Blended provision for our students - announcement

With the re-closure of schools in Nagano prefecture, and the increasing nervousness of some of our students and parents (as well as us!) we have decided to do two things as of Monday, April 13th:

1. Continue to teach small classes in the school with even more enhanced care over disinfecting surfaces, sanitising visitors'/teachers'/students' hands on entry/departure etc, and making sure students are seated as far apart as we can manage without being 'weird'! We are avoiding activities which require students to share things, and encouraging YLs to wear masks (prevent fingers going in places more than bugs!). We are obviously asking anyone who has a temperature or who is feeling unwell to avoid coming to the school.
2. Offer students who are concerned about using public transport, or who not keen to be here in a group, the opportunity to join their class in real time via Zoom. We are all new at this, but we can all try and learn something new together :) We will also record the lessons and share them within our class members on Edmodo (an LMS we have been using for years but has hitherto been very under exploited). We will continue to do this for as long as needs be.

We will be making an effort to also share with students and parents more than ever, additional resources/ideas/apps/activities withing Edmodo. Any one can join that 'class ' but you do need to join. It's free :)  Join here >> https://edmo.do/j/fgcrjx

Matsumoto Castle - not recent!

As ever we will do our best to keep you up to date - check your Edmodo class regularly please?

We will continue to share via our Facebook page - click here

Of course we will also be answering the phone! 0263-34-4481 & talk to Rinka, Emi, Yukari, Yuka or Eri.

We can also look after students who want to 'observe' a lesson (but don't want to physically come!), or even students not in our neighbourhood. Tell us which level/age, and we'll put you with a suitable group as a guest.

We are looking forward to making sure our students can continue to get the best English language education we can provide...just going to have to do it a bit differently for a while. Don't panic!

Jim

Selfies & personal intros - digital/analog blending

Our digital natives could compose their selfies, add filters, bling themselves up and save their work in next to no time (teaching each other quick tips & offering fashion advice!) using the iOS app "Snow".
The actual writing task took longer, thinking about personal info that we can express as we start our new text book (OUP's Everybody Up 3).

Love this class - motoring along in the fast lane with the roof down. Super cool, obviously cute, and inspiring the teacher to try even better ways to prove they Can Do!

Learning first letter sounds with Quizlet - on the desk, tablet, phone, online, offline, in bed....and now with your teacher's voice!

Yesterday afternoon, I spent most of the afternoon in between my kindy classes and my evening job, whipping together a series of flashcard sets for our new kindy+ class on Saturday afternoons. I did start this job on Monday, with a whole day ahead of me to scan, get creative, add audio etc...blog post coming very soon (more a rant, really) explaining why that did not go to plan! It took me an extra 24 hours to finish the job I thought would be finished by Monday lunchtime...

Quizlet, people, Quizlet. I love Quizlet. Last week I noticed I had made 666 sets of flashcards. That is a lot, but I was actually worried about the number - especially as we have recently hired Damian as well! He's fine by the way...I checked - he thinks the ceilings are leaking, but it's actually Holy Water!

Anyway, exciting new class on Saturdays needed a bunch of online support from us, especially as mums are iPhone savvy and keen to boost learning and language exposure outside of class. Each unit is now supported with a dedicated set of flashcards (our own audio being added this week, a big improvement on the computer generated default setting previously), and a number of extra sets with built in variety/increased challenges. Of course we use actual flashcards in class - and how! - and the children have their own sets...but who to play with at home?!

Here is a sample of a larger set, asking learners to match a group of images to a letter of the alphabet which has their first/initial sound in common. Easier to do than explain - take a look, have a try!



What do you think?  Here is the link to the other 'sets' in the 'class' http://quizlet.com/class/965611/ What other sets would you like us to add? Which feature do you like the best?

Why not register for a free Quizlet account for free at www.quizlet.com and join this class - or any of the other classes we have created?

We'd love to know what you think...use the comment tab!

Blending media: graded readers + iOS devices

This was originally going to be a quick posting about how I was trying to integrate Quizlet sets more into class at the table (rather than at the PC) now that I have my old iPhone 3 freed up as de facto iPod Touch.

Created on Tagxedo - regular past tense verbs in "Lost in the Jungle"

I was just about to start tapping away when I came across a blog posting on a very related topic - how to "teach" the pronunciation of regular verbs in the past tense: the -ed ones. It has taken me a few days to think about this one in a wider context...

I do not think (young) learners need to be told what they are going to learn, explicitly. Nor do they need to be scared with the mechanics of what they are going to do - before `we` have got there together (something I am sure David Paul would want students to realise for themselves). Of course, we (teachers) need to teach; that does not mean we have to stand at the front of the class & deliver pronouncements from on high. Far from it...

Complementary media - book & iOS

I like the dawn of realisation to sneak up on my students nice and quietly - preferably while they are reading. And that is secret weapon number one, methinks. Graded readers, deployed nice and strategically, quietly. Children aren`t daft - they recognise patterns, form opinions, arrive at conclusions. And after that, they ask questions or can have ideas teased out. With -ed endings, my favourite is to ask them to underline all the verbs (or 'doing' words, however you explain them?) as we listen to a new reader. My fave series has a CD narration of each title in the pack. I don`t have to explain they are all past tense; by the end of the book they want to know why they have all got -d or -ed stuck on the end (they have already come across the same words enough times to keep Paul Nation happy!). Teacher question = "When did this happen?"

Using Quizlet app to find irregular past tenses

Leave "it", the nutty crunchy grammar thing alone. Play with the book; get into the comprehension questions, true/false stuff, vocabulary mining. Mess about with the pictures and generally ENJOY READING. Again, my fave graded reader series has a dedicated workbook for each story - puzzles, yes/no, gap filling. They get suitably harder as the books climb in ambition. These are not a class activities; extra-curricula & opt-in. We follow up in class for sure - but the past tense thing is something I want to focus on here.

Once we have done everything else we usually do with the readers ("finished" them if you like!), one last teacher challenge. Listen for the words you underlined, and circle them in one of three colours (you choose the colours - but be consistent after this decision!)

• Red - if you hear a /d/ sound on the end
• Black - if you hear a /t/ sound on the end
• Blue - if you hear an "extra" syllable (ie longer than the original word) = /Id/ sound on the end

A word to the wise; every teacher has a slightly different way of pronouncing words. Decide how you are going to say your own -ed endings as a teacher, and hereafter be consistent. There are no golden rules; a general agreement, yes. What does your school want the students to be producing? What do the other teachers teach?

After all of that, I can`t imagine a book which managed to only use regular past tense verbs. Can you? Would be rather odd. I love Quizlet for making, saving & sharing online falshcards; a dedicated app means they can also be accessed by iOS. In this instance I wrote a list of the verbs (present tense) that occured in the story, and asked students to copy the list onto the inside back cover of their readers - usefully bank. Using the 'learn' function, students could match the present & past tense forms & then scribble it down - if they had not already known or guessed (encouraged them to dive back through the book to find the words too).

Screen shot, Quizlet app 'learn' function

Once learners have finished this task, there is a 'scatter' game, with a timer = immmediately compels YLEs to compete. Drilling, anyone?

iPhone apps in the classroom - Quizlet flavour

A quick warm up flashcard game got my boys in the mood this afternoon...for another game. As they'd been stars last week (Wordle story-telling) I figured they'd earned it. But, I wasn't going to let them 'burn off' valuable classroom time.

I plonked them in front of the PC & went to Quizlet. Giving them ownership was important, so they did all the work - typing in the words (from our flashcard game) of everyday actions. This gave me a chance to assess their typing skills as well (worryingly slow!)

Online, we then 'played' with what we'd created - there's no time lag, just leap in. 'Scatter' = matching the two sides of the cards you have created - in our case eg "wash" + "the car". Seeing they were automatically being timed meant I did not have to force them to pay attention! This, in effect, was exactly the same game we'd played in class!

There are a number of other ways you can challenge yourself on Quizlet, with the set(s) you have made. One of the lads was well-impressed (Sheffieldish for you) I had an iPhone, so I had the idea to use it as follow up. By the time we'd closed down the PC & opened books, I'd downloaded the flashcard set. Our textbook (OUP's English Time 3) has a picture dictionary/glossary in the back, of target vocab. I showed them how to use the flashcard app on the phone, and they realised tapping the tick in the corner meant they 'knew it'. Aha!

Gotcha boys! "Please write the words you have learnt next to the pictures of the actions." Scramble to un-tick the cards on the phone!

Classroom management situation I want to avoid here is kids just copying from one page in the book to another. What does that achieve? At best, a bit of letter writing practice. First, I asked them to write what they could. (I was impressed with what had gone in already.) Then, the coup de grace, use the phone if you want, to double check - the phone was on the TV in the corner, and they couldn't bring it back to the table.This internalises the spelling or phrase, and has them visualising the shape of the word or whatever they are doing to remember how to write it down. They are changing media: text - brain - pencil. I'm no theorist - what are they doing?! Result I want is learning...as footballers practice dead-ball moves or transitions etc.


And the boys? Competitive as usual, trying to mess up each others' turn at the font of wisdom, swishing the cards around on the phone. Taught them how to express themselves strongly in English once it was obvious they were getting tetchy in L1.


In all today I would say we took care of eight daily actions. Not a lot I know, but we are not going to forget them in a hurry! Sorry, no pics - phone was unavailable (could you have said that sentence 5 years ago & made any sense?)

One of seven - what do you do?

Attendance isn't usually a problem I have to worry about much with my business classes, so I have gradually relocated my stock of 'emergency' activities to more likely places (back of the car, mostly!). By about 8.40 this morning I was wishing I hadn't been so complacent.

The one student who did turn up, of the seven I was expecting, has just come back from a lengthy placement ie has missed the last two months because he was on Yamada denki skivvy duty ("researching sales outlet & consumer behaviour"). So, plan A went flying out the window (closed, it was bracing this morning)...

I did not want to wade into 8 weeks catch up, in case stragglers turned up. Luckily these days I have internet access in the classroom, albeit limited. Fortunately the book we are using has a variety of rather good resources online (becoming a very important component of any materials package). Thank you OUP & Clive Oxenden!
Got to say I am a flag waving fan of the English File series :)

Blended learning then, initially teacher directed until he figured out the parameters and started challenging himself. He self-diagnosed a weakness with prepositions, so we found an activity to practice them. After that, a text completion exercise (by which time a colleague had wandered in to join us), a fiddle with some past tense verb patterns, collocation practice and identifying stress patterns in longer words.

I enjoyed seeing my students realise they could do an awful lot more out of class if they have the inclination. I hope they catch the bug!