Reflection #2

Rachel Jonker
July 19-23, 2010
July 27, 2010
Journal 2
13.3 hours teaching, 20 hours preparation
Yum Kwang Summer English Camp in Seoul, South Korea

Part 1: Summary of your recent time in the classroom (one-two paragraphs)

This, my second week of teaching at the Yum Kwang Summer English Camp, was generally better than my first. With one week "under my belt" I was better able to manage my classes and meet their educational needs. The main way in which I did this was by incorporating more interactive activities and games into my class, which worked to engage students more than the discussions which I had used the previous week. I also experienced the benefits of using genuine information gap activities to get students to speak in class.

That said, this week was not without its struggles. I have yet to master a way to channel my elementary students' enthusiasm into learning so that their antics do not distract from speaking activities. I would like to find a better way to motivate students to complete their homework and to give them all more speaking time. I still struggle to meet all my students' needs in my mixed-ability middle school class. I have yet to find a way to teach all students effectively simultaneously. I would also like to give my students more ownership in their learning experience so as to motivate them to continue to learn after this course finishes.

Part 2: Reflection on TESOL Themes
1. Discuss one approach you used or observed which you felt worked well and received positive response from both students and teacher. Support your observations with references from your TESOL texts.

This week I incorporated several games into my classes, which helped significantly to lighten the classroom atmosphere and increase student motivation and participation. One game which worked particularly well was Tic-Tac-Toe. For this game, I draw a Tic-Tac-Toe board on the whiteboard and tape small pieces of paper in each square. In this way, I make effective use of the whiteboard as Harmer suggests in his book How to Teach English. Rather than simply scrawling vocabulary words on it, I use board space neatly and for multiple purposes--such as "writing, drawing, sticking things on," etc.--in this learning activity.

On their board-side, these papers contain a vocabulary word picture, English proverb/saying, sentence with a grammar mistake for students to identify, or a sentence with a blank for which students have to guess the missing word. I divide the class into two teams, flip a coin to select the team which starts, and ask them to answer the question which is taped to the square they select before they can draw their mark there.

I enjoy using this game because students respond well to the competition, which motivates them to answer questions which they might not otherwise find as interesting. It's also a more interesting way to teach vocabulary than simply the basic flashcards which Harmer says are only appropriate for the most basic levels (93). This game also creates a good opportunity for the students to practice teamwork and individual speaking (as I select individual students to select squares and answer questions). The game can be used for review or to introduce smaller subject areas which might otherwise be "forgotten." My only concern now is that I will use the game so much that it will no longer be effective!

2. Discuss one approach you used or observed which you felt worked did not work well and received negative response from either students or teacher. Support your observations with references from your TESOL texts.

This week I instructed my middle school students to draw the layout of their dream house. I then followed their individual instructions in order to draw it on the board. This activity was intended to give the students time to practice giving directions and describing. While it accomplished those goals, it did not work well because it was more difficult than I anticipated and thus took far too much time. It was frustrating for the students because they were unable to explain their layouts well enough for me to reproduce them exactly and they were unwilling to settle for less than that.

The activity was also unsuccessful because it did not force them to use new or challenging vocabulary. I concluded that it would have been equally challenging for native English speakers. I chose not to have the students describe their layouts to each other (as I had done with my elementary students) because I thought that they would do an incomplete job if I was not directly involved to check their work, and since there were only three of them I thought it would be a relatively fast exercise. Instead, it took nearly twenty minutes, during two-thirds of which each student simply sat there doing nothing. Once I realized how horribly it was going I was very tempted to quit, but since one student had already fully explained his layout to me, I did not want to short the others of the opportunity to do so. Harmer comments on the difficulty of accurately estimating the duration of classroom activities and advises teachers to be flexible in the midst of the lesson to "veer away from the plan if we see that we have taken too much time over one particular element of it" (159). In hindsight, I recognize that it would have been wiser for me to do this and quit the activity once I realized how poorly it was working rather than stubbornly plodding through it.

3. Discuss a cultural dynamic that you saw playing out in the classroom. How did you respond to this dynamic? What resources could you consult to gain deeper insight into this?

One of the more fascinating cultural dynamics that I have encountered during my teaching experience here is this church’s hospitality. When I spend time with Christians internationally, it is often difficult for me to determine whether their hospitality is an accurate representation of the culture or is more a product of their Christian belief. In this instance, I have not had any contact with non-Christian Koreans, which makes it more difficult for me to determine. Nevertheless, I have been impressed by their willingness to meet all of our needs and make us as comfortable as possible.

However, this “willingness” does not always translate into action. As soon as I heard that there were video projectors available for us to use in the classroom, I requested one. When it did not materialize after two days, I spoke with our supervisor and asked her again. She told me to speak to my teaching assistants. When I did so, they told me they had to speak to the program coordinator, who told me that he had to speak with our supervisor. At the end of the week, I was told again that the video projectors were available for our use, as if no one had ever asked about them. I reiterated my request and one week later was told that if I wanted to use a video projector I could move to another, larger classroom, where there was one permanently installed. The pastor who told me this planned to move my class to this room so that I could use the projector for every class period. While I appreciated his action-oriented attitude, I told him that I would rather stay in my current classroom and have the projector at my disposal when I choose to use it.

Through this experience I realized that I should have been more assertive in my request and clear about how I wanted to use the projector. I did not consider that to be necessary at the beginning, because everyone appeared very accommodating and eager to help. I have concluded that the expression of a willingness to help is highly valued by our hosts’ culture, so much so that they will offer even when they are unable to immediately deliver. As such, I would do well to be more intentional about maintaining communication when I request something rather than assuming that it is being handled. The best way that I can think of to do this is to remind our program coordinators of the things that they said they would do for us rather than wait for them to simply happen on their own.