EFL Classroom Halloween Culture Lesson Craft Activity and Display Part II

Earlier I wrote 3 posts about my Halloween culture lesson and my experiences decorating classrooms in Korea.  Here are the links . . .

Halloween Classroom Decorations — Looking back at 2005 and my first Halloween lesson in Korea

Shopping For Halloween Decorations at Lotte Mart, Seoul Station

Carving jack-o-lanterns with my co-teacher — Co-teaching . . . it ain’t just in the classroom.

The high school boys have been responding pretty positively to the Halloween culture lesson and craft activity.  We’ve been putting up the different vocabulary craft items they make in class.  Creative, imaginative, artsy type activities are NOT a common classroom language learning experience, let alone a common learner experience in other subjects as well, in South Korea.  This is an unfortunate side-effect of the exam/test-myopia that plagues the entire education system in Korea, and it severely impacts that teaching and learning styles that are practiced.  Fortunately for most native English teachers one of the positive aspects of our classes not being tested is that we have a lot more freedom to do things that are not in direct support of the extreme tests-are-the-only-thing-that-matters-therefore-we-only-do-test-related-things-in-class . . .

In this picture you can see the yarn spider web that the boys helped me put up and attach to the four ceiling fans.  At the front are the results of the craft activity with scissors and color paper.

Here’s a closer look . . . You can see the two jack o lanterns that my co-teacher and I carved this past Monday.

I strongly encourage the boys to be creative and let their imaginations loose while making the Halloween crafts.

As you can see in this picture, one of the boys added his own special details to a ghost . . . lol.

When I asked the boy who made this ghost to explain some of the details his response was, “Nike ghost.”  I have to wonder, however, about one particular aspect of this ghost in its lower regions . . . and I decided not to pursue the matter further . . . ignorance is bliss, ignorance is bliss . . . lol.

Overall I’ve been very happy with the success of my Halloween culture and craft activity lesson with the high school boys.  I’ve heard from a few other foreign teachers that work with boys that they had some resistance and lack of interest in the craft stage of their lessons . . . I’m happy to say that that hasn’t been the case so far over the course of Monday and Tuesday’s classes.

I can’t wait to see what else the boys come up with over the course of the week.  I’ll post pics of the more interesting and unique items that they produce.

J