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Post by prncsfungi on Jul 3, 2008 7:56:58 GMT 8
The ALT company that I work for has its own Elementary school English cirriculum. Oppinions of the quality of said cirriculum aside...how the system works is that there is one lesson plan book per grade. The homeroom teacher for each class picks a lesson from their respective book and thus I teach it. Usually I get a little say in on the choice but not always.
Today I have been assigned a lesson from the dreaded 6th grade lesson plan book. For the first 10 or so lessons of the 6th grade book the topics are what I would consider more appropriate in a science classroom..i.e. volume, length, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, weight, temperature. I'm stuck with length centimeters/meters today. The lesson plan only calls for 30 minutes of measuring and then singing b-i-n-g-o. Anyone have any suggestions on a better game I could use?
(On a side note I am just curious as to if anyone else thinks that the science subjects have no place in an elementary school english class)
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Post by gsuiris on Jul 3, 2008 8:07:06 GMT 8
Maybe make the measuring into some kind of game.
Put the kids into groups and have them race to measure something. The fastest team gets a point.
and/or
Give the teams objects of different lengths, and whichever team has the most/least gets a point. Or let them measure their own stuff. For example each group picks their own eraser/pencil/etc., and sees who has the longest.
As for the Bingo thing - I would skip it if I could.
A lot of the lessons in those books are pretty...... blah. I would have had more focus on things that they will use - such as food or animals. There are barely any lessons on food and that is something that anyone can talk about and understand.
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Post by Otaku on Jul 3, 2008 10:28:47 GMT 8
What your school is doing sounds a lot like CLIL (Content and Lanaguage Intergrated Learning). All the hardcore jargon aside, this style of teaching teaches other subjects, mainly math and science, using English as the classroom language versus Japanese. However, without a clear goal of what the school is trying to accomplish, I'm guessing this is just going to do more harm than good. CLIL tries to knockout two birds with one stone. Emphasis is placed on science, and English is used as a means to the goal. Sadly though, I'm guessing your school and your local BoE probably knows very little about the methodology behind CLIL and is going to burn any future English bridges with the students desire to learn English. What's sadly ironic is Japan's government (MEXT) wants to keep ES English "FUN", but I think using a CLIL style of teaching creates a high-risk of extirpating 'The Fun'. Prncsfungi, I know for a fact your BoE is one of the guinea pig testing grounds for the ES English program MEXT is trying to create for 2011. My guess is MEXT got wind of what other countries are trying out with their ESL programs and is testing it out in Japan to see if it works. I'm guess what MEXT has failed to take into account is the lack of properly trained and knowledgeable guinea pigs (a.k.a. teachers) to test this type of teaching. "30 minutes of measuring and then singing B-I-N-G-O" sounds like a slap in the face of what CLIL is trying to accomplish. The suckiest thing of it all is you are not told any of this information cuz' you are the guinea pig of the guinea pig. Sucks, eh? If you want to read more on CLIL, CLICK HERE And, the owner of MES-English recently interviewed another ESL website owner on his internet radio show who enrolled in a CLIL program to find out more about it. If you want to listen to the show, CLICK HERE
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yopparaisaru
Englipedia Fana
I drink copious amounts of fire and piss excellence
Posts: 312
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Post by yopparaisaru on Jul 3, 2008 10:54:24 GMT 8
I taught that lesson too a while ago, and a good warm up game to waste some is the Not number game, not does it waste a good 10-15 minutes but you can easily make the connection between reviewing numbers and measuring, since you need numbers to measure...
After that, I believe I used an idea you gave me, make the measuring game into a betting game and pick objects around the room to measure and have the students bet on the length. Its usually a lot of fun and can take up to 25 minutes or at least it did with me. Students loved it when I measured myself and the Sensei and had them bet on the length. Everyone got a kick out of that.
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Post by Otaku on Jul 3, 2008 10:56:41 GMT 8
Students loved it when I measured myself and the Sensei and had them bet on the length. pervert...
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yopparaisaru
Englipedia Fana
I drink copious amounts of fire and piss excellence
Posts: 312
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Post by yopparaisaru on Jul 3, 2008 11:50:35 GMT 8
yea well what can i say, I'm an exhibitionist. And Sensei was surprisingly willing to go along considering she's like 50. Also no one came close. Except for 1 group who over guessed at 185cm.
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Post by junkdna on Jul 4, 2008 11:00:18 GMT 8
"...then singing b-i-n-g-o."
that has to be the best lesson plan i have heard of all year. i don't think anything quite hits the educational g-spot like measuring and then singing b-i-n-g-o.
dont forget to explain to the teacher the reason WHY you skipped bingo, ie, it doesnt fit the lesson plan.
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