Inside King Sejong's Gate

Jacqualine Hollingworth

Inside King Sejong’s Gate: Our Time in Korea
Largely written by two children, Laura and Alex. It is the form of a diary and is printed with full colour photos. There are some good ideas on how to raise funds to finance a trip to Korea. The children experienced much on their trip around Korea: they had the opportunity to practice the language and made some delightful friends.

Both books suffered from a lack of a comprehensive bibliography and a glossary of terms would have been useful for students to refer to. The teacher escorting the children was a worry as her passport had not been upgraded but involvement in organising an overseas trip for children must have left time for little else! Well done Curriculum Corporation.

(These two books should be used together, if Inside King Sejong’s Gate is used on its own, the reader is left with the impression that many areas of study have been left unexplained.)
* Reproduced with permission

Published in AGORA (HTAV), 1999 pp56.

Reviewed by: accessED

Alex and Laura, two students whose experiences are faithfully and humorously recorded, write this report of a school trip to South Korea. Through their eyes we observe the Korean lifestyle and learn something of Korea's history. While the writing style is simple, reflecting the child authors, this is a beautifully presented and very informative resource. It would be very useful for 'Culture and identity' units in SOSE and for background material for LOTE studies. The book can be read independently or used in conjunction with 'Exploring Korea' in the same series. OZ
Rating: Highly Recommended OZ
Curriculum Areas: Studies of Society and Environment; Languages Other Than English (LOTE)
Descriptors: Korea - Study and teaching; Korea - Social life and customs; Children in Korea
Suitable for: Middle/Upper Primary
* Reproduced with permission

Published on Classroom Resource Reviews at http:/crr.qed.qld.gov.au/reviews

Julie Griffin, Inglewood PS

This student text relates to the teacher’s resource. Exploring Korea that is part of the Access Asia series. It tells the story of Laura and Alex and how they made contact with some Korean pen pals. When they visited South Korea on a student exchange, they kept a journal of events which presents a refreshing portrait of contemporary South Korea seen through fresh, young eyes. Inside King Sejong’s gate is a high quality presentation. Each page is bordered with a ‘KoreanEinfluence. Photographs with handwritten captions complement the journal format. This is an informative text, which can be used by students and teachers to focus on the many aspects of Korean society and culture. It is an excellent resource for LOTE teachers. Many student outcomes can be addressed across all learning areas. Laura and Alex’s writing style and layout of text and photographs greatly enhance the readability of the book. This is a useful text when examining similarities and differences between Western and Asian Cultures.
Highly Recommended
Themes/topics: Asia, South Korea, multicultural society
Related Learning Areas: Across all learning Areas, LOTE
Phases of Development: Middle Childhood
* Reproduced with permission

Published in: Primary Focus Non-Fiction 2000, Curriculum Materials Information Services-CMIS, Education

Department of Western Australia. p 93