Teaching Village » Stuff All EFL Teachers Should Know

Female Pirates Weren’t Sexy (by Lesley Ito)

Barbara — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:33:58 +0000

Wacky facts I’ve Learned from teaching cross-curricular lessons.

(The information contained in this article was originally presented as a Pecha Kucha at the JALT National Conference in Tokyo, Japan in November 2011.)

It’s been six years since I opened BIG BOW English Lab, a private English school in Nagoya, Japan with a unique cross-curricular focus. Since most of my lessons are original ones, I’ve had to do a lot of research and reading on my own about subjects that interest children.

One thing I have learned is that “common knowledge” is always changing and some of the facts I learned as a child in school turned out to be no longer true. (Do you remember learning about the Brontosaurus in school? I do. Now they say paleontologists mistakenly put the skull of a Camarasaurus on the body of an Apatosaurus. The Brontosaurus never existed!) I am also reminded of the influence movies have on “common knowledge”. One of my friends used to be a high school history teacher in the USA. One day she asked her students what they knew about Watergate. One student raised his hand and said, “Well, Forrest Gump was staying in this hotel. . .” My friend interrupted her student with a loud sigh and said, “No, that’s what happened in a MOVIE!”

Movies are the reason we believe female pirates were sexy. Take a look at Penelope Cruz on the poster of the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie: She’s absolutely stunning with her long, flowing hair and sexy, off-the-shoulder dress. Real female pirates were not sexy. Real female pirates, like Anne Bonny and Mary Reed, had to disguise themselves as men because women weren’t supposed to be pirates. In fact, Anne Bonny’s nickname was “Toothless Annie”!

Movies are also the reason why we believe that ninjas wore black clothing from head to toe. If you really wanted to sneak around after dark, you shouldn’t wear black clothing. Black actually makes you stand out in the dark of night. The dark indigo dye, traditionally used by the common people of Japan to dye cotton cloth, would be a much better and more likely choice.

Elizabeth Taylor’s infamous flop, Cleopatra, is the reason everyone thinks that the most famous queen of Egypt wore bangs and garish blue eye shadow. Perhaps the hairdressers and make-up artists on the movie set used the ancient drawings of women and the goddess, Isis, found on the inside of the pyramids as a guide. However, the pyramids were built around 1000 B.C. Cleopatra lived from 69 B.C. to 30 B.C. (I’m pretty sure that fashion would probably change in the course of 900 years.) Marc Anthony had a coin made with Cleopatra’s image on it, so a more accurate depiction of “the most beautiful woman in the world” does exist and she does not have bangs.

Speaking of ancient Egypt, I learned long ago that when bodies were prepared for mummification, the brains were removed from the skull through the nose with a long hook. This always seemed quite difficult to do, but that’s what the history books said. Not to mention that my students loved to hear this fact and say, “EEEEEWWW!” very loudly. Last year I gave a presentation on teaching cross-curricular lessons in Gifu, Japan and afterward someone in the audience came up and told me that she had just taken a college class on ancient Egypt and scientists had recently concluded that instead of pulling the brain out through the nose in chunks, they probably used a whisk type instrument to liquefy the brain and have it pour out the nostrils. I was completely disgusted to hear this, but my students were more than pleased to learn this new tidbit of information.

Another thing I learned a long time ago was that the first airplane, flown by the Wright brothers, was called the “Kitty Hawk”. Actually, the first airplane was given the very boring and utilitarian name of “Wright Flyer 1” and was flown in the town of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. I theorize the reason for the mix-up was because the Wright brothers did not want any newspaper reporters present, after a previous test flight of one of their gliders turned into a media circus.

I have advanced elementary classes read a chapter or two a week of a young adult novel and write a short book report. One of my students was reading a somewhat strange novel where one of the side gags was a neighbor who was raising lemmings for their pelts. At the end of the novel, the protagonist accidently leaves the neighbor’s gate open and the lemmings throw themselves in the sea to drown. My student had never heard of lemmings and asked me about them. I told him what I had learned in elementary school: that groups of lemmings sometimes commit mass suicide by leaping off cliffs. He said that sounded really stupid to him and I shared that I always thought something was really fishy about this “fact”. After a mere 30 minutes on the Internet, I found out that while lemmings may occasionally fall off cliffs during mass migrations, they do not commit mass suicide. This myth was started by the 1958 Academy award winning documentary, White Wilderness. Documentaries are supposed to be factual, but they filmed scenes of a turntable flinging lemmings off a fake cliff for dramatic effect.

Finally, I learned how something simple can change the course of history. Without the humble lemon, explorers could not have had successful expeditions to new lands. Magellan’s expedition might have made it around the world, but it started out with 270 crew members and ended with only 18! Many of those crew members died of scurvy, caused by a lack of vitamin C. James Cook was the first explorer to realize this and made sure that his crew always had fresh fruit. As a result, he was able to make many long and successful voyages.

In the Internet Age, our students are given access to so much information. Sometimes this information is not exactly true; sometimes the images we see have been manipulated or retouched. As teachers, we have a responsibility to teach our students to think for themselves and understand that what we know about the world is always changing.

Bring Language to Life in Your Classroom (by Karen Frazier)

Barbara — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:29:35 +0000

Whenever I teach, I do all I can to present language so that it comes to life for the students. As an English teacher, I instantly become an actor in order to convey meaning for any new language being taught. I recall the first time I was teaching in a classroom in Taiwan, where every student spoke the same language. In order to communicate with beginning and elementary level students, clear gestures and the use of realia were essential. These helped create a context for the language so the students could grasp the meaning.

I have found that one of the most effective ways to bring language to life for your students is to use puppets in your classroom. Puppets have a magical effect on children and help transform the introduction of a basic question and answer pattern into a fun and interactive exchange. Young children are quite captivated by puppets because they want to see what the puppets are doing, and they want to hear what they are saying. Even older students are attracted to a lively exchange between two puppets.

Puppets can model new language patterns and will help your students better understand how language is used in a dialogue as well. As puppets act out the language, children become motivated to learn because the puppets bring animation and fun to your English lesson.

I have had shy students who are reluctant to talk aloud, and I’m sure you have, too. If you use puppets, you will find that they help shy students come out of their shells and become less self-conscious about talking. Puppets can guide the students in their language practice in a non-threatening way. As the students watch and engage with the puppets, they lose some of their inhibitions and become more confident. So, all of your students, even the shy ones, will take a risk and develop a more active interest in trying out new language patterns. They will also be more willing to practice other language that they know when you use puppets.

Tapping into the way our students learn

One of the most compelling reasons for us to use puppets in today’s EFL classes is that they tap into the way many of our students currently learn. Almost every day, our children tune into some of the visual cues found in children’s TV programming, hand-held and online games, and music videos. Today’s children are so used to having visual cues that enhance their learning, as in TV and online classrooms, that they need lessons which combine visual with auditory learning. They are much more motivated and seem to engage more quickly when they can watch and listen to an actual demonstration of the new language they are learning. As a result, having puppets and animated teaching as part of your lesson will make the language come alive in your English classroom.

Karen Frazier is the co-author of Let’s Go (Oxford University Press). Together with Ritsuko Nakata, Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto, and Carolyn Graham, she has worked on all four editions of Let’s Go. Over the last twenty-five years, she has trained many teachers in Asia and in the U.S. on how to teach English to children and how to use puppets in the ESL/EFL classroom. In addition, she has advised many international parents in the U.S. on how to successfully guide their children through the American school system.

10 tips for a great first impression with students (by Brad Patterson)

Barbara — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:18:18 +0000

For a long time I thought the key to making a good first impression was being “nice”… if only it were that simple. Below you’ll find 10 ideas to help re-investigate how you introduce yourself, your course and your classroom environment. Please feel free to agree, disagree and share your valuable reactions in the comments.

1) IMPRESS THEM BY NOT PRESSING

Impression comes from Latin imprimere which means “to press onto or upon”. Who needs pressure when first making an acquaintance? With this in mind, there is no need for fireworks in that first class. My two cents: grow slowly on your students. Resist over-doing it, or sharing too much of yourself in the beginning. Keep them wondering.

2) MATCH THEIR FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

As they come in you can greet them individually. Smile with your eyes, and if they smile at you, meet that expression equally. Again, my philosophy is to grow slowly on them so that means meeting them wherever they are and building from there.

3) DRESS FOR SUCCESS

Never would I have imagined I’d repeat that phrase, and yet it has its truth in certain circumstances. I am someone who prefers to dress down. Comfort over style… crocs, shorts and t-shirt in the summer.

However, how we appear is one of the most important things about a first impression, so we might as well start off on the right foot (or a common foot). Take care to dress to typical standards for your cultural setting and if you decide to wear something new, wear it around the house for a day or two so you feel comfortable in it on that first day.

4) BE EASILY UNDERSTOOD LIKE MY MOM

Tons of international friends have visited my family in the US and they have always been blown away at how easily they communicate with my mom. Her enunciation, the words she chooses, the way she connects to see if that person is understanding… her PATIENCE. I’ve learned a lot from my mom, just as she did from her mother. A family of teachers, we are. Read your students’ expressions and know whether you need to turn the English knob more towards “easy” or more towards “they get it!”

5) DO YOUR HOMEWORK

A) Know your students’ culture. If you’re new in an environment, it might help to read a book exploring some of the intercultural differences.

b) Meet them on their level. EXAMPLE: if you’re teaching abroad, you could choose to provide a quote or two in the students’ native language. Using an anecdote from their culture demonstrates two things: 1) that you’re also on the language-learning path and 2) that you accept their culture and hence them. (If you’re a NNEST teaching in your homeland, please feel free to leave a tip about how you identify with your local students while still bringing a foreign language to the table.)

6) ENGAGE THEM AND ENRICH THEIR CONNECTIONS

It’s very important to show our students we accept them and the previous 5 steps will help (and hopefully they’ll accept us too!). But that’s not enough to develop a successful classroom rapport; we need them to approve the learning environment and each other as well. So, you’ll want to prepare some fun, engaging activities, warmers, or ice-breakers for that first class.

Here is the wonderful crowd-sourced August blog carnival with TONS of great activities to choose from. A true gold-mine of resources!

7) GIVE THEM A CLEAR MAP

Students are curious about you and their classmates, but they also want to know where the class is headed. Explain this to them in a simple and brief manner. Hit on classroom experiences that you’ve historically seen as “winners” with previous classes. This may also be a good time to let them know what their role will be in the months ahead. Empowering them early on can really change the classroom dynamic.

WHAT DOES YOUR CLASSROOM FEEL LIKE?

How are chairs arranged? What do you have on the walls? Could it be more welcoming, more student-centered, more open?

9) LEAVE THEM HANGING with a … to be continued …

Whether it’s Charles Dickens’s weekly installments of “A Tale of Two Cities”, Modern Hollywood films or TV shows, the wily writer will leave their audience wanting more by finishing with a “cliffhanger”.

When you draw that first class to a close, leave them with something that will make the next class something they really don’t want to miss. Possibly introduce an activity for which the final result or conclusion will have to wait until the following meeting.

10) PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The best way to make a great first impression is by being a confident and successful teacher. The ideas and community available on the net are amazing for professional development, and Teaching Village is a very, very fine example so I wholeheartedly recommend you subscribe and follow Barbara’s PLN starter list if you’re on twitter.

Brad Patterson has been a language teacher for over a decade and is a passionate language enthusiast himself. These days, he is the social media manager for an English Language-Learning Publisher called Edulang. You can find him on twitter or at his blog about ELT and other language musings, a journée in language.

Bringing Happiness to the Classroom (by Vladimira Michalkova)

Barbara — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 09:05:09 +0000

What is the meaning of life? To be happy and useful.

- Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

A real authentic smile of a student is worth every single minute you spend on giving them a reason for it.

It’s not always easy to have really happy and cheerful students and perhaps some could even think of it as just something extra, something that comes only after “filling their buckets with information”. However, I strongly believe that teaching students starts with helping them to be happy and comfortable with everything that happens in the classroom — at least.

Somehow, from the very beginning of my teaching career, I have always tried to start with a smile and give my students reasons to smile. Nevertheless, it was this year sometime in April when I felt like it would be worth focusing more on happiness with my students and maybe even using it as the content of a lesson. It was the time after the big earthquake in Japan and even though we were not directly affected in Slovakia, I wanted to do something to help my students enjoy and be thankful for even simple little things that can make us happy and grateful. We talked a lot about their first impressions and ideas that come to their minds when thinking about what makes them happy. Later we focused on more abstract things and discussed the value of those. Along the way, I created a kind of lesson plan we used later.

What I learned while working with my students on “happiness” is that it can be a slow process but if we believe this is the generation to change the world, it is definitely time well spent. And of course they learn so much on the way. They learn not only new words to describe what they want to say but also ways to express their opinion, listen to the ideas of others, agree or disagree and also explain something really personal as well as how to be sensitive to and understanding about what others say. I feel this makes them not only happier but also better and more open people as well and that’s surely an important though often overlooked goal of education and an amazing way to make sure students experience learning to the fullest.

I later discussed the lesson plan with Chuck Sandy and we came up with more ideas to use in the classroom. Later on other teachers embraced the idea and found some potential in it as well and that makes me happy too. Chuck Sandy, Shelly Terrell and Barbara Hoskins Sakamoto took it even further by making it the centerpiece of their upcoming JALT 2011 presentation on the power of connection and collaboration. Chuck, Shelly, Barb and I have created The Happiness Project and are asking students and teachers from around the world to create a poster showing what makes them happy and post it on the site. Already this is becoming a wonderful display of happiness which we hope to continue into the future with a huge collection of happiness – a place where happiness really resides and serves others as a source of happiness they can find in themselves. We hope you and your students will join The Happiness Project, too. Visit the website, find out what happiness means for others and share yours. That would make us very happy.

Vladimira Michalkova teaches English as a foreign language at State Language School in Slovakia. She teaches general and business English to adults and teenagers. She is interested in student-centered approaches, developing learners’ autonomy and believes that a teacher shouldn’t be a slave of course books and that inspiration, motivation, purpose and meaning are essential in learning. She brings colours, crayons and surpr@ise (surprise + praise) to her classroom and just recently also on the canvas. You can follow Vladimira on her blog and on Twitter (@vladkaslniecko)

Teaching High Level Kids (by Randy Poehlman)

Barbara — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 07:16:04 +0000

Photo: Anyaka

Teaching high-level children can be a challenging endeavor, fraught with various drawbacks and difficulties for a teacher. Students who are returning from an English speaking country, who have become bilingual through intensive children’s language programs, or those who come from a household where two or more languages are spoken require a program tailored to their unique needs. Designing lesson plans and implementing them effectively will allow the students to continue to develop their language skills. Using a number of approaches and activities in the classroom helps to keep these high-level elementary students engaged and on the right path. Sharing opinions, debating, writing stories and various other writing styles, expanding the curriculum to include other subjects and moving beyond vocabulary lessons, will allow students to continue their development.

Language with a purpose

Sharing opinions, delivering presentations, debating and questioning each other are important aspects of language ability that are often neglected in the elementary classroom. Allowing students to practice these skills from a young age will allow them to become more confident and improve their ability to openly communicate. Presentation skills can be introduced in a variety of ways including show-and-tell, reading aloud at the head of the class, explaining a particular answer or fact to other students, introducing a group project or interviews. As one of the main goals of presentation practice in the initial stages is to inspire confidence, the teacher should ask only questions that the student can answer easily. To take the pressure off students who display shy characteristics, a good initial tactic is to give the first presentations in small groups. When students are comfortable with these short presentations, or reading assignments the teacher can interject with questions and comments thus leading the class to more advanced presentation projects.

Don’t forget writing!

Writing is often an afterthought in childhood language programs, but making it a central component will improve children’s language skills. When students are able to use the language in context, read the language and then write the language they will progress quickly and expand their skill set. Students who are expected to take notes of classroom content will improve their grammar and knowledge of the language. Student generated stories are an exciting way to introduce a writing component to classroom activities for higher level learners. Simply starting with a character and soliciting answers from the class to make a story will build interest and will lead to dialogue within the class. Pen-pal programs with students from abroad will also build writing skills and add excitement to high-level classes. Pen-pal programs have the added benefit of peer to peer learning, cultural education and using the language for practical ends. Teaching students various forms of writing, including; poetry, news reporting, letters and stories will also prepare them to write proficiently.

Vocabulary in context

Moving beyond vocabulary heavy lessons is also a challenge with higher level students and something a teacher should consider when planning a program. If students are not comfortable using a word, lack fluency, or are unable to frame a conversation or a sentence around introduced vocabulary, then spelling that word and knowing that it exists are of little good in their pursuit of effective communication. Rather, introducing a few new words in a lesson, using those words in context, creating a story that includes those words, discussing those words, having students use a dictionary or thesaurus to find those words and using those words in subsequent lessons will cement their understanding of presented vocabulary and increase their lexicon.

Teach language through content

A great way to expand language skills in elementary school students is to teach other subjects through the prism of a second language. These programs are most often referred to as immersion programs and widen the breadth of language children are exposed to. Immersion programs are often built on significant blocks of time that are sometimes unrealistic when teaching condensed language programs, where a teacher might only have an hour or two with their students in a week. However, condensed immersion programs can also be extremely productive. Including Math, Science, History and other academic subjects into an advanced language program undoubtedly benefit the students. With these condensed immersion programs, striking a balance between content and ability might be a challenge in the early stages. Keeping the content of the class slightly under ability and native-language classroom material is a good rule to follow. Simply put, if you have a group of third grade students, teach them second grade math in their second language and focus on word problems and basic calculation, as the main target is the language behind the concept, not the concept itself.

Using a broad array of teaching methods will allow your higher-level second language learners to expand their knowledge of language, and opening new paths of communication can inspire confidence and progress. Employing expanded writing programs, presentation components and diverse subject matter are just a few of the many tricks for propelling high-level elementary school students forward.

I have been teaching ESL for three years in Japan. I am currently working in Osaka, both developing and teaching extensive children’s programs. I am most interested in Bilingual studies, Immersion programs and Literacy development in young learners.

Choice in the EFL Classroom (by Vicky Saumell)

Barbara — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:33:23 +0000

I have been teaching teens for 20 years and finding effective strategies to motivate them is something that I have always been interested in since it has really helped me with my teen classes. The best strategy in my bag of tricks is CHOICE.

The first time I came across an academic concept of choice was when I read “Choice Theory in the Classroom” by William Glasser. This 1986 book may seem too dated but it was an eye-opener for me and has deeply influenced my teaching. Later, in the late 90s I was presented with a coursebook that had the distinctive feature of allowing for choice of tasks at certain stages of each lesson. The book I’m talking about is Cambridge English for Schools by Andrew Littlejohn and Diana Hicks.

Ever since, I have experimented with different ways of introducing choice into my lessons and I would like to share my experiences. It should be clear that you cannot just let students choose what they want to do. I refer to choice as a planned strategy within a lesson. In order to do so, you fist need to identify the main objective of your task. That is not up for choice! Once your main objective is clear you can come up with more than one way of achieving it. The choice can be in the type of task, the tool to be used, the way to present it, among others.

Here are some examples:

If you want students to write a narrative or argumentative essay or any other type of text, you can provide a few alternative titles for them to choose.

If you want to revise certain vocabulary or grammar, you can write at least two different task types for the same concept.

If you want students to make a presentation on a specific topic, you can let students choose what tool to use to make the presentation. Powerpoint? A video? A poster? Let them choose!

If you want students to improve their presentations skills and fluency, you can allow them to choose the topic. Let it be something they are interested in!

If you have worked with a book and you want students to do a wrap-up project, you can let them come up with ideas of what to do. You can always guide them by giving them a few options so that they know what you expect from them. In this case it is a wise idea to approve the choices before any work is done in order to avoid misdirected tasks or projects. Here`s an example of what my students did after reading A Midsummer Night`s Dream.

You may be thinking that this implies more work for the teacher and although it is in some cases, the benefits in terms of motivation are far greater. And even though I have focused on teenagers, this can easily be applied with all age groups and levels.

Maria Victoria Saumell holds a degree in Literary and Technical Translation and a Diploma in the Theory and Methodology of TESOL (Distinction). She is the co-author of Teacher Development Interactive: Preparation for the Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT), author of Meeting Point 3 and 4 for the Storyline coursebook series and series consultant for English in Common coursebook series, all for Pearson. She is currently the author and tutor of New Learning Environments for the Master’s in ELT at Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia. She is the Overall Coordinator of the EFL department at Instituto San Francisco de Asis, a private school in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is also a freelance materials writer and a presenter at professional development conferences, especially on the integration of ICT for language learning. She is an amateur acrobatic gymnast and a proud mum and pet-owner. Vicky has two blogs, Educational Technology in ELT and her personal blog.

How to plan an exciting EFL museum trip (by Lesley Ito)

Barbara — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:06:16 +0000

As a teacher in an English language school with a strong cross-curricular focus, I always try my best to bring authentic materials into the classroom. Humans learn more when they can experience the real thing, instead of just looking at pictures of it in a book. Of course, it is not always possible to bring everything you want to teach about into the classroom, so it is beneficial to occasionally take students to a museum.

I started museum trips as part of my curriculum six years ago after getting free tickets to an art exhibit of works of Niki de Saint Phalle. My husband and I thought her colorful “Nanas” would appeal to the children and we wanted them to see this exhibition for themselves. Since that first year, I’ve been taking students and their parents to museum exhibits once a year for five years. At first, I wanted my students to enjoy the works of great artists, so I took them to see exhibits by Salvador Dali, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, and Yayoi Kusama. This year we decided to try something different, so we went to a great exhibit about the Olmec civilization.

A successful museum trip takes a lot of careful preparation, especially when you are trying to have one mostly in English and the exhibit signs are in another language! Here are some helpful things I have learned over the years about what factors contribute to a successful museum trip:

1. Choose the exhibit carefully.

Is this something you think will appeal to children? Also, if you anticipate that this exhibit will be very popular, try to have the museum trip on a weekday or first thing in the morning on the weekend. Avoid the first or last weekends it is open. Permanent exhibits will be less crowded, but if students have already seen that one before, they might not want to go again. Also, parents are usually more enthusiastic about having the chance to see a new exhibit and share it with their child.

2. Use worksheets to keep the students “on track”.

At least a week before your event, visit the museum and take lots of notes. Using these notes, prepare a simple one or two page worksheet, so students will be looking at the exhibits and gathering information to answer the questions instead of running around the museum and bothering the other patrons! Keep jargon to a minimum and try to see the exhibits from a child’s perspective. I made four versions of a worksheet for my students: one for kindergarteners, one for elementary age students who had beginning reading skills (I inserted lots of clip art to help them read and understand the questions.), one for elementary students who could read (I just took out the clip art from the earlier version) and one for more advanced older elementary students.

Here are some examples of questions I asked on the worksheets:

Circle where the Olmec and Mayan civilizations are on this map of Mexico.
Is the colossal Olmec head was heavy or light? How much does it weigh?
Was the ball used for ritual ball games heavy or light? Was it made of natural rubber or stone? Was the game like baseball, soccer or tennis?
What did they grind on this stone? What are tortilla chips made of?
This statue is half man and half ____________. (Answer: jaguar)
How is the Mayan calendar different from our calendar?

After everyone has had a chance to through the exhibits and answer the questions, gather somewhere to the side and go over the questions together. This type of wrap-up exercise also gives your event a nice ending.

3. Contact the museum staff beforehand.

It is a good idea to let the museum staff know you are planning to bring a group for a multitude of reasons. You’ll need to find out the museum’s rules, for example, many museums allow people to bring pencils, but not pens or mechanical pencils. Also, the staff can suggest places for your group to meet or do wrap-up at the end. Many museums have admission discounts for large groups. Some museums will even let the teacher in for free a week before the event so they can take notes to prepare their worksheets.

4. Cover the basics about the exhibition in the classroom beforehand

I’m always amazed at how young learners get so excited about seeing something familiar! Taking the time to teach a lesson on the subject matter before the trip helps students to feel more connected with the exhibits and they will naturally be more enthusiastic and motivated to find out more. In my kindergarten classes, I showed the students pictures of Mexico, the Olmec colossal heads, jaguars and Mayan pyramids. In my elementary classes, we found Mexico on a world map, colored its flag and then talked about what language was spoken in Mexico, how important corn was to that part of the world and made a time line of the Olmec, Mayan and Aztec civilizations. We also sampled tortilla chips and salsa, an uncommon snack in Japan! In my advanced elementary classes, we also briefly discussed how the Olmec influenced the Mayan and Aztec civilizations and how the Mayan calendar worked.

Get the museum trip off to a good start with a simple quiz show!

I made four small posters with simple questions about the Mexican flag, where Mexico is on a world map and how old the Olmec civilization was. Before we went into the museum, we had a brief Parents vs. Students quiz. The students were very eager to show off to their parents how much they knew! This was the first time we tried this and we received a lot of positive feedback from both students and parents.

Planning a museum trip is a lot of work, but students and their parents enjoy it and get so much out of it. It also adds to the reputation of my school and is an educational, low cost event.

Lesley Ito, originally from Florida, has been teaching English to EFL/ESL students in Nagoya, Japan for over 17 years. She is a teacher trainer, author and the owner of BIG BOW English Lab, a private language school with a unique cross-curricular focus. You can access her articles and free downloads at her school’s website at http://www.bigbowenglish.com/teachertraining.htm or read her blog at http://www.bigbowenglish.com/itolesley.htm. You can also follow her on Twitter.

Proactive Discipline–Tend to Your Garden (by Eric Kane)

Barbara — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 12:45:47 +0000

Creating a positive learning environment with few discipline problems is a goal of any teacher. We all want to give our young learners the best opportunity to succeed, but sometimes we forget that building this type of environment, much like tending to a garden, takes planning, effort, consistency and a fair amount of time and patience. Any missed step can lead to a reactive environment, or a garden full of weeds.

Maintaining discipline in the classroom is, I believe, largely a proactive art, but one that is easy to master if we practice the “Three C’s.”

Clarity – Know what we want
Consistency – Carry it out
Caring – Protect it and Give it time

Clarity

Clarity in the classroom is knowing our methodology, materials and classroom goals. They are the seeds with which we plant our garden. It is crucial to know what we’re planting and when to plant it.

Design Your Garden

The first step to proactively decreasing behavioral issues in the classroom is to know our curriculum’s goals, methodology and materials. If something doesn’t fit the abilities, desires or interests of the students, adjustments need to be made.

We can adapt most curriculums with a little forward thinking. It might take a some extra time, planning or homework, but most programs can be adapted by the teacher to suit the needs of the students. If it can’t, find a new curriculum!

Failure to plan well or make adjustments is one of the primary reasons for many behavioral problems we see in or out of the classroom. Symptoms such as boredom, apathy, restlessness and even more extreme examples like pushing, kicking and bad-mouthing can all be lessened with the right planning.

Plant the Seeds

The next step is to communicate our curriculum goals and expectations to our students and their parents.

At our school in Shiga we have stamp books for each level that clearly outline the goals and expectations of the class, student and parents. It has made a significant difference in both the motivation and behavior of our students as well as greatly increasing parental involvement.

Clearly communicating our carefully planned goals and expectations creates mutual understanding, which can go a long way towards creating the garden of our dreams. This is easily done in print, but it must be backed up by the curriculum, classroom activities and homework, and the occasional verbal reminder, which leads us to…

Consistency

Now that everything is planted, don’t forget to weed and water. Consistency in the classroom, like in the garden, will produce a fruitful return. Consistency creates trust, which is the foundation of good behavior in the classroom.

Watering

We must feed our classes by providing engaging lessons which support the goals and expectations that we have defined and communicated. We can do so by:

conducting our classes carefully by delivering our words with the right speed, intonation, and pause while supporting our spoken messages with non-verbal cues such as flash cards, posters and toys as well as body and facial expressions.
controlling the energy flow of our lessons by alternating between high and low physical and mental requirements. Physical energy high = mental energy low, and visa versa.
controlling our physical environment. Try to identify certain locations with which students can identify certain activities or expectations. In other words, don’t plant the pumpkins right next to the lettuce.

Additionally, we must remember to be compassionate, flexible and have a willingness to adapt, while also practicing the basics such as being on-time, prepared and mentally ready.

Weeding

Despite our careful preparation and planning, weeds grow. They pop up here and there, and how quickly we deal with them determines their effect on the overall garden. Let it go too long and the weeds can take over.

Here, speed is of the essence. I’ve found that a gentle reminder of peer expectations (Is this okay, everyone?), as well as my own (Are you sitting up, Taro?), can go a long way.

I’ve also seen that acknowledging met expectations (Thank you for cleaning up quickly.) and effort (Nice try, Taro.) can be highly motivating while simultaneously reinforcing good behavior.

Caring

If clarity and consistency get our garden started, then caring is it’s greenhouse. It is the protective umbrella that nurtures and shelters our hard work and enables us to back off enough to allow our garden to flourish.

Just as a carrot will grow (if we don’t pull it out to check on it!), sometimes all a student needs is a little time. A touch on the shoulder and a smile. A knowing nod. A finger pointed at a minor mistake. A smiley face on something well done. These little things communicate that we are patient, recognize potential and ultimately, that we really do care.

Final Thoughts

If our students know that we’ve taken the time to carefully define, share and work towards clear and accepted goals, and truly believe that we care deeply about their success, many of the day-to-day discipline issues we face in the classroom will disappear. What’s left is a rich, supportive learning environment that will feed our deepest desire as educators – to help our students grow.

Remember – If we live up to our own goals and expectations, we will be trusted, and our students will generally be disciplined (disciples?). It’s a lot easier to lead the willing.

Theodore Roosevelt said it best:

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Happy Gardening!

Eric Kane has been teaching in Japan for 16 years. He has made numerous presentations at both local and regional ETJ events and will be a guest presenter in this year’s OUP All-Japan Summer Tour. Eric is very interested in educational technology and has spent the last several years developing a children’s CD (Let’s Take a Walk) and YouTube channel dedicated to young EFL/ESL learners. You can learn more about Eric’s projects on his ELF Learning website and facebook page. Eric is also on Twitter as @ELFLearning.

Note from Barb: Like many of us, Eric is trying to do what he can to help children in Tohoku, and has committed to donating 5% of sales for the first 1000 orders of the CD mentioned in his bio (“Let’s Take a Walk”). One of the charities he will be working with is Smile Kids Japan, a charity dedicated to helping orphanages throughout Japan, but currently focused on those who lost parents in the Tohoku region. In addition to their monetary donation, EFL Learning will be sending a yet-to-be-determined number of CDs to each location to bring a little music to children’s lives. If you would like more information about Eric’s charity efforts, you can contact him by email: elflearning (at) gmail (dot) com.

(Thanks, Eric!)

The “Reading Pictures” Strategy (By Naomi Ganin-Epstein)

Barbara — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 07:28:29 +0000

It’s Wednesday, 11:00, just a regular day at the high school. Two English teachers are sitting in the teacher’s room marking exams during their “free” period. Every now and then you can hear each one exclaim (or mutter, as the case may be) “How could he have possible written THAT?” or “How in earth did she come up with such an answer?” They compare notes. One of these two teachers is Delia, who teaches a weak group. One of her pupils wrote the following:

Q – When can you take an art class at the community center?

A – 22 Pleasant St.

The other teacher, David, teaches a stronger group. He points out the frustrating answer:

Q – (In relation to an article on the history of the Academy Awards) “Why is Walt Disney mentioned?”

A – Walt Disney mentioned many people in his speech.

photo by Gil Epshtein

It’s one thing to answer a question incorrectly. It’s another matter entirely when the answer is not even remotely “in the ballpark”. Both Delia and David are frustrated because they have taught the vocabulary items that appear in such questions, have tested these lexical items, yet these pupils are still not answering the questions correctly. They feel that reviewing isolated vocabulary items again will not be effective. “Apparently an important distinction exists between knowing a word meaning well enough to pass a multiple-choice vocabulary test and knowing it well enough to use it in text comprehension” (Beck, Perfetti, &McKeown, 1982). Thus, Delia and David decide on an intervention plan using what I call the “Reading Pictures” strategy.

One of the most important skills that students must acquire is answering questions with answers that are relevant to the type of question asked. That may sound painfully obvious. However, when we practice answering questions in conjunction with the skills of understanding the text and identifying the correct answers, weaker students are unable to absorb all the necessary information and skills their teachers are trying to impart. This is particularly true for students with small vocabularies. Therefore, in order to have the pupils actually focus on understanding the questions and their forms, we must separate the questions from the texts. This is what is done in the “Reading Pictures” strategy. So how can a student answer the questions if the text doesn’t exist? Both Delia and David do this in a number of ways.

Their favorite way to begin is by presenting questions about a scene (or two) from an age – appropriate film. This is a good method to begin with because the motivation factor here is strong. Motivation is an important variable in reading literacy. (Pressley, Borkowski & Schneider,1989) This method is particularly suitable for working on “Wh-type” questions. Before the students see the scene, the teachers go over the worksheet with the questions. They discuss what the possible answers may be to questions such as “Who is in the helicopter?” “What color is the man’s shirt” “What happened to the truck”? After going over the worksheet the students put it aside, watch the scene (a scene is about 7 minutes long) and only then answer the questions. The scene is shown once again with pupils holding the worksheets in their hands and checking the answers. This activity can be done even without actually screening a movie in class. Questions can be asked about popular films the students are familiar with, although the questions must be of a more general nature (it isn’t productive to ask about the color of someone’s shirt). Even if a certain student hasn’t seen the movie, they are usually able to answer general questions about it (most pupils know that there are blue characters in the movie AVATAR, for example).

For Delia and David however, movies are suitable for only a brief period because the format can easily become repetitive. Using pictures, in contrast, presents a myriad of opportunities.

The Longaberger Basket Building, Ohio U.S.A

Pictures can interest older learners very much if suitable pictures are used.

Advanced exam-type questions can be asked about them. David has access to computers during his lessons, thus is able to have his students work with photos in full color. He can take advantages of the many resources available for obtaining suitable pictures. In fact, the number of pictures on the Internet is so large that David has found that he saves precious time if he uses sites which organize suitable pictures by topic. Larry Ferlazzo’s “My Best of” series is an absolute goldmine for this purpose.

However, when Delia teaches, the computer room is never available. Printing full color pictures can easily become expensive and impractical. Delia has found that magazines are a wonderful source of photos that interest older learners. Credit card companies and insurance companies tend to run ads in which one full page is a picture without any text on it (logos should not be used in class!). These pictures often depict fanciful things. One of Delia’s best loved pictures is of a young, smartly dressed woman, standing in a kitchen filled with clothes, shoes and bags. This woman has turned her kitchen into a closet! Both boys and girls are intrigued by that idea!

Language at all levels can be practiced with such pictures. Simple tasks such as ”Name three items that can be found in this kitchen” or more advanced reasoning tasks such as completing the statement “We can infer that the woman in the picture doesn’t have financial problems because…” can both be done with the same picture.

Many pupils tend to respond to questions in a concrete manner. A common exam question is “Where could you find such a text?” (the answer expected would be “in a newspaper” or “in a personal diary” or on a notice board”). Yet many pupils reply “I can’t find such a text/picture”. By focusing on such a question when using pictures, the students learn that they must relate to the fact that if it’s an ad, it would probably be found in a magazine or newspaper, etc.

Pictures are also useful for practicing questions using common tricky phrases such as “The woman looks pleased”. Pupils tend to think that the word “look” only has one meaning and confuse “pleased” with “please”.

Delia and David are both incredibly creative and use the pictures to practice many question formats. They put into practice the finding that “effective instruction makes use of “rich classroom instruction involving eclectic techniques” (McKeown, Beck, Omanson & Pope, 1985).

However, at some point a pupil will invariable say “But there are no pictures on the national exams!” The teachers respond by giving the pupils a short text written by both teachers about the pupils and/or their school. Thus, while they are asked to deal with a text in addition to dealing with the questions, they really should be able to answer the questions easily if they THINK. And this is an excellent opportunity to show the pupils that sometimes they work without thinking. For example, Delia asked her pupils: “Do all the pupils in our class come to school by bus?” The following is written in the text: “most pupils come to school by bus”. Some pupils saw the word “bus” in the text and immediately wrote “yes”. But when she pointed out that they know that two of their classmates walk to school every day they admitted they hadn’t even stopped to think about what they were doing.

In conclusion, by separating the tasks the pupils were required to focus on, Delia and David found that their students’ reading comprehension scores improved. You can still find both teachers marking tests on Wednesdays, at 11 a.m. in the high school teacher’s room. But as the year progresses, they have fewer and fewer outrageous answers to compare.

References

Beck, I., Perfetti C. & Meckeown, M. (1982). Effects of long term vocabulary instruction on lexical access and reading comprehension Journal of educational psychology, 74(4) 506-521

McKeown, M., Beck, I., Omanson R. & Pope M. (1985). Some effects of the nature and frequency of vocabulary instruction on the knowledge and use of words. Reading Research Quarterly, 20 (5) 522-535

Pressley, Borkowski & Schneider (1989) as quoted in Becker M., McElvany N., & Kortenbruck M. (2010). Intrinsic and Extrinsic Reading Motivation as predictors of Reading Literacy: A Longitudal Study. Journal of Educational Psychology Vol. 102, (4) 773-785

For the past twenty-five years I have specialized in teaching English as a foreign language to deaf and hard of hearing pupils in Israel. I began my carreer as an elementary school teacher but have taught high-school for the last 21 years. I have a B.A. in Deaf Education, a B.E.D. in EFL and an M.A. in Curriculum Development. I’m the author of two textbooks for these pupils. I am both a teacher and a teacher’s counselor. I blog at: Visualising Ideas and on twitter: @naomishema. I live in Kiryat-Ono, Israel, with my husband and two sons.

Rice in Japan and Rice Around the World (by Bob Middleton)

Barbara — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:04:23 +0000

Bringing food topics into the language classroom is one way to stimulate language learning as well as hungry appetites. 9 and 10 year old students in the 5th grade of our elementary school in Japan take part in an 8-hour lesson on varieties of rice in Japan. This Japan-unit is later followed by a similar one on rice around the world. In the lesson they will learn names and kinds of rice, the amounts of rice grown around the country, prices per kilogram, special dishes, and special points about each of the rice varieties. The end result will be a hand-made Japan rice book including a small sample of each kind of rice.

Special points about the rice

Special information is distributed to the 8 groups in the class in Japanese and English, thus making them a ‘rice masters’ for that rice variety and location. Through a series of class-to-class interviews with learners from the other groups, students gain a better understanding of rice around Japan. Slowly the book takes shape. A further incentive for the students is to encourage other groups to want to try their variety by promoting the rice’s special points. At the end of the 8-hour unit, students will have a chance to taste the winning variety. The students will continually visit each of the other groups and exchange the information in English about the rice and enter it into their books.

The special points of information are also given to the children in the group in Japanese and they choose which ones they would like to use to ‘promote’ their rice from between 5 to 10 choices. Children use bilingual dictionaries and help from teachers and friends to translate the points to English. This section of the unit takes 2 to 3 classes to prepare and deliver. The final promotional presentations are done pair to pair with posters, mini-theatrics, and short stories. This is more spontaneous language use than the information gathering done in earlier classes.

Special points were also introduced in the first class of the unit when a colorful table full of authentic products made from, or containing rice, were presented for a ‘three hint quiz’ game. These included rice cakes, cereals, crackers, and sweets as well as more difficult things like makeup and soap. Many students were pleasantly surprised to learn at the end of the class that all the things contained rice.

What can you say?

*Note that some of the language items are recycled from earlier lessons. From grade 3, the students have English classes twice per week. From grade 1, the lessons are once per week. I will use Gifu Prefecture, one of the areas of Japan that produces local rice, as an example. Questions and answers presented to the students that contribute to language learning include:

Where are you from?

I’m from Gifu.

What is the rice’s name in Gifu?

It’s Asahi no Yume.

How much rice grows in Gifu?

120,000 tons.

What kind of rice is Asahi no Yume?

It’s short grain rice.

How much is 1 kg. of Asahi no Yume?

It’s 700 yen.

Can I have some Asahi no Yume rice please?

Sure. Of course. Here you are. (This is a sample of the rice)

Can I have an Asahi no Yume rice bag please?

Yes, here you are. (This is a small photo card of the package)

Thank you. Good bye. See you. Have fun!

Special points for this variety include:

What are the special points of Asahi no Yume rice?

It’s good for sushi and gohei mochi (a sweet rice snack with miso, walnuts, and sugar in Gifu.) It’s strong against disease. It’s tastes good hot or cold.

How does it connect to the learners?

The units mirror similar content that the 5th grade students learn in social studies classes. In our area local farmers help the children plant and grow rice in the spring. This rice is later harvested in the fall and shared with the farmers for a delicious curry and rice lunch. Our homegrown English study curriculum uses content from the regular studies to incorporate elements of content and task-based learning. So in this unit they learn more about Japanese geography and social studies, along with polishing their presentation and artistic skills.

The world rice unit changes course a bit by finding the location of the countries on a map first, matching flags to countries, and matching photographs of people form the region. Also, as most Japanese rice varieties are short grain rice, a new surprise is that world rice can vary in size and shape; Italian rice being round, Canadian ’wild rice’ being dark brown and not actually a rice, and some having a sweet aroma when cooked.

What else could you do?

In other variations of this rice unit, students have made quizzes from the information they have collected and presented them to their friends in English, again recycling both the language and the content points of the unit. In making original quizzes it is believed that learners will become more aware of how areas of study can be recycled in a creative way, leading to a better understanding of the topic.

What we would like to see is more student initiative on the rice topics of study, the rice facts and information they gather. I can imagine similar units on local foods such as fruits or produce. Adults may enjoy topics on wine, beer, and cheese taking the place of rice in other countries.

The combination of pair and group-work activities learning about rice makes for an exciting atmosphere that helps connect the outside world to the language classroom and our learner’s everyday lives. And the adventure of discovering new things while exploring a new language might be just the right dish to share with your class.

Bob Middleton has been laughing and learning with children in Japan for over 20 years. Wearing other hats, he has taught English for all ages from wee small children to really big adults and even went back to school to learn and read more about what it was he was doing. He has recently been team teaching, training teachers, and helping to develop an ongoing curriculum and materials in a Monbukagakusho (Japan Ministry of Education) pilot program for the past nine years, using a content-based approach in both the local elementary school and junior high classrooms. He encourages humor in the classroom, along with a ‘be curious and discover’ approach. You can follow Bob on Twitter (@catsndogs)