Cover Letter
Ja Eun Kim
Seyun Middle School, Yeonhee- dong
Seoul, Korea
(02) 332-7375
December 17, 2010
Antoaneta Bonev, Ph.D.
California State University, San Bernardino
5500 University ParkwaySan Bernardino, CA 92374
Dear Dr. Bonev and colleagues
I am currently working at a middle school and teaching the 9th grade intermediate level. There are three different levels: elementary, intermediate, and advanced. Also, the same textbook is used for all levels. English education in Korea had been focused on mostly reading, grammar, and writing, more than speaking and listening. However, the new Korean President Lee Myung Bak has reinforced communicative competence in English. Thus, team teaching with a native speaking English teacher has been commonly performed in classes now. Therefore, I have designed this course, with a native speaker’s cooperation in speaking and listening. For speaking, the native speaker will intensively teach on how to produce a sound clearly.
Since the school already decided to use the same textbook for each level, I added more supportive worksheets for my intermediate students. For reading, they need to build up their vocabulary skills which are related with various topics. The textbook, however, does not provide enough definitions of vocabularies for each chapter, so I created extra vocabulary worksheets for weekly vocabulary quiz. For writing, they need to comprehend key grammar points before writing. By introducing the main grammar points in the beginning of each chapter, students will be able to catch the grammar points which are hidden in the reading contexts. These grammar points will be repeated several times throughout the speaking, listening, and reading. Once they understand the grammar points, they will participate in the writing activities. If needed, further activities or extra worksheets will be given to master the grammar points before moving on to the next chapter. For each chapter, they will be taught these main grammar points through the integration of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
This textbook does not include enough listening practice, but students will be exposed to natural English pronunciation done by the native speaking English teacher. The native teacher will meet the students once a week just for speaking and listening. By interacting with each other, students will develop their confidence and interest in English as a foreign language instead of a tool which they must study in order to get a good score on a test.
This course will approach comfortably to the intermediate students. Encouraging students to study English hard is important, but I believe motivating the students is more important. Their English proficiency level is not high, but there is always a possibility to enhance their English skills inclusively. I hope this course meets the needs for the intermediate students on learning English.
Sincerely,
JaEun Kim
9th Grade English Language Course Syllabus
Course Title: Integrated English Language Course
Instructor: Ja Eun Kim (Vocabulary, Reading, Writing, Grammar)
Teaching Method: Co-teaching with a Native Speaking English teacher
(speaking & Pronunciation parts)
E-mail: gracelia@hanmail.net
Year/Semester: 2010/Winter
Grade Level: 9th grades in EFL
Proficiency Level: Intermediate
Class Meetings: Five times a week
Time: each session 45 minutes
Duration: 12 weeks
Standards
English language learners communicate for social, intercultural, and instructional purposes within the school setting.
At the 6-8 grade levels, English language learners face increased academic and social pressure to perform. In addition, at this level, there is a widening range of student performance.
Listening
Listening is an active skill. By highlighting an assortment of listening tasks across standards, the need to involve students in active listening and purposeful listening skills development becomes clear.
Speaking
English language learners engage in oral communication in a variety of situations for a variety of purposes and in a wide spectrum of settings. As part of oral communication, students are constantly using language in meaningful interaction with others.
Reading
English language learners process, interpret, and evaluate written language, symbols, and text with understanding and fluency. Learning to read in a second language may be enhanced or hindered by students’ level of literacy in their native language. Students who have a strong foundation in reading in their first language bring with them skills that can be readily transferred in the process of learning to read in English.
Writing
English language learners use written communication for a variety of purposes and audiences. Writing can be used to express meaning through drawing, symbols, or text. English language learners may come with writing styles influenced by their home cultures.
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Course Description
This course is designed for intermediate level of 9th graders, which includes reading, listening, speaking, writing, and grammar with cultural diversities. This course will assist students to build up their vocabulary through weekly vocabulary quiz and this will lead to improve their reading comprehension gradually. Also, the key expressions for speaking and grammar will be introduced on the first day of each week, so that students know what they need to remember for their upcoming exams. The speaking, pronunciation, and listening parts of this course will be provided with teaching team; a native speaking English teacher and the main instructor. Through this co-teaching, students will reinforce their speaking skills in a natural way. Since students are going to be assessed about their listening ability, the main instructor will also cover listening part as well. For this lesson, the content of listening will be related to the reading and speaking contents and this will help students understand the chapter easily. The goal for this course is to build up confidence and interest in English. By turning in their portfolios which contain their all completed worksheet, vocabulary quiz sheets, daily learning logs, and writing samples, students will witness their improvement slowly and at last they will leave the classroom with full of knowledge.
Course Outline by Topic
1. Cultural Understanding
2. What Good Is a Weed?
3. It’s Such a Pleasure for Me to Learn
4. Living in Space
5. Across Siberia to North America
6. The Little Prince
7. Are You Going to Help Me?
8. How MP3 Music Files Work
9. Ms. Wise, What Should I Do?
10. We’re All One.
11. Healthy Eating and Physical Fitness
12. More Than One Language
Course Goals
Goal 1: Students will develop their interest and confidence in English and enhance capacity for being able to communicate.
Goal 2: Students will be able to communicate related to daily lives and general topics.
Goal 3: Students will utilize the ability to understand about various information of foreign countries.
Goal 4: Students will have the proper hierarchy of values by understanding different cultures of foreign countries and recognizing Korean culture afresh.
Course Objectives
1. Students will understand the main ideas about a topic when listening.
2. Students will be cooperative with peers to improve communicative skills.
3. Students will enhance their pronunciation and intonation through a native speaking English teacher’s help.
4. Students will differenciate Korean culture from other foreign cultures.
5. Students will understand main ideas and supporting details when reading.
6. Students will enhance vocabulary skills through various contexts.
7. Students will be challenged to comprehend the main purpose of further intensive readings.
8. Students will apply their knowledge into real technological resources.
9. Students will understand main points of grammar from each chapter and apply their acquired knowledge into making sentences with their own words when writing.
10. Students will share their writings or researches and exchange feedback in class.
Course Requirements
1. Students are expected to be self-motivated, actively participants in the class.
2. Students should be fully responsible for given assignments and class activities.
3. Students must submit assignments by due dates on time.
(No late assignments will be accepted.)
4. Students are expected to respect other classmates and encourage each other to make an effective learning environment.
Required Text
Lee, B. M., Park, K. H., Han, J. K., Jung, J. H., & Stephen P. V. (2003). Middle School English 3. Seoul: Chun Jae Education.
Grading Policy
Daily learning log, Daily class participation, vocabulary quizzes, listening comprehension test, portfolio of all learning materials (e.g. worksheets, writing samples), and exams (mid-term and final) will distribute the evaluation over 12 sessions. No late assignments will be accepted.
Make up Work Policy
Students must be responsible for submitting assignments by the assigned due dates on time. If not, those students will receive a zero on the designated assignments. If a student has an excused situation such as illness, injury, medical appointment or bereavement, the student is responsible to inform the instructor. With the instructor’s approval, the student will receive 2 extra days to complete the missing assignments. If the work is still not turned in on time, the student will not receive a credit on his work.
Course Evaluation Plan
Course Calendar
(Please see the next page)
I also used this textbook last year when I was in charge of 3rd grade students. And I think this course is well-designed to enhance students all four skills. And the objectives are very clear and specific.
ReplyDeleteOh you did? Yes, I like this textbook. I believe this textbook is a little bit easier for advanced level students, but this is the best textbook for my intermediate students. The level of the book is challenging, but the students can succeed in achieving their goals and objectives.
ReplyDeleteYour goals are very similar to mine which to develop studnet's interest and confidnet in English. You desinded this course, with a native speaker's cooperation in speaking and listening to have students be confident and to enhance student's speaking and listening skills.
ReplyDeleteI designed my course with playwright and paly part to motivate student to have interest in English and being more confident in speaking.
Wow! You finally made a nice course design. As I read yours, I found many things in common with mine. I also covered teaching cultural differences among different countries and four skills in balance. Without cultural differences, we can’t fully understand English. In addition, you considered students’ interest much like me. Once students get interested in English, their English will improve rapidly in a natural way. I think that “interest” is the most powerful motivation. That’s why you and most teachers try to consider students’ interest in education.
ReplyDeleteThe most impressive part to me is that you make students’ own portfolios with using all their assignments such as vocabulary quiz sheets, daily learning logs, and writing samples. I didn’t think of it. Maybe next time when I make another course design, I will use your idea. Is it OK?
As always, your works are very aspiring. It is very detailed and covers a wide scope in teaching English. Looking at this and comparing it to my course design, I would say, I'd prefer this in any day. There so many activities here for the students like a daily learning log, a required daily participation, and, amazingly, a portfolio of all the learner's learning materials. I never thought of having that in my course design. But, having all of these in the course would really motivate the students to work hard on the course and at the same time have fun with it. Good job!
ReplyDelete