Korean flag lesson plan

[capebretonbarbarian]

I noticed my students have difficulty talking about the Korean flag in English.  So, I created this lesson. 

[AlexMokpo]

So I was looking for a lesson for this weekend... this looks good, except that I'm not completely sure what your goals of introduction are?  Could elaborate a bit?  Just...  What you point out, how long the presentation lasts, how interactive is it meant to be (or just a lecture-style lesson...do they KNOW the Korean flag and just can't explain in English or do they honestly not know?), etc

[capebretonbarbarian]

Actually this is something I threw together for Winter Camps so I haven't taught the lesson yet.  I just put it out there for anyone who wanted to use it, to take their own approach on it.
My students all know about the flag, maybe not everything, but they have difficulty describing it in English.  My goal was that they would be able to do so after the lesson.
The  Korean flag came up one day in class and the students couldn't tell me anything about the flag beside the colors in English, so my co-teacher and I thought it might make a good lesson. 
I think the whole lesson, powerpoint, worksheet with questions and creating their own flag activity could be done in about 1 hour with an extra class.  (Some students may take a while drawing their own flag)  I do my winter camps in 1 hour classes then a break.
However the time line is very flexible, you don't have to do the worksheet, now its probably a 45 minute class. 
As for how interactive, I would try to make it as interactive as possible.  Before showing each slide on the powepoint, ask them a question first, example, what does the white background represent?  and after showing the slide discuss everything on there.  There is a lot of new vocab and between the class they should be able to discuss it with your direction. 
I don't know if I answered all your questions, but like I said, this is something prepared for the future. I haven't sat down and planned the class minute by minute.  So, feel free to use it in anyway that suits your style and class time.           

[nicola]

I used this lesson for grade 3 middle school girls and found that it worked particularly well and made me feel like a good teacher (which is of primary importance, thanks capebretonbarbarian:).

As way of introduction I usually try and make the kids laugh with something silly, then recap the previous lesson, then I just put on the powerpoint and said, 'what is it???'.

I LOVED the powerpoint and the way it lead students through what the flag means...and my teachers were also interested because while at some time they had known what it meant, they had forgotten...

It's a nice lesson to use if kids have been a bit unfocused and not forthcoming with their own suggestions of answers (i.e a quiet class) because it can be very 'read', 'listen' and 'repeat' and fill out the form. If kids were too disruptive I didn't bother with the 'draw it yourself', instead i would focus on them talking about other things that are korean. Lana has a great 'Koreana' lesson which I think is up on waygook.orgb (I'll put it up if it's not as she is now out of the country)...these two lessons go very well together.

 

[wattawoman]

I was also told all things on the flag, the taeguk, the trigams all represent balance and harmony.  The trigams are water, fire and heaven, earth.  Each of these things being opposite, balance each other.

[lisadream]

I used this lesson this week with Level 1 High School girls and it worked really well. The students were interested in learning how to explain Taegeukgi in English, and the low level students could sort of back translate because they all know the meanings in Korean already. I worked through the various slides and at the end of each would have the class repeat a simple English sentence. Usually I ended up with something like:
The name of the Korean Flag is Taegeukgi.
There are four Trigrams.
The trigrams respresent Elements/Seasons/Directions/Qualities of the Korean People.
The Taegeuk means harmony and balance.
Red is positive.
Blue is Negative.
White is peace.

At the end I usually have 10 -15 minutes to have the students create their own flag and I walk around the class discussing with students what their flags mean (my favourite part personally). Just wanted to give it a bump!

[Brian]

A little modification . . .

The printer at my school is weak so when I printed the worksheet the taegeuk and the trigrams weren't very clear, so it looked more like a Japanese flag.  That would have been . . . interesting.  So instead I deleted the flag, stuck a blank rectangle there, temporarily took the flag off the wall, and had the students try and draw the flag from memory.  Interesting activity to see if they remember what trigrams go where, and also a good warm-up.   Then we check their answers by looking at the flag again, and then they have to explain to me how to draw it on the board (draw a circle in the middle, draw a wave, draw sticks in the corners, etc.) before getting into the powerpoint.

[capebretonbarbarian]

I like the modification.  My guess is that most of the students could not remember the trigrams properly.  Two weeks ago, I saw someone ask a Korean history teacher how to draw the Korean flag and he had to look at an actual picture to get it right. 

[TexasChicken]

I tried this lesson, and I added a video to the end of it. Its a B-Boy battle in Panmujeon on the Border of North and South Korea. Check it out the kids liked it for the most part. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCxdku8sx-A

[landry]

Thanks for posting this. I made some modifications to both the ppt and the worksheet, will post it here in case anyone wants to have a look... Went over great this week with my middle school boys.

[flips]

i am going to use this lesson for 1st year middle school students. i simplified the vocabulary in the powerpoint, and created a vocabulary sheet for the students. i plan to read each slide, then have the students repeat. then i will go back and ask the question, prompting them to read the answer out loud. we shall see how it goes.

[KoreGuney]

here is a worksheet about the korean flag...yesterday i've posted it under the multi-level...i think it's better suited for middle school....

[min1178]

looks great! so helpful and easy to use and also meaningful.

thx guys

[chadteacher]

I think I'll be using this for my after school class, or maybe for all my high school/middle school classes.  Who knows, it might be interesting to include something about the flag of the U.S (or your home country).  Sure, it may not be as interesting as the Taegeuki, but it's at least teaching them something about where you're from.

[marv3n]

I had a lesson on flags last semester during the World Cup. I had my high school kids randomly pick out countries (only the ones representing the World Cup) from a hat and they had to research on the internet, draw the flag and color it and present on what the colors and symbols mean, and they have to present something about the country's culture. I teach low level high school students and although my Korean co-teachers complained at first that it seemed too hard, they were surprised at how interested and engaged the students were. And it turned out to be a fun class. Maybe the World Cup craze had something to do with it.

And now I get to my point, I excluded South Korea from the hat because it was the flag I used as an example. I had them explain to me in English (with the co-teacher translating some of it, of course) what the colors and symbols on the Korean flag meant. And most of them didn't know. They said they learned about it before but don't really remember anymore. Even the Korean co-teachers didn't know what it meant. I think it's a good lesson but just be aware that there are times where you'll just get blank stares if you ask them to explain their flag in English. It got me thinking, imagine if I forgot what the stars and stripes of the US flag meant.

[andyfoggy]

I noticed my students have difficulty talking about the Korean flag in English.  So, I created this lesson.

thanks for posting this.
This lesson was really good, I added some extra stuff to it to keep my 3rd years interested and to give them some ideas on what they could put on their flag.
It lasted the full 45 mins and in fact could have run for another 10 if I needed it to.
will try it with my 2nd years next week too.

[kyoungdo]

I think this is actually an interesting topic. Its important for people to explain their culture and identity to others. This is an excellent example of fixing that problem. I will definitely use this lesson in the future.

[dvddeen]

Very nice lesson. Some teacher at my school used it for a camp and claimed to have come up with it completely on his own.  Now I know where it really came from.

[daveb]

Nice lesson. I've slightly adapted 2 of the PPTs posted here. I also added Korean translation for the words justice, wisdom, courtesy and virtue. Most of my MS kids didn't know these words.