Analogue Story Generator - a dice & a homestay visitor

This is a fun activity which worked very nicely in class with my returnee brothers and their English homestay guest in a one hour class last week.

I was expecting them to not be in the mood for a regular class, prepping for FCE, and also that our native-speaking guest would probably have a lot of raw language I could use more creatively...

Column 1: Superhero - think of silly name for the six rows, brainstorming eg people we know & admire, sports stars, anything silly...
Column 2: Villain - maybe a baddy we don't like from school or the news...
Column 3: Location - somewhere local, or a place we like or want to visit...
Column 4: An object - a favourite toy or super-power delivering tool...
Column 5: Main event - more dramatic/mundane the better...
Column 6: Ending - obvious? Challenged mine to come up with a sticky end, a twist, comic book, science fiction, sporty & surprising finishes.

Materials = piece of paper with 6 rows x 6 columns, and a dice. Pencils would be handy!

The brain storming actually took quite a while as I needed to filter suggestions a bit so we would end up with an interesting variety of outcomes (and publishable ones!).

Selection phase = students throw the dice in turn to choose a superhero from column one. Repeat for the other 5 columns: each student now has a very eclectic set of characters & bizarre storyline to concoct!

Embellishing = decide on a cast list for the main characters (Mum featured as did the teacher), a narrator, supporting cast, a title.

Homework - write a summary of the plot (rough draft). Aim = second draft with more detail, structure/organisation, Hollywood moment etc!

Immediate feedback = very entertaining interaction & entertaining suggestions - only told them the 'story' aim after we'd brainstormed all the 36 components (otherwise the'd have been filtering their own ideas - as it was they guessed they were going to make a story - but a horizontal one eg all #4s - and had tried to make things 'fit')

This activity would never work with my usual junior high school/high school crowd; it did work splendidly with noisy, energetic, imaginative, competitive teens. One-upmanship added a lot to the storyboard, and I for once was not 'the expert' - all I had to do was pass the dice around...and moderate the input!

Spicing up the dialogue with returnees - slow it down!

Apologies about the accent with the character one the left (interviewer); memo to self = preview before publishing (and avoid accents on Xtranormal - they are thick & heavy).

Summer Holiday interview
by: lunajim
Hana & Suzu mash it up in Luna's YLE classsroom

My returnees can fly through a conversation on everyday topics in a very haphazard and blazee attitude; quickly, relevantly, but with very little thought/development beyond answering the question as fast as possible. That leaves me scrabbling to diagnose 'what happened' & sourcing more material  to develop the conversation...bored students, frustrated teacher, progress little. In flying through their exchanges my students realise their goal of saying "finished" as quickly as possible; how often do you say thay in a meeting, phone call or chatting with granny?

Kids love cartoons, and using the keyboard is a profound playing leveller - certainly in Japan; few kids here are fluent typists. This inevitably slows things down - mini aim - so that we can focus on getting the nuts & bolts right. Not necessarilly spelling for a conversation (but we are typing it so why not in the process of making sure we get the words in the right order?)

My kids also have a habit of clock watching (in this class); in this situation the clock is on my side the entire time. The conversation they are working up was in note form from last week, and they want to stretch 'my' time into an hour. So, short ansers won't achieve that goal - make the answers longer/detailed! In doing this, also means the director can add more movement/camera shifts/noises/poses etc. Students edit each other much more readily than softly softly teacher, so we have peer learning/teaching going on too (much more likely to take note than to me). As we get towards the top of the hour there's a 'hurry up' factor & a desire to see the finished product.

The xtranormal site needs a minute or three to 'cook' i.e. render the video...you'll have to wait until next week to see it in class :)  Oh, the antici----pation!

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)

Harry Potter voicethread project

by Yuhi & Remi :)


http://voicethread.com/share/1285615/

Luna Bookworms' Club

We are pleased to announce that Luna will now be facilitating a book club for young learners. This project has been initiated by the students themselves and is completely under their own management. The idea is that students can share with others the books that they have enjoyed. Anyone can join. Just bring along a book or two that you have read and enjoyed (and don't want to keep), and come and see what other students have brought. You can then borrow a book for as long as it takes to read it, then bring it back and take another one!

The best thing about this system is that students can choose what they want to read and at what pace, so there is no pressure. Reading for its own sake is motivation enough. Its time to relax, rather than study, time to let their imaginations go, discover new worlds... The terrain of the imagination is rich and in many cases a good book will stimulate a persons own creative impulses. This system provides the freedom to run with an idea and see where it leads to.

Books also come recommended by others so students don't have to worry about sifting through many books which might not be what they're looking for.

I hope our young learners will enjoy the journeys and adventures that these books lead them on, come to enjoy the pursuit of knowledge and acquire a long lasting affection for reading.

Sincerely,

Tana

Hybrid animals - from Luna's laboratory

As I was away last Friday - travelling to the Great Northern Island - Tana covered my imaginative returnee class (thank you!)

This is what they came up with, after thinking about Hybrid animals - which one is the best? Please vote by leaving a comment below.

The one top right looks a bit like a famous mouse; the one bottom left I am sure I have seen before in a kaiten sushi restaurant. Good job all round.

See ya Friday!