High School - Superstitions

[incognito84]

Superstitions have been coming up a lot in the textbook and in class. We've been covering Western culture for the past two weeks and this is a good way to end it.

I decided to use superstitions as a way to wrap up before exams. Its supposed to be a light class with a mild, word search worksheet at the end. It might be a bit difficult for the low level classes. I just try to explain every slide clearly for them so they get the vocabulary. For the higher level classes, I talk more about the history of each superstition.

I need some suggestions to spice it up. If you know any good videos, games or simply have a suggestion just let me know.

I got the powerpoint from this guy but when I changed it dramatically (95% or so) so it would be accessible to lower level students.

As a side note, tread lightly on the Fan Death thing. I thought that Koreans thought it was a superstition but apparently most of my students think its a scientific fact. I had already made fun of it a bunch and done an impression of me choking to death before I realized this, haha.

[workinginkorea]

Looks great!  This is what I made for my middle school classes two weeks ago, but it could easily be used for some higher levels as well. 

My presentation is OK, but I'm not too proud of the attached worksheet. Maybe you can use it for ideas.  To others who come across this: I wouldn't recommend using the entire PowerPoint as is. Instead, incorporate some aspects for ideas into your own presentation.  Unlike you, I focused almost exclusively on the bad luck beliefs surrounding Friday the 13th. 

Ditto on the fan death.  My co-teacher (as well as a Korean friend) strongly corrected me the first time I presented it, stating it was fact ("Many people have died!  Experts have proven it!").  As a precaution in the classes following that, I've only brought up one or two Korean superstitions and had the class give me others. 

[bleakronnie]

Looks good.
btw fan death is a scientific fact. You COULD die if you slept in a air tight room with the fan or air-conditioning on for a long time. That's not to say you definitely will if you leave it on one night.

[incognito84]

Looks good.
btw fan death is a scientific fact. You COULD die if you slept in a air tight room with the fan or air-conditioning on for a long time. That's not to say you definitely will if you leave it on one night.

No such thing as a perfect vacuum on Earth, though, especially not in a common apartment with tonnes of cracks/holes letting in air from the outside regardless of how sealed it is.

That and a fan doesn't "suck" air out of a room. It just moves it around. An airconditioner replaces warm air with cold air.

My opinion, anyway!

[adam]

I have spent many hundreds of nights sleeping in a room with a fan on all night. In China many millions of people do so and I have not heard of any deaths there. I think the Chinese would have noticed this "fact". The danger in Korea is mad drivers not fans!

Mark

[adam]

Just thought you COULD die if you had a fan in the room all night and never turn it on! Maybe non working fans are also dangerous:)

[Dyl]

Please keep replies on topic.

[laserprinter]

I tried this on my high school students, they were lower level.  Maybe 5-10 students were able to maintain attention and had some idea of what I was talking about.  Even then they didn't know how to express Korean superstitions in English.

I could make it work with an overhaul.

[luke]

I'm sure it's been done before, but this is my attempt.

If you use it, let me know how well it works!

Thanks

Luke

[ThuyKha]

This is such a wonderful and fun idea! I am actually planning on using this in two weeks after midterms are done. Thank you so much for the great ideas and well organized materials! I'll definitely report back and let you know how it went!

[knim61]

Thanks so much for this!
I used it in my teachers class and they were blown away!  Really got them talking!

[younameit]

Solid, good idea.

[lion11]

i brought this subject up with some of my co-teachers a while back and they weren't too happy about it.  Just fair warning, some koreans don't take kindly to "facts" being called superstitions.

[luke]

i brought this subject up with some of my co-teachers a while back and they weren't too happy about it.  Just fair warning, some koreans don't take kindly to "facts" being called superstitions.

It was the same with me on the fan death thing.

I told them I'd slept in a room, windows closed and fan on and lived...

They argued a bit, but in a fun way!

[mavie97]

  It's a very good topic! Thank you for sharing this!

[Koradian]

Brilliant idea. Thank you! I plan on introducing this next week to my 2nd graders.

[suzettec]

This is great!  On the fan death superstition... ummm I mean fact... I tell my Korean friends that Westerners are immune to fan death.

[dan2464]

I made a lesson to teach my students If/Then scenarios, but with superstitions.  It is for extremely low level students.  I gave this lesson to some friends and realized afterward that most of the scenarios are centered around good luck and bad luck.  Apologies for that.

[Munwon]

Great topic! It was very sucessful for my afterschool class. I might even try it for regular classes next week.

[mxyu]

Thanks! This worked pretty well with my class. The only problem I had was that a lot of the things I said were superstitions, they didn't agree with.