Textbook: More School Subject Readings 1 (Compass Publishing)

Teacher: Ikee

Student: James (13 years old, Living in Seoul)

Ikee is concerned that the student has difficulty understanding the lesson when she strays off topic: as a result she stays very close to the text.  Her teaching is very democratic--the lesson is shared between the teacher and her student. In the reading section they alternated sentences. Later they alternated questions: this keeps the lesson moving at a steady, comfortable pace. She uses summary exercises and simple leading questions to encourage her student to be comfortable and build his confidence speaking about the text.

James is a typical Korean student who has not studied outside of Korea. He learned English mostly from reading rather than from conversation with a native speaker or experiences abroad. He is a little bit shy and needs strong leadership from a teacher, as Ikee shows. This class serves as a good example for English Aloud teachers, because this is the type of student they will typically encounter.

James is actively reading and probably prepared for the lesson but it is Ikee's techniques that make the lesson interesting and easy to understand. Ikee repeats parts of the text that are difficult, asks questions to help comprehension, and patiently explains expressions and ideas such as ‘throw at’ vs. ‘throw to.’ At the end of the lesson James seems happy to continue with book work rather than participate in the ‘free conversation’* that we usually finish our lessons with. In the end, she is able to make the lesson interesting and enjoyable for the student without the use of extra materials. This was a successful lesson.

* free conversation should be understood as a part of the lesson where anything is possible: from personal conversation to continued work in the text. It depends on the situation and what the student wants. 

- About the review: Her first question was: Can you tell me two things you remember from the story. She asked a simple and open question to the student. Ikee makes good use of the review here. Because she always begins with a review, her student knows what to expect and comes to class prepared.

Role Changing:

Ikee and her student take turns at reading and answering questions from the book. This encourages the student to speak more. It is also a good way for Ikee to experience the role of the student, as well as familiarizing herself with the text. This enables her to be a better teacher in the future.

The Problem:

She asked the question, if he had any hard words, immediately after he read the text aloud. The student said no; however, if he had had a question which needed to be explained, it may have distracted from the lesson. This might have caused problems and the lesson would not work as well as we see on the video. Please don't finish a reading with the question: Do you have any hard or unknown words in the text? This can ben spoken about after the lesson.