Week 9 Homework

    There are many issues in English Education today. In Korea, one of the biggest issues is that the English section of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) will be evaluated on an absolute grading scale, commencing in 2018. Many people have argued the matter pro and con. We can't help but think about the issue, because this issue is directly related to us who would be teachers. To share opinions about the issue, the instructor decided to investigate (1) how many students agree with an absolute grading system of the CSAT and (2) what they think about the level of difficulty of the CSAT.

    In order to find out the students' opinions about absolute grading system and the level of difficulty of the CSAT, the instructor designed a 6 item survey. The survey asked that students preferences of evaluation. It also included 3 questions about arguments for and against absolute grading system, 2 questions about the level of difficulty. It was hypothesized that the students in the class would be evaluated through absolute evaluation and relative evaluation. The survey was administered during last class and 12 students responded.

Most students prefer absolute evaluation rather than relative evaluation, and over half of the respondents agree with an absolute evaluation for the following reasons. The reasons are that "Contrary to relative evaluation it is effective to graded as much as I tried." and "It may get rid of the burden such as English academy for school students." On the other hand, the rest of respondents disagree with an absolute evaluation. "Some students will get motivation from competing other people."is one of the reasons that people are disagreed about it. About 70 percent of students think that the difficulty level of CSAT is somewhat appropriate. On the contrary, about 30 percent of students think that the difficulty level is not appropriate, so they think that KICE have to adjust the difficulty level.    

   

    In conclusion, the survey revealed that many students agree with an absolute grading system and the difficulty level of CSAT. Therefore, KICE implements CSAT through absolute evaluation first. If the exam has something the matter, they need to compensate the defeat.

Week 6 Homework

“To a Daughter Leaving Home” is one of the literatures we learned in our ELT class. Most of the students chose this poem when asked If they have to choose one literature and teach students. According to three students’ blogs, they think that this poem is appropriate for high school students, and they choose this poem for some reasons.

Yenny Hwang indicates that the message of the poem is suitable for students. She says that the poem deals with the subject of a daughter’s independence from her parents. High school students are also passing this time becoming independent person from their parents, so students can understand parent’s mind through reading this poem (2015.09.29).  She also points out that this poem uses easy words and sentence structures. She writes, “To a Daughter Leaving Home uses easier words and sentence structures. Further, this uses a metaphor, it makes us think of the meaning in words and guess the willing of the poet through this poem” (Hwang, 2015.09.29).

According to Jisun Jang, she points out that the theme of the poem is familiar for students. The poem deals with Mother’s love, and this theme is familiar for the most people. Jang thinks that most people, including high school students, have experience in learning bicycle from their parents which is relate to this poem, so it is good for students’ understanding (2015.09.30). Jang also indicates that the poem may be well to understanding for high school students. She writes, “To a daughter leaving home’s composition is simple relatively but also interesting because poet’s time cross past and present and used words are also comparatively easy; wobble, pull away, sprint. Thus students may well understand this poet” (Jang, 2015.09.30).

Mijung Yoon feels that the poem deals with family love, and this topic is an easy topic. She writes, “Students can easily connect their own experiences to the poem. Also, reading about family love would be a break time to students who are sick and tired of hard studying” (Yoon, 2015.09.29). Yoon also points outs that the rhetorical expression of this poem is good. According to Yoon, the title of the poem implicates a present situation that a daugher is going to leave the parents, but the contents of the poem cover a story that the first time (2015.09.29). She writes, “The writer overlaps past and present within a single poem. It is interesting expression for students” (Yoon, 2015.09.29).

In short, three bloggers chose “To a Daughter Leaving Home” for high school students.  Because the poem deals with familiar theme using easy expressions, and the poem has good rhetorical expression.

References:

Hwang, Yenny  (2015.09.29) “week 5 homework” [Web Log Post] Retrieved from http://yennyhwang.blogspot.kr/.

Jang, Jisun (2015.09.30) “To a Daughter Leaving Home” [Web Log Post] Retrieved from http://blog.naver.com/ekdzhd1120/.

Yoon, Mijung (2015.09.29) “Let's read the poem / / To a Daughter Leaving Home” [Web Log Post] Retrieved from http://mimimimijung.blogspot.kr/.