Old fashioned, but it works!

I've always liked making materials for classes but kind of got out of the habit with so many digital resources to play with.

My number one preference with younger learners is Wordwall, as I can easily import class sets from Quizlet (been using that site for over 20 years) from resources previously compiled - be it text book lexical sets or glossaries from readers. The twist with Wordwall is that any images offered will not be the same as Quizlet = students do not just memorise the pictures. Once made, any one set can be used in a variety of different game options, and also be printed out as worksheets.

However, screen time can be overdone and younger learners need "hand time" as well - feels like something new & different.

Two halves of the 'gap fill'

To encourage question asking - and a follow up - as well as requiring students to actually listen to the reply and 'do something', this pair work exchange is easy to prepare and engaged students from start to finish. Target language was vocabulary items (classroom/school bag objects + colours)..."What is it?" (pointing at a blank square) then "What colour is it? Listener draws the item in the colour, and labels their picture (book open to spell OK if necessary). To fill up the grid I also added students' names = draw portraits of each other. 

Only 'banned' item = erasers, to stop this turning into an art class!

This worked one-on-one with "can do" kids...in teams when the group needed a bit of peer-support = added bonus of "your turn" etc classroom language.

Exercise complete

Students themselves decided to label their pictures, which was an added bonus to plenty of speaking/listening, with teacher gently making sure good intonation/full answers, and not too much time spent drawing (a relief to the less artistically gifted like me!)

This suited reviewing 2 units of vocaulary from OUP's Everybody Up 1

The second activity, to also review the same content...downloaded & printed the picture dictionary from https://elt.oup.com/student/everybodyup for the relevant units (Although from 3rd Ed, matches 2nd. Ed content)

Four-in-a-row template

Then a scissors & glue job (could also be a digital effort with excel I know, but this was quicker for me!) to fit onto a Mark Hancock game template of old. Can be played 1 v 1, or two teams; both worked equally well, and generated a lot of chatter. Quite a lot L1, but that was totally focussed to game play strategy/winning, with team mates (which was beyond my young learners in English)...whilst at the same time they were code-switching to read the vocabulary/name the pictures or ask each other "What is it?" & "What colour is it?"...because they really wanted to. When a drill is not a drill :)

Play? Roll the dice & choose a word from that box. Aim = 4-in-a-row. First past the post or fill the whole board, depending on time etc. Use - two different colour pencils. Use one board for each pair/team to share, or just one board to get passed backwards & forwards - I decided against this option as I realised half the class was always looking at the words upside-down.

Teacher? Sit back and enjoy the reading/speaking/writing magic :)

The template I made on the right - obviously colour needed for colours, but b/w will usually work nicely as the artwork is clear/matches the text book.

Game over!

The finished (yeah, messy!) Books open? If necessary...I prefer a sneaky peak only if "stuck". It worked out that teams helped each other or not very 'sotto voce' giving the game away if they knew the word first eg "Oh no, pencil!"

Easily replicated for any review a language teacher can think of!

A new job, a new start, a new teacher.

It’s Sunday 26^th of January and I’m up at the crack of dawn to meet Jim at Matsumoto station to catch the first express train to Nagoya for my first ETJ experience: a series of presentations at the Sugiyama Jogakuen University. Or so I thought. After missing our train by the skin of our teeth, we decided to hole up at the nearby Mos Burger for a quick nap and recharge before getting on the next express train to Nagoya.


We arrived fashionably late, so unfortunately we missed the first set of presentations which started at 10:00. We went to get ourselves signed in and were asked to make some name badges for ourselves, I felt like a student arriving for his first day at a brand new school. This feeling was further enforced by every presentation that I observed, learning new and creative materials or teaching tools from many experienced English teachers and publishers working around the country.

Ritsuko Nakata

My first presentation, “Getting forgetful kids to remember” by Ritsuko Nakata, outlined the importance of her “MAT (Model, Action, Talk) method”. It focuses on giving students a meaningful context to the language that they are learning, as well as encouraging the use of gestures within to classroom to aid students when learning vocabulary so they are not dependent on the teacher to practise the language by constantly listening and repeating. This allows the students to practise the language among themselves and also feel accomplished for doing so.

Next up was David Paul’s presentation on “motivating teenagers and adults to communicate”. This was a presentation I did not want to miss as from personal experience a student who is not willing to communicate is the most difficult to teach. Many ideas and techniques were presented with an emphasis on personalization and the importance of recycling language to build confidence in the students (also as a way making sure they aren’t forgetting everything you teach them as soon as they walk out of the classroom!). We looked at using activities which encourage a communicative response rather than using language that is situational and regurgitated from any old classroom textbook.

Mari Nakamura

My next presentation was by Mari Nakamura on her new book “Lily and the Moon” to engage children’s hearts and minds with a picture book. A story inspired from her childhood following the adventures of Lily the ladybird as she meets an array of little critters on her journey to see a ladybird on the moon. The book can be used as an aid for teaching times of day, colours, animals, nature and comes with an array of activities and flashcards to use within the classroom. There was a strong emphasis on the use of gestures and the involvement of the students whilst reading.

David Paul

Next was another presentation by David Paul on his publication “Finding Out”, a step by step child centred course for children. What I found intriguing was his use of “nonsense” words in his book to strengthen the students the ability to read, rather than focusing on their ability to recognise written words from exposure and repetition. In this manner a student can’t learn to read any word regardless of if it is real or not and will never be afraid when faced with an unseen word.

Last of all was Jo Ando’s presentation on the importance of phonics textbooks in the classroom. Albeit more of a sales representative than an experienced teacher with multiple publications, he pressed the importance of incorporating captivating images and the use of colouring in phonic textbooks to maintain the interest of the students.

Having only just started teaching my own classes the Monday before, I have had very little opportunity to try and implement ideas and activities of my own into the classroom. Now having attended the series presentations, I feel armed to the teeth with new techniques and activities that are going to help engage the students in the classroom environment and inspire them to further develop their English language skills. The whole experience has aided me in broadening my mind into the depth and excitement of English language teaching, and I am looking forward to implementing the plethora ideas, techniques and activities that I was able to take away from this event.

Thank you to all the staff involved in organising such a wonderful event, I will be waiting in anticipation for the next event.

Also a very big thank you to Jim for encouraging me to attend, showing me around, introducing me to many new people, as well as convincing me it would be a great idea waking up at 6 a.m on a Sunday!

Damian Gowland

Kids in our classrooms - October

Kids in the classroom 2012, a set on Flickr.

Check out the Hallowe'en masks under construction, and the games we played through October - you can also see us switching from t-shirts to fleeces!

As usual, you can only see super happy smiles and lovely classwork taking place :)

Exploiting #edtech /CALL at Luna

Getting to know you
by: lunajim

Check out April & May!

There's plenty more on our Classroom Flickr set and on our Facebook pages (Luna International)

Green fingers

Our little mummy & kids class had a very nice surprise this morning...not only are the tomato plants not dead (they were seriously drooping last week after being neglected for the whole of Golden Week) but they were flourishing. Just how much?

Well, this much! We measured them against ourselves, and they came up to our noses! As a little project for the next few weeks we started a table to keep track of how much more they will grow (we will have to stand on each other's shoulders or on a box!), how many flowers they will have, and eventually, how many tomatoes we can harvest.

We will also have to decide what to do with our crop - I really like tomatoes with mozarella & ham as an Italian kind of salad, sprinkled with Balsamic vinegar.

Any other suggestions?

March slideshow - Luna warmth

As you can see, there was no shortage of happy faces around the school in March, and lots of activity - important as it was still cold out & frequently trying to snow!

Check out the fun - press play!

Cultural Perpectives & Observations on Learners - Part 3: How are my students getting it right for themselves?

Akiko Seino owns her own school "Bright" in Matsumoto, and presented for Shinshu JALT on March 25th at Agata-no-Mori.

How are my students getting it right for themselves?

Akiko Seino is Matsumoto’s best kept cultural secret asset. She has lived in the same city and owned her own language school here(within a mile of mine) for 8 years. I have met her five times – three times in the last month. She is inspiringly passionate, disorganised, uncompetitive, and insightful. She is awesomely enthusiastic, daft, and focused. She is disarmingly honest, funny and honest.
Seino teaches 3-12 year olds and is a mum of two herself. She used to teach in Saitama/Tokyo “all listening & singing” – no reading or writing. She says she now finds it very hard to give her students “all they need”. Says she does not buy into ‘earlier the better’, but the love/power to learn (which also rewards her as a teacher – an important aside which less experienced teachers may not feel important).

Seino explained “Terakoya” style learning to be ‘temple school’ – and the concept of one step forward at a time. Kumon chain applies this principle in a singular style (so what does the teacher do?) whereas AS applies this to her (small) groups.

Seino asked participants if they taught mixed level classes –a lack of response basically indicated “an embarrassed yes”. Seino’s next question showed Longman had trained her well. “Do you treat every student the same?”

Seino explained that using English-only was far easier with younger learners, as older ones needed grammatical points explained in their mother tongue. Seino provided an explanation of how she multi-tasked as a teacher with mixed-level  & mixed-tasking students. Imagine a headless chicken? Students can and will perform together in song/dance.

Seino said she was learning with mums along the way. All good teachers will reflect and learn as they go, I think? You might consider this a lack of anticipation/planning? Some would agree, but Seino is amazingly honest with her mums (an advantage of L1 access to parents which I do not have) and spends an inordinate amount of personal time encouraging mums to be facilitators. I do not know any teachers who would want to demonstrate an end product at the end of every class – even if they had something! Me – I like to showcase students’ achievements of course ....but every lesson is essentially impossible (at least at Luna).

Seino asked participants to write down their top 7 tips/up the sleeve tools. Mentioned were:

• a bell
• Talking Tom app (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/talking-tom-cat/id377194688?mt=8)
• Youtube
• a blackboard
• 
  

Seino added her favourites as post-its, CD player, stickers book, mini white board, and correspondence books in which she maintains a dialogue with each learner & their parents – a very heavy demand on teacher time, and while this may well make a difference to learners’lives and involve parents, I am not sure this will help students become more autonomous. Educating the mums is an important thing to do of course, but micro-managing the dialogue (for me) would be an inordinately onerous task and especially immediately after the heat of class, not give me time to reflect & process what we did/need to do next time etc.

Seino highlighted the benefits of learning with friends, of learning to speak rather than to converse (oral reading), of showing and sharing, of giving students learning choices to make, personalizing learning & motivating themselves thus.

She pointed out that

• less teacher-led “presentation” time in class
• less students’ “practice” time in class
• laborious checking & marking (she even delivers work back to students’homes!)
• backlog of above causes stress

Seino asked for questions and suggestions.

Teaching event, Jan 29th in Ueda; all welcome

ABAX is very happy to be sending four presenters to Nagano for this coming Sunday, January 29th. Among the presenters is Marcos Benevides, co-author of Fiction in Action: Whodunit which won the Duke of Edinburgh ELT Book Award in 2010 and the British Council’s ELTON award in the international category in 2011. Things kick off at 1.00 p.m.

This is the first time we’ve sponsored multiple presentations for a local event; many thanks to the Shinshu JALT Chapter for arranging this. We’re looking forward to our day in Ueda and hope you too can find time to attend. And if you can’t attend but think it looks interesting, please let your friends in Nagano know! We promise to keep the presentations resolutely non-commercial!

Sunday, January 29, 2012
TIME: 1.00 p.m. To 5.30 p.m.
PLACE: Pareo Library, Ueda City, Nagano-ken、〒386-0025 長野県上田市天神１丁目８−１

http://www.city.ueda.nagano.jp/hp/sys/20090911135734758.html

INTRODUCTION: 1.00 - 1.20
• An Introduction to Task-Based Learning – Marcos Benevides 1.20-2.10
• Narrow Reading 2.0 – Michael Stout 2.20-3.10

BREAK: 3.10-3.40

• Teaching Speaking Strategies: the Why and the How – Alastair Graham-Marr 3.40 – 4.30
• Teaching Listening to Low–Level Learners – Hugh Graham-Marr 4.40-5.30

We’ve set up a facebook page for the event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/136929726423999/

Please let your friends know about this too!

Mining graded readers - the collective

Last week I mentioned that I/we had been 'mining'  our young learners' graded readers in class.

I very much felt that was a work in progress, and more could be achieved - I set out with the same broad lesson plan in mind for another group, using the same level readers from OUP story tree series. I wanted to see if the same approach would work again, if there'd be a different result.

As per last time, I asked students first of all to figure out what kind of words they were looking at eg "Jim eats fat green frogs" - nouns/verbs/adjectives? Admit a bit of L1 to help them suss this out, but not a lot. And, as per last time, then asked them to find ten examples of each in their reader.

Well, kids being kids, when I asked them to get out their reader, there was the usual time out while pencil cases clattered to the floor/indecision about which book I meant/chatting opportunities...I had asked them to get out book 1 (they'd read all eight titles, and done the accompanying workbooks/listened to the CD narrations), so maybe this one was rustiest in memory.

Lightbulb moment: let them choose their "favourite" - quickly! First come first reserved - can't have the same book as another learner. Bingo! Decisions made pronto.

Now the students are responsible for the choice they made. I overheard a sotto voce discussion on how that choice was made (in L1) - "choose the book with the least pages". Aha! File that info away, see what we can do!

Also as per last time, I set a target of 10 nouns/verbs/adjectives - I was worried they would be lazy. Stupid teacher! This inhibited them from compiling a jumbo list - yes, they ignored my 'rule' and kept compiling, just writing smaller to squeeze stuff in! OK...I can work with that ambition too!

As they had all chosen a different book, they all had different questions about the words they were considering. Even with only four students I was getting dizzy. Bombardment nice, but I don't want to be the focus of this - figure it out yourselves, together! And so they did. Net result of that was a constant barrage of Qs at classmates "Hey, is treehouse a verb?" - "Erm. Yes, like dog. Is like a verb - it isn't "-suru" in Japanese. I intervened when one or two things crept up (like assuming all words had to be either noun/adjective/verb - my fault again...up/in/this etc started a need for a column with 'other'!)

So, now I have four kids speed reading four different books, scanning, skimming, analysing - and beautifully, interrupting each other & co-operating all the while (essentially side-reading the other three books & relighting all those memories of stories read). I was sitting there unbusy, glowing in pride - and mad as hell that one of this class announced (via mum) that 4 nights of ballet practice a week was not enough NO!!!!

I called time when they had all more or less got to the last page of their chosen reader (awesome - they were getting pissed off because there weren't enough adjectives!)...always interrupt a good activity just before it runs out of steam! The easy finish = "How many verbs etc did you find?". I realised this was not going to be fair as some of them had got very enthusiastic/lost count and written down more; there was some repetition too (which helped us figure out why go = goes, for example). All good - we are learning TONS.

Image via Wikipedia

Solution. Remember the board/word game Scattergories? It's another EFL goldmine of a game, especially for end of term. Basic premise is that if you have written down an original word ie one that no other student has done, you score a point. (Part one winner was the student with the most words total; and sub-champions for each sub-category - everyone a winner). And then the penny dropped, as we read out all our words...Ayaka was going to win all ends up (even though she had complained the most about her book because her book was the 'hardest'?) Book 7 trumps 1,2,3! Oh, the books get harder? She had all our words and then some?

Gorgeous. The smile on Ayaka's face. Triumph!
Gorgeous. The dawning of ambition!
=========================================================================

OK, I got excited about my kids killing a lesson plan as we went? Oh yeah! What they did ticked a dozen boxes all over the place, with materials otherwise 'dead'.

This 'mining' activity will work with adults - especially if they are all using the same reader - give them the same chapter and a time limit? Let them choose their fave character if there is dialogue....and that is their word pool. Or their favourite chapter, or even number pages - whatever!

Facebook in the classroom

ZZZzzzz

I whinged a while back about the situation I found myself in which resulted in the dismal classroom experience which the image (left) illustrates...not much happening. Nothing to see here. Move along. Bell will ring in 45 minutes. Avoid getting noticed or saying anything. Just scribble in the spaces, it won't get checked or corrected - or even read. This is the before picture.

It was explained to me that the students here were 'all failures', so don't expect much. For a moment that shocked me, but then I remembered my context. There are other schools around with bigger reputations, and there is a definite pecking order in this country. This is reinforced by the ridiculous nature of the entrance exams system, and the 'educational' infrastructure of jukus etc that hover around the honey pot. What an awful realisation to be presented with before you even start HS that your prospects are in tatters. Not very hard to understand the "Why bother?" mood in the room then.

Breaking the ice

I went to a really crap school in Worksop (Nottinghamshire) in terms of academic results - mostly as a result I'd say of the socio-economic background of the catchment area. The two other schools which shared our playing fields were worse. I had good teachers who gave a rat's arse though, who had not given up on us. They certainly didn't fob us off with the helper (there wasn't one). The PE teacher helped me overcome the bullying and gave me opportunities I'd never had before.

So, I don't think schools are crap here...I just think they are stuck in the slow lane, hazard lights on with a flat tyre and a dodgy radiator. Is this going to change anytime soon? Well, it hasn't done so yet in the 20+ years I've been here, so why be optimistic? The system does not motivate teachers, after all. To continue the banger analogy, keep to the kerb, don't do anything sudden and you'll get there in the end.

Now we're talking

Unfortunately, teachers have never been given any specialised pre-service (or in service) training to teach English professionally/competently. Plenty is available, I hasten to add, through workshops constantly put on by publishers, ETJ & JALT etc, but this is not formal and given short shrift. It is also too late. Modern EFL instruction should be dealt with in colleges & universities by default, and preferably with a work experience in industry or even better, overseas. And while you are at it, promote a formal qualification to prove competence in core skills. And why not boost those English language skills too? Win win? Re-boot the AET/JET program to be a formal job exchange for novice foreign language teachers with study time & performance improvement expected. Come back culturally aware, linguistically competent and professionally fit for purpose.

In the last few weeks I have been 'left to myself' in my particular classrooms. This actually means my oppo has relinquished all responsibility, but that is a separate (and serious) issue. From a practical point of view, I am unencumbered and the students likewise freer to express themselves a bit.

This is the 'after' photo

• We have managed to (mostly) escape from from 'eraser hell'
• standing up does not induce vertigo-like chair clutching
• boys actually talk to girls, and vice versa
• sleeping is no longer 'a hobby'
• Japanese is not L1 teacher talk

Our last classes together this term (I am not invited to the school festival, school trip, etc) was a rewarding break through kind of a day. The maths teacher was still in his chair in the teachers' room five minutes after his class should have started with 'my' lot...I'd already said 'Cheerio' and formally left the room (no team bow, at last), but I wandered back in because they were still on task, working hard and having a giggle.

The idea came from a couple of sources, including the frustration that we are not allowed to use mobile devices...for example, I am thinking that a 140 character limitation is an excellent 'ceiling' for shy/unconfident learners. Previous classes had revealed that some 'surfed the internet' as a hobby (besides generic 'sleeping', for crying out loud!). One student nearly fell over when I said I did know what 'twitter' was. The actual plan comes from Cambridge University Press, the excellent multi-level photocopiable resource "Teen World" - 2.1 'Teenspace'. Not very achievable in 45 minutes but worth a dab. As I said, we ran over (mostly because getting started with hangman took forever). By the end, the students were very keen to see what their friends had produced as an analog 'Facebook' page, and were jostling to get their comments scribbled and glued up on each others' 'message boards' (they had 8 slips to get rid of, signed, one per page). They were tasked to react to something different, so first come first served. eg "I live in Hata too", "I hate AKB48 and shopping too", "I'm also hungry".

On task, motivated and achievable

Useful teacher tip regarding the 'friends' section - suggest banning names of people in same class or even school - makes it less cliquey/room to upset those less popular.

Given the chance, I would like to continue this exchange on a 'safe' SM site such as Edmodo...

Testing children - a day in "How to"

 On Sunday I was in the delightful company of some very dedicated teachers of children, for an entire day of teacher talk and child-focused assessment. I reckon I can tell within five minutes of practicing with materials/script if a trainee is going to be a good examiner or not...it's all about how they can/can't chew gum and walk at the same time - in this case read a script accurately and manipulate a few flashcards.

OK, so that sounds easy, doesn't it?!

Without a lot of classroom experience, a teacher as examiner will fumble the cards every time, guaranteed. It is crucial that examiners get into a good routine, so that they are able to maintain their teacherly, cheerful, encouraging personality with the (young, nervous, non-native) candidate. The candidate does not need to see the strings the examiner is pulling, but be put into a relaxing, smooth, flowing little mini-lesson. Remember the child's name & use it; don't repeat answers (so take off the 'teacher hat') or make judgmental comments; don't panic or speak too fast; smile, nod, keep your elbows in etc.

Every new examiner comes to training expecting to be shown how to assess; few actually realise the key role of the examiner is to actually set up the candidate to perform. "The script, Michael, it's all in the script" (with apologies to Kenny Everett). In YLE, particularly Starters, candidates are most likely taking their very first genuine English test - certainly the first one with an 'unknown' person assessing their speaking. This is truly intimidating, isn't it? A good examiner will have a child in and out of the examining room an a wave of positive vibes and chuffed with "Can do" vibes. And why not? Seriously, why shouldn't a child enjoy showing off their skills?

So a large part of a regular morning, for me, training new YLE examiners is a bit of boot camp - stripping back the teachers' habits and tics until we get to polished rubric delivery. Nothing more, nothing less. Pictures in the right place, at the right time. Heads up focus on candidate, know what you are going to do next. Have the back up question at your finger tips if necessary, and use it appropriately. If you are not looking at the candidate, you will miss their facial reactions to questions. As an experienced teacher, these are the signs we recognise day in, day out, about perception/reception. This is what our examiners bring to the table.

The 'other half' of the examiner's role is the assessment bit. Importantly, examiners must get into the routine of couching their assessment, comments, interpretations of performances to Cambridge ESOL's assessment scales.

"I think that boy had a bad accent" or "That girl was so sweet", "That boy couldn't say 'elephant' " or "That girl wasn't very good"....and similar reactions to sample videos have no place in our "Can do" analysis. Candidates are not penalised for mistakes they are making if they try to extend an answer, they are not penalised for offering a different answer than the one scripted (which is merely a suggested answer), they are not penalised for 'sounding French' or not 'looking as cute as the Italian girl' etc.

On Sunday my new team coped with the ridiculous situation where the school we were expecting to conduct training at was locked up. The school was completely unaware of the plan. Not good. Thankfully, after a subway ride to Lesley Ito's school in the city and a late start, we did  eventually manage to tackle our three levels (Starters, Movers & Flyers). Thank you all for keeping the faith, and for accepting the cramped facilities for viewing the DVDs - Kim was half in the fridge! I was very happy with my new team's performance...they took in what they were asked to do, and accepted my (mostly) constructive tips! Experience will out, and today we had a fine talent pool to draw from.

Well done Kim, Bonnie, Alex, Andrew, Cora and Lesley. Thank you all for making your journeys and for being flexible; thank you Lesley for taking us in and for lighting the YLE flame in Nagoya. Who's next?!