Teaching Writing

When I teach writing, I always have the debate in my head about whether to focus on essay or paragraph level things, or the sentence level things.  For example, at the essay level you're focusing on crafting a quality hook and thesis statement, making topic sentences, ensuring that there is strong supporting evidence and actually just choosing quality main points to write about.  At the sentence level, the focus is on things like word choice/vocab and grammar.

Can't you do both?....you might find yourself thinking.  Yes, in an ideal world with ridiculous amounts of class time and ridiculously small class sizes, I could.  But, I only have 14 weeks of teaching for 3 hours/week, with classes of 30-40 students.

So I decided to focus on the essay level.  My thinking is that Korean students, especially the English majors that I teach have had an obscene amount of vocab/grammar study up until this point in their university careers and more than 2/3 of them are pretty solid with the basics and only make small mistakes that really don't affect the meaning of what they're trying to write.  And for the other 1/3...well, if someone hasn't gotten a grasp of basic grammar/vocab usage by this point (like literally 1000s of hours of studying English), then there's not much that I can really do to help them in this class.  And they have plenty of other general English classes and grammar classes and literature classes in which to get themselves up to speed on grammar and vocab.

Most Korean students don't really write academic essays, even in Korean, but it's actually quite a valuable skill, especially for those who are taking any sort of standardized writing test or planning to study abroad (as many of my students are).  I'm hoping to give my students skills that they can use beyond just this class.  Boning up on topic sentences and thesis statements and main idea selection can't be a bad thing I'm sure.  I'm even learning a bit about writing through teaching these classes!

Just FYI, the book I'm using (and love) for this class is Great Essays by Keith Folse.

A review of a not-so-recent conference presentation of mine

A very flattering review of my presentation at a Kotesol conference last year, which I just discovered.  Find it at LivingLearning.  And, as an aside, I'll be doing another presentation on a topic of some sort on April 12th in Busan, so mark your calendars!

My latest blogging venture

I've just started up a new blog about building passive income streams.  Lots of good stuff to come hopefully including dividend stock investing, squidoo, frugal living, selling stuff on Amazon, retiring early and more.  Check it out at: Freedom Through Passive Income.

Boundaries and Teaching and Life

This is kind of a new experience for me since I've started teaching English majors: students who actually want to talk to me outside of class, and come to my office, and go for coffee and be my Facebook friend and work as my TA.  Not that my other students didn't like to talk to me or interact with me, but they were quite often 1st year students who are usually quite shy, and they were also a lot of engineers who often just didn't speak English well enough to have more than a 1-2 minute conversation and the thought of actually coming to my office filled them with horror.

But now.  How to deal with it?  I know that I want to have a life outside of work and actually require it in order to have any semblance of joy and happiness in my life.  But, if I said yes to all requests, I wouldn't and I would quite literally be at work from sun-up to sun-down every single day.  And then that leaves the dilemma.  I actually do want to meet with some students, but how could I say yes to one and not the others without seeming unfair? And if I answered my office door every time someone knocked, I'd truly never be able to get any prep/ grading/ academic publishing (trying to get my Delta paper published in a journal!)/ professional development done.  People knock every 10 minutes or so.  Literally.   And, I actually do teach a significant numbers of hours/week (around 20), with 5 different classes to prepare for each week so my time is not so abundant.

So my solution so far has to be in the Global Zone at my university for 4 hours/week, where the students have to make appointments online to meet with me for a 30 minute slot.  This takes the responsibility for who gets an appointment and who doesn't entirely out of my hands.  And it's very well-defined in terms of time so it's very easy to finish and leave at the end of it.  I like the idea of office hours, but I REALLY don't like the idea of being in my office 1-1 with students.  Stuff like that is dangerous.  Even when leaving the door open.  And, I tell the students that the best way to contact me with any problems or questions is via Twitter or email and that I'll respond within 24 hours. 

Are the students happy?  Not exactly, but I'm kind of okay with not letting my students suck all life out of me.

Check out one of my favorite books about this topic:

Delta Module 3 Tips

I'm happy to report success on the Delta Module 3 (big paper).  I got the middle grade, not the highest, but higher than just the basic pass, so take my advice for what it's worth.  Admittedly, I didn't put as much effort into it as I could of and just kind of sent it in at the end, even though I know I could have worked on it more and gotten the higher grade.  Anyway, my tips:

1.  Get yourself into a good preparation program (The Distance Delta) and then follow ALL your tutor's advice.

2. Follow ALL your tutor's advice!!!

3. Not that you'd want to pick an "easy" specialization just because it's easy, but if you're doing any exam preparation classes that semester, "examination preparation" is a good choice because it's relatively easy to do assessment of your students and there's a lot of materials out there to read and reference.  Plus, it lends itself to quantitative measurements, which could be quite helpful.

4. Unlike Module 1, where studying everyday is the key, this took more focused effort.  I set aside a block of about 4-5 hours each week on my day off and that was sufficient.  It would have been confusing to try and do 20 minutes/day or something like that.

Check out this book if you want to get a University Job in South Korea.

Teaching Content Classes, with PPT

So, I'm back in Busan after my not-so-brief semi-vacation in Thailand.  And although the chilly weather was quite a shock to my system, all is well these days and the first week of classes went very smoothly.  And, I'm EXTREMELY happy to report that not an hour of my 22 or so teaching hours/week consist of anything resembling "conversational" English.  I'm teaching 3 sections of Advanced writing to 3rd/4th year English majors, a presentation/interview class to engineering students, business English to students who have graduated and are preparing for an internship in the USA and a current events discussion club kind of thing. 

But, teaching content (especially writing) is much different than conversation classes and I'm trying to figure out my teaching style.  Previously, on very rare occasion would I use a PPT (Powerpoint for my North American friends), and instead I would focus almost exclusively on having the students interact with each other, in a student-centered to the extreme, engaging and purposeful kind of way.  And I would generally try to keep my whiteboard warrior activities to about 5 minutes out of every hour or less.  But, there is almost no way to do this for something like Advanced Writing and in fact would probably lead to extreme frustration and confusion for the students (and me too).  So, it's back to the PPT, even though it kind of kills me on the inside and I wonder if there is not a better way.  I've tried to include lots of group work/exploration within the lesson but it's still a lot of me, lecturing.

Anyway, I'm interested to see how this will all work out by semester end.  I'm sure you'll get an update or two!

Tips for Newbies and Korean Uni Interviews

A few reader questions that my previous posts cover:

Preparing for your Korean Uni Job Interview

Ten Tips for Newbies to teaching in a Korean University

And check out this book for far more details and answers to all your questions about getting a university job in South Korea:

Reader Questions: Korean Uni Jobs

(I just landed my first uni job, but I don't have a Masters degree).  I would like to invest in getting my masters in education in TESOL. I heard from a friend that it is possible to take intense courses in Seoul during my vacations from the university. Have you heard of this program? Is it worth it?

My answer: I have no idea what you're talking about.  There are a million and one TESOL courses in the world.  Worth it? I also have no idea.  If you're planning on staying in Korea for the long-term, then probably yes.  If you're going back home to do whatever, then likely not.

If I stay at my Uni job for two years, but do not get a masters would that hurt my chances of moving back into Seoul? 

I'm actually very surprised that you managed to land any uni job at all.  Consider yourself lucky.  Moving into Seoul?  Not a chance without a masters unless you happen to get something last minute or personally know the person who does the hiring.  A couple years ago, I was applying for uni jobs (with a Masters and 5 years uni experience) and only got interviews for about 1/2 the jobs I applied for in Seoul.  And I was a prime candidate (young-ish, North American female with experience).

What could I expect at an entry level position at a University?

If you read beyond the first page of this blog, you'll see that I've talked about this extensively.  Use the helpful sidebar labels to find what you're looking for (testing, lesson planning, textbook selection, etc).

Reader Question: Applying for uni jobs from abroad

"I am about to finish my PhD in Cultural Anthropology
 this summer and plan to take a TEFL course in July. I have three years university teaching experience within anthropology but none of that time was spent in ESL. My plan is to apply for the uni jobs that come out in March and start in September. Do you have any tips? Does this sound like a feasible plan? I'm wondering if it would be easier to take a hagwon job for a bit and try to land a uni job once there."

It's not entirely clear if you plan to apply for uni jobs from abroad, or not, but I think that is what you're asking about.  My answer:

It can be very difficult to get a Korean Uni Job
from abroad, but not impossible.  I know a few people who've gotten hired through Skype interviews, but I'd say this is maybe 5-10% of the cases.  Most unis have in-person interview requirements and no exceptions to this rule.  You do have a big advantage because you'll have a PhD and even those unis with the no exception thing might be willing to make an exception in your case.

The other option is to come to Korea beforehand.  If you come, but don't work and just hang around waiting for interview offers, you can burn through your money pretty quickly.  But, you'd be very likely to get a job.  If you want to start work in September, you'd have to start applying for jobs in March/April/May and then just be prepared to come over when you get an interview offer or two (probably in late May/early June)  The other option is working. You suggest a hagwon.  I think this would probably make anyone who is over the age of 30, with a Phd and "real" teaching experience absolutely insane so I don't necessarily recommend this.  The other issue is that you'd have to sign a one year contract and then the school kinds of "owns" you.  As in, it's not as simple to just switch jobs as it would be in your home country.  It could in fact be a total nightmare. 

Best option?  I'd probably try for the Skype interviews and then plan to be in Korea for June/July/August if I didn't get a job offer before then.

For all the details about Korean University Jobs, check out this fabulous Ebook:

EFL Writing Grading Rubric

This upcoming semester at my university, I'll be moving to the actual English Department, which means that I'll be teaching English majors.  I've been given three sections of "Advanced Writing," which should be comprised mostly of 3rd and 4th year students.  While I've taught writing before at my previous uni and in various camps, it's my first time doing it with such high-level students.

I think preparation is key and I've torn myself away from the beach here in beautiful Koh Lanta (which is fabulous by the way) to get a start on it.  Here's a writing grading rubric I've come up with.  I'll use it for my two big assignments and the midterm and final exam.  It's very much a work in progress so any feedback would be appreciated from you, my smart readers.  I'm wondering whether it's focused too much on form/conventions of writing and too little on the actual ideas.  Thoughts?