The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[Teaching English] God, Help Me. Busywork needed.
An-D
EnthusiastAshevilleRegistered User regular
EnthusiastAshevilleRegistered User regular
I hate my life rant.
So, I got five graduate classes added to my schedule in my last 'Teaching English In China' thread and a raise. Woo! Only, it wasn't five graduate classes. It was the same graduate class. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I teach these kids for four hours (with either a 1-hour lunch or a 30-minute break in the middle, depending on the day) and two hours on Wednesday.
Here is my situation:
I met the kids today, and they're going to England (Sunder University) in the fall (most of them anyway) and...some of them maybe are going to take this test?
The first day (today), I ran out of things to talk about, so I let them out thirty minutes early. Someone saw me do this and I got reported and 'scolded' by my lazy assistant (whose responsibility it should have been to tell me what the class was about but he "didn't have time").
So, what I need now is busywork. Random activities I can do to make them talk and write and do things in English (its significantly harder than it seems). It would be nice if they're fun, but they really don't have to be. I don't care that much. I see these kids 10-hours a week (I teach 26 hours/week). I can't be exciting all the time.
I don't have access to an in-class computer/projector unless I request it a few days in advance. None of the classrooms have internet. There is a copier a 10-15 minute cab ride from the campus I work at. Those are the tools the university puts at my disposal. And a IELTS textbook of questionable worth.
So, busywork activities that test English. Ideas?
*edit* Also, anyone know anything about Sunder University? Or stuff I should tell them about England? I was in England in 2006, I guess. Its been a while. *edit*
I swear, I am about to quit this job and just swim back to America. Teaching in China is the worst idea anyone can any do unless you truly love teaching and have the patience of a fucking god. Not because of the kids, mind you, but because of the mindless burearchy that surrounds the kids. They tell you where to be and expect you to be able to teach with sometimes as little 10 minutes notice. They will try to send you to random places all over a city to buy favor with some rich person that might donate to the school. They will lie, give you wrong information and generally use you like a tool. If you are a foreigner and you come to teach English in China. You are not a person. You are an object. You are a monkey (at best) that they put into a class and tell the kids "Hey, play with the monkey. But try to speak English!"
You look at the kids and know that nothing you do can help them. They are treated like children (even the graduates) and when they get to the real world, they're going to completely taken advantage of by all the horrible people that this world has to offer.
By the time I was a sophomore in college, I was renting an apartment, working a job, paying bills and paying car insurance. I knew how to balance 15 credit hours, a job, homework and a successful social life. These kids have to be back in their dorm by 10pm. At 10:30, the electricity is cut off and they are plunged into darkness. All they know is how to study, eat and sleep. How they find happiness is completely beyond me.
I guess I (the English Monkey) am suppose to provide them happiness.
The only benefit you get is knowing that you get paid x2-x3 more than anyone else that works at the school and even that is only the slightest of comforts. I am counting down the days when I'm back in America and doing something that I feel actually makes a difference (even if it is Pizza Hut again).
I am so annoyed. My last week has been that.
You look at the kids and know that nothing you do can help them. They are treated like children (even the graduates) and when they get to the real world, they're going to completely taken advantage of by all the horrible people that this world has to offer.
By the time I was a sophomore in college, I was renting an apartment, working a job, paying bills and paying car insurance. I knew how to balance 15 credit hours, a job, homework and a successful social life. These kids have to be back in their dorm by 10pm. At 10:30, the electricity is cut off and they are plunged into darkness. All they know is how to study, eat and sleep. How they find happiness is completely beyond me.
I guess I (the English Monkey) am suppose to provide them happiness.
The only benefit you get is knowing that you get paid x2-x3 more than anyone else that works at the school and even that is only the slightest of comforts. I am counting down the days when I'm back in America and doing something that I feel actually makes a difference (even if it is Pizza Hut again).
I am so annoyed. My last week has been that.
So, I got five graduate classes added to my schedule in my last 'Teaching English In China' thread and a raise. Woo! Only, it wasn't five graduate classes. It was the same graduate class. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I teach these kids for four hours (with either a 1-hour lunch or a 30-minute break in the middle, depending on the day) and two hours on Wednesday.
Here is my situation:
- I don't know the name of the class.
- I was given the textbook as I walked into the classroom. The textbook is for the IELTS test.
- I have been given conflicting opinions (from students and administration) about what exactly I'm suppose to be teaching.
- The students' english is ridiculously varied. Some are basically fluent and some can't understand a word I'm saying.
I met the kids today, and they're going to England (Sunder University) in the fall (most of them anyway) and...some of them maybe are going to take this test?
The first day (today), I ran out of things to talk about, so I let them out thirty minutes early. Someone saw me do this and I got reported and 'scolded' by my lazy assistant (whose responsibility it should have been to tell me what the class was about but he "didn't have time").
So, what I need now is busywork. Random activities I can do to make them talk and write and do things in English (its significantly harder than it seems). It would be nice if they're fun, but they really don't have to be. I don't care that much. I see these kids 10-hours a week (I teach 26 hours/week). I can't be exciting all the time.
I don't have access to an in-class computer/projector unless I request it a few days in advance. None of the classrooms have internet. There is a copier a 10-15 minute cab ride from the campus I work at. Those are the tools the university puts at my disposal. And a IELTS textbook of questionable worth.
So, busywork activities that test English. Ideas?
*edit* Also, anyone know anything about Sunder University? Or stuff I should tell them about England? I was in England in 2006, I guess. Its been a while. *edit*
An-D on
0
Posts
Or you could develop flash cards. An English word on one side, the definition on the other and use them to play a game. You go two people at a time and show them the card--the first one of the two to give the correct definition moves on, while the one who doesn't sits back down. "moves on" means the winner gets to challenge another classmate to a different flashcard challenge.
Or you could do what Malcolm X did and have them write out the entire dictionary.
Sunderland also do IETLS, and short english courses themselves, so have appended the link , as it may give you some idea what they'd like your students to do/level to pitch at.
Sunderland is an ex industrial/shipbuilding town, with all the joyous urban regenration/degeneration issues that entails. It has a decent rail route, out via York to London to the South, and Manchester and Liverpool to the West. It is generally cold to very cold (summer highs in the US 60-70's, through to 20's and 30's in Autumn/Winter).
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
Get them playing games - make them together so you don't spend all your time making stuff - Snap with words instead of letters, crosswords, scrabble, boggle, hangman, word domino. Talk about hobbies, places they've been to in China, where they'd like to visit in the world, get them to research stuff - find out about Sunderland, England in general, football (proper football, with a round ball and no catching and running with it), any sports they like.
When I did basic Spanish, I started off saying hello, introducing myself, asking the other person their name, kept repeating the same stuff every week, but adding to it, so I could ask directions to places, order food and drinks, book a hotel room. If most of them are going to England, they'll need basic conversational stuff. My teacher had the Spanish phrases written down, and we practised in pairs and small groups.
We had to bring magazines in and talk about what was in them in Spanish. I wasn't very good at it, but i can still order food and drinks, and I did the course years ago.
For paintings in progress, check out canvas and paints
"The power of the weirdness compels me."
Chinese are not a very organized society and they generally have no clue how to approach education other than memorization and formulas.
I run a small kindergarten in Beijing and as a teacher for other schools in the past have seen exactly the same ridiculous bureaucracy and confusion.
Mostly you need some bulk experience with how to teach and entertain a large group of students. Don't worry about getting a lot of lesson done in a short time. Rather let the lessons drag on slowly and involve the students in creative tasks.
I could give you an insane amount of technical information on how to let students focus, learn, retain, and use language but I can't write it all out here. Its a skillfull and time consuming process to learn and achieve results in.
I have to go now but ill try to think of some more to help you out later.
Do things with food.
even if it's only once a week, bring in a recipe book that's in english, and then go from there. Simple things that don't require a heat source would be good. But food is a universal language.
so is music, but I know less about music than I do food
have the students bring in food from home. Have them write the recipe in english, and explain how to make the dish in english. It will bring them together as a class over the food.
Then, towards the end of the semester, you have them take the recipes that they've brought from home, make copies for each student, and then they can take something from home with them to England. So you provide them with not only another outlet of knowledge for english and the use of the language, but something that can connect them back to their homes and families and as a group of friends when they're in a foreign land.
Another idea might be something like make a mock company, or a mock country, and devote a bit of time to running said place. each person has a position of importance, and they use their english skills to get things across to the others. This will also help in other areas like politics, social sciences, math, etc. But that might be a bit more involved than you're looking for.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
seconding this!
Fun game from Hebrew class: Pick a random letter of the alphabet. Class is split into teams. They compete to fill each of these categories with a word that starts with that letter:
country, city, boy's name, girl's name, noun, verb, adjective
round stops when one team finishes, then points are awarded to all teams
I wouldn't even think about coming back to the US in this climate unless you have some in-demand skills. You're able to live comfortably where you are, so just enjoy it for the time being until things get better.
You should see if the University has a library of ESL books, and try to find books with board and card games. Usually they're pretty fun and you can kill a half an hour or so. More traditional games from your youth are generally fine too, such as Hangman or Pictionary. Ever use Akinator? That's a fun activity to do with the students as well (limit questions to BE-Verb only). You can research and show portions of films, or you can try printing out the lyrics to a song with a few gaps and having the students fill them in. Just remember, the student's taste in music is way more important than your own, and the song needs to be slow enough so they can hear the lyrics.
Aside from that, make a complete record of every class you do. After a year or so you should be able to just pull up the file for your present progressive game or your past perfect lesson or whatever so you basically will have no problems doing most lessons on a moments notice.
The first thing you need is to talk to the person who pays you and ask them what they want out of you. The main question is: do they want you to teach English generally or to this book and test? Without that answered you don't have anywhere to go on and having a hassle of getting that information now will be worth whatever kind of communication you need to establish.
Then gauge the students by whatever metric your suppose to teach to, probably by a written or verbal test. I would recommend something out of the book or even creative/free writing.
Having the students help build your lesson plan could decrease your stress and better focus them to the places they like. I would recommend having them make some sort of flash cards they can turn into you for you to review.
If your only suppose to talk English during the lessons, I would recommend using the first and last 5 minutes of class for instructions about what your going to do on the particular day, in Chinese, and a review or summary, in Chinese.
Anyway, I thought my situation was bad but yours is really crappy. I get the no notice, no materials "go give a lesson" treatment quite often but doing it for 10 hours a week is pretty ridic. Figure out what YOU think the students need, whether it's IELTS prep or academic writing, or beginner grammar or whatever, because probably nobody is going to tell you.
You have a ton of time with these students. Have them do some in-class writing. There are a bunch of daily EFL writing prompt websites just a Google search away. Give them some time to write and then have the students correct each other. That's like 30 minutes right there.
The mixed-level thing is a problem. How many students are in your class? You could try splitting them into 2 levels and have one group do written work (worksheets, writing prompts, whatever) while the other group does communicative activities. When the class reaches the halfway point, have the groups switch. It's not ideal, but if you teach them the same stuff all at once, either the beginners will be confused or the advanced students will fall asleep and nobody will learn anything.
As for communicative activities, you could split them into even smaller groups for role-playing. Give them cards to tell them the situation ("You are meeting an old friend", "You were in a car accident. It was your fault. Lie to the policeman", etc, just think of some shit). And at the end have them present in front of the class. If they're shy, just walk around and have them perform for you (not the whole class) when they've finished preparing.
In addition to these impromptu small-group communicative activities, you could have a weekly (or bi-weekly) practical English role-play. Tell students that at the end of the week they're going to have a faux job interview, or a meeting with a professor, or a conversation with the cashier at McDonald's. They can use class time to prepare for it, then at the end of the week they can do a polished presentation.
Since you have so much time, you could turn one day a week into a "media day" and play a video or a TV show or a radio station and have the students react. Have writing assignments for advanced, intermediate, and beginners after the video is over.
Also not a bad idea to have a long-term project. They could write an article like http://www.topics-mag.com/ and you could assemble them all into an online magazine at the end of the term, for example.
Anyway, try to get better everyday, don't be hard on yourself if it seems unreasonably difficult, don't worry too much if a lesson falls flat, do the best you can, and let your conscience be your guide!
And as people have mentioned, media makes a great and usually entertaining way to learn a language. You could even try text-heavy silent films for reading comprehension (if you understand what I mean), because most people understand what's going on in silent films, even without the help of the text.
As for activities, like I think I said in another post, group work is your friend. Skits, dialogs, readings, journal writings (yes, in a group), story writing, and so on. You can also turn to plenty of american word games for practice. They take awhile, the students love them, and they can help vocabulary a lot. Examples include pictionary, scattergories, boggle, and charades. There was another game I played with them where I would draw a path on the board with about thirty five spaces filled with letters (some worth double points). They would draw cards or roll dice to determine how far they would move, and whichever letter they would land on, they had to use a word that started with the letter that they were on. Each letter in the word was worth 1 point, can't use the same word twice. For 4 teams of 5, the game would take more than an hour.
I'm sure you know of it, but Dave's ESL Cafe has a lot of great stuff on it too. Beyond that, you can find some grammar and English books online if you do searches for them. They will also have some lessons you can use, as well as worksheets and such. Sorry, kind of a long post, but I hope it helps. If you want more advice, feel free to PM me.
An idea I haven't seen mentioned yet that would be good for younger or less advanced students could be taking out the words from Penny Arcade comics and having them fill them in with their own dialogue. I think someone did that with their English class in South Korea a few years back and Gabe put them on the main page. Someone did that with Kate Beaton's history comics a few weeks ago, too.
You could easily combo this with group presentations as sort of a pre-write/storyboard activity they could turn in as written work leading into their conversations.
If you have some classes on a regular basis, maybe a fun Friday activity could be a written or presented English summary of their favorite tv show or comic or book from the week.
This week I:
The thing I'm proudest of is my Chinese Superhero idea. I had my Communicative English students work with me to create a superhero and villain in class (in almost all my classes, they turned out to just be either the Monkey King or some dude called "Spring Brother" that is apparently famous. Than I had them make comics using the characters. What I ended up getting was....varied to say the least.
Facebook Album with one class' comics. Hopefully you can see it. I'll probably put choice ones on my blog (link below) when I update this coming weekend.
I did similar things in my Business English class. We've been talking about hiring, so I talked about education vs experience (tried and failed to get a class discussion going), I reviewed key vocabulary and than had them make business comics involving at least four vocabulary words and their in-class/pretend businesses. I also had them work on elevator pitches for their in-class companies.
I spent most of class naming my Freshmen students. As in, giving them English names that they would like. The process took much longer than I expected, but at least they don't have ridiculous English names that would make their lives difficult in the future.
I'm working out a cycle with my grad students. I start the class with a topic, I call them one by one to talk about the topic for one minute. I talk about...whatever. I have three debate topics that I try to get them to discuss. I do some work from the IELTS book (they LOVE this part of class because they don't have to do any critical thinking). I write riddles, logic puzzles and word games for them to solve (gets them thinking about English in different ways) and than I have a random activity I try to get them to do (comics!)
Now to respond to people:
Lilnoobs: I have yet to find index cards (or blank cards of any kind) in China. I can't even find normal sized notebooks. Cards are tricky. I can do the dictionary thing though. ;-)
garroad_ran: Rooms with computers+projectors are apparently hard to come by this semester. I want to have at least 2 of the 10 hours with my grad students watching British TV shows/movies and talking about it. Chinese students have an impossible time deciphering the English accent (in my experience so far). So working on this. Its not as easy as it was last semester.
CroakerBC: Yeah, its Sunderland. When I was asking them, they told me "Sunder University."
LewieP's Mummy: The hardest part of this is find the resources to make games. I have super limited access to copiers and my students have limited access to computers. The "library" has maybe 30 computers, and more than 10k students go to this university - more than half with no computer or laptop of their own.
Darksier: I might do this with the freshmen, but the problem that I think comes with skits is that it gets too use to prepared dialogue. Prepared speeches and dialogue is pretty much all Chinese English teachers do, which is why most of my students have atrocious English. They understand: "How are you?" because that is a common statement, but if I say: "Are you doing well?" or "How are you doing?" they have no idea. I want them to get use to English as a language and not a script.
Bloodfart: Thanks for the support. I hate it when my lessons drag on. The students' silence and dead eyes just completely kill me.
lonelyahava: I'm actually doing the food thing already with my Communicative English II students. I had them all write English recipes at home (of Chinese food), this week we discussed them in class and voted on one that would be (1) easy to make in class and (2) popular. So that is what we're doing next week. I'll have them come up in groups, follow an English recipe to the letter and hopefully not burn down the school building.
I'm already doing the company thing with my Business English classes. It allows me to get them to apply stuff I teach directly to something they're kinda invested in. I was thinking about the country idea too, but I'm still thinking about how to work it and whether or not it would be too....difficult to talk about. Politics is a super tricky thing in China. Another American teacher here got reported as a spy to the administration because he was talking about North Korea and the bad things it does (he's fine. Still has a job. Just got a 'Oh, you silly American. Don't do that again.' speech)
CygnusZ: Working on the games thing. The hard part is the size of my classes (ranges from 20-80) and running a game with some of those numbers can get super difficult. I'm 100% on my own when I'm teaching. I like the lyric thing, though. I might jump on that.
Void Slayer: Pretty much what Althusser said. There is not 'suppose to.' When I first started, we tried talking to our handler/assistant about what we should be doing and the response was: "whatever you want." Which is pretty big. I have asked the students what they would like to learn about and the only response I ever get is "America." I have talked A LOT about America. Other than that, they don't know what they want to learn. And while I can speak some Chinese, I'm not nearly good enough to talk about what I want to do everyday (though it might be good practice). Also, Chinese students freak out when foreigners speak Chinese. They wouldn't listen and would beg me every day after to say something else in Chinese and than they'll giggle and laugh and I won't know why (Am I saying it right? Did I say what I wanted to say? Oh, god, maybe I said something horribly rude! I hate Chinese!) and my 中文confidence will be diminished.
Althusser: The grad school class is a mess. The English levels in there are so varied. There is one kid that is almost completely fluent and another that I'm not sure can speak English at all. I can't separate them into different classes, because there just isn't time in the day and I would get in trouble if put them into groups and told them to come at different times during the 10 hours a week that I see the grads. Its already a small group 15-20 people typically show up. I might add the writing prompt idea in addition to the debate thing I have going on. Right now, I'm trying to build up their confidence in English by getting them talking ALL the time.
I like the role playing idea. I'll jump on that.
Media day is kind of hard to pull off this semester (none of my classes have projectors). I'm going to talk to all of my class monitors and see if I can get put into classes with them for the year (I managed to do this last year with half my classes), but I've asked on class - the graduates - and got told that it was "impossible."
RadicalTurnip: Yeah, I try to keep the students on my side, treat them like a adults and try to make them think about how the real world works. But, it doesn't always translate, things are often different in China than in America (what I'm use to) and when I'm not writing something on the board or telling them to do something, I feel like I'm very rarely being paid attention to. Also, some kid reported me to the administration for letting them out of class 15 minutes early one day. Who does that?! There are a good handful of students in each class that clearly want to learn, and even if the others don't, I can focus on them.
@finral: Thanks for the game ideas! I've used Pictionary and charades a few times to great effect (though mostly during English Corners), so I might try those out in my Comm. English classes. The letter-dice game seems pretty good too. I'll just steal some dice from the next bar I go to (or something that makes me feel like I'm getting back at China for the crappy days they sometimes deliver). And I check out the ESL Cafe at least once a week and see if anything inspires me to Robin-Williams-in-Dead-Poet-Society-level of teaching greatness.
Lord Palington: Yeah, another friend reminded me of the Penny Arcade comic redos they did and I think I'll give that a shot with my Freshmen (and also with my grad students, just to see the difference).
*BREATH* I think I got everyone. Woo!
Just remember, Chinese students are used to professors lecturing (haranguing?) them the full class time with no interaction. They won't be used to a more western style of teaching that involves group work and interaction with the professor. Talking about the differences between western and chinese classes could even be a good lesson for your culture class. Make sure to work off student generated ideas. Write a list of things on the board.
Also, glanced at your blog. Chinese tea house scam is classic. Congratulations on getting out of it with paying so little.
Yeah, I know the differences. The extent of the differences were made quite clear when I first got here. When I get a new class, I try to start it off with a "Here are the differences between Chinese schools and American schools...." speech.
After that tea house scam, I just stopped trusting Chinese people that could speak perfect English and my life got significantly better.
Speaking of crazy Chinese people <spoilered for non-education-related crazy>:
As for the grouping students, the goal, ultimately, is to have them generate their own content somehow. I mean things like debates between groups, skits, or contests. Anything that gets them to be practicing their English. The best students probably don't need your help much, and they will hopefully help the worst. I know it's tough teaching those large classes, been there done that myself. Worst teaching days I ever had.
As for the other problem, she may just want tutoring or practice time, in which case telling her you are too busy repeatedly will hopefully be enough. Beyond that, ignoring her is probably the best thing to do, sadly.
Maybe you could set up something like the game of telephone except that each person writes something on a piece of paper and passes it to the next person who has to rewrite the gist of what they read in their own words.
And summarizing and 'using your own words' and all that jazz.
Works Citing/Citing Your Sources/That Thing That You Have To Do In Academic Papers:
What version should I teach them? APA? Chicago? I really don't want to have to cover them all. The lesson is going to be boring enough doing just one. What would you say is the most important in a class of mixed majors?
Cooking Day!
Tomorrow is the first of two cooking classes that are happening this week. There is only space for 4-5 students to be cooking at the same time. What I need is something (hopefully half-way fun/entertaining) that I can give the rest of the class to do to keep them occupied. It needs to be something that is challenging but not something that I would be required to go around and helping everyone (I suspect that helping the cooking students should be my priority).
Debate Topics
I love starting debates in my classes. Or trying to. Sometimes I can actually get my classes to talk to me! What are some good topics (stay away from politics) that I can utilize to achieve maximum controversy/students discussing.
how many students are you talking about in the class total? 4-5 will be cooking, the other students could be, writing up the recipes, writing up a review. making a script for the cooking show (if you had access to a video camera type thing to film the class while preparing the dishes and then show later to the class as a whole)? If you have a few cookbooks of your own, you could bring them in and have them find a recipe to try next time?
Debate: sports. where the best yum cha (spelling? dim sum i mean) can be found. Combine the debate about food into the kids who aren't cooking. Where should Teacher go to try some good szechuan? Where should Teacher go to see good sports of some sort?
Turn your kids into your own personal guidebooks.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
That's a really cool way to go with it.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
I'll see how the cooking day goes before I try any crazy Iron Chef shows. I'm an optimist and I forsee everything going wrong.
I like the idea though. I had them make a script for an original movie (based in the school) and that went over pretty well (besides the awkward dialogue). They love the idea of cooking in class, so I think combining the two should make for an impressive victory.
don't teach them that.
Democrats Abroad! || Vote From Abroad
I like this idea - but I would just hand out a bunch of cards with a word written on each one and get them to draw what it means... I think drawing was about the closest to fun we ever got in school, and it helps them learn the meanings of words. If they develop the set of flash cards on their own then you can do the quiz thing after.
Its a professor/teacher guy talking about the history/creation of the English language. Its not that long, and kind of light and funny. Doesn't really get crazy into the details. I don't remember the name of it, or anything super specific, but I do remember a bit where he talks about Rome invading England, but not bothering to teach them Latin because they were savages.
Moral of story: English is a bastard language of the countries around England.
Anyone know the clip I'm talking about?