2011년 9월 25일 일요일

I Prefer Glazed Doughnuts...

I only had one class today because all the other classes are reviewing for the test next week. I decided to continue working on Superheroes instead of starting a new topic. The only class I had today was 1-3 (The quietest first grade class). What I can't understand about this class is that they're not interested in anything: Nothing; Nada; Zilch. I hear all the other teachers talking about this class as well. It is a torturous class, because not only are they quiet, but they're eyes are glazed over...
They did pay attention when I showed them short video clips of superheroes, but their eyes went quickly back the the glazed state when I asked them if they liked superheroes. No one raised their hands no matter how many times I repeated or slowed down my speech and even when the question was written on the board (So much for dual-coding...). But later when I walked up to the groups and asked them who their favorite superheroes were, one managed to call out in every group, barely in an audible voice. The told me they liked Superman and Ironman. When I asked them why, they said because they were handsome.
I tried to get more out of them by talking about their costumes and weapons. For example, "Who uses a lasso?" "What is a lasso used for?" "Which superhero used the lasso?" In my other classes usually, this would have made them call out all kinds of answers, but not this class...
They did give me short answers to the questions- For that I'm grateful...
I asked the class captain (Jae Young) what she thought of He-Man. She said she didn't like him because he was ugly.
When they were asked to create their own superheroes in groups, they did generate more speech (albeit only on paper). Ji Won asked me how to say "invisible" in English. Surprisingly, almost everyone created a superhero. Two groups got to present today and they got lollipops: That was more than I had hoped for.

댓글 2개:

  1. Hey -- dual-coding is supposed to help them understand better. Understanding wasn't the problem here. Sounds like motivation and embarrassment was. Why not give them little group projects first (pics of superheroes in groups, rank them, match a list of skills/attributes to each (so they can see some vocab), THEN ask some questions or do a class survey? Did you try that?

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  2. I didn't exactly give them a picture, but after we watched the video, I had them match the superheroes with their superpowers. I just had them read the superpowers and explained what they meant. The problem with this class is that many students are of low level (they don't even know the alphabet), so they have no idea what I'm talking about... Only two students are capable of understanding the lessons. But honestly, I don't know if I have the time to prepare a separate lesson just for this class...

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