Golden Bell is a very popular game here in Korea. It's a big quiz game with the last man standing theme. the students sit in rows with enough space on each side to curb any cheating. They all must listen to questions and quietly write the answers in short answer form. They are written in dry erase marker on mini white boards. So why do they use NETs for this? To test the students listening ability of course...in theory.
First, you are to read the entire riddle clearly.
Then read off the answers A-D.
The students usually will have 30 secs or less to answer.
After you count to three, all students must raise their boards above their heads with the answer facing you.
You (and faculty) must check that they wrote the correct answer including spelling.
Give a few seconds for them to erase the boards and continue.
Any students that write the wrong answer are automatically out. Sometimes if too many students are "out" too fast, there will be a chance round. You do the question process and if the "out" students get it right, they can come back "in".
Hilariously at YCE, the students were basically all out after five or six questions. We did a chance round and most were let back in. Luckily, they did much better after that. In that school, many students were out simply because they chose the wrong answer. I was a bit sad because the questions were all up on a powerpoint behind me. In the end, we were able to choose a top three with one of them being from the fifth grade and the other two from the sixth.
I could see my coteacher was nervous and even scared when all the kids were basically out. The principal had come by to see the show and ended up leaving soon after. I felt bad too because I didn't want our Golden Bell to be a Dusty Cracked Bronze Bell. Nevertheless, if you insist on teaching without speaking English and demanding creativity, this is the result.
At SPE, the game was fairly rigged. Everyone studied the exact questions that I was to read for a full week and a half. It was terribly boring and most kids studied so much that they knew what the answers were by the time I read the second hint. The only reason students got out was because they missed the spelling due to letters like "r" "l" "d" "b", etc. Oh well. In the end they decided to give a first through third prize to both fifth and sixth grade. Tomorrow we'll be doing third and fourth with the same riddles.
Koreans have such high test scores and everyone loves to praise how they are doing so great! After getting here, I must say I'm pretty disappointed and skeptical of the results of their exams. Please know that most of this is based on my class (English) but I definitely make it a point to try and see what the kids do in their other subjects as well. I want to discipline or reward in the same manner. I strive to teach with the same amount of expectation and diligence! I want to prep for exams in the same manner...well, kind of.
Here's the thing. Students are in lecture style classes for the majority of the class time all year long. When test time does roll around they are then given around 10 questions that will possibly be on the test. Usually, the easiest of the questions are picked to be on the real final. Students get this paper at least one week in advance of the test. You're thinking this is the same as the review paper in grade school huh? Maybe, but I don't remember the point of the review sheet being to memorize the questions with their correct answers.
Tests here equal memorization skill, which predictably go no where when you need a job done. I had dreams of writing my own short answer tests and watching kids either pass or fail and then gauging what I should do better on as a teacher for the next go 'round. Not possible when all is allowed to be memorized.
Oh well. I did have the pleasure of acting as overseer for exams! The students receive the test paper first printed on a newspaper like material. There are 25 questions total. The students can make any markings they want on this paper, and I do mean any. I saw pictures being drawn, scribbles, etc. Anywho, the scantron consists of 50 lines of A,B,C,D bubbles with 10 blanks for "fill in the blank" questions and on the back 8 blanks for sentences or essay styled questions. I'm not supposed to do anything but multiple choice questions. The other styles are prepared by the coTeacher to focus on writing and grammar.
They seemed to have half of the class time for just using the test paper and then were given the scantron for the second half. I have to admit there were some students that were working so hard and I was proud of them. A little hurt since this was the music class exam, but people don't excel at everything right? I also saw a few expected kids just fill in A for each question; never looking back. I was more hurt because the two in question have worked hard in my class this year and yet I could feel that they'd done the same on my exam. If they had to do an interview, they'd pass with a solid C. If they put effort into my exam, they could pull a high B at least. I hope one day they realize their potential...hopefully that day is in their first year of high school a.k.a. next year.
Is it this way because I'm in the countryside? I don't think so. According to a few city folks, things don't get much better except maybe the overall GPA.
