As Subject Head for English at my school, I am responsible for acquiring resources for our department, specifically literature that has been prescribed by the Ministry of Education as appropriate for Grade 11 and 12. A new list came out today featuring the poetry and dramatic works that are recommended this school year. I was a little surprised to see that King Lear was on the list. Remember that this is English as a Second Language. Although I like Shakespeare, I am certain that many of my students would not even recognize it as English, let alone understand any deeper meaning. I have a simplified version of Hamlet that I'm considering trying in the last term but Chloe and I are both planning to do "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" first.
Also, the first term finishes this week and exam period begins. We are one third through the school year. However, we are still short an English teacher. That means that two grade 10 and two grade 11 classes have had no English teacher so far this year. I started teaching some of the Grade 11s during my spare blocks but they've missed weeks of instruction. That doesn't mean they are excused from the exam, though. They will still write them. No one has said who will be marking the extra 160 papers but I've got a bad feeling that I already know the answer to that question.
My class was also interrupted today by a small posse of science teachers who wanted me to pronounce the word "buoyancy".
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Hahaha... oh, that's great. I'm glad to know that there's such importance placed on Shakespeare not only in Korea, but in Namibia as well. If you do happen to do some Shakespeare, and have the kids read it aloud in class, would you mind taking a video? I'd like to compare and contrast with the Korean experience...
Lear is overrated anyway. Give them some Othello, forsooth.
What does Joanne think of ROK?
Post a Comment