Lesson Planning for SHS ALTsLesson Planning for SHS ALTsFrom beginning concepts to making your own planFrom beginning concepts to making your own plan

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English Curriculum in Japanese High Schools

• 1. What are the four skills that comprise English proficiency?

• 2. Which of these skills have been traditionally the focus in English classrooms in Japan?

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English Curriculum in Japanese High Schools

• Japanese students have traditionally focused on reading, writing and listening practice with a focus on translation of English into Japanese.

• Part of your role: introduce the missing component

• Of course, your lessons can involve all aspects of the 4 skills but try to keep speaking and communication in the front of your mind.

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April 2013: New Curriculum introduced by MEXT

• Curriculum has been changed from this year, including all of the textbooks (You may or may not be required to use/adapt a textbook for your class). The main changes are as follows:• Classes should be conducted in English (teachers are primarily using English in the

classroom ).

• Students should be using as much English as possible

• Language activities are being made the centre of instruction

• What does this mean for the ALT class?

> Different textbooks (Ones that perhaps seem less communicative??)

> No Japanese

> Possibly more collaboration between ALTs and JTEs

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What students need from the ALT’s class• Students spend a lot of time learning grammar and vocabulary in their

usual classes. You don’t need to teach this directly! They need chances to use it.

• They need to: • learn useful English for communication,

• learn how to understand a class in English,

• get used to speaking English with each other,

• practice saying things in English,

• enjoy learning English with you so that they become motivated to continue their studies,

• get used to listening to real English,

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Lesson Planning

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Keeping a focus: using objectives

• When you start planning a lesson, ask yourself:

What’s the objective of your lesson?

• To get to know your students so they are comfortable.

• To share your culture and experience with your students.

• To give them a chance to speak English.

• To give them a chance to listen to real English.

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When planning a lesson, know your students

• Well, how do I know what is a good goal for my students?? Surely, my classes are going to be different from another ALT’s classes.

• Are there any performance outcomes you hope your students can accomplish this semester?

• Useful to do a Needs Assessment of your students – this can be done through your own observations and consultation with your teachers.

• who are they, how many, what can they do, are they motivated, are they used to listening to English in class?

• After your first class, try to get a feel for what they are like and what they may be interested in. (It can be useful to use cards…)

• Will you use a textbook? Is it necessary or flexible?

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Let’s try tailoring objectives for a class

• From your needs assessment you found out:

Your class is 42 first year students. The students don’t like speaking out in the class when you ask a general question but will use English when given pair-activities. As a class, they can understand only simple spoken English instructions but enjoy the class when they are given tasks they can do and understand. Many of the students like sports like basketball, baseball, and tennis. Some of the girls ask you about Justin Bieber and confess their love

for him. You have a textbook you can use but you do not need to use it every lesson.

What are some possible lesson objectives?

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Planning a Lesson: The layout

• Lessons, like most things, have a beginning, middle, and end.

• Warm-ups and Openers: • Warm-up: activity that have the students using English, that will activate their

language.

• Examples of warm-ups: broken telephone, “who am I?” game, tennis debate

• Openers: A picture, story, joke, anecdote, interesting fact that you can use to elicit English from the students and pique their interest in the topic. (Particularly useful with Japanese students)

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Planning a Lesson: The layout

• Main Activity: This can be anything! It really depends on your objective

• Some examples: Dialogue practice, Writing a story, surveys, guided group discussions, describing a picture, playing a game, making skits,

• Wrap-up: To consolidate what you have done. Sometimes you may want to confirm a language point, have a pair demonstrate what they are doing, review what you did with the class.

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Example of lesson plans: Using the textbooks

I’m going to tell you about Asada Mao. She was born in Nagoya in 1990. She started skating when she was five years old. At the age of 16, she won many tournaments and became a star in the international figure skating world. However, she couldn’t go to the 2006 Turin Olympics because she was too young. Finally, she became the silver medalist in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Her dream now is to win the gold medal in the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

Crown Textbook from “Speaking 1” 82 words

If you were to a design a lesson based on this text, what topics come to mind? How could you use it?

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Decide

• What are the students like?

• What can they do?

• What are possible objectives of this lesson?

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Your turn

• Design a lesson for either Halloween or a conversation lesson around shopping. For this lesson you do not need to use the textbook.

• In pairs, choose a scenario.

• You have only one 50 minute class to conduct your lesson.

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Online teaching resources

• www.bogglesworld.esl.com – easily adaptable worksheets & plans

• www.eslcafe.com/ideas – idea cookbook – a large collection of classroom ideas

• www.liteslj.org/questions – conversation questions separated by categories

• www.mes-english.com – flashcards, games, worksheets