Rina's snow animal - not melting!

We'd love to know what you think about Rina's after reading creation! Please leave a comment!

 

A talking platypus

Check out Minami's unseen platypus project, as an after reading piece for her graded reader (OUP Read & Discover) series. She narrates her illustration beautifully :)

 

 

Kenshin's platypus project

Check out Kenshin's description of Australia's very shy platypus (an animal he's never seen( but we read about in an Oxford Read & Discover graded reader - we can travel in our minds!
 

Let's talk! Students with after reading projects

We think these two young learners really do speak for themselves! 

 

Hazuki talks about...her chimpanzee

 

Although we do not have chimpanzees native to Japan, we do have loads of monkeys up in the hills, and famously a monkey onsen in Nagano prefecture, which is a very popular tourist attraction

This is Hazuki's after reading project, where the task was to write about her favourite wild animal (and sketch it) then narrate using Chatterpix on (my) iPhone. As you can see & hear, a really good expansion beyond a graded reader, and a piece of work to be proud of.

Project Platypus - creative Kana

Check out Kana's fantastic artwork! Truly the best artist I think I've ever had in my English classroom...put her mind to Australia's most shy creature and also narrated her description of it, as an after  reading project (using Chatterpix). I love this app, as it is personal yet maintains our students' privacy :)

How would you rate Kana's work (I'm at A++)?

 

 

Chalk man makes a come back - "This is me!"

We returned to old school project work recently, breaking out the chalk to add some reality to the 'our bodies' topic in Everybody Up 1...we 'traced' each other (as well as the Big Boy himself) in our car park and added details to profiles (importantly, eyes, ears, fingers.... AND pants!).

Good PR as mummies got out of cars/off their phones to ask what we were doing - "This is me!"..."This is my head, these are my legs" etc. Lots of laughs and genuine engagement, even for the artistically challenged (like Jim!)

Big Boy + Little Learners!

Where's my neck?

 

 

 

 

Yukihi's snow animal

 

Check out Yukihi's lovely after reading project - created with Chatterpix in a matter of minutes. Student's own design on paper, descriptive writing & then reading own work fluently :)

A little bit of Project Based Learning

How do you make pentagons?

Just because you didn't turn to the next page in the text book, does not mean your lesson went nowhere!

Learners need a change of gear, a change of task, a change of procedure...whilst they can recycle the language they've been exposed to & need another way to exploit (they don't know they want to do this, by the way...they do know they want to do something not English, maybe, involves some art and yes please, a game on top :)

The basic premise, nicely embedded in Everybody Up 2 is an arts & crafts detour to review learning in units 1 & 2. Themes/topics = jobs, the five senses, and places around town. Some drawing, review of spelling & flipping back & forth through our text books = priceless refreshment of learning. None of this explicitly teacher directed, but rather, learners realising what they need to do & help each other out & find 'short cuts' (aide de memoire?).

The hardest part = how do you divide a paper plate (left over from our BBQ!) into equal fifths?

End of the day, don't sweat the details (we do not have protractors...and bannish erasers from any task like this!); just get on with it - primary objective is the language output (next week, conveniently open/observation week at Luna). 

We're ready - bring in the parents :)

So, what we actually accomplished is a nice little ambush; students "have" all the language embedded  into their paper plate, subliminal cues & rehearsed structures etc.

All I have to do next week is arrange the extra chairs & maybe provide the odd prompt, notice if we've got something to fine tune (the week after open week, without parents critiquing) and give high 5s.

 

Kyoko's plan for a three-day trip to the Hudson River area

 After reading "The Master of Ballantrae" (Black Cat cideb graded reader), Kyoko challenged herself to come up with a plan for a 3-day excursion around Albany, New York state (USA). 

This area was the setting for the second half of the tale, and a place she was really interested in visiting...I've been there myself, but now really want to go back and explore so much more (and for more than three days!)

 Lots of hard work went into this project, as you can tell!

Well done Kyoko :)

Meatballs with tomato sauce

 

Ingredients

    😃For the meatballs

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 150g/5oz onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 900g/2lb beef mince
• 2 tbsp freshly chopped herbs, such as marjoram, or 1 tbsp rosemary
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

    😃For the tomato sauce

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 110g/4oz onion, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 150g/5¼oz mozzarella, grated
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 x 400g cans tomatoes

Method

1. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a stainless steel saucepan over a gentle heat, then add the onion and garlic. Cover and sweat for four minutes, until soft and a little golden. Allow to cool.
2. In a bowl, mix the minced beef with the cold sweated onion and garlic. Add the herbs and the beaten egg. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.
3. Divide the mixture into approximately 24 round balls. Cover the meatballs and refrigerate until required.
4. Meanwhile, make the tomato sauce. Heat the oil in a stainless steel saucepan.
5. Add the sliced onion and the crushed garlic, toss until coated, cover, and sweat on a gentle heat until soft and pale golden.
6. Slice the canned tomatoes and add to the onion mixture with all the juice. 
7. Season the contents with sugar, salt and pepper.
8. Cook the tomatoes uncovered for approximately 30 minutes or until the tomato softens (while this is cooking make the meatballs).
9. Heat a frying pan and cook the meatballs for about 10 minutes in about three tablespoons of olive oil.
10. When they are cooked, put them into an ovenproof dish with the tomato sauce and top with the grated mozzarella. Place under a preheated grill until the cheese has melted.
11. Serve with spaghetti.

Weekend workshops at Luna

Dogme...Does that mean no furniture?

 For a long time I have felt that my returnee students in particular need to get out a bit more. Because of scheduling - club activities being the default roadblock to a sensible lifestyle in Japan - and the unique backgrounds, learning styles, life experiences & language abilities of said learners, we generally have one-to ones.

To this end, we have started to offer "workshops" once a month, with the intention that we have a bit of a mingle, and get stuck into fun, communicative & co-operative tasks. No books, in this case no chairs or even table - change the environment & re-jig the style of interaction. The intention is that these days are as much student lead as possible; sure, we need an idea or theme for the workshops, and a broad plan of action, but we want to students to occupy the speaking ground and get on with stuff in English.

Working it out together

This is important; often the best English-speakers in school become reticent as they get older; quite often being used in class to produce model answers or first answerer can get wearisome. So, teacher's role in these special events is to chivvy and cajole, nudge and shepherd things along gently. Outcome? It will be nice to get somewhere, but for the now, the journey itself is going to be more interesting and having a real reason for making use of English.

I also hope these gigs will show our returnees that there are other very able speakers around, and that they are not abnormal...but neither that they are the best; there is some competition around :)

The next weekend workshops are:

• For kindergarten ages - May 26: Numbers & animals
• Primary school ages   - May 26: short vowel sounds

Reservations required: friends (ie non-Luna students welcome - fees apply)