Ayane's lego comic

This was Ayane's first story using lego comic builder. The aim was to re-use direct speech from her last graded reader (OUP Story Tree "The Red Planet") to provide the narrative.

As with Hibiki's story (below), she was sidetracked rather a lot by the giggles to be had manipulating the comic, instead of being able to throw in lots of English. Next time, I hope!

The key though, was finding a medium where we could recycle vocabulary & phrases and use them meaningfully and memorably. Nothing more enjoyable then than building your own story - so, job done.

I did not get involved with production, as her aunt Keiko is PC literate & did this as a team. They did brainstorm the story though this was in Japanese...not main aim of the lesson afterall.

The New House - graded reader on Voicethread

Hibiki-chan tonks her test

Well done Hibiki!

She didn't just pass this test, but kicked it into the long grass : )

We did do a little bit of prep for it, but mostly all her own hard work. Thanks for making our Saturday afternoons so much fun, too!





(Sister Ayane also passed her Eiken 2 a couple of weeks previously. Congratulations to you as well!)

This year you'll both do well in YLE, won't you?!

Super study Saturday

I have to admit, teaching on a Saturday is not my favourite way to spend the weekend, but the students we have here at Luna make it a very enjoyable day at the office for me.

These two lads know they're playing a dangerous game, coming to class not only in an Argentinian football shirt, but with a number 10 on it...I am sure they can both draw better than Diego, and have a longer attention span :)  Great work today remembering how to spell animal names with this/that.

We have an unusual class in the afternoon, with two great girls just started studying with mum & aunt. Don't ask, please! Managing the adults as best as possible out of the learning is tricky - giving the girls as much chance as I can to actually learn (and not get corrected before they've finished an utterance by well meaning but misplaced & inaccurate observation) needs a lot of experience and a fair amount of chutzpah - basically making as much as possible out of adult 'errors' and elbowing my non-verbal encouragement into the girls line of sight in preference to less accurate though well intentioned interventions.

Giving (even unplugged) microphones to 'teams' in a Q/A or back & forth chant is a cool way of making sure one half 'shuts up' when it isn't 'their turn'....and that they are also forced into giving up their 'go', even if they haven't finished or kept up with the tempo - challenge the other team to start on cue too. It really makes sure the mic holders listen, and the mic-less watch!

Need to make a Q & A go faster? Ancient nugget here in Japan is the 'Janken Race' - rock/scissors paper. Adapt to suit class size, but start at opposing ends of the table/room (how big are your flashcards/room?). Student produces a sentence (or whatever you have set your parameters to) as triggered by flashcards lined up along the table edge (far side if you want to work on that/those) , and works towards the middle - ditto the other team. Very easy to monitor - sit down on the other side of the table & go with Caesar thumbs! Teacher can substitute cards sneakily, leave in the tricky ones or make the line shorter to get a result...This one does get noisy!



Highlighting two classes from a full day today - I had fun, thanks y'all!

Postcard from...Alaska

Hi Jim, Tana, Yuki & everyone!


We are now in Alaska and having so much fun! We went cruising and saw dolphins, sea otters and glaciers. We went hiking on the glacier too!

Today, we went to the mountains and saw a lot of animals such as moose, bears and wolves. We are going aurora watching tonight. I really hope we can see it! I'm gonna tell you guys about it later ;)


Take care! See you guys when we get back.


Love xoxo

Sayaka & Ayane