Sunday, January 25, 2009
Aoba-kuChuoShiminCenter, Sendai
2:00 pm (14:00) ~ 5:00pm (17:00)
仙台市民会館 会議室6番
- Simon Cooke's students spoke about their research project on the environment. This is part of an international project out of Sweden. Simon's students prepared reports and then gave a PowerPoint presentation in English on their research findings. Their topic was CO2 and they studied its concentration in two of their classrooms.
- Ben Shearon talked about his students' use of the self-study website "iKnow.com". Ben showed us several ways to use the iKnow.com website for vocabulary drilling, and how an instructor can set it up to customize it for a specific group of students. (Virtual "flash cards" with various drilling possibilities. Many sets of "cards" from-to several languages are already up on the website from individuals and instructors from around the world. Language learners can use what is there already, or can create their own custom cards.)
- 2-3 of TFU’s students along with Ken Schmidt’s colleague, Cheinman Lee, gave a presentation re. several study abroad programs. These programs are an official part of Ken Schmidt’s school (Tohoku Fukushi Univ.). Focus was on the students' preparation for the program (had to have a score of 500+ on the TOEFL before leaving on the trip), their experience while abroad studying, and TFU's requirement for them to give student presentations to TFU faculty and fellow students upon their return to Japan. They have to give an oral presentation and they have to write a 30 page report about their experience. (Each section of the program was briefly explained and then Q&A from the audience led to a lively discussion and very interesting elaborations on the details of the program.)
March 2009
Time: 2:00 pm (14:00) ~ 5:00pm (17:00)
Short presentations (15-30 min.) from different presenters and perspectives gave this session a lot of interesting variety.
Soichi Ota began with a community-building activity in which student groups brainstorm on English questions to ask the instructor—ANY questions. Kenichiro Tachibana followed with two activities designed to show new college students that while they’ll be working with simple English, the class will be much different than junior high school. One activity employed mobile phones in number listening drills, while another involved listening supports and activities imported into music videos as subtitles. Maggye Foster showed how she “sells” Spanish to her new students, eases them into learning (almost without their realizing it), and helps them learn how to learn. Dominic Jones outlined how he incorporates simple English into a variety of classroom activities to help students get off to a stimulating, confident start. He also shared strategies for establishing the desired tone and expectations for the course. Steven Hatfield explained an activity he hopes will help students consider student issues from an instructor’s point of view. Margaret Chang showed us her student data sheets, which provide her with helpful information on students, as well as numerous teaching opportunities. She also shared a search activity which helps students begin interacting in English in an active, fun way. Finally, Kumiko Ota took us through a series of activities combining movement, performance and communication—all contributing to an engaging start to the course.
Reported by Ken Schmidt
APRIL 2009
Start: 2:00 pm (14:00) Finish: 5:00pm (17:00)
Venue: AER 6th floor seminar room 1B
Presentation Title:
A Discussion of Gender Roles in High School Textbooks
MAY 2009
Date: May 31, 2009
Time: 2pm - 5pm (14:00~17:00)
Venue: War Memorial hall (戦災復興記念館) 4th floor meeting room 3
Title: Task-based learning (TBL) and the Vigotsky-task (V-task)
Speaker bio:
Mark de Boer has been teaching in Japan since 1997. He teaches at three universities and owns two successful private
language schools. He loves exploring cutting-edge projects through technology such as Second Life online teaching in a professional development through collaboration setting. His research focuses on Vygotsky in the TBL classroom and how social interaction in an “inauthentic” classroom creates the best learning environment for language acquisition.
Abstract:
In the traditional IRF structured classroom, students have little chance for meaningful dialog. As a result, there is little chance for the creation of a zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978) and language development. Task-based learning (TBL) is a methodology that was developed to promote more interaction in the classroom and therefore increase language acquisition. Under the umbrella of TBL, the Vygotsky-task (V-task) (de Boer, 2009), promotes learning how to learn in a student centered classroom. This paper will outline the use of the V-task and will show through discourse analysis its effectiveness in the classroom. As Sinclair and Coulthard’s discourse analysis model (1975) does not apply to student-centered lessons and the largest rank is the lesson, a new discourse analysis model will be used to examine dialog in a student-centered classroom and also show language development across multiple lessons. Exchanges in the classroom will be analyzed to show that peer assisted scaffolding or co-constructed dialog, can
result in immediate use of new language. Development markers in the discourse analysis showing student language development, will also raise awareness to the fact that students may need more opportunities to use the language before it is internalized. Through the analysis, the definition of scaffolding will also be refined to include peer scaffolding, which in a collaborative environment is a much different type of support. The V-task across multiple lessons, the analysis of the dialog in the V-task, as well as the discussions of the types of scaffolding groups will bring light to the type of classrooms that we need to create as educators, to give our students the most effective learning environment.
JUNE 2009
Date: June 28, 2009
Time: 2pm - 5pm (14:00 ~ 17:00)
Venue: Mediatheque 7th floor meeting room B
Assistant Professor of English
Fukushima University
Speaker bio: Before coming to Japan fourteen years ago, Sean taught an English course in grammar at the University of Regina, and ESL at St. Michaels University School (Victoria) in Canada. He worked as a junior high AET in Bandai, Fukushima Prefecture for two years (1995—97), and has been teaching English at Fukushima University since 1997. His research interests focus on the JET Programme and English education in Japan, with articles published in World Englishes, the JALT Journal, ARELE, and several other journals. His most recent works are two university textbooks, Essential Listening for the TOEIC Test (Kinseido, 2005) and New Essential Listening for the TOEIC Test (Kinseido, 2007).
JULY 2009
DATE: July 26, 2009 (Sunday)
TIME: 2pm - 5pm (14:00 ~ 17:00)
VENUE: Mediatheque 7th floor meeting room A
TITLE: Making Ideas Matter: Active Skills for Critical Thinking
SPEAKER: Chuck Sandy, Chubu University
Chuck is an ELT materials writer, teacher trainer, essayist and poet. He teaches in the Department of English Language & Culture, Chubu University.
Chuck Sandy is a very well-known speaker and teacher trainer and has been a featured speaker at National JALT.Chuck Sandy is based in Nagoya
Abstract: Critical thinking, once mistakenly limited to the domain of written language, is now understood to be of vast importance to spoken interaction as well. But what is critical thinking and why is it as essential for oral communication? In this interactive presentation, participants will explore the answers to these questions, employ a useful graphic organizer to help them see how almost any activity at almost any level can be adapted to promote and nurture critical thinking skills, and discover why doing so will help deepen learning and ensure take away value.
AUGUST 2009
The Hobart Shakespeareans (documentary film)
August 30, 2009 (Sunday)
2-5pm (14:00-17:00) at Mediatheque, 7F, Meeting Room B
The Hobart Shakespeareans is a documentary film about teacher Rafe Esquith and his class of fifth grade students (most from immigrant families) at Hobart Elementary (Los Angeles), one of the largest inner-city grade schools in the USA. From July to April, Esquith and his students go through a demanding, wide-ranging curriculum, including travel and dramatic performance. Watchwords of his program are, “Be Nice, Work Hard” and, “There Are No Shortcuts.” Many of Esquith’s students stay in touch through middle school (grades 6-8) and high school, overcome language barriers and poverty, and go on to attend outstanding colleges.
After a brief introduction to the film and some pre-viewing questions, we watched the 50+ minute video and followed that with spirited small group and large group discussion. It is a fascinating documentary that challenges teachers of any subject, at any level to re-examine our principles and practices. Everyone at this well-attended meeting left feeling it was time well spent.
Information on the film is available at < www.pbs.org/pov/hobart/>.
Reported by Ken Schmidt
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112336166
*** Special thanks to Marc Helgesen for the info on the related links above ("Children Full of Life" in Japan; and the Fifth-grade Student Chorus group in New York called "PS 22" [for "Public School 22"]). ***
SEPTEMBER 2009
Paul Nation
Special Presenter from New Zealand!!!
(see speaker bio, below)
Presentation on Vocabulary building with discussion afterwards.
Time: 2 pm ~ 5 pm (14:00 ~ 17:00)
Place: War Memorial Hall (戦災復興記念館)
5th Floor - Large Meeting Room
2-12-1 Oumachi, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi
