Lesson Reflection #3

A few weeks ago I decided to try a lesson directly out of the Syllabus & Materials module coursebook with my adult eikaiwa. It is a task-based lesson focused on written English. While the aim of the lesson is to get the students to predict the text and then share information about the text in order to create a more complete story, it turned into a different type of lesson because the students didn't really understand what they were doing and why. At the end of the lesson they said they would like to do something like this again because now they understand what the point of all the different steps is. It was a learning process for both of us.

Step 1: I wrote the title of the article up on the board and asked students to predict what the article was about:

'Excuse me, I've just jumped off the Empire State Building'

Step 2: I divided the class into two groups (3 students in each group) and gave each group key words from the article (jig-saw activity). Each group had a different list. With this list students were supposed to create a story based on these facts. Instead of trying to piece it together, they created wild stories that might be related to these hints.

List A Clues:

John Helms, a young artist - took a lift - awoke half an hour later - 85^th floor - gave up the idea - knocked on a window - I poured myself a stiff drink - families offered him a home for the holidays.

List B Clues:

Decided to kill himself - 86th floor - a 1,000 feet below - a two feet ledge - Bill Steckman, who was working there - Christmas was not such a bad time

Step 3: After solidifying their story (adding lots of their own creativity), they sent an ambassador to the other group to exchange stories. The problem with this step was that because their stories had become so wild and off the wall, it wasn't possible to pick out the real tid-bits to improve their own stories. Perhaps the clues just didn't provide enough information to make a coherent story without adding lots of other information. Maybe they should have been given more clues to connect!

Step 4: The ambassadors returned and retold the other stories. But again, this was only useful as a retelling excercise, they couldn't take the information to improve their story because they had all made up so much information that wasn't given in the clues.

Step 5: Each group presented their story and we discussed the liklihood of each. Not very likely considering one group had decided it was Santa's sleigh who had gotten stuck on the top of the Empire State Building.

Step 6: The finally got to read the article. At this point they were curious to read the article and they read it very quickly given they had been exposed to hints and some key words/ideas already. So the steps that came before were useful in getting them to read it quickly, instead of spending a long time trying to get through each word, which they often get caught up in.

Step 7: Discuss the story and compare it to their stories. They realized at this point that their stories were totally off. And it clued into them they each group had been given different clues that might have helped them create a story similar to the original but they had decided to take a creative route instead. So maybe if we try it again it will work differently. After the reading the discussion turned to topics like suicide and the holidays and cultural differences between the US and Japan.

Module 3

Well, it's official. Paper #3 has been submitted; mistakes, typos, and all! Well, hopefully there aren't too many of those, but I'm sure I missed something. But I think it's my best paper yet! Let's see what 'the grader' thinks!

The good news: I'm officially on academic hiatus until January! I'll continue the MA course on campus. Being a distance student has been interesting and challenging, the best part--the people I've met! Thanks guys! I couldn't have made it this far without you!!

Now...time to clean the apartment and start packing!

Birmingham, here I come!! Are you ready??

Kairyudo Publishing

In preparation for my next paper I've been doing some research on the Sunshine textbook from Kairyudo Publishing. Kairyudo has been publishing English textbooks for over 50 years, since just after WWII. The first English series was called Jack & Betty. I'd love to see a copy of it, to see how English texts have changed in 50 years. I contacted Kairyudo Publishing and they directed me to the Textbook Research Center in Tokyo. I will be in Tokyo next weekend, if it's open on Saturday maybe I'll try to check it out!


Everyone is quick to judge how horrible the textbooks are in JHS, but because I haven't seen anything better in use, and nothing more innovative in approach, I'm really very skeptical that a more innovative (i.e. learner-centered) style text/syllabus would work in a JHS 3phw (3 hours per week) context (Legislation by Hypothesis: The Case of Task-based Instruction by M. Swan, 2005 ).

The standard government textbooks are developed to meet the standards of MEXT, the organization responsible for the national educational curriculum. The English curriculum is supposed to Develop Japanese with English Abilities.

Food for Thought

In an email titled: "TBL: DOA and RIP" my tutor said:

Yes, I do believe that TBL is dead. What we are seeing is the unraveling of the concept as it becomes diffused throughout the field. You will find just about any practice out there begin called “Task Based”, which is the same thing that happened to the “communicative” method. Actually, most of the communicative practices were codified in some form in TBL, IMHO.

This was after I read his 1998 article, Returning Full Circle: A Survey of EFL Syllabus Designs, where he predicts that TBL is on it's way out the door.

I found this particularly interesting considering our little study group has been grappling with this for tha last few months and trying to figure out how much TBL we do, what it really looks like, how we can incorporate it more into our classes and whether or not an ALL TBL syllabus could be effective in our learning contexts.

I think, as with most things, one needs to be cautious of an ANSWER to a problem like "how to teach English most effectively?" Obviously, (or maybe not) there isn't one right learning style for every student. And there isn't one right teaching method for every teacher. Balance people...BALANCE!!

Dissertation Idea #2

I've just read these two articles:

1) An Interview with Prabhu

2) A Review of his book, Second Language Pedagogy

In the interview he did with Alan Maley, here is what Prabhu had to say:

What I want to do when I get abck to India is keep an open house for any teacher who wants to walk in and talk about teaching. It doesn't matter if it's only two or four teachers. I want to try to get the teachers to state on paper what they've said. Trying to write things down, clarifies things. It straightens one's thinking. It reveals and develops new thoughts. This is the 'process writing' philosophy. So, a small number of teachers trying to state their perceptions, and then other teachers trying to state their perceptions but taking in the perceptions of the first group - this can not only help those teachers immediately but it can also reveal to us some of the processes by which teachers' perceptions work and form. Perhaps there's room for something like a journal - not inthe sense of learned articles - but of teachers' statements circulated to other interested teachers.

So where is Prabhu now?? And does he really have an open door policy? Like I said, it would be fascinating to sit down over a cup of chai and chaat and talk with him about his experiences but I'd also like to hear about what he thinks about "International English." I'm particulary interesed in IE and developing countries and their socially and politically marginalized communities. It seems like what is often lacking in all these discussions of syllabus design is context! Maybe I should read his book!

Lesson Reflection #2

In the struggle to identify task-based lessons at the lower levels, I'm being mindful of what I do do with my classes in an effort to continually adjust and readjust lessons to move towards a more task-based learning environment. And it is an adjustment, because as I'm learning, I'm also teaching and training my co-teachers as well. Task-based lessons are not always the norm, but they do seem much more popular with the students as well as the teachers if that first step can be taken!

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6小-3中学校　Typhoon Review Game

I've played this game with students from 6th grade to 9th grade. And everyone has loved it. It's a great review game and can be used with just about anything. But I've found the best way to use it is by requiring the students to answer questions and/or complete mini-tasks in order to score points. Depending how you structure it, it might be considered a mulit-mini-task lesson, if there is such a thing. The junior high students are divided into groups of 4, and each group is given a small white board. They are told to take turns writing their answers on the white board if that's what the task asks of them. But because each group has members of various levels this requires the group to work together if they want to be successful and have a chance at the typhoon score board.

Everytime the group performs/answers the task correctly they can pick points from the typhoon board. For example, "F4." I pull the sticky paper off and announce the points they are awarded for completing their task. The papers are labeled with points from 1-20 (5 points=1 house). And then there are "Typhoon" cards. If a group gets a "typhoon" they can erase the points of any other group--or blow their houses off the map! So sad, I know, but it's popular! And there are a few "Double Typhoons," allowing them to erase the points from two groups.

Here are the types of questions/tasks I've used with this age group:

• Simple word translation (good as a warm-up to the game or if time is running out)
• Unscramble the sentence
• Who am I? quiz (listen and they write the answer)
• Geography quiz
• Prepare a speech (self-introduction, favorite food, favorite sport, etc.)
• Word search (3 fastest teams get points)
• Complete a puzzle
• Finish a maze (spelling, ABC's, etc.)
• Olympic Medals--printed from the internet and I asked questions about the information on the page (i.e. How many gold medals to Australia get?)
• Put a Map on the board and ask them how to get from Point A to Point B
• Speed Reading Activities
• Look at a picture and make a few sentences

The elementary school students haven't practiced writing, so I focus on speaking, listening activities with them. And depending on the class and their confidence, I have done a pure vocab review. But with other classes, I've assigned them to give a speech, answer questions, etc. If the student representative for that round doesn't know the answer, they are supposed to ask their group for help! It's fun to watch them work together and teach each other!

Dissertation Idea #1

Here is a link to an article in The Hindu about the 34th English Language Teachers' Association of India (ELTAI) in 2003. N.S. Prabhu, famous for his task-based Bangalore Project, gave the keynote speech. I'd love to sit down and with some chai and chaat with this man. Anyone know where I can find him? Is he still in Bangalore?