An Understanding of Opposites

As an English teacher here in Korea, one of the most frustrating parts for me has been to get kids to be creative or expressive with their work.  Students almost always copy what is in front of them on the powerpoint and this is especially true with anything artwork required.  At times, I have my students make their own vocabulary cards.  After we have learned the new vocabulary I have them write the words on different sections of a paper and ask them to draw pictures to demonstrate the word.  Mostly the students will copy the picture that was used on the powerpoint to teach them the word.  The same is true when we make mini-books.  I have my students make mini-books often and get frustrated with the same pictures used over and over in the books.  I want to see that they know and understand the words and not that they can copy what is in front of them.

For camp this year, I finally got some creativity students and loved it!  For my third and fourth graders we learned the book Fred and Ted Like to Fly.  This book is filled with opposites.  During our last class session for this book, we made a mini-book.  They had a worksheet with nine pairs of opposites that they had completed earlier in the week.  So for their mini-book I had them choose six pairs and then draw pictures for them.  Since I didn't have to put the words on the screen and because all students could have different books based on the which pairs they chose I didn't have many students ask to see the pictures that were used in the powerpoint.  The fourth graders did fine but most of them were very rushed and basic pictures.  But my third graders work blew me away.  I was so proud of their work and their demonstration of understanding of the words that we used.  I took pictures of almost every students complete book.  I won't share all the pictures but do want to share some of my favorites.

Check out my awesome students diligently working on their Opposite Books.  I really enjoyed working with these kids. 

All Korean translations are the students.  I did not put any translation on the powerpoint and almost all words were explained through pictures and actions.  

I love that this kid took the initiative to create pictures for his cover and chose pictures that were opposites but were not opposites that we talked about in class.  He also wasn't exactly sure of "the end" but knew something similar was used.  He originally wrote "and" but knew it was wrong.  I went back a few minutes after telling him how to spell "the end" and he was asking me how to spell "start."

I was actually not looking forward to the mini-book activity before I started the class.  I feel like I do them a lot and the students don't really enjoy them.  That all changed with my 3rd graders and their great attitudes and fantastic work.  Just another blessing from my time teaching English here in Korea.