First Special Needs Class of the Year

I teach an English class for the special needs children at my junior high about once a week. It’s not a duty too many ALTs I’ve met have to deal with on a regular basis and while it’s certainly fun it can also be really challenging. This year I have two students, a boy and a girl. I taught the girl last year and she only has a slight learning disability so I’m already pretty familiar with how to communicate with her. The boy on the other hand is new and necessitated hiring a second teacher to run his class, so it was already clear that he would present different problems. I haven’t asked about him yet, but it appears as though he has ADD. It’s very difficult to keep his attention and though he knows a little English, it’s always disjointed, making running a themed lesson pretty hard.

For my first lesson, I did the English alphabet. It seemed like a good place to start as I knew both students were at least a little familiar with it. Before we started, I introduced the warm-up activity I began last year, which includes five commands: stand up, sit down, spin, bow, and jump. It’s a really simple activity that can be expanded over the course of a year. For instance, after the lesson on numbers this week, I’ll start adding a number before some of the actions.

The start of the lesson was probably the most difficult part, though that’s true for a lot of classes. Mindlessly repeating things is just not too exciting an activity. Things picked up when we started playing games, though. First was karuta, which kept both of the students entertained enough to pay attention. Karuta, if I haven’t explained elsewhere, is a card game in Japan where something is read out loud, traditionally a poem, and players have to find and hit cards with corresponding lines. In English class, this is usually reduced to calling out letters, animals, subjects, etc. and having the students hit cards with those things on them. Whoever is fastest gets to keep the card and at the end of the game, I have them count how many they have and declare a winner. Both of the kids did really well, with Shiori barely coming out ahead.

Next, we played a game in which they could say up to three letters in alphabetical order and were trying to not be the person who says “z”. This game was a little more complicated and it became apparent that while Shiori understood the way it was played, Shouma was simply repeating what we asked him to do. All the same, he ended up winning two of the three games. Lastly, we did a connect-the-dot that used upper and lower case letters instead of numbers. When they finished, I asked them to write what animal they had drawn in English below the picture (it was a bird) and to write their names somewhere on the page. We finished class by coloring the picture.

It was a decent start to the year, but it wasn’t without problems. If I had one major complaint, it would be that the Japanese teachers did very little to help class along. I’m fine with planning the lesson, and in fact have a number of ideas at the ready, but the special needs class used to be among my favorites in no small part because the previous teacher was so open and friendly during class. She would always try her best to speak to me in English and joined in most of the games. With the current teachers, I feel like I’m putting them out just asking them to come over and help me explain something difficult to the kids. I still think I’ll have a good time teaching the class, but it’s not the same as it was.

Class Report: Halloween

Been a while since I posted one of these and it’s high time to see what my kids have been busy with as of late.  For Halloween, I showed my students some pictures of costumes, explained how trick or treating worked, and dressed up as the Pokemon Furret (known here as Ootachi). 

It was a pretty awesome week to say the least.

I also showed them some less traditional jack-o-lanterns including a cat, Mario, and a dragon, and invited them to create their own using a worksheet I made of a blank pumpkin.

Like all my most brilliant ideas, this one was taken wholesale from another ALT, though I did prepare my own Powerpoint.  Once again, this is a lesson that relied more heavily on cultural exchange than it did on English, though my most genki (energetic) class did ask a lot of questions after the presentation that I was happy to answer.  They wanted to know how to write the word “Halloween”, if adults wore costumes, and what you carved a pumpkin with.  I was pleasantly surprised to see most of them write Halloween on their pictures.

I did the same lesson at three different schools, one of which I presented to the entire school, not just 5th and 6th grade.  The jack-o-lanterns all turned out great.  Many of the students stuck with drawing some sort of face, but made it unique in how it was expressed.  Many also took their inspiration from things around them, like their pencil cases.  It was a lot of fun and a welcome break from structured lessons, which I feel can become stale after a while.  The best part is that, with a little bit of editing, I can share some of their creations with you.

Jack-o-lantern in love.

No idea, but it looks menacing.

Dawwwww....

Once again, I'm clueless as to what this is supposed to be, but I absolutely love how she spelled out "Halloween". The magician hat "A" is particularly awesome.

Some really awesome artwork.  This student absolutely loves dogs.

Gah! At least I can recognize what this one is: a nightmare inducing monster.

Extreme eyebrows!

Spiderman is probably the most popular American superhero over here.

This looks like a terrifying Japanese flag to me.

Classic and adorable despite the sharp teeth.

Compared to some of the others, this comes off as just mischievous as opposed to pure evil.

It's a face made out of flowers. Did not see that one coming.

This is Gachapin, the dinosaur, and his red yeti friend Mukku.

This is in the style of Kyupi dolls. It even says "Kyupi Pumpkin" along the side.

 

This one was actually drawn by the girl who did the last one for her friend and was based off of...

Mariko Shinoda of AKB48, the second girl's favorite member.

Okay, I saved my favorite for last. I can't even say why I like this one so much, but it caught my attention and is just really cool looking to me.

So, that was my Halloween lesson. I've got a few more pictures I might upload if people are interested, but I think 16 is enough for now.  Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween stateside.  Still have a bit of Halloween related news, but it will have to wait for another entry.

Class Report: Japanese Culture

Third graders from Ms. Tsuruta’s class wrote up short reports in English about Japanese culture.

 
That’s about half of all my third graders, here are a few of my favorites:

Tsukasa wrote about Osaka Castle.  Naturally, even armed with an Japanese to English dictionary, there are a few grammar mistakes.  I didn’t correct these, and honestly I’m pleasantly surprised with how well they came out considering how far outside most of my kid’s comfort zones this type of writing falls.  Case in point, notice how Tsukasa, for the most part, succeeds in using the right tense when talking about the castle now and talking about Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s life.

 
Bushi and anime: two aspects of Japanese culture I imagine many living back in the states are familiar with.  I like the “very cool!” written up by the picture of Kenshin.  Plus, this student has taught me how to say professional killer, not that it’s a very useful phrase, but interesting nonetheless.

This is probably only amusing to me because this particular student talks about Haruhi Suzumiya all the time.  He knows I’ve seen and enjoyed the anime and even used his knowledge to “cheat” during a game in which the students asked me if I had ever done something.  All that aside, however, this is a pretty good synopsis of the series and even mentions the different media it’s been adapted to.  Good use of punctuation too.  Most students place names of books, movies, etc. into quotes like this「」and capitalize the entire thing.

 
Kana not only wrote a lot, but I can tell she was trying to use some of the grammar they had recently learned, such as saying her mother’s tempura is “more delicious” than hers.  I also really like the line “Like a fried potato for Americans.”  It may be a fragment, but the fact that she used a simile is really impressive.  What’s more, it seems to be aimed at her audience (i.e. people who can read English) by using an example from America.

I hope you enjoyed some of the writings of my kids.  These are some of my strongest seniors and these papers in particular are some of the most creative and varied that I have seen.  Almost all of them have continued to come in for lessons over the break as well and I look forward to seeing what they are truly capable of once school starts up again.

Class Report: Body Parts

Just before summer vacation, I had one last class with my fifth graders.  This one was a bit different though.  My JTE didn't want to start the next chapter of the book right before vacation and risk the kids forgetting everything, so we did a mini lesson about body parts instead.  This is a fairly common topic for English lessons and can really go either way depending on how much the kids know and if they can understand somewhat difficult directions.

First, we taught the kids the song "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" which most of them already knew.  We sang the song a few times, first with the CD, and then on their own so we could go a little faster.  We had the kids pair up and play rock paper scissors, with the winners forming one circle and the losers forming a larger one around it, just like we did for the introductions lesson.  This time, I would play the song and stop it at random, shouting out a body part.  The kids had to find their partner in the opposite circle and touch the body part I had called out.  The kids really enjoyed this game so we played quite a few times.

The last game, and definitely the hardest to explain, was Simon Says.  It is truly frustrating how difficult it can be to explain this game to kids and teachers who have never heard of it.  Fortunately, my homeroom teacher knew how to play and was able to translate so that the kids understood.  I think a few kids were still unsure about how to play, but once we started it didn't take long for them to catch on.  This is the other difficult thing about this game; kids get good at it really fast.  Playing the normal way with touching the body part you call out works well for about two or three games, then you have to get creative.

About the third game in, I told the kids that they had to listen to what I said and not what I did.  So if I touched my head and said "Simon says touch your knees" those who just mimicked me were going to be out.  Some ofthe kids were quite surprised by this new challenge, but everyone seemed willing to try.  Changing the rules this way also helps reinforce the English, I feel, because kids have to actually thing about what you say, rather than just listening for the "Simon says" and mirroring you.  I could actually see some of the kids thinking really hard at first about what part to touch, but after a few games they seemed to have an easier time with it.

Lastly, I invited my homeroom teacher to lead the class in a few games.  This was mostly so I could get a few pictures of the kids, but all in all I think it was good practice for her too.  She seemed really nervous to try and it was really nice of her to put herself out there like that.  She had to start slow at first, but soon she was calling out body parts just as quickly as I did.  We played one final game where we both alternated calling out body parts. I think it was the longest I have ever played the game, probably eight or nine rounds total, but it was great fun.  I think the kids really enjoyed it too.

With the start of school only a week away, I'm getting really excited about going back to teaching the elementary kids.  I worry about how much they've retained over summer break, but I imagine that is something all the teachers think about.  We've only covered a few chapters, so I will be happy if they remember how to start class in English.  The rest can be easily enforced by doing things like asking how many people they talked to or how many papers they need for a row of students.

Class Report: May I Ask?

For a change of pace, I thought I'd show what my middle school students have been up to. These pictures were taken back in June.  As you can see, the prompts at the beginning are typed up, but the rest was left to my kids' imaginations.

This one is the closest to the example out of the book, in which a student gets a letter from America but can't read it. I just like that the person in the prompt is going to hand over a car for free and thanks the other person for taking it off their hands.

This one is a bit more complex, with a bit of extra dialogue. I appreciate the effort and it was really well written. 

 

 How can you not love the randomness of this entry? What's even better is, because the way it's written, I'm not sure if Toko loves the other person or herself.

This really represents the best of both effort and humor.  I have no idea where these kids learned "street cat" or if they just cobbled the two words together. There are naturally a few mistakes, but it's only because they are trying something so different. Probably my favorite out of this bunch.

Hope you enjoyed my students' writing.  I've got some from the middle school third graders as well about Japanese culture that I'll put up later this week.

Class Report: How many (Part 3)

Due to last week’s soyokaze entry, I’ll be skipping a week in regard to my fifth graders, but most of the lesson was a game from the previous week anyway, so really you aren’t missing much.  Both Rino and another absent student were able to pick up on eleven through twenty pretty quickly.  It may be the case that they are just fast learners, or they may be going to juku, a kind of cram school students go to at night.  So everyone was up to speed for this lesson.  I should also mention that my homeroom teacher wasn’t at school last week.  As I may have mentioned elsewhere, this is her first year teaching, so apparently there are days when she will be studying rather than teaching.  As a result, I was working with another teacher during this class who wasn’t familiar with the lessons up to this point, giving me even more control and responsibility than usual.

We started with the snakes and ladders game, which we had played the previous week.  The rules were rather complicated and involved playing rock, paper, scissors and advancing a number of places depending on what you won with.  If the student lost, they didn’t move, and the second player played against the third, etc.  If they landed on the bottom of a ladder, they could move up to the top, but the head of a snake made them move down to its tail.  Just like the game I used to play as a kid, though a bit simplified.  I think the kids had a lot of fun playing, though we were only able to play one game before having to move on to the next activity.

The next activity was also fairly confusing for my kids, especially since their teacher wasn’t there to help explain it, though the substitute tried her best to help.  The students chose their favorite kanji and wrote it in a square in their books.  Next, they wrote the stroke count for the kanji.  Each kanji, or pictograph, in Japanese has a certain way in which you’re supposed to draw it.  For instance 犬 is a four stroke kanji while 右 is five strokes.  We asked that the kids chose kanji that had six strokes or less.  They then went around the classroom asking everyone “How many?” meaning how many strokes their kanji was.  Students with the same number wrote each other’s kanji in a third box.  When everyone was finished, I asked how many kanji they had written in the last box, giving them a little more counting practice.

All in all, this wasn’t my favorite lesson, but I think the main point for the day was learning the question sentence, which my kids did.  I told them that from that day on if I ever needed to pass papers to them, I would ask the first student how many they needed for their row.  This took a few tries before a few students understood enough and translated it into Japanese for the rest.  I really hope they understood, because it’s one of the easiest ways to reinforce the concepts in this chapter in future lessons.

Class Report: Soyokaze Special

Last Tuesday was Tanabata here in Japan.  It also happened to be the day I was scheduled to teach the soyokaze (special needs) kids.  I was told just before class started that we would be having a short culture time before my lesson by helping decorate the kids’ tanabata bamboo.  After our introductions, the kids brought out the bamboo and several decorations including little pieces of colored paper with their wishes written on them.  I’m pretty sure that Shiori wished for many DS games and Risa wanted to make lots of friends.  After everything was gathered on their desk, we started to decorate.

The whole thing reminded me a bit of Christmas.  Everyone gathered around the bamboo and started putting on decorations.  All the decorations were brightly colored and it made for a really vibrant and festive piece.  I kept asking my kids where I should place the decorations.  Since they’re young and small, they wanted me to put the decorations on the top of the bamboo and squealed with delight when I tied one to the upper most branch.  Shiori eventually brought out a chair to stand on so she could place one of her wishes a bit higher up.  When we were all finished, we took a picture together in front of the bamboo.  Shiori and Risa were both a bit hesitant to stand near me, so I had to pull them in a bit closer.  It made me really happy that I could share that experience with them.

The rest of class was spent learning how to ask and answer the question, “What’s this?”  As I’ve said, I tend to run the soyokaze class like an elementary class.  I brought in my black box, a box with one side cut out and a hole on the top.  One student stood behind the box and closed their eyes while the other put something small, like a pencil or pen, into the box.  The first student reached into the hole on top of the box and tried to guess what was inside.  Both of them did really well, though ruler is a really hard word for them. 

Next, I gave everyone, including the teacher, a piece of paper.  I told them they could draw a picture of anything whose English word they knew, but that it was a secret to everyone else.  We all went off to different parts of the room to draw our pictures.  When we were done, we held up our pictures with most of the paper folded over, hiding it.  We gradually revealed our picture in increments, each time asking “What’s this” and having the others guess. It was a lot of fun, and a good indication for me of what vocabulary they remembered.  I drew grapes that, rather surprisingly, Risa got very quickly.  Shiori drew a cat, her favorite animal.  The teacher drew a car, which I wasn’t aware my kids knew.  Lastly, Risa drew a panda, which the teacher actually guessed correctly on accident.  This class was a lot of fun and I look forward to the next time I get the opportunity to teach it.

Class Report: How many (Part 2)

Last week’s class was a bit of a challenge. It wasn’t because of the kids. In fact, I’m so thankful that they’re as energetic and excited as they are, otherwise it could have been a complete disaster. We are still on the “How Many” chapter, this time studying 11-20, which is a lot harder than 1-10. The reasons for this are many: 11-20 has a lot more multi-syllable words, 13 and 14 are difficult for Japanese speakers to pronounce, and it’s less likely that students have had exposure to these numbers beforehand.

Class began with another cultural exchange game, this time showing the differences between how Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and American people write tick marks for counting. Turns out all three countries besides America use the kanji 正 as opposed to the American style of four vertical lines slashed through with a diagonal. There was a bit of confusion on the kids’ part as to what in the book they needed to be counting, but once I clarified, everyone did really well.

Next we drilled the numbers 11-20. Drills are my least favorite part of class, but they’re necessary for the kids to pick up new words or phrases. Once I felt that most of the class had grasped the concept, we moved on to a connect-the-dots game. The students had to listen to my directions to know the next dot to move too. I said each number, waited, then pointed to that number on the board for the students who were having trouble. The puzzle was fairly simple and symmetrical, so about halfway through several students started saying the next number in English. I started asking the kids which number was next to get more speaking practice in.

The last game was the most difficult to explain. There were two charts in the students’ books that each had fifteen boxes. The students put numbers from 1-20 in the boxes then went around the room playing janken with other kids. The winner of each game got to say a number, and both students could circle it if they had it. I was pleasantly surprised to see several students asking for help from me and the JTE rather than just using Japanese, which is what usually happens.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to finish even the first game. Many of my students were sad, saying things like “No time over” which was both adorable and heartbreaking. I don’t have many classes that are as excited as this one to learn English, or at the very least to play the games. It makes me happy that they want to keep going even after nearly an hour of class. We told them that the next class would start with game two. It should be a nice review for them. I only hope that Rino, who I noticed was absent, isn’t overwhelmed.

Class Report: How Many (Part 1)

Another week has past and it’s time to catch up with what my fifth graders at Urawa have been learning this week.  I realized looking over my last few reports that I’ve been focusing on the same class and see no reason to deviate from that pattern.  I have a fair bit more control in this class, as my JTE speaks very little English and is new to teaching herself, so I feel a greater sense of responsibility for how the class is run and how well the students do.  Honestly, though, most other schools are running through the same lessons, so doing this kind of entry for each one would be a bit redundant.  However, look forward to a similar entry in the near future featuring the writings of my junior high students.

Oftentimes, my classes are expected to fill the role of an intercultural exchange class, as opposed to a strictly English one.  As such, we started yesterday’s class by explaining that the game “janken” is called “rock, paper, scissors” in America.  We had been using “American janken” to determine speaking and turn order for the last few weeks, so my kids were already pretty familiar with it.  We then introduced two other country’s versions of janken: Korea and China.  The differences mostly consist of what words are said before choosing rock, paper, or scissors.  The hand shapes, advantages, and disadvantages all stay the same.  After we practiced each country’s janken a few times, we had all the kids stand up and walk around the room.  They could choose to play any of the four types of janken we had learned.  While most stuck with Japanese and English, the ones they were most familiar with, I heard a few try the others as well.  The game continued, with the losers sitting down, until there were only two or three students left.  We then had those students come to the front, chose a country, and they all had to do that one for the final game.  My kids really seemed to enjoy this, asking to play again and again.  We played three games total.

The next activity was a bit more difficult.  There was a page in their book with six different students, each from a different country.  We listened to a CD of each one counting and the students had to guess which number went with which person.  My kids all did okay considering they had no context to draw from and were left to guess on a good number of them.  It also doesn’t help that I said the wrong country for one of the six.  Nor does it help that the CD that accompanies the book has a boy reading the Spanish numbers where the book clearly shows a girl.  As I said, most kids did well.  I read out the answers then asked for a show of hands for who got the American numbers correct.  All my kids had.  This segued nicely into the last part of the lesson, teaching the numbers 1-10. 

I really enjoy teaching how to count to ten, and I use the same method whether I’m teaching a first grade class or a fifth grade one.  I start by writing the song “Ten Steps” on the board.  It looks like this:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10
8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

I drill the numbers once or twice then sing the song to get the kids familiar with the rhythm.  I get everyone to stand up, and we practice together a few times.  Then I erase one of the numbers, I usually start with six, and replace it with a picture of hands clapping.  I explain that sixes are now handclaps and we don’t say six anymore.  After a few times singing it that way, I erase another number and replace it with a different action.  I always ask my kids which number I should erase for the third one, and usually I don’t get any response, but yesterday I received a very enthusiastic “3!” from Riko.  The fourth choice had to go to a vote because so many kids were shouting out numbers.  It made me very happy to get such an energetic reaction from the kids, who were also really happy when they finished up the last round of counting, clapping, desk tapping, high-fiving, stomping fun.  The reason I like teaching numbers this way is that it’s really active and the song gets stuck in the students’ heads, so it’s also really effective.

Next week, we’ll tackle 11-20, which has always been a bit more difficult for my students to grasp.  Stay tuned to find out how it goes.

Class Report: How Are You?

Due to a conflict with my upcoming Japanese driving test, the elementary school that I usually go to on Wednesday had me come in and teach today.  I’m really glad they did, too.  I don’t want a week to go by without teaching these kids if I can help it.  Today was all about greeting friends and talking about our feelings.  We had been practicing similar things for a few weeks and so this class served mostly to wrap up the unit and give the kids another day of practice.

We started off the class by playing sound clips of two pairs of people greeting each other.  The students had to choose which picture in their book matched with which clip.  The biggest difference between the two clips was the way in which the pair introduced themselves.  The first pair was meeting for the first time and introduced themselves to each other.  The second pair were friends and simply said hello to one another.  We checked to see if the students understood and explained that when you know the person you’re talking to, it’s okay to just say hello followed by their name.  I practiced with my kids, the first few returning my greeting with blank stares.  Finally, I approached one of my genki (energetic) girls.

“Hello, Sena,” I said.

“Hello, Eric sensei.”

The pattern established, we started the first of three activities for the day.  It was called the line game and was somewhat like the telephone game I used to play as a kid.  In it, students turned to the person behind them, greeted them, and asked how they were.  Once they were finished, the next person in line turned to the person behind them and so on until the end of the row.  The last person in each row had to run to the front and greet the first person and then sit back down in their seat.  The winner was the line that could finish fastest.  There were a few students absent today, but with a few adjustments (including my participation) we were able to fill in the empty spots.  I was seated next to a student named Moeka, who was just about the most adorable thing ever during this game.  Her group came in second both times, and each time she let out an emphatic “Yay!” accompanied by a wonderful smile.  It made me doubly happy the second time as I was on her team and got to share in the moment.

The next activity was conversation practice where the students walked around the room and greeted each other while filling out a chart in their books.  The chart had room for six names and spaces to show if that person felt fine, happy, hungry, or sleepy.  As all my kids in this class have name cards in English, I asked that they try and write their friends’ names using capital letters.  At this point, the students have had little if any practice with writing English, but I was happy to see that they all tried and was really impressed when a few remembered how to write the names without relying on the name cards.  Not having a chart of my own, I took a hands-off approach to this activity, simply walking around to make sure everyone was practicing in English and helping anyone who was having trouble.

The last game was only meant to be a time filler if the class happened to finish early, but ended up being a real hit with some of my kids.  We had them all push their desks to the back of the room, pair up, and play rock, paper, scissors.  The winners all formed a small circle and the losers formed a larger circle around it.  We played the hello song and had the two circles march in opposite directions.  I didn’t tell them to, but most students also sang along, which made me happy.  When the song finished, the two groups faced each other and greeted the person in front of them.  We played three times, and then class was over.  A few of the students wanted to play again, most notably Moeka, who was very vocal about it, but we told them there wasn’t enough time and maybe we could play again next week.  Stay tuned to find out if we do.

Class Report: Nantoka Basket

There is a truly amazing game in Japan called fruit basket.  In it, kids choose some fruit names, usually about four but it depends on the group size.  Each student is assigned one fruit and sits in a circle, with one student standing in the middle.  The student in the middle calls out a fruit or two and everyone in the circle assigned that fruit runs around trying to get to an empty spot before someone else does.  It’s kind of like musical chairs in a way.  Naturally, there is always one kid left standing and they take the place of the person in the middle.  The person in the middle can also call out “fruit basket” to make everyone change places.  Why is this an awesome game?  Because it’s perfect for teaching English, of course, as yesterday’s fifth grade elementary class proved.

Now this is not the first time I’ve used this game to reinforce new vocabulary.  However, it may be the first time the entire period was spent playing it.  Children in Japan love this game, and even those who don’t normally enjoy English class will laugh and scream as they run around, trying to beat their classmate to that last remaining spot.  For yesterday’s class, we played “color basket” and “animal basket” but there were a few twists to our games.  The first was that we had learned so many colors and animals and have such a small class (only 7 kids) that only assigning them one of each wouldn’t work.  Instead, my kids were given slips of paper with two colors for the first game and a whopping four animals for the second.  The next rule change was the punishment game.  When a student was stuck in the middle for a second time, they had to give an introduction to the class including their name, age, favorite color, and favorite animal.  Lastly, before saying the color or animal, all the kids in the circle had to ask “What color/animal do you like?” and the response had to be “I like ______.”

Both games went really well.  I joined in naturally and spent a few rounds in the center, though I wasn’t asked to give an introduction.  The only other person who avoided the punishment game was Mei, who did so by pure speed and reflexes.  She only wound up in the middle once, and then only because she forgot okami was wolf.  Her delayed reaction was priceless.  I think the kids are pretty comfortable now, not only with the vocab, but also with the target sentences for asking and telling what things they like.  These are really important because they are the student’s first steps in being able to have a conversation in English.

As I said, fruit basket is a really versatile game.  I’ve used it for months, sports, days of the week, and many other lessons.  Sometimes the questions and responses don’t quite match up, like when the kids answered multiple months for the question “when is your birthday?” but the important thing is that they’re practicing English in a fun and engaging way.

Class Report: Gestures

Here in Japan, the school year is still in its first few months.  My elementary fifth graders are still being introduced to only the most basic English expressions.  In fact, yesterday’s lesson wasn’t really about English at all, but non-verbal communication.  In elementary, the focus in English class is on communication, as opposed to junior high, which is focused on mastery of grammar.  This is part of what makes the elementary classes so fun.  There is just a lot more interaction with the students, more doing as opposed to showing.

The gesture class basically breaks down into three parts.  For the first, the homeroom teacher and I had the students make groups of four.  One person in each group would make a gesture while the other three tried to guess what it was.  We let them know that Japanese was okay, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a few of my students trying to guess in English.  We had each student do two gestures and then the game was over.  After the groups were finished, I asked for volunteers to show their gesture in front of the whole class.  Honestly, asking for volunteers at that age is hit or miss.  Again, I was happy to see at least one student was excited about the idea.  Riko, one of my more energetic girls, showed us a gesture for swimming.  I asked if anyone else wanted to go, and when the response was still a room full of blank stares, we decided to have each group choose one volunteer.  Most did this by playing janken (rock, paper, scissors), with the losers being the ones who demonstrated their gestures.  There were some pretty good ones too, like playing the recorder and table tennis, which was done with two students.  After each group had a turn, I thought there might be some students who were feeling a little more at ease with the idea, so I asked for volunteers again.  Riko’s hand shot up, but she was still the only one.  She was so excited about it, though, so we had her do a second one.

The next part of class was a short skit by the homeroom teacher (HRT) and me.  It was meant to show the differences between American gestures and Japanese ones.
    Me:   　“Sensei!”
    HRT:     “Me?”
    Me:       “Yes. Please come here.”
    HRT:    “What is it?”
    Me: 　 “How are you?”
    HRT:    “Me?  I’m fine.  How are you?”
    Me:  　“I’m very happy.”
Throughout the skit, I used only American gestures, and my HRT only Japanese ones.  We performed the skit twice then asked the students if they noticed any differences between what we did.  One girl, Rino, was able to pick up one the differences in how we indicated ourselves.  For those who don't know, in Japan this is done by pointing your forefinger toward your nose.  We went on to explain the differences between the gestures for calling someone over and how the Japanese version may be confused in America for the exact opposite, leading to another humorous skit in which the HRT used the Japanese gesture and I walked away sadly.

To finish, we had the students try and combine everything they’ve learned up to this point to have short conversations in pairs.  The HRT and I demonstrated and reviewed some target sentences with the students.  They could call each other over, introduce themselves, and ask how the other student was doing.  We only had about five minutes at this point, but it was great seeing the kids interacting with each other.  I joined in too and though the students who talked to me were clearly nervous, they did really well.  I was very happy with how this lesson went.