gunmajet.net

This is a link to the MEXT guidelines for foreign language study. These guidelines are from 2003 but I believe they have not changed. By reviewing this information, it should give ALTs a better understanding of the foreign language learning goals at your school, sentence patterns, grammar, and situations in which foreign language use is determined useful.

http://www.mext.go.jp/english/shotou/030301.htm

Play a reverse jeopardy style quiz game to teach about Valentine's Day. Point value is decided on the difficulty of the question. For low level students you may need translation help.

In a group of 4 or 5, take turns choosing the questions (Can teach "I would like the question for _____ points.) The students have 20 secs to find an answer. If they can't the question is opened up to all groups. (ready, go! First group to stand or ring a bell can try to answer). The group to answer correctly keeps the card. At the end, add the points to choose a winner.

Can be followed by description of V Day or talk about the history.

I used this for the deaf school, but can be used at non-special needs schools as well.

Some pictures, worksheets, and activities related to Valentine's Day. They can be used as is, or to make karuta cards, or other activities.

This isn't really so much a plan, but something that seems to be working well, and is enjoyable for students and teachers alike. Essentially students pick new names for themselves and make name cards, from that point on they'll be referred to as that in class. Teachers may also pick names (I currently teach with Scarlett-sensei and Xavior-sensei). It might also be fun to pick out a new Japanese name for yourself (I'm 'Akira').

I grabbed a list of the top 100 baby names from last year in the US and 'translated' them into katakana. I had a couple Japanese teachers go over it, but they may have missed a few... so some of the names might not be 100% accurate. In any case I suggest reading the list out loud so the students can hear the names.

I also made tried to make it clear that this was optional, and I knew lots of people with Japanese names in the US. If they didn't want a new name that was okay. In addition they were free to pick names not on the list. I was expecting to get a few kids to want to be named "Spiderman" or "Jack Bauer", but only one student picked an odd name: "Pork" (he was clear he wanted it to mean 'pig-meat').

As a fun side-activity I've begun researching the meanings of the names they've chosen. Xavior-sensei (for the record, he chose that spelling) was disappointed to find out that his name actually means "New House". I think he was expecting something more sinister.

By far this is the most successful review game that I have ever tried. It is highly versitile and can be used if the students are able to understand questions.

Materials:

-36 pieces of construction paper with nouns written on it. Easiest if you put magnets on the back of each piece of paper. Also on the back of each piece of paper is a point value, and some with 'T' written on them.

-At least 36 questions.

Set up:

Place the 36 pieces of paper with the nouns facing outwards in a 6 x 6 grid. Have the students make groups, with around 5-6 students per group.

Playing the game:

Ask a question to the entire class. If someone knows the answer they raise their hands. If they are correct, they choose one of the 36 pieces of paper from the board. They get the point value on the back. If they choose a 'T' they are allowed to wipe out one other teams' points, but they also don't receive any.

Also to make the scoring interesting, instead of writing numbers or hashes, make a 5 lined house (5 points = one house). When someone gets a T or typhoon, the houses are erased.

The students really get into this game, even the really quiet students.

I use this game to review verb tenses and spelling especially.

The first thing that you need to do is to explain to the students that reading Japanese and reading English are a bit different. The characters in Japanese have the same sound as their name. In English, the names of the letters are NOT how the letters are read in words. Therefore, knowing just the names of the English letters will not mean that you'll be able to read English. You have to know the sounds that they represent.

Then, go through each of the letters of the alphabet and say their names and teach the normal sound that each of the letters represents. The vowels tend to be pronounced differently by people with different accents, but some basic examples can be given. Note also that the normal pronunciation of the qu combination is not k but kw, (queen, quiet, etc.) though sometimes it is pronounced as k (quiche). Many of the phonics CDs out there only teach the k sound, though.

X as the first letter of a word has also been left off entirely as the words are so rare, and not of particular use to Japanese school kids. There may one or two kids in a class that know of words like xylophone or xerox.

The explainations for how to form all of the basic consonant sounds are given in Japanese on the worksheet. The vowels have been left with asterisks next to them and an explaination at the bottom saying there are lots of ways to pronounce these letters, so to please listen carefully to the ALT.

This is only the most basic set of phonics for English, but it can be a helpful start.

*You will need this font to print the worksheet correctly.

Give the kids one each of the attached worksheet. Say one of the words in the top line. Have the students guess which word you said and follow the arrow underneath the word they've chosen. Then repeat the procedure by saying one of the words from the second row. When you've pronounced one word from each row, have the students circle the number that they've been lead to by their word choices. Check the answers and work on areas that the kids have trouble with.

This is a supplemental activity to the Jr. High 3rd year "How to ~" point. The activity is an interview/writing activity to be used after the students have been given instruction on the grammar point.

What to do:
Give the students the attached worksheet. (Printed with the second page on the back.)
Go over the phrases in the boxes and check the meaning and pronunciation for any difficult ones.
Go over how to play the game.
Go over the conversation one or two times to make sure they have it down.
Let the students loose.

How to play:
This is interview bingo. The students must ask various people if they know how to do something. If the person knows how to do the thing they are asked about then they sign the asker's paper in that square. Rules are 1)there is no Japanese allowed, 2)no asking the same person twice in a row, 3)multiple signatures from the same person are not allowed, 4)if a student gets a bingo they must show the ALT their paper to check it. (The students tend to like if you tell them in which place they've finished within the class.) When a student gets bingo they can sit down and work on the writing portion on the back.

Alternative:
If you need this activity to take longer, have the students aim for two bingos before they can sit down.

This is for use after the students have come back from summer vacation. The object is to get the students to review past tense verbs. You should remind the students that they do not need to combine past tense verbs with was as many of them tend to make this mistake. (I was ate the fish.)

As an introduction to this activity you can tell the students about your summer vacation. You can make up a crazy fictional summer vacation if you think yours was too boring.

The students should be allowed to write about anything they did during the summer vacation, but encouraged, if they can, to write in paragraph form instead of just writing a list of things they did.

The students may find dictionaries helpful and I tend to add a list of useful adjectives on the back of the worksheet as well. Fast writers will have no problem filling up the sheet in ten to fifteen minutes writing time.