Sunday, March 2, 2008

1st Semester Lesson Plans

Garrett Ward

Mokpo High School

First semester review

Mokpo Jeollanam-Do, South Korea

Introduction

The following is a summary of my first semester plans at Mokpo High School, South Korea. There are three grades at the high school level in South Korea and I was assigned to teach grades one and two. The third year students have to prepare for college entrance exams and did not have time to take my course. Students in South Korea are burden with a high workload. They take 9 courses per semester and typically attend school from 7am to 10pm. The also have half days on Saturday every other week. The workload is great and the competition is intense. 30-32 students make up each class and this class takes all of their classes. They are assigned a room and with the exception of science and P.E., the students have all their classes in that one room the students are graded based on their class ranking so everything is curved. It has to be this way because the exams are intense and very difficult. Often 50% on an exam can actually be the top grade in the class. If students do not rigorously prepare for their exams they will be lucky to score higher than 20%. Additional study time and homework is assigned and this will often keep the students up well past midnight. They certainly do not get enough sleep and this causes them to constantly nod off in class, especially during the week leading up to exam period.

I was assigned to teach 16 classes each week which made for a comfortable work schedule. I did have to be at school for about 35 hours each week so I had plenty of time to lesson plan. My class is a much different from the others. Unlike the other classes which meet several times a week, the students only have one 50 minute period with me. Its purpose is to expose the kids to a native speaker who creates some lessons that have an emphasis more on speaking and pronunciation as opposed to writing, reading and grammar which is handled in their other two English. The students do not receive a grade in my class so there is no homework or exams assigned in class. The only prep necessary for me was lesson planning which was left completely up to me. The only instruction I received at this school was from the principal when he told me in Korean “Keep the kids learning.” (I had my co-teacher there to translate for me) All of these lesson were created by myself. I certainly used my fair share of resources in brainstorming ideas but every school is different and I didn’t find any lesson plans online that worked in my class as is.

I tried to make the environment in class light and fun. In many lessons I would spend the first half lecturing the class and using the second part to play a game using what I had just tried to teach them. The student’s ability to read and write English is good but their ability to communicate is very low and I found out quickly that was why the school brought me in; to offer the students an opportunity to speak English. The best students already have a good grasp of the language and can communicate well. The average student can’t speak very well and also have difficulty understand what I am saying. The poor students don’t get it and don’t understand a word I am saying. I try to get as much participation out of the whole class as possible but some of the students have checked out and I don’t have the time to make them participate. My challenge was to improve the speaking ability of the able minded students. This point was brought home to me when my co teacher and were assigned to judge an English contest. There were some students who had difficulty understanding the questions we asked and the other judges and ourselves tried to give help them by repeating questions or speaking slowly. That was until the coordinator approached us and flatly told us “Don’t waste your time with the poor students, we can’t use them.” This is a very competitive society.

I enjoyed teaching the students. Being at an all boys school means you are going to see your fair share of roughhousing and toilet humor but overall the students are much more respectful to their teachers and really care about their education. I have also been lucky to work at a great school. The Principal creates a stress free work environment and he has been fair to me in giving me time off when I have no classes to teach like during finals week. This is a privilege most Native Speakers do not get at their school and I really hope the Principal returns next semester. He may take a job near his hometown in Gwangju. My fellow teachers are great although communication is limited. I am learning Korean but I am still nowhere near being able to hold a decent conversation so I only have real dialogue with the female English teachers. The male English teachers are very reluctant to speak to me because they have a lower speaking ability and are embarrassed by it. I get the feeling the women at this school are little more talented than the men and I believe it’s because of the fewer job opportunities afforded to women in South Korea. As a newly wealthy country, South Korea is moving away from discrimination in the work place but I imagine it will be very prevalent in this society until the new generation takes over and cares only for good performance in the workplace.

I have enjoyed my first year of teaching. It’s more challenging than I could have imagined being an effective teacher and for a newbie I think I did a pretty good job. I hope I can improve on what I learned this semester because there is certainly room to grow. The area where I hope to improve most is student comprehension. I guess that is the goal of any teacher but in South Korea it takes on a whole new meaning.

First Three Weeks

I came to South Korea with really only the first week’s lesson plan prepared. Luckily for me I arrived during the schools third week when most students go to camp. I only had four classes to teach that first week and that provided ample time to lesson plan. I will start out this semester summary by describing the first three weeks of teaching.

Week 1

I only had one class my first day but being my first I was a little nervous. For my first lesson I did what everyone at school suggested I do; introduce myself and show the kids pictures so they could get to know me. This is something that always goes over well with the students because they are so curious about the new foreigner at school. I showed them pictures of my family, friends, dogs and some cool scenic pictures of my travels. When I finished I allowed the kids to ask me questions if they had any. “Do you have a girlfriend” was a popular one as well my favorite soccer player. While all this was going on I had started a roll sheet and instructed the kids to write their name in English. When I finished my introduction I had each student draw an English name out of a hat to write next to their Korean name. That would be the name I would refer to when calling on the kids. This process usually finished with 5-10 minutes left in class. If this was the case, I took roll again using their English names and had them tell me something they liked. (I like …)

Reflection

This is a classic lesson plan that is used by many new teachers. At the time I thought it would be easier for me to learn names by giving the kids English names but I still only know the names of a few students who stand out in my classes. The English names were ultimately unnecessary because when I call on students from my sheet I can use their Korean name as easily as their English name. Still the kids had fun and I have gotten a lot of unintentional laughs throughout the semester from names such as Don (means money in Korea) or Eric (famous Korean singer)

Week 2-3 Lesson Plan (Handout)

Your English Class Names____________________________________________

Getting to know your fellow classmates is very important. Today you will be paired with another classmate and you will interview each other in English using the questions below. You will write the answers down on the blank spaces below and introduce that student in front of the class.

Questions: Read These Questions in English

1. What is your Korean name and what is your English name for this class?

2. Do you have any brothers or sisters? If so ask what their names are.

3. What is your favorite subject in school and why?

4. Tell me some of your hobbies and interests.

5. What is your favorite and least favorite food?

6. What kind of music do you like and which band do you enjoy?

7 Which country would you most like to visit and why?

* Write down the answers below.

1. This is __________________. His English name for this class is _________________.

2. He has___ brother(s) and ___ sister(s). Their names are ________________________.

3. His favorite subject in school is ________ because ____________________________.

4. His hobbies are________________________ and he likes ______________________.

5. His favorite food is _________________ and his least favorite is _________________.

6. He likes listening to _____________ music and he likes the band ________________.

7. He would like to visit ____________ because________________________________.

Change Partners

1. This is __________________. His English name for this class is _________________.

2. He has___ brother(s) and ___ sister(s). Their names are ________________________.

3. His favorite subject in school is ________ because ____________________________.

4. His hobbies are________________________ and he likes ______________________.

Lesson Plan

The students were paired and I had them interview each other using a set of questions from the handout. The kids placed the answers to the questions in the blank spot below where I had an introductory paragraph setup. The kids simply filled in the blanks spots based on the answers the got from their partners. When everyone finished I had the students introduce their partner to the class. I had 10 questions on the worksheet which turned to be quite a bit for the students. It took most of the period for the kids to finish them so we were only able to get through a handful of presentations so the lesson carried over to the next week. The kids are slow readers and with 16 presentations to get through week consisted on only that. A few classes finished early and if that was the case I wrote I hate________.on the board and took roll. That ate up the rest of the time.

Reflection

Good lesson plan for me to get comfortable with teaching. I didn’t speak a great deal in front of the whole class but I did do a lot of teaching with individual groups and that allowed me to build my confidence. My co-teachers were a big help although they didn’t always attend and some, particularly the male teachers got bored and left me alone in class. I was able to handle it with little trouble though. It is nice to have another teacher in the room that can explain my ideas to the class. When I speak I know the students cannot fully understand what I am saying. I try to speak very slowly and clearly and I make sometimes act out what I am trying to instruct to help them understand.

Lesson 2

English Cartoons

For this task I divided the kids into groups of four and had them create an original cartoon in English. The format was a manually created four panel layout with a rectangle shaped section for dialogue located at the top of each square. I also provided them with a sample cartoon that I created.

My only rule was there had to be English in each dialogue box; I also stressed full participation among the four people in each group. I gave the kids about 35 minutes to complete the cartoon and had them present at the forty minute mark.(50 minute class) Each boy was responsible for explaining one panel of the cartoon so everyone got a chance to speak English.

As I supervised the kids it was often obvious that one or two kids were doing all the work and others were just taking a pass. When I saw a person who was not working I approached them and asked them to explain the idea for the cartoon. That way I could at least get some English out of them and facilitate participation.

Watch out for inappropriate drawings and bad language. A little toilet humor is okay but make sure the kids do not cross the line.

Reflection

I felt like I gave the kids a little too much time to create a short cartoon. The students who were participating usually finished after twenty minutes or so. They then had to wait for the other students to finish. I gave 10,5,3 minute warnings to the students and there was often a flood of activity during these moments. 95% of the groups finished in time and most cartoons used English in all four panels as instructed.

Handout (full page)

Instructions: Write a story. Each boy should continue/build on the previous words. The last boy will end the story. Each of you should write 2-3 sentences.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lesson 3

English stories

I divided the kids into groups of 5 or 6 and had them write a story, based on handout that had a humorous photo on it. I divided the lines into sections so the first boy began the story, the middle students continued the story and the last student finished the story. I asked for 2-3 sentences for each section. I gave the kids 40 minutes to complete the story and then had them present in front of the class.

Reflection

I think this was my weakest lesson of the semester. This was a very complex lesson for the kids to understand. The all knew to write a story based on the pictures but it was difficult for six students to collaborate on one story and to understand how to write their section of the story. Often the third or fourth student would end the story or they would simply repeat what had already been mentioned in the story. This assignment was just too difficult for the lower level kids who cannot understand English. Virtually all the kids can read English but too many didn’t have the skill necessary to make any contribution to the story. I also didn’t do a good enough job explaining what to do in the beginning although I was able to move from group to group and clarify many things. This was also my first full week working without a co-teacher. Turns out my school was only kidding when they said I would have one in each class so this was an adjustment class for the newbie teacher.

Use the following auxiliary verbs to fill in the blanks below (Handout)

Can

Can’t

Do

Don’t

Did

Didn’t

Should

Shouldn’t

Will

Won’t

1. On Sundays I ___________ attend school. I_____________ play video games

2. I __________ play soccer today because I am sick. I _______ play soccer yesterday.

3. I____________ sleep in Garrett’s English class. I ___________ sleep at home

4. I ___________ eat bad food. I ___________ eat good food.

5. I ____________ study for English exam. I __________ study for P.E. class.

6. ________ you like to eat pizza? I ______ enjoy eating pizza.

7. The car _______ start. We ________ take it to the mechanic.

Game: Steal the Sentence

There will be three teams. Each team is assigned 4 sentences and they must determine which auxiliary verb fits best. Each correct answer is worth 4 points. Each wrong answer is -2 points. If a team misses a sentence, the next will get a chance to answer the question and steal the points.

You_____ have studied harder for the exam

My team lost because we _____ play well.

I promise I _____ try harder next time

You_____ what to the teacher?

______ you want to play soccer?

______ go there, it’s dangerous!

I am late so I _____ be there on time.

I really ______ have said that.

You forgot? _______ you read the instructions?

If you_____ know the answer I will tell you.

Last weekend I ___ go to Jeju Island.

1+1 ____ equal 3

Reflection

The Korean language is mostly void of these kinds of verbs so they often get left out when the students attempt to speak. I explained what an auxiliary verb was and showed how the can be used to describe a positive/negative yes/no action. When I wrote down the word can for example, I used it in a sentence (I can play video games) I then asked the students what the opposite (no version) verb was. Many student were able to answer can’t. They usually figured out the others as well. Once they had an understanding. I gave them 15 minutes to answer the fill in the blank worksheet. I designed it in way that often allowed several different correct answers so the weaker students could get some write. It was fun to approach the ones who didn’t think they could answer any and just ask them to guess. I used the (I am late) sentence for this and the students were encouraged when they it turned out their answer was correct. I also think the exercise was challenging enough to the good students. After 15 minutes I stopped the kids and we went over the answers together. Then we played the game that is described in the handout. I designed eat so each group got one difficult sentence and two average ones. In the case of a tie, I wrote a sudden death sentence and the first group to answer correctly won. This lesson worked well. Some of the kids will retain some of this new knowledge and I think everyone enjoyed the game.

Trip to McDonalds ( Handout)

Menu

Hamburgers Fries Soda Desert

Big Mac Small Small Apple Pie

Quarter Pounder Medium Medium Ice Cream

Cheeseburger Large Large McFlurry

Soda: Coca Cola, Sprite, Dr Pepper, Root Beer, Orange Drink.

Dialogue

Clerk: Welcome to McDonalds may I take your order?

You/Student: Yes, I want a Big Mac, large fries, medium soda, and an Apple Pie.

Clerk: Okay, your total is $7

You/Student: Thank You

Customer Questions

Where is the bathroom?

Can I get a refill on my drink?

Where are the (Straws, Lids, Napkins.)

Where is the (Ketchup, Mustard, Salt.)

Reflection

I wanted to give the students a realistic situational English assign and you can’t get much more realistic than a trip to McDonalds. The first thing I did was introduce the menu to the students and answer and questions they had about it. A common was question was the meaning of “Quarter Pounder” because they do not use the pound measurement in South Korea. Most did not know what a McFlurry was either.

Next I acted as the clerk and took the order of some of the students. After I did four or five students I started having person who just ordered be the clerk. This worked very well and gave the students good speaking practice. It also gave me a chance to brush up their pronunciation. A common mistake all Koreans make with English is adding vowel sounds to the end of words. In Korean, almost every sentence ends in one so it’s natural to use this habit in the English language. The students will say things like large E or finish E and I am constantly telling them to drop the E at the end of the world.

I had all the students order food. When that was done I taught them how to deal with common questions and requests you need to make at a fast food restaurant. “Let’s say you wanted ketchup for your fries. What would you say?” I did that for all the customer questions listed on the sheet. In addition I made up some new ones as the lesson progressed. I taught them how to politely inform the clerk of a mix up if the received the wrong order.

This assignment created good class participation and I think the kids were highly engaged due to the realism of the lesson. I just wish there was an English speaking McDonalds nearby where the kids could go practice.

Prison for Man Who Faked Retardation

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - A Vancouver man was sentenced Friday to 13 months in prison for pretending to be mentally retarded in order to claim disability benefits.

Pete J. Costello, 28, pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to defraud the government and to Social Security fraud. He began receiving disability benefits when he was 8. He was ordered to repay the $59,226 he has received since turning 18.

Costello, who cannot read or write, dictated a letter to his public defender that was submitted to the judge before sentencing and filed in court.

"I know that it was wrong to 'act like a child' in the Social Security office when that is not how I really am," the letter said. "I feel very bad about this and want to do everything I can to pay this money back."

Costello's mother, Rosie Costello, 46, who also pleaded guilty, is to be sentenced Thursday for coaching her son and daughter to feign mental retardation. Authorities have not found the daughter.

Pete Costello continued to fake retardation into his mid-20s—picking at his face, slouching and appearing uncommunicative in meetings with Social Security officials.

The scheme came to light last year after he got a traffic ticket in Vancouver, then was videotaped acting normally when he contested the ticket in court.

Matching

Authorities Teach

Feign Note

Retarded Filmed

Videotaped Fake

Scheme Got

Letter Pretend

Prison Jail

Receive Police

Coach Crazy

Fill in the Blank

Pete Costello is going to______ because he pretended to be _______________________.

His Mother, Rosie Costello is going to jail for ___________________ her son to feign mental retardation.

Pete Costello is going to jail for ____ months and must________________ the money.

Pete Costello was ___________ acting normally while contesting a traffic fine.

What do you think of this story? Explain.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reflection

I can’t believe some of the things I read sometimes. This is a very sick and disturbing story but god it was funny to read. I shorten the article and used it for my class. It was a very difficult article for the students to understand. They had no problem reading the story but the didn’t understand enough words to make much sense of the story. So I explained to important terms such as Social Security and Disability Benefits and then I acted out what happened. I pretended to be Pete’s mother and I used students to play the role of Pete and the social security officers. I instructed Pete to act crazy in the Social Security office. He sat down in the teachers chair and the two students sitting across from by the teacher’s desk were the SS workers. Acting the story out gave the kids enough understanding of what happened to do the work sheet on the other side of the paper. When they finished the lesson I did a review on the board and called out kids to give me an answer to each question. I lengthened the fill-in-the-blank section on the board to make it more challenging for the students. My main disappointment with this lesson was the lack of feedback I got on the last question. Most students failed to provide any constructive feedback. I think they had a general idea of the story but they lack the skill to put what they know down on paper. This was a difficult lesson for them due to the complexity of the story but I am glad I did it because it has helped me gauge the students English comprehension ability. It will help me in the future.

Spelling Bee (Competition)

Words are from vocabulary 1,2,3,4

High School English

Unit 1

converse, dialog, information, successful, fluent, professor, pronunciation, vocabulary, postpone, besides, beginning, converse, grammar, speak, read, write, listen, improve, motivate.

Unit 2

Flattering, appearance, invent, where, trait, religious, servant, original, everyone, personality, indicate, reason, background, intelligent, ethnic, generation, baker, tall, cute, cook, stout, Irish, moody, coward, outgoing, attractive, Spanish, German, Miller, honest.

Unit 3

Subject, cancel, routine, optional, definitely, graduate, because, trouble, require, optional, credit, graduate, additional, actually, least, though, little, activity, strict, rules, satisfied.

Unit 4

Wish, rainy, history, snow, algebra, sunny, science, cloudy, science, physical, education, fortress, natural, cultural, tombs, optional, tourists, does.

Others

Colors: black, pink, blue, red, purple, orange, yellow, green, brown, silver.

Foods: pizza, noodles, meat, pork, seafood, tomato, banana, apple, melon, fish, tuna.

Animals: dog, cat, mouse, rabbit, bird, snake, shark, lion, tiger, bear, deer, ape.

Numbers: zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.

Days/Months: Monday, Sunday, Friday, Thursday May, June, July, October, April.

Extras: could, cannot, did, moon, soda, diet, camp, why, table, ball, order, should, speak, rod, crazy, pillow, united, soccer, sink, swim, die, when, where, why, when.

Lesson Plan and Description

For this spelling bee I used words that came directly from the students High School English vocabulary list. The first round I was the candy round. I used easier words to make sure most kids got a piece. The final rounds were harder and kids quickly dropped out. When I was down to four or five kids I had all of them come up to the chalk board and spell the same word. The winner got a candy bar and I gave 3 or 4 runner ups another piece of candy. It was a fun and easy lesson and I think it helped motivate the kids to study their vocabulary since I provided the words to them a week in advance.

Acting Lesson (Handouts)

School

Characters: Teacher, Student 1, Student 2, Student 3.

Teacher: Class let’s start. Today’s lesson is…….

(3 students enter class late)

Student 3: Hello teacher, how are you?

Teacher: You are late! Get Out!

Student 1: No, we want to stay in class.

Student 2: Yes, we like school.

Teacher: Get Out! Or I will punish you all.

Student 3: Teacher, you are crazy.

Teacher: What did you say?! Get into push up position.

Student 3: No, please don’t. I am very sorry.

Student 1: Please don’t hurt him teacher.

Student 2: Yes we love him very much.

Teacher: All of you. Push up position

Finish the story.

Student 1:

Student 2:

Student 3:

Teacher:

Baseball

Characters: Pitcher, Batter, Catcher, Umpire.

(Action: Baseball game)

Umpire: Batter Up, Take your place.

Batter: I will hit a home run

Catcher: No, you will strike out.

Pitcher: Here comes my pitch.

(Pitcher hits batter with baseball)

Umpire: Hit by pitch! Take 1st base.

Batter: You hit me on purpose. Let’s fight.

Pitcher: Oh No. I can’t fight!

Catcher: Hey stop you crazy baseball player.

Umpire: You are all ejected! Get out!

Finish the story.

Pitcher:

Batter:

Catcher:

Ump:

Hospital

Characters: Patient, Friend, Doctor, Nurse,

Action: (Patient is sick. Friend takes him to the doctor.)

Friend: Nurse my friend is sick.

Patient: Oh Nurse I am so sick.

Nurse: I am sorry. Let me get the doctor.

Doctor: What’s wrong with you?

Friend: He is very sick doctor. His stomach hurts.

Patient: Yes my stomach hurts.

Doctor: Okay. Here is some medicine.

Patient: Thank you.

(Takes Medicine)

Patient: oh no. I am dying!

Friend: Oh my god he’s dying! Do something!

Nurse: Doctor do something!

Finish the story.

Doctor:

Patient:

Nurse:

Friend:

Soccer

Characters: Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Coach, Referee.

Action: (Soccer Match. Manchester United V. Chelsea. Overtime Sudden Death.)

Referee: Begin overtime. Start playing.

Coach: Okays guys let’s score a goal.

Rooney: I will pass the ball to you Ronaldo (Pass the ball)

Ronaldo: I got it. I have a shot at goal!

Coach: Shoot it, Ronaldo! (Shot on goal)

Rooney: Ball crossed the line! Goal!!

Coach: Yes! Goal! We are winning!

Ronaldo: I am the greatest!

Referee: No goal. Ball did not cross line.

Finish the story.

Ronaldo:

Coach:

Ronney:

Referee:

Celebrity Sighting

Characters: Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Fan 1, Fan 2

Fan 1: Oh my god look; it’s Brad Pitt!

Fan 2: I see Tom Cruise. Oh my god.

Action(They run toward Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.)

Fan 1, Fan 2 Together: Tom Cruise! Brad Pitt! May we have your Autograph?

Tom Cruise: That will be 100,000 Won

Brad Pitt: My autograph is 200,000 Won

Fan 1: We have to pay?

Fan 2: We don’t have any money.

Tom Cruise: Too bad. No autograph for you.

Brad Pitt: Let’s leave Tom.

Finish the story.

Fan 1:

Fan 2:

Brad Pitt:

Tom Cruise:

Criminals

Characters: Thief 1, Thief 2, Policeman, Bank Worker.

Thief 1: Let’s steal money from the bank.

Thief 2: Okay. Here is a bank, lets go.

Thief 1: Give us the money

Bank Worker: Don’t shoot! Here you go.

Action (He gives them money)

Policeman: Hey! What are you guys doing?

Thief 2: Oh no! A policeman!

Finish the story.

Thief 1:

Thief 2:

Policeman:

Bank Worker:

Romance

Characters: Boy, Girl, Girls Mom, Girls Dad.

Action (Boy and girl are finishing a date)

Boy: I love you. I had fun tonight

Girl: Me too. Thank you for dinner, you are handsome.

Action (Boy drops girl off at her house)

Boy: You are beautiful, May I kiss you?

Girl: I would like that. Let’s kiss.

Action (Girl’s parent’s open the door before they kiss)

Girls Mother: Oh my goodness!

Girls Dad: Are you kissing my daughter? How dare you!

Finish the story.

Boy:

Girl:

Girls Mom:

Girls Dad:

Church

Characters: Father, Mother, Son, Daughter.

Father: Today is Sunday. Let’s go to Church.

Son: No. I don’t want to go. I want to play PC games.

Daughter: I want to go to PC Bong and play Star Craft

Mother: Now children, Church is very important.

Father: Today is the Lord’s Day and were going to Church.

Daughter: Please let us play computer games

Son: Yes please don’t make us go.

Finish the story.

Father:

Mother:

Son:

Daughter:

Reflection and Lesson Description

For this lesson the students were divided up into groups of four and I assigned them a short skit for them to perform. I first instructed them to choose a character and then finish the story. I expected each character to have one additional speaking line that only had to be one sentence long. I stressed to the students that they needed to act out the story and not just read from the script. I acted out a part of the hospital skit when the patient tells the doctor how sick he is by acting very sick myself. After introducing the assignment, the kids had about 25 minutes to finish their skits and I used the rest of the class for the performance.

I wrote all the scripts myself and I tried to think of scenarios the kids could relate too and that would make them laugh. I also made sure to leave the students with a climax that would be easy finish in a few sentences. I think all of the kids finished their skits and they really enjoyed the performances. The favorites were Romance and School but as long as the performers spoke loudly, clearly with some creativity, the audience got a good laugh. This was my favorite lesson of the semester because it got the students to use English in a fun, creative and entertaining manner. Since all the students had lines I got full participation out of the class and I was very happy with that. I also enjoyed writing the skits.

Slang Words (Handout)

Hello

What’s up? ( wasup, sup) Hey, Yo,

Friend

Dude, Hommie, Buddy

Good

Cool, Sweet, Tight,

Mistake

My bad, Whoops,

Goodbye

Later, Peace, Take Care, (polite goodbye)

Bad

That sucks, That’s lame, Weak Sauce

Take a rest/Relax

Hang out, Chill out, Chill

House

Pad, Crib

Add the literal meaning to each slang word below.

That sucks._____________ That’s cool._____________ My bad. __________________

Later dude______________ Let’s chill______________What’s up dude?_____________

Change sentences using slang words.

Sorry, my mistake. _______________________________________________________.

Let’s relax at your house.___________________________________________________.

Hello friend.____________________________________________________________.

This is fun._____________________________________________________________.

Haircut-------------- Do Beautiful------------------ Fine

Delicious----------- Grubbing Really---------------------- Hella

Food ---------------- Grub Music ----------------------Tunes

Shoes --------------- Kicks Ball------------------------- Rock

Reflection and Lesson Description

This was a rewarding lesson because it changed the way some of the kids greet me at school. South Korean kids have these phrases memorized. “ Hello, how are you?” I’m fine thank you, and you?” “See you later”. That is what I hear constantly when I walk the school halls so I wanted to teach the kids different ways of saying the same thing using slang. I went over the words with the students and tried to explain how the slang words are formed. For example, I first taught them What’s up and then explained how that can be shortened to wasup just by removing H and the T. I attached dude at the end of the sentence and walked round class saying Wasup dude and doing the fist bump to several students. Now some of them say wasup or hey dude to me in the halls. I showed them how slang words can have substitute for several words. Grub is a slang word for food but it can also be used for the word eat or ate. “We grubbed at McDonalds, Lets grub at McDonalds, Let’s get some grub at McDonalds.” I also introduced them to “Hella”. I explained how it was a condensed version of “Hell of a lot” and it could be used instead of the words many or really. I have hella exams next week so I am hella tired. After my presentation which took up much of the class. I had the students fill out the worksheet for practice. If there was time at the end of class I did a review by adding new sentences on the board using slang words. I spoke a lot for this lesson so it took a lot of energy to deliver but like I said before it was very rewarding to see the kids use my slang when greeting me in the hall.

Sounds

When spoken by man, sounds often sound different between countries.

Sound American Korean

Dog: barks/ruff/ bow woe mong mong

Cat: meows yowm

Bee: buzz wing

Giraffe: mwa mwa

Cow: moo meaaa

Chicken: cluck, cluck puk puk,

Other sounds

Gun: bang tang

Surprise! whoa! wow

Disgust: ew eah

Punch: pow, smack pak, chic byek

Phone: ring darleung

Knock: knock knock dok dok

Splash: splash pong dong

Blink: blink kompa kompa

Siren: woot be bop be bop,

Nothing: blah blah mol mol

Clock: tick tock checa, doc ta

Snore: zzzzz drum

Reflection and Lesson Description

This was designed to be a fun throwaway lesson because the students had final exams the next week. My co-teacher encouraged me to give the students study time since they have no exams in my class but nine others to deal with. The lesson lasted about twenty minutes and the kids enjoyed making the animal sounds. They really appreciated the extra study time.

Idioms

Idioms Meaning

Drain the dragon Bathroom

Once in a blue moon Seldom/hardly/rarely

Kick the bucket Die

Fit as a fiddle Healthy

Piece of cake Easy

An arm and a leg Expensive

Call it off. Stop

Pulling your leg joking/teasing

Under the weather sick

Basket case crazy

Hold your Horses patience

Snail’s pace slow

Reflection and Lesson Description

I explained to the students that Idioms were like slang words only the consisted of phrase instead of a sentence. As I went over the idioms I showed how they can be used in a sentence. “World Cup Soccer occurs once in a blue moon.” I enjoyed when I got to “Pulling your Leg” because I would seek out a student that wasn’t paying attention and screamed “Get out” (Leave the classroom) If the student really wasn’t paying attention he would get up to leave, at which point I stopped and said I was only pulling your leg. I also told the students I watched the film Transformers with Kim jong il up in Pyongyang North Korea over the weekend. I told them we were friends. Most students understood I was joking and said “No teacher, pulling your leg. “An arm and a leg” was fun too because I walked around and used student property as examples of what was expensive and what was cheap. I held up expensive objects and said “This cost him an…” and let the students fill in the rest. I finished the lesson in 20-25 minutes at which point I divided the kids into three teams for my Idiom hangman game. In this version the Idioms we just went over were used for each puzzle and teams took turns guessing a letter. If their guess appeared on the puzzle they had a chance to answer. Each correct answer was worth one point. That team could then earn another point if they could tell me the meaning of the idiom. If they failed, the other teams got a chance to answer. I was surprised at the good memory some of these kids have. Some were able to correctly guess the puzzle with only a few letters or even before any words were up on the board. I had to watch out for cheating though. I collected my handout before the game started but some kids held on to their worksheet and were cheating off them. This was brought to my attention after my first class when my co-teacher told me some of the kids who I thought were really smart, actually were cheating. The little rotters were laughing about it because I was praising them in class. I caught several cheaters in other classes and made them do pushups. I started collecting the papers before explaining the game to them to remove the incentive of keeping the papers. Good lesson but you have to be careful