Sapporo Orientation 2013 Milly Cheung/ Ozora ALT 2011- present

C3: Team Teaching and Classroom Lesson Success (ES)

1) Assistance in classes taught by Japanese foreign language teachers in JHS and HS

2) Assistance in foreign language conversion training, etc. at elementary schools

3) Assistance in preparation of materials for teaching a foreign language

4) Assistance in language training of Japanese teachers of foreign language, etc

5) Assistance in the instruction of clubs

6) Provision of information on language and other related subjects for people such as teachers’ Consultants and

Japanese teachers of foreign language (e.g. word usage, pronunciation, etc)

7) Assistance in foreign language speech contests

8) Engagement in local international exchange activities

9) Other duties as specified by the contracting organization

Probably the best resource to get you started:

http://www.jetprogramme.org/documents/pubs/materials_collection/4english_in_elementary_school.pdf

I. My Situation (ESID)

For ES days: 4 to 6 classes a day taught with an ES JTE (unique situation), usually ALT’s will teach with Japanese

HRT’s

“Hi, Friends” 1 & 2 plus other self-made lesson plans based on textbook; mandatory 35 hrs/ year for Grades 5 & 6

Topics from Hi, Friends 1 & 2:

Warm-up greetings in the beginning of class:

- Good Morning/ Afternoon, Everyone

- How are you? (Please ask me)

- How’s the weather today?

- What day is it today?

- What’s the date today?

- What time is it now?

II. Communication and Planning

Step 1: Find out what communication system was in place with your predecessor.

- Find out how often they met and how they communicated (via fax, email or in person)? If POSSIBLE, meeting in

person is ALWAYS the best way to go. If you are a visiting ALT to ES, try to prepare as MUCH as you can BEFORE going

to meet the HRT or ES foreign language tantou. This way, they see your effort and it may make lesson planning a lot

easier and faster. Remember: its TEAM- TEACHING, talk to the HRT as much as you can. Even if it means meeting with

them after school/ work hours and/or break/lunch time; this is be A LOT less stressful during the actual class.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

AM MMB ES HM JHS HM SH MMB JHS MMB JHS

PM MMB ES HM ES HM SH TY ES MMB JHS

Hi Friends 1 Hi Friends 2

1. Hello! 2. I’m Happy 3. How Many? 4. I like Apples 5. What do you like? 6. What do you want? 7. What’s this? 8. I study Japanese 9. What would you like?

1. Do you have “a”? 2. What is your birthday? 3. I can swim 4. Turn right 5. Let’s go to Italy 6. What time do you get up? 7. We are good friends 8. What do you want to be?

ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) 外国語指導助手 がいこくごしどうじょしゅ gai koku go shi dou jo shu

Sapporo Orientation 2013 Milly Cheung/ Ozora ALT 2011- present Step 2: Find out their expectations. What were your predecessor’s responsibilities?

- Make sure you ask your pred. or HRT/tantou. A lot of the times, ALT go into the job not knowing what is expected of

them and stress about work that is not expected from them. Make sure you share responsibilities with the HRT.

Step 3: What is the curriculum? Discuss your self-introduction lesson. How many classes per day/week?

- Are classes scheduled while you are away from school? Make sure you know your students’ progress if you miss a

class. Prepare a short quiz for your self-introduction, smaller kids love quizzes; multiple choice may be good for older

grades because they tend to be more self-conscious and timid when answering questions in front of the class. Making

teams is also a great way to start your self-intro.

Step 4: Discuss goals. What is the overall aim for the year? What are some of your goals?

- Will you teach directly from the textbooks, or include your own lessons? Ask HRT if they want you to include more

culture aspects into your lessons throughout the year, eg. Holiday lessons, cultural differences

- Your HRT may ask you to stick strictly to the textbook because they may be afraid to try new lesson plans. Have

patience and approach them with well-thought out and written plans.

☆ Homeroom Teacher (HRT) – More English training, difficult activities, not sure how to team-teach, feel they are pressured

to teach English and make the curriculum, feedback from the ALT (who sees student progress in JHS as well), how to prepare

students for JHS.

III. The Curriculum

With 35 hours of foreign language and culture education becoming mandatory for 5th and 6th grade, all schools should

have some form of written curriculum. As of 2011, all schools in Japan are also required to teach foreign language

classes even at grade 1 level. Classes could range from school to school, so make sure you talk to your ES foreign

language tantou or the Kyoto-sensei, and ask for a copy of the curriculum it should contain enough English so that you

can easily understand what you are expected to teach for a particular lesson.

IV. Class Content planning

The main point of English education in ES is basic oral communication before introducing writing and grammar, to learn

not by memorization but by listening and using the language. However, classes are not just meant to focus on English,

but internationalization. There are many ways to us the ALT to incorporate foreign cultures into the classroom and into

English teaching as well. Especially at the elementary level, demonstrating to the students how English reaches across

all school subjects will help them start connecting English to other things they are learning.

☆ Points HRTs and ALTs should be sure to discuss are: teaching the alphabet, phonics, writing, and reading. Schools’

expectations on these topics can vary.

V. Lesson Plans:

Set Goals (objective): write down what you expect the students to achieve by the end of a lesson, and how you intend

to make that possible. The more detailed the better but try to stick to one aspect of a unit at a time. E.g. teach

reading and writing on separate days

Written lesson plans: Keep things simple. ALWAYS refer to it during a lesson. Structure it and maintain the same

structure. Give a copy to your HRT/ tantou, (especially if you guys plan the lesson together). Write down anticipated

time frame for each margin, so you don’t run out of time or have 20 mins free at the end of class.

o KEEP IT FLEXIBLE and OPEN TO ADAPATIONS

o Write down all needed materials and aids

o Think of anticipated problems that could arise in class: write down possible solutions

Sapporo Orientation 2013 Milly Cheung/ Ozora ALT 2011- present Different age groups: Ask your HRT what level the students are at. It is better to make lesson plans easier than harder

from the beginning. You can always tailor your lesson during class if you find the students have got it down! 1st and

2nd graders like to move, 3rd and 4th graders like to talk, and 5th and 6th graders like to think.

Evaluate Success (振り返りカード): Have students write down what they learned after each lesson/unit, what was

helpful and what was hard, etc. This will be really useful when planning your next lesson/unit.

o Try to speak to your HRT about how the lesson went right after class, or at the end of the day. This will

help build communication and effectiveness in the long run

VI. Game Ideas and Topic Suggestions:

Greetings Weather Family Ordinal #’s (1st, 2nd, etc) Directions Alphabet Places Emotions

Insects Stationary Directions Body Parts Time Countries Transportation Birthday

Animals Food Clothes Shopping Classroom objects Fruits Numbers Can/ can’t, do/ don’t

… Talk about your own country!!

- Holidays - Food - Differences and

similarities!

1. Key Word Game (listening and speaking practice)

- ALT puts the target vocabulary flashcards on the blackboard

Sapporo Orientation 2013 Milly Cheung/ Ozora ALT 2011- present - Students form pairs, with 1 eraser (or some other small object) between them - ALT decides what the key word is for that round - ALT says vocabulary words in a random order, and students repeat after the ALT and clap their hands twice - When the ALT says the key word, instead of repeating, the students try to grab the eraser - The student who grabs the eraser first wins!

2. Bang Bang game (speaking practice)

- Students are divided into teams

- One person from each team faces each other

- The ALT holds up a vocabulary card

- The first student to say that vocab word and say “bang bang” wins a point for their team 3. Go to game (listening practice)

- ALT (HRT) puts 4 key words on four sides of the classroom walls

- Check and make sure students know these key words before you start the game

- Stand in the middle of the classroom with your eyes closed and count down from “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, STOP”

- Ask students to go to a key word of their choice, between the count down

- Choose one key word and yell it out before you open your eyes after STOP

- Students who are standing at that key word are out

- Continue game until 4 or 5 students are left in the game

4. Touch the Base game (listening, speaking practice) – students go crazy for this one!!!

- Split class into an even number of teams, usually 4 if your class has 20 – 25 students

- Line 2 sets of cards on the blackboard starting from the sides and meeting in the middle

WALL WINDOW CHAIR DOOR DESK ERASER DESK DOOR CHAIR WINDOW WALL

- Team starts at either side of the blackboard, and walks towards the center while touching and saying each word

- When the 2 students meet, they play jyankan.

o Winner continues to the other side of the blackboard. Losers lines up at the back of their team

- Continue game until student from one side reaches the other. Award points to that team

o Variations: team with most points within set time wins or fastest team to reach the other side wins

5. Adding Janken (speaking practice; good 0-prep activity)

- Review numbers 0-10; Students make pairs - Students janken normally, but instead of putting out a rock, paper, or scissors, they put out any number of fingers (0-5

if using one hand: 0-10 if using 2 hands) - The first person to add up the sum of their hands (theirs and their opponent's) and say it out loud wins!

6. Information Relay (Telephone) (listening and speaking)

- Divide into teams and have them stand in line behind each other.

- First person whispers key word to the next person and so on until it reaches the person in the back. The last person

then races to the front and grabs the key word card from a batch of words from the unit

- Student then shows the card to the HRT / ALT and says the key word

- Fastest person gets a point

- If they make a mistake, simply say “no” and ask them to pick up the correct word.

Sapporo Orientation 2013 Milly Cheung/ Ozora ALT 2011- present 7. Other game ideas:

Survival Game Fruits Basket What’s missing? Count 3 Game Clap clap chant Karuta

Bingo What time is it, Mr. Wolf? Relay game Hot potato Simon Says Ladder game

VII. Extras Ideas

- Make English board/ posters: e.g. weather, time, date, months

- Ask HRT to participate during class and use lots of demonstrations: lets students know that making mistakes are okay

o They should ALWAYS be up front and centre with you, remember: you are only the language assistant!

- Play well known Japanese games in English: e.g. karuta, jyankan (rock, paper, scissors)

- Make name tags!! This will be helpful in the long run

- Start an “English Passport” and give points to students who talk to you during lunch break/recess

o I started doing this in April, the kids approach me more at school, and it can boost their confidence while

having fun English conversations outside of class, especially the younger grades (1 & 2) who only have English

about once a month. Give them small prizes at the end, or if teachers don’t want to give prizes, you can give

them a “completion certificate”. Kids love to compete against each other, and receiving any kind of reward.

VIII. Useful links:

http://genkienglish.net/eigonote.htm

http://www.altastic.com/

http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/?Games

http://www.funenglishgames.com/activities.html

http://www.englishclub.com/esl-games/

http://www.mes-english.com/games.php

http://akitajet.com/wiki/Hi,_friends

http://www.jhsenglipediaproject.com/Pages/ES.aspx

http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/kokusai/gaikokugo/1314837.htm (Japanese)

http://www.tokyo-shoseki.co.jp/hi_friends/friends.html (Japanese - Hi, Friends)

http://www.eigonoteblog.com/ (old textbook, still have useful links and lesson plans)