a box of teriyaki before cleaning up and going to bed.

Work has been a drag just because it’s been challenging. Sometimes a challenge can be invigorating and inspiring. However, lately I feel like the challenges have gotten the better of me.
We’ve started up a winter school for Korean Study Abroad students. Because I have been labeled “the flexible teacher,” I was placed with the most basic, beginning students. Before this, the lowest level I had taught was a (more or less) fluent student in the second grade. This beginning ESL was a whole new can of worms though.





To add to the burden, here is the curriculum I was handed:

• 2 vocab books, with the prescription to assign at least 25 words to memorize each night.

• 1 reading book, Beezus and Ramona, the following chapter books were TBD, although luckily I was relieved of the burden of the 1 book a week standard.

• Assign 1.5-2 hours of homework each night.

• Focus on reading

• Three huge, mixed up bookshelves covered with all the scattered levels of English grammar, comprehension, vocab, writing, and chapter books to fill the rest of class time.

The first week of teaching was full of fails on my parts. Their listening comprehension was low, and it was difficult for me to establish a class agenda, because all the lesson plans I tried to implement were too advanced. For 5 hours of teaching, you really need a solid plan, and I realized after week 1 that I needed to re-evaluate my plan.





So I did some online research to find some activity and lesson plans for my students. I scoured the messy bookshelves, and got the go ahead from the owner to buy a few (reimbursed) books in order to arm myself with some more level appropriate books, worksheets, and activities. Week 2 turned out much more successfully. I also scanned the internet and was reminded from my ESL training at the library and TESL express about how many great ideas and resources are on the web.

With the (previously mentioned) limited curriculum, it’s been hard for me to stay organized and plan ahead. Since the school doesn’t give me any specific things to accomplish in class, I set a few goals myself to try and incorporate some sense of consistency:

1. Speaking and Listening: be able to understand each other in the classroom setting. At the end, be able to follow a 20 minute documentary excerpt. (I have a good one about a Korean scientist)
2. Writing and grammar: be able to write solid, complete sentences. Recognize parts of speech and complete sentences.
3. Reading: be able to read chapter books at the 2nd grade level and answer comprehension questions, inference questions, vocabulary in context questions, and also be able to write summaries of the story. Also, be able to accurately describe: a) main ideas, b) sequences of events, c) conclusions that may be drawn, from short reading comprehension activities.
4. Vocabulary: I think learning 25 vocabulary words a night is stupid. I just make them do that because that’s what the school demands. My real vocabulary goal for them is to understand unfamiliar words in context.

While trying to keep class focused on these guidelines, by week 3 the whole class had changed again. I got two new students and lost one student with no warning. My 2 new students are even more amateur at English than my other students. Week 3 had me juggling the class like a circus clown: trying to continue to challenge my long term students, while trying to get my new students up to date. Can you imagine the headaches I get?




Now that we’re ready to start week 6, I have been quizzing them on parts of speech and words in context mercilessly. Their sentences are getting longer and more consistent, although understanding words in context is still an uphill battle. There has been solid improvement with reading comprehension, and they can answer questions about the reading if the questions use words from the text that they can locate to find the answer. Having them synthesize ideas, form opinions, and summarize main ideas and sequences in their own words is still difficult.

By the end of the week of juggling this crazy show, I am totally empty of energy. One Friday, I kept making careless errors in class, much to the amusement of my students who finally said, “It must be teacher’s be careful day.” It turned out that it was merely: teacher needs a cocktail day, but that was fixed later in the evening during a hot date with Rob. (I love a good sidecar)