Korea Summer Writing Camp

Hyehwa at night

25.7.10

Wake

Breakfast

Old and Modern Korea walk

Jongjuk stop

Bosingak bell

River walk: Cheongye stream

Lunch

Cheongye Stream

Dongdaemon Market

Back to NIIED

Dinner

My fellow Teacher Consultants at Cheongye Stream: Page, Evan & Gillian.

Summer Writing Camp in Korea.

When I got an email from Carol, in April to see if I wanted to teach writing in Korea, I was intrigued. Having had a difficult school year, maybe this experience might affirm my abilities as a competent teacher. After some consulting and some thought, I decided to say yes.

Grace, a Korean businesswoman, spearheaded the writing camp, an opportunity for Korean children to experience schooling from US teachers. She contracted BAWP, Bay Area Writing Project, which is located in UC Berkeley to provide experienced teachers. Initially, it would be four teachers: Mary and Rod, who taught the previous summer, and Evan and myself. Since the number of interested students kept growing the cohort of teachers grew to six; we added Gillian and Page.

Preparation of the course was challenging as I gathered lessons and materials (books) that would be appropriate for instruction within a two-week window for students did not know in a culture I did not know. I gathered lessons that had worked with English Language Learners (Latinos) and mentor books that would demonstrate English writing.

We stayed in NIIED (National Institute for International Education), a university that provides educational opportunities for Koreans to study abroad and international students to study in Korea. The place of a few buildings was rented for the summer writing camp. We stayed dorms of one building. They were simple rooms with their own bathroom and shower. I also taught in the same building on the 5^th floor, which made it easy to prep my instructional day and gave quick access to lunch in the “restaurant,” also on the 5^th floor.

We were supported by Korean teachers who were on summer break, who saw this as an opportunity to learn about US teaching styles, and by teacher assistants, who helped supervise the children and stayed in the dorms on the second floor. My teacher assistants were pivotal to me as I had a few students who spoke no English. I expected that the students wrote in English, but how could they, if they did not even know the English alphabet. The teacher assistants became a liaison to help my students understand the activities in Korean and then they were provided scaffolded sentences in English. For example, the children could say their story in Korean and the teacher assistant would translate it into a simple English sentence on a piece of paper which the student would copy and later read. Eventually I designed my lessons to the needs of the students I had. The morning sessions were around a writing content or craft and the afternoon sessions provided language frames on which the students could write their stories.

© Hector Lee, 2010