I'm supposed to follow the textbook and trying not to miss anything in the textbook. When I miss some in the textbook, I feel sorry for the student and failing responsibility. It is not the class designed by my will but accepted through the rule which the publisher think the best. It doesn't include my students' own concept.
Our text book had sixteen chapters for me to teach in a year. That means I had to finish teaching two chapters in a month since our national curriculum required us to do it.
[IN CLASSROOMS WHERE TEACHERS ARE EXPECTED TO TEACH THEIR LESSONS FOLLOWING A PREDETERMINED TEXTBOOK, HOW CAN TEACHERS PROVOKE CREATIVE OR CRITICAL EXPERIENCES?]
It's important to follow the national curriculm and publisher's intent. But if situations doesn't allow the designed plan, I would talk what is the problem of curriculm and the situations and discuss my new plan including critical and creative topics with Ss.
ReplyDeleteTo achieve the guided objective of chapters thorougly, I would make a new aide-text(contents and function are condensed) and use that in class.It depends on teacher's philosophy and thought.Teacher has to think over it how to provoke creative or critical experiences.To awake Ss' consciousness during class, it's teacher's resposibility and authority.If teacher doesn't have courage like mocking bird, she or he is not any more teacher but skilled technician.
No teachers are free of our national curriculum. It means teacher must apply our national curriculum because of national achievement exam which is administrated by government in every year. But I don't think that we must be forced to follow 100% of teaching contents in our textbook published by government. I guarantee that teachers have the right and authority granted in choosing contents for teaching and reproducing them. According to the educational ministry office, textbook is meant as a kind of reference book for learning and teaching. So teachers don't have to have big burden to teach all contents in the textbook. In order to get our free hand in designing our own syllabus based on curriculum, teachers should be well-versed in main goal of each subject.
ReplyDeleteAs per our discussion in groups in class, one thought that bothered me is that if teachers decided to skip a section in the book because they thought it was irrelevent and decided to do something they thought it was more appropriate, then at present the Ss may gain some insight/knowledge/skill. However, looking at the overall picture, what if that section had relevence for later. The best example is that some Korean teachers tend to skip the pronunciation section. Now, since speaking is going to be part of the future university entrance exam, have these students been short changed in their education? Are they at a disadvantage, since the teacher previously thought it had no importance, and now is very relevent?
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the national curriculum, I think we as educators have to be very careful. Even though we may not agree on a personal level, what we think is best at present may not be justified for the overall education on the student. The ramifications of our deviance from the curriculum can or may lead to disadvantaging our students.
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ReplyDeleteFirst, I don’t think textbook is the bible. Within a big curriculum, which is given to the teachers, we still have some freedom to sort out and choose the things from the textbook. As an English teacher at the elementary school, I think I’m enjoying the authority to plan for the class. I appreciate that elementary schools are under less pressure from the test score, compared to secondary schools.
ReplyDeleteWe should do our best and try everything we can do in spite of the limited situation. Then we can blame the Education Office, the Ministry of Education, our stubborn supervisors, and etc., properly, reasonably and confidently.
There is no fixed rule as to class, but gives the same answer for English education in South Korea. There have a lot of problems in Korea English education industry which make English teacher feeling sadly. I don't know what going on next step about English text book or other stuffs. We will have to resolve them through a lot of trial and error.
ReplyDeleteEven though you may be required to follow a set textbook and curriculum, you can still encourage students to be more than passive "empty vessels" in their language learning. You can personalize content to make it relevant to student situations, you can encourage questionning of content by asking simple questions such as "Do you agree with this?", or you could get them to make a list of pros and cons for a certain idea to develop their reasoning skills and comprehension of content.
ReplyDeleteWhile it may be a small step, it can show students that they are able to engage with materials on a deeper level than simply memorising information for the exam.
I don't think teachers must follow the curriculm and cover everything in textbook. If teacher has pressure to cover them and do everything in textbook, Ss also have pressure to follow what she/he says. Furthermore, if teacher always rush to follow the curriculm, teacher-centered class will never change in English class. Instead of covering all parts in textbook, it is better to give Ss chance to do various activities, especially, in English class.
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