Jr. HIgh Day

[parasitegirl]

(written last Friday)

I’ve logged three hours in my hard contacts this morning.

I’ve just taken them out and put my glasses on for the day. Headache. It makes me not want to write, or work, but I have 2 hours until lunchtime. This afternoon I have to go with the staff to observe some class, I think.

 

The last class I observed depressed me. We went to a jr.high to observe a variety of classes. I was sent to cover the English class.

 

This was the structure of the English class, a first year first semester class.

 

20 minutes:

Greetings, wherein the students greet the teacher in chorus. There were a few variations on the “I’m fine thank you and you” reply (I’m hungry, I’m exciting) and the students howl in laughter at those variations. This could be built on (you could introduce a few more absurd ways to reply) but it was not. English was not made more fun, it was treated as something to get through.

 

They went on to reply, in chorus, to a series of questions which departed more and more from any sort of natural greeting. What is the weather? What is today’s date? What is your hobby? How old are you? And few questions were offered up for students to individually answer, but the teacher was very quick to correct them and make them reply in full. “Yes, I am.” Instead of yes. I mentioned at the review that I’d like her to first praise the student for understanding the question and giving a passable answer before prompting for a whole sentence. I would rather. “Yes, yes you are. Full sentence please? Yes…I…very good!” and to get used to asking the class for someone who can “help” when a student freezes instead of always supplying the full sentence herself. “Helper? Who can help? Full sentence?” to get more people involved.

 

My eyes started glazing over at this point. I understood that first semester tests were to start the next day…but it still felt absurd.

 

Then they had to flip open books and do a quick writing text of translating sentences into English. I was offered a seat but declined it because I was afraid of falling asleep. The gaijin observer falling asleep in your class shows students that the subject really IS that boring.

 

One boy turned to me and asked how I am. “Sleepy”, I said…and then I smiled and amended it to an exaggerated “I Am Sleepy.” He was a sporty guy who enjoys attention and would be one of the three regular hand raisers in class. He would not, however, participate in any partner work or translating work, telling me it is too hard. I think that he could do it, easily, because the problem is that it’s too boring to hold his attention. Getting attention from the class interests him and when that is available he rises to the task, regardless of mistakes me might make…because even mistakes get him attention.

 

Then the buzzer rang and they had to do vocabulary work. This was in the form of practicing verbs with Action Cards. The teacher held up the first card and asked what it was. The students told her it was “play baseball.” After the first card there was no time for students to think and come up with the answers because she flipped, said the card, and they must repeat…and it was always something like “sing a song” instead of just sing…which I understand is because they are trying to enforce verb + object stuff…but still felt absurd to me. I thought about if it would make sense to first run through the cards with verbs and THEN verb and objects (sing…what?) …or objects, then verbs and objects. I filed this away. The teacher did not pause after the first card, so it quickly became repeat time with no thinking time. This is one of the things I brought up at review time. I think that a tiny pause while they try to say, or at least think about, what each card is is essential. This would allow students who are insecure that moment to think of what the English is, and if they are right to have that correct thought re-inforced by the teacher when she says what it is…that brief moment of “I think I know this…I was right” is invaluable for students. If the class is the sort that has the nerve to shout things out then the teacher will also have the valuable info of how much of the material the students are grasping (and how comfortable they are trying to say something). I don’t think the teacher has to force students to say it, or wait until someone does…but if they give the option and praise students who try, then more verbalization will come over time.

 

Then the students, who had the same Action Cards, had to drill each other in pairs. Some did. Some didn’t.

 

When the teacher asked who got a perfect score, Sporty raised his hand. His partner shouted うそつき (liar) at him. At this point the teacher missed a perfectly good chance to use one of the phrases in the dialog they’ll eventually learn. This would have been the time to smile and ask them each “Oh, Really?” and then move on….

 

Now we went on to the 15 minutes of what was posed as the “communication oriented” section of the class. The goal was said to be communication and the understanding of and ability to say “What is this?/What’s this?”, “Is this…?” and “It is a…/It’s a….” I think in communication activities more emphasis should be placed on praising students who show a cognative understanding of what is going on and to leave the perfect speaking to the teacher modeling and re-enforcing the desired goal. Towards the end of an activity a teacher can insist on perfect English…but only after it’s been modeled and reeforced many, many times. If the goal is communication, let them communicate and show that the understand first…then polish.

 

But, yeah, from the start “it is…” was stressed.

 

The activity was explained in easy English and gestures, which I applaud, but it soon became boring.

 

She wrote A Wolf, A Dog, and A Fox on the board. She made sure students understood the words and asked students if they liked each animal by raising hands. She handed out paper. She asked the students to pick on animal and write the name in TINY letters on the page. Then she gave out magic markers and told students to draw the animal they picked in 20 seconds…nice and large. The kids understood the instructions and did so, protesting as the time ended, howling at each other’s crude drawings as she collected them. Then she started showing a few choice ones.

 

What is this? She asked.

 

About 3 students raised hands.

Student: “Dog”

Teacher (to the answering student): “IT IS A dog?”

Student:….it…is..adog.

 

Because she didn’t have students write their own names on the sheets she lost out the opportunity ask the artist: “Dog? Is it a dog?” reiterating the patterns and getting more students involved. I think the correct reply to a student who might say “No” would be for me to turn to the class and say “No! No it’s not” It’s not a dog! Who is next?”…but I think the average Jr. High teacher would think the correct response to being told NO in a communication excersize would be to get that student to say “No, it’s not”…making it more stressful for all involved. This is how kids start to hate English.

 

Then she stopped to write the core sentences on the board and to translate them. This helped lose momentum. I also don’t think it was needed…people seemed to understand. Then she asked a volunteer to come up and take her place choosing a picture and asking “what is this?” and calling on students….only 3 students participated regularly and by the time we were on a second volunteer the activity had died and students were bored. It never became more complex or more interesting.

 

If I had to use that activity as a base what would I do differently?

 

As soon as I finished the first round of “what is this” and thought that they understood the drawing-collecting, showing, and questioning pattern (5 minutes tops) I would have put them into groups (the groups they have for lunchtime) and handed out a paper per group. I would have erased the options of wolf, dog, fox and declared it was time for ANY animal. Bat, ok. Cat ok. Elephant, ok. And asked the groups to pick the animal, write it in tiny letters (Japanese or English)…walk around to make sure they all did it…and then get one member to draw it in 30 seconds.

 

Then I would have collected the drawings, passed out blank paper to the group, and written the phrase “It’s a     “ on the board. I would have choosen one drawing at a time, asked which group made it and then asked them to come up and hold the drawing. Then I would have asked the other groups to spend a minute to write “It’s a ….” And whatever animal they thought it was (in English or in Japanese for the animal name…because the goal isn’t animal names…it’s “It is a”) and then hold up the reply. Then have the groups each shout “It’s a XXXX!” after I asked them each “what is it?” and then I would ask the art group “Is it a XXX?” and give points to each team that got it right…along the way translating animal names into English, and increasing the level of English I wanted in the replies…starting with Yes and No.

 

At the end I would announce the group winners, and praise my favorite drawings.

 

You could also do a similar teamwork competition with no drawing time using highly pixilated pictures or extreme close-ups…announcing each picture’s theme “It’s a fruit” “It’s an Animal” “It’s a teacher at this school”

 

Then they blasted through flip cards of new vocab for the next dialog.

The last part of the class was textbook time. The teacher read a dialog…all three voices in the same voice (this would be a time for the teacher to use the cds to come with a textbook!) and then ask questions about the dialog. Then they blasted through flip cards of new vocab for the next dialog. Then the students had to practice the dialog, as a whole and translate stuff. The students were bored, bored, bored.

 

I would have taken parts of the dialog (only a few sentences long) and made the meaning clear by asking a few questions and variations. Instead of explaining the translation for “Takeshi is a good shogi player” I first would have asked who in the class is a good soccer player? Who is a good piano player? Who is a good game player?” and then ask if they understand what the phrase “Takeshi is a good shogi player” would be in Japanese…and praise.

 

Same with “the X is on the Y”…maybe with a textbook. “The textbook is on the table” …then move it to my head “the textbook is on my head” then put it on a desk “The textbook is on the desk” and then rest it on a student “The text book is on…what?”

 

Yes. I look totally daft most of the time I am teaching.

 

Always giving hints and time to think about what something means and asking them…not always providing translations first. Translations first teach students that the language is hard and that without clear translations, it is a mystery….inscrutable.

 

…who knows what I’ll see today…but at least it’s at an elementary school without the stress of English Tests.