Manten Resources

Supporting your Japanese language program

Manten Resources

2020 – The year of the metal rat!

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According to very official sources on the internet, 2020 is going to be “a strong, prosperous, and lucky year” for all signs of the juunishi, and “everyone will show determination regarding their goals, and aspirations”. It is “a great year for founding and evolving”. So, what are you waiting for? Time to get excited about 2020 and sign up for our Noosa workshop. Sadly, there won’t be any fortune telling at the workshop, but we will be sharing future directions in Japanese education including:

  • Hansei habits for teachers and students – how can we help students prepare for success in language learning? How can we prescribe tools for change for individual students?
  • Task based learning – programming learning beyond the linear. What is the place of explicit grammatical instruction in contemporary language courses? How can we keep track of what students are learning?
  • Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in the primary and secondary context
  • Exploring soft CLIL through cross-curricular activities and play based learning
  • Multimodal texts – what are they? Beyond the metalanguage to classroom application
  • Surviving and thriving in the language teaching space – finding ways to align system goals with your personal values and strengths

The workshop is held Saturday July 11th which falls in the holidays for all the states, so we hope you can slot in a day with us. This year we are focusing on lots of take-away ideas and hands-on activities for primary and secondary teachers of Japanese.

This is the 3rd workshop Junko Nichols and I have run at Noosa and we would like to thank all those enthusiastic participants who keep encouraging us to come back. It is going to be a HUGE day of learning, escaping the winter cold at the beautiful Pepper’s Resort, Noosa. The range of ideas is sure to raise your motivation levels during the mid-winter slump.

Early bird offers apply to the end of Term 1 only and places are strictly limited as this is designed as an intimate workshop.

To book your place, click here or email me at jblog1help@gmail.com to discuss any aspects of the day. We hope to see you there!

Juunishi reference: Retrieved from https://www.thechinesezodiac.org/horoscope-2020/

Christmas Countdown!

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Term 4 is well under way and many of us are beginning to plan for next year – or fantasize about the Christmas holidays at least! As you begin to finalise your budgets and plan for the new year don’t forget to buy yourself a little something for Christmas. And what is the one thing all teachers need more of? Time.

Here is a list of 7 great time-saving resources under $70.

  1. Base Camp. This is definitely my new favourite resource and I have been thrilled to see small changes in my students as they learn the secrets of better study habits. $50 for the set.

https://www.mantenresources.com.au/teachers/our-resources/base-camp/

  1. The Platform. This is another new resource that builds on the work with Base Camp to develop student writing skills via a temptation bundle. This can be used as a formative assessment tool or ongoing classwork task. $50

https://www.mantenresources.com.au/teachers/assessment/assessment-inspiration/year-9-10-formative-task-the-platform/

  1. The Year 9/10 Values task. This task provides students with an opportunity to identify their own values, and to explore the profiles and life experience timelines of famous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander role models. This can be used as a formal assessment task or as a group task for NAIDOC week celebrations. Many of us want to embed Aboriginal perspectives in a more authentic manner but run out of time or ideas. This one is done for you. $70

https://www.mantenresources.com.au/teachers/assessment/assessment-inspiration/year-9-10-formative-task-the-platform/

  1. The Patch system. These are available for hiragana, katakana, Kanji basic and Kanji extension 1. This system allows students to have more autonomy in their script learning and provides much needed progress indicators as students work through the graded levels. This system is also supported by Education Perfect lists.$50 each

https://www.mantenresources.com.au/teachers/resources-teaching-scripts/

  1. Sample teacher marking guidelines. The biggest time-saving resource we have is the student workbook resources that have detailed tasks, listening drills and google forms with answers. If your budget doesn’t stretch that far though then the sample marking guidelines are a steal. They provide you with the tasks and sample answers giving you loads of inspiration even if you aren’t using our textbook as your main resource. Lessons for when you are away are suddenly done! $50

https://www.mantenresources.com.au/teachers/our-resources/student-workbooks/

  1. Speaking stations. The speaking stations game aims to maximise the time on task by placing the students in the driving seat. At all times both members are active either asking or answering the listed questions. The dice adds an element of luck so even the most talented student could be undone by unlucky dice throws. $50 https://www.mantenresources.com.au/teachers/blog/speaking-stations/
  2. Year 7/8 Japanese investment Expo. Students work through the reflection tasks that have them analyse details from a Japanese text, use hiragana and katakana tables to categorise export products and produce a bilingual video promoting their chosen agricultural industry using simple language and the scaffold provided. An optional extra would be to hold the “Expo” during a visit by Japanese students. $70

https://www.mantenresources.com.au/teachers/blog/making-language-relevant-in-regional-areas/

 

Good luck everyone with your 2020 preparations.

Temptation bundling

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Sometimes in life our actions have unexpected and even undesirable repercussions. I have a 12 year old son. He is an only child and has grown up in a somewhat nerdy household where we read a lot, believe learning another a language is normal and avoid a lot of mainstream media. His generation though are largely connected by the internet. When he started at a new school, we met some of his friends via video conference before we met in them or their parents in “real life”. We had encouraged him to be calm and quiet at home, but combined with his generation’s propensity for screen time, this had unexpected repercussions. We purchased him an exercise tracking device and realised that on a school day he would be lucky to reach 5000 steps – half the daily recommendation. We realised though that he had been merely doing what he was told. His teachers wanted him to sit still and listen – so he did. We drove him to school each day as it there are no buses from our suburb. When he came home, he wanted to read or go online. When was he supposed to be clocking up the 10 000 steps in this kind of lifestyle that we had created for him?

Around this time, I became aware of a concept called “temptation bundling”. This concept is a motivational strategy whereby you bundle an action you want to do with an action you need to do. For example, I had committed to a weekly task that I really wasn’t enjoying. I was beginning to dislike Thursdays because of this weekly commitment, even though the task was only a small part of the day. By contrast, something that I do enjoy is writing in the morning at a café that overlooks a marina. It is my special time to have a latte and look out at the boats as I play around with new ideas for resources or workshops. So, I combined the two in a temptation bundle. I allowed myself to only visit the café on Thursday mornings before I had to attend to the weekly commitment. In this way, I began to associate the commitment with my reward of writing time. The action I needed to do was the Thursday commitment, and the action I wanted to do was the café writing session.

We solved the problem of my son’s inactivity in the same way. The action he needed to do was move more for his long-term health. (I would like to emphasize that we were not concerned about diet or losing weight here, but rather the research into poor health associated with prolonged sitting for adults and children alike.) The action my son needed to do was exercise more, preferably outside in nature, to counteract his largely indoor school lifestyle. The action he wanted to do was purchase a mobile phone. We had told him he could have one when he started high school the following year. We also wanted him to appreciate the cost of such a device and to be responsible with such an expensive accessory. So, we developed a temptation bundle where he earned $5 for each day he walked 10 000 steps. We paid him in cash each week and then he banked it in a mobile phone account. We began by going for a walk after school to make up the shortfall. Soon though he came up with strategies like earning 2000 on the playground before school, and 2000 at recess and lunch. We had a bonus scheme where he earned an additional $5 if he made 15 000 or if he beat my score for the day. As his earnings grew, he came up with other ideas like joining me some days before school on my 6am walk. Exercise became a natural part of his identity as it fitted with his already present identity of someone who loves technology. His exercise was linked to his desire for technology. It has taken him months to earn the money and the habits of daily movement are now ingrained in his life.

So how does this relate to your teaching?

My latest project is called The Platform. This is a formative assessment tool pitched at Year 9 and 10 students. What do most students of this age want to do? In my experience, the answer is while away hours watching Youtube clips and drifting through social media posts. How can we make better use of this natural inclination to achieve learning gains in language study?

The Platform aims to create a temptation bundle where students become a member of a small group (2-4 students) to share videos that have interested them. They must write a minimum of 30 characters about each video and other members of the group have to respond to at least one post per learning cycle. I have created scaffolds to help them with this. Unlike regular tasks though, the students are rewarded for the quantity of writing they do, rather than the quality. We want them to experiment with language here, to focus on communicating with others for a real purpose and to practice vocabulary, grammar and script recognition on a regular basis. The teacher can then set group achievement goals such as a reward when all members of the group have written 100 ji each. Each post or comment is numbered and fortnightly reward draws could be held eg comment 21 wins a Japanese lolly or gets to sit in the tatami space or choose who to sit next to for that week. The more posts and comments you make the more chances you have of both improving your overall grade and winning the reward draw. There are two versions of this task included in the resource pack called Version 1 and Version 2.

This formative assessment tool could be used for writing in lieu of a formal task or it could be used as a tool to improve the learning culture and growth mindset of your cohort. You can read more about this task on our website at https://www.mantenresources.com.au/teachers/assessment/assessment-inspiration/ or email me at jblog1help@gmail.com .)

Good luck with your temptation bundling!

Teacher commitment to lifelong learning

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Recently we launched a new resource called Base Camp. This resource was designed to develop in students the skills they need to learn a language. Base Camp 1 outlines common strategies such as mnemonics and acrostic poems, whilst Base Camp 2 provides suggestions for elective students on how to embed their language learning in their current online leisure activities.

Both of these resources outline how to harness research into the psychology of motivation to help students find time and motivation for their language learning. Methods such as habit stacking, implementation intentions and avoiding the Valley of disappointment provide an infrastructure for successful learning to occur. As I mentioned in my previous post, the very first concepts we should be teaching in our language courses, is the how of learning. The success of all our subsequent lessons will be improved if students have fundamental knowledge of learning habits, study skills and motivation techniques. The poor continuation rates in languages suggest amongst other things, that students are not finding it an easy choice.

As we enter term 4 and elective classes for 2020 are being announced, I am impressed to hear some teachers are organising a special orientation lesson for these language students. During this lesson, sometimes held at lunch, teachers are guiding students through the skills in Base Camp – urged on with some Japanese treats – to have them ready for the start of the year. This seems to be particularly useful if you are teaching the Beginners course for Year 11 and 12. (If you are planning on running such a mini-lesson, you may be interested in our Grammar Patch that is coming out in term 4. This works similar to our Hiragana Patch series but with targeted grammar review. Booklet 1 revises tenses of nouns, verbs and adjectives and Booklet 2 works through common uses of the て form.)

What is also impressive are the teachers who have told me they are using the strategies in Base Camp to drive their own lifelong learning in language. Language teachers are extremely busy and committed people so a few tips on how to find time and motivation can be the difference between thinking about studying as an adult and putting those dreams into action.

The Base Camp level 1 and 2 resource is sold as a set for $50 and can be purchased by emailing jblog1help@gmail.com . The Grammar Patch will be launched in Term 4 and will also be $50 per Book level.

Happy holidays everyone!

Is pedagogy essential to language teaching?

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Pedagogy is defined as the “method and practice of teaching”. Pedagogy is where we learn the how of teaching. Most of us would agree it is as essential to a teacher as our content knowledge. It is just as difficult to be a Japanese teacher if you don’t know Japanese, as it is to teach Japanese as a native speaker if you don’t understand methodology.

So, let us agree on this point, teaching involves having something to teach and having the skills to share that knowledge with others.

But what about learning? What does it take to learn a language? Could we say that learning involves having someone or something to learn from and the skills to access that learning? Can we say with confidence that are language students are coming to us with those requisite skills?

Perhaps, the very first concepts we should be teaching in our language courses, is the how of learning. The success of all our subsequent lessons will be improved if students have fundamental knowledge of learning habits, study skills and motivation techniques. The poor continuation rates in languages suggest amongst other things, that students are not finding it an easy choice.

I have come to the conclusion, that explicit teaching of skills to access learning in language is the essential first step in the language journey. To this end, I have developed two short introductory courses for secondary students called Base Camp level 1 and level 2.

The first course is pitched at Year 7/8 students who may be beginning a language course for the first time. It covers five key concepts to develop student skills in learning and motivation. These include concepts such as implementation intentions, habit stacking and the two-minute rule.

The second course is pitched at Year 9/10 and 11/12 students who may have continued into elective courses. This sequence looks more closely at specific learning strategies to support independent learners. It suggests ways to revise and extend one’s knowledge in the macroskills using accessible resources from the students’ world. This includes various strategies to harness teenager obsession with social media for positive learning gains in language.

Although there are two levels, I would suggest that students who have not worked with the level 1 materials would benefit from working through those before attempting the level 2 materials. The Base Camp level 1 and 2 resource is sold as a set for $50 and can be purchased by emailing jblog1help@gmail.com .

I consider this resource a prerequisite bridging course for all language students. Don’t start 2020 without it!

WHY YOUR STUDENTS DON’T DO YOUR HOMEWORK

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One of the difficulties of teaching languages in Australia is our lack of time on task. We simply don’t timetable enough hours a week in the school curriculum to do justice to language acquisition. One way to improve this situation, is to have students spend time out of class doing their own revision and learning at home. Imagine the increased learning gains you could achieve if you introduced new language in a one-hour lesson, and then the students returned two days later having mastered that content and were ready for more. Imagine if for every hour you taught, they matched it with an hour of home learning?

This doesn’t tend to happen in Australia for a multitude of reasons but let’s just focus today on 3 scenarios you can change.

Scenario 1 : the binger

This student only studies when they are given something specific to do such as complete a worksheet. They tend to do all the homework in one sudden hit and then forget about it.

Scenario 2 : the procrastinator

This student rarely completes work because they are disorganised and forget there was even work to do, or because they are worried they won’t be able to do the work well, so they don’t even attempt it.

Scenario 3 : the excuse master

This student has a busy life flitting between part-time jobs, sporting commitments and family/social engagements. They considered doing the work but there just never seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

The key problem with these three scenarios is that the teacher is driving the home learning. The teacher is setting the homework, setting the deadline and then most likely controlling the marking and feedback. No wonder teachers are burned out! How can we increase the level of student autonomy in home learning tasks?

Step 1 – Clarity

“Many people think that they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity. It is not always obvious when and where to take action.” Page 71, Atomic Habits by James Clear

A research study in Great Britain in 2001 found that subject rates of exercise increased from 35% to 91% simply by having participants identify how, when and where they would exercise in advance.

Could we not have students do this with their home learning? Students could be responsible for identifying home learning goals in a similar manner. For example:

I will practice level 1 set of hiragana flashcards everyday in my bedroom after I shutdown by computer at 8pm.

I will write 5 sentences using the new kanji I learned today in the kitchen at 4pm on Tuesdays before I go to netball training.

I will read aloud the sample text on page 10 to my mum in the car on Wednesday after school and summarise what it means in English.

If students don’t look for time in advance to learn, it is unlikely that it will just happen.

Step 2 – Support systems

The second step is to have your students form small groups of 3-4 who act as study coaches. Each group has a shared google doc where they log their specific home learning goal for the week. Students spend 5 minutes at the end of the lesson on Monday logging their specific goal (what, when, where) with the group. At the start of the Friday lesson, groups report back and log how their learning went. Did they study when they said they would? Why or why not? What obstacles did they face? How could they overcome them next time? Over time students will become more conscious of their habits and they are far more likely to listen to a peer who calls them out on using the same excuse each week.

Step 3 – individual success

“Tend to your dreams every day. Even though you’re not quite seeing the shoots, something unseen is percolating.” Sonia Choquette

One of the problems with language learning is the “plateau of latent potential”. James Clear describes this as the “valley of disappointment” where we feel discouraged because we can not see the results of our hard work. He states “we often expect progress to be linear. At the very least, we hope it will come quickly. In reality, the results of our efforts are often delayed.” (page 22, Atomic Habits.) Sarah Pavy’s research also supports this perspective, noting that students often complain of a lack of progress indicators in their language learning. This is one reason why I use the Patch system to teach Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. By dividing up the learning of the scripts into levels, students can enjoy progress at their own pace. My son has just started this system for his own learning of hiragana. At first, he struggled with just level 1, but then one day it suddenly became easy. He noticed this change himself and was motivated to learn the next level. When we introduce new vocabulary in class, sometimes we move on to the next list before a student feels that sense of accomplishment. Instead they end up feeling like they half know the words on 10 lists – “a jack of all trades but a master of none” as they say. When we give them a system, like the Patch series, they can run their own self-paced home learning that is complimentary to what you are doing in class. You can focus on teaching task-based interesting lessons and leave them to the grunt work of mastering key concepts like script or vocabulary at home.

Good luck with improving the home learning system in your language classroom.