Manten Resources

Supporting your Japanese language program

Teaching and Learning

Time to freshen up

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Welcome back to January everyone. It is my favourite time of year as the weather is great, time has slowed down a little and my to-do list is at its most achievable point. As we know, teachers rarely stop though and these holidays I have been working on the new programs for Year 10 in NSW. This process includes going through the workbook materials and checking that the youtube links still work. Occasionally one will have died and I will be sucked into the void that is the internet as I search for a new replacement. Although this is annoying when you have a task based on the clip, it does force you to freshen up your resources, which is never a bad thing.

(On a side note, if you are using the Manten workbook resources and you find a link that doesn’t work anymore, please email me at jblog1help@gmail.com. Although I check these links intermittently, they can cease to work at any point in time so the best way to keep our resources up to date is to keep in contact and collaborate together. Once contacted, I am always happy to find you a replacement and create new questions where needed.)

During this process, I came across the following youtube clip which I think is a fantastic example of how two cultures can look at the same situation with completely different perspectives. It is a discussion between a British and Japanese citizen debating the service and hospitality of ryokan tradition in Japan. The discussion is in English but has great Japanese subtitles for extending your prior learning or background students.

I think it taps into the following outcomes quite nicely:

NSW – LJA5-9U : A student explains and reflects on the interrelationship between language, culture and identity

ACARA –  ACLJAU036: Recognise and explain how the Japanese language carries embedded cultural information, such as the prioritising of collective well-being, respect and harmony.

As you begin planning your 2019, don’t forget that the early bird price for our Noosa 2019 workshop is only available in Term 1. Please feel free to email me about this workshop if you have questions.

https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=412564&

2019年　も　みんな　にとって　すばらしい　年　に　なりますように

ENDING THE YEAR WELL

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Many teachers have said goodbye to the students and now face the prospect of a day or two planning time. You don’t need me to tell you that this boils down to just a few hours by the time meetings are scheduled. Many of us are operating on reduced levels of “genkiness” post the end of year rush. So, what is the best use of your limited time?

1.       Organise your copying for the start of term

This may sound like a procrastination strategy, but you can guarantee that the school photocopier will breakdown week 1 term 1. If you are using the Hiragana Patch for example, print off your flashcards now and have the workbooks ready to go in a box. Print the levels tests and top up your filing cabinet or folder. 

2.       Prepare your welcome email to the class and parents

Many language teachers complain that they receive little parental support. Conversely, many parents complain that they don’t understand what their child is doing in the language classroom and they worry that they cannot help them at home. One way around this is to open the doors of communication week 1 with a blanket email introducing yourself to the parents of your students. Provide some background information about your own path to bilingualism and why you feel your course is so important. You can find some sample emails at: https://www.mantenresources.com.au/teachers/blog/developing-parental-allies/

We also have some free fliers you can share with the parents answering such questions as “Why should their child being learning a language?” and “How can I help my child learn a language?”.

https://www.mantenresources.com.au/parents/

3.       Target your weakest area

We all have one aspect of our profession that we like less than other aspects. What generally happens is that we avoid that aspect with “busy” tasks all year. Then we spend our precious summer holidays catching up or worrying about catching up on this work. Be honest with yourself and begin work on that task. You don’t have to finish it – you just need to start. Even an overview or draft document will be a welcome sight when you return to school next year. If there are resources out there that can help you, buy them! You can still edit the resource to make it your own, but it might save you hours in the holidays. Popular choices for this type of support currently include programming resources, systems for teaching script and assessment tasks. Or team up with another teacher and make a day of it. Stop for lunch at a Japanese restaurant and reward yourself for your hard work. If you’re working at home, try to make it a pleasant experience. Decorate your desk with a flower or candle or plan a nice morning tea break for yourself. I try to go for a swim with my family early in the morning. This wakes me up and stops me feeling so bad when I have to return to the desk later. It doesn’t matter what you choose but the key is to make your work more of a pleasurable experience.

Well done everyone on all you have achieved with your classes this year!

YEAR 11 BEGINNERS ASSESSMENT

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The change in 2018 to new assessment weightings and restrictions have left some teachers feeling confused about how to embed the changes. It helps to remember that the purpose behind the change was to help reduce the stress felt by our students due to over assessment.

The key changes to remember are:

  • Only 3 assessment tasks in Year 11
  • Only 1 formal exam eg Yearly exam
  • The minimum weighting for a task is 20% and the maximum is 40%

NESA has shared some sample assessment task overviews on their website. Most teachers are keen to include a Yearly exam at 40% which leaves us with the following weightings to play with:

  • Listening 20%
  • Reading 20%
  • Speaking 10%
  • Writing 10%

 

This essentially means you can do two assessment tasks that need to cover more than one skill. NESA also wants teachers to design tasks that can have all parts submitted together, rather than lots of portfolio tasks. Remember, the goal is to reduce the student work load. We are aiming to use these other two tasks to assess student learning in ways that don’t just mimic the HSC exam.

So, what can you do?

You are free to use the ideas below to develop your own task or you can purchase a pre-made version from our website. These will be available from the end of January but as some of you will be designing assessment task overviews this term, I thought I would give you the heads up now.

Task A : Japanese homestay preparation

Weighting: 20% Listening & 10% writing

Overview

Context & purpose: You are Alex, a year 11 student about to go to Japan later this year. You receive a videoclip from the homestay family you are going to be hosted by. You need to work out the gist of the videoclip and specific information in order to write a letter to them in Japanese.

Process, product & audience:

There are two parts to this task.

Part A: You will view a videoclip of a person discussing images of their family and daily routine. You will be required to write answers to questions in English about the clip. This section will take approximately 15 minutes. (Teachers will need to decide whether the students have access to viewing the video as individuals, enabling them to pause or repeat sections as needed; or to view as a class and are limited to a number of viewings.)

Part B: You will be required to complete a letter in written Japanese. The beginning and end of the letter will be provided for you. You will need to imagine that you are going to visit the family that appeared in the videoclip in Part A. Provide information about yourself and highlight any details that you have in common with the family in the videoclip. Are there similarities between your family, pets or daily routine and theirs? You should aim to write 100-150ji. This does not include the letter opening and close that is provided for you.

Task B : Japanese language camp

Weighting: 20% reading & 10% speaking

Overview

Context & purpose: You have signed up for a two-day language immersion camp in the school holidays for students studying Japanese. You are attending the orientation day and need to work out the gist and specific information in the orientation package, before being interviewed in Japanese about your selections by the camp support staff.

Process, product & audience:

There are two parts to this task.

Part A: You will receive a camp orientation pack. This pack will take you through the options available for different workshops and activities during the two days. You will be required to write answers to questions in English about the options and the reasoning behind your workshop choices. This section will take approximately 15 minutes.

Part B: You will be interviewed individually in Japanese by your teacher who will be acting as a camp support staff member. You will need to consider the decisions you made in Part A and be prepared to answer questions about these decisions and your personal background.

 

Pre-made task resource

The pre-made task versions will include PDF and word versions of documents so that you can edit the language, add furigana to kanji or delete sections that do not suit your students. You may like to lengthen or shorten the time on task or text lengths depending on the time of year that your tasks are conducted. The tasks are predominately open-ended so there are no embargo dates on the usage. Each task will include two versions of the texts, so you may like to mix and match content to personalise your own version of the task. Each task will cost $70. For further details, please feel free to email me at jblog1help@gmail.com .

We will look at creating some assessments for Continuers as well, but it has been a long time since Beginners have had some nice new resources, so they are first up this time.

Good luck with your assessment planning!

 

EARLY BIRD SALE – NOOSA WORKSHOP 2019

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As we slide into the end of the year, many of us may be lacking the energy to feel inspired about 2019. Luckily, Junko Nichols and I have been working on some new ideas and activities to re-energise you next year at Noosa. The workshop is held July 13th 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.

We will be covering the following:

·       How to take a topical issue like “gender” and make the language accessible to students

·       How to use a newspaper article in English to develop speaking, reading and writing skills in Japanese

·       How to analyse stereotypes in the media using simple language and cover Learning Across the Curriculum content

·       Developing peer feedback skills in speaking tasks – your chance to sample our new Speaking stations resource

·       Effective ways to communicate with parents and increase school support at the primary level

·       Strategies to enable your students to contribute to the local community through language and charity work

·       Battling your nemesis subject at secondary schools – how to fight back and drive up those elective numbers

·       Incorporating soft-CLIL into primary art lessons

·       Simple print-making techniques inspired by Hokusai

·       Developing an appreciation of art and nature in students

·       Dabbling in Comprehensible Input theory – beginner strategies for circling questions and mini-grammar sub-lessons

·       Task-based learning – sample assessment task ideas

·       Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in your programs – actual resources and activities to get you started

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 prices 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!

SPEAKING STATIONS

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When programming for the new syllabus, I noticed that I needed to create more opportunities for the students to meet the outcome LJA4-1C, in particular the following content point: “engage in collaborative activities that involve planning and making arrangements for example participating in class activities using set phrases in Japanese” (ACLJAC002).

Although we played games in my classes, I wanted to embed more target language use into the games and the way the students played together.

The result is the Speaking Stations Pack. The first of these packs to be released is aimed at Stage 4 (year 7/8). This version develops a student’s skills in the language content covered in Jblog textbook 1.

How to play

Students in pairs or small groups have a map of Mt Fuji that has 15 speaking stations. Student A throws a dice and moves along the path the number of places on the dice. Student B uses the question card to ask Student A the matching question for that station eg 「何才ですか」. Student A refers to their stimulus card which provides information in Japanese to help them answer the question. If Student A answers correctly, they can stay on the station. If they answer incorrectly, they must go back to the start. Student B is responsible for telling Student A if they are correct or not. Student B has the answers written on the question card. Students take turns rolling the dice and answering the question.

This game can be differentiated in two ways.

Firstly, each game has a script version (hiragana and basic kanji) and a romaji version (with romaji above the Japanese script). Students or teachers can select which is more appropriate for individual students.

Secondly, students can use the same question card or different question cards. For example, student A could be using the Dialogue Review Profile A card and student B could be using the Dialogue Review Profile D card.

click on image to view enlarged version

What topics are covered?

This Year 7/8 version covers the following topics:

Game 1 – Aisatsu

This game revises common aisatsu and has questions in English such as You arrive home to your homestay apartment. Greet your host family. The student would be expected to say “ただいま”.

Game 2 – Dialogue Review CH1-5

This game revises common self-introduction content such as name, age, birthday, number of people in your family etc. Students must refer to the profile they receive of a Japanese person to answer each question. The profile is provided in Japanese in a table format. The students use the stimulus to create an appropriate full sentence to respond. There are 3 versions of game 2 that use different Japanese profiles.

Game 3 – School life

This game revises common school life content such as if they like or dislike a subject, what period or day of the week they study a subject, what their favourite subject is etc. Students must refer to the profile they receive of a Japanese person to answer each question. The profile is provided in Japanese in a table format. The students use the stimulus to create an appropriate full sentence to respond. There are 3 versions of game 3 that use different Japanese profiles.

Game 4 – Shopping at the Bunkasai

This game revises content related to shopping, prices and classroom objects. The setting is purchasing classroom objects from a stall at the bunkasai. Students will be required to use Japanese language to ask what an item is, how much it costs, to pass items and to say thank you etc. There are 3 versions of game 4 that use different stimulus information.

click on image to view enlarged version

Composing option

Teachers may also like to follow this speaking task with a composing option. There are blank tables provided, that students could use to create their own versions of the game by composing the profiles/stimulus cards and sample answer cards. This activity would address the composing outcome LJA4-4C, in particular the content point, “Compose informative and imaginative texts in spoken, written and multimodal forms for a variety of purposes and audiences, using stimulus materials and modelled language (ACLJAC007).”

How much does it cost? What do I receive in the pack?

The pack costs $50 and includes:

  • A Mt Fuji game sheet with 15 stations
  • Game 1 – Aisatsu
  • Game 2 – Dialogue Review with 3 different profile versions
  • Game 3 – School Life with 3 different profile versions
  • Game 4 – Shopping at the Bunkasai with 3 different stimulus cards
  • All games include a scripted version and a romaji version
  • Student game explanation with suggested language to use when playing the game such as はい、どうぞ。(When passing the dice to each other.);さいころはどこですか。Where is the dice?; わたしのばん It is my turn.
  • Scaffolds to support the composing option of the game
  • Teacher guide

 

Teachers will receive all these items as PDFS or word documents. It is recommended that you laminate the game sheet. Teachers will need to supply their own dice and markers for the game.

To order, email jblog1help@gmail.com

Ideas for Japanese visits to your school

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Term 3 is a popular time for Japanese students to visit your school. Having students visit your class and interact with your students is great fun but it can be nerve-wracking planning enough activities to keep everyone engaged. Here are 3 of my favourite ideas that get your students interacting.

1.Paired Kahoot

These kahoots are bilingual with questions in one language and answer options in another. This encourages the Australian and Japanese students to talk together to work out each answer. Lots of gestures and laughs to be had. Below are links to two different versions. If you can’t gain access via the link search kahoot for games made by Manten resources or jblog textbooks and should find these. Feel free to make a copy and edit them to better suit your students.

Japanese group quiz re Australia

Japanese visitor quiz 

2.Bilingual Amazing Race

Again, this activity is bilingual requiring collaboration between the Japanese and Australian students. There is a free download of an entire game including worksheets, answers, game cards and sound file. The instructions can also be found on our site via the link below.

https://www.mantenresources.com.au/teachers/our-resources/amazing-races/

3.Use your visitors to help with speaking assessments

We run our Year 8 assessment task during the annual school visit from Japan. Our students plan 3 questions to ask the visitors in Japanese and they must answer one question in Japanese. This is all filmed on their mobile phones or devices and submitted. Our students are so excited that their Japanese actually “works” and are often keen to show their parents when they get home.

For our Year 9 students, we ran a joint speaking contest where the students are buddied up for an interview style contest. They worked together in the previous term prior to the visit online, to draft sample answers. When the visitors arrive, they have one lesson to practice face to face and then we run the speech contest in real time. We award a joint trophy and have a pizza and sushi lunch together. 

Check out our Facebook page August 4 2017 for more details.You will need to scroll down to that date to find it, sorry!) https://www.facebook.com/mantenresources/