Grade 2 Unit 7

I haven't posted for a long time. Winter vacation was a month and a half. Well, here is something I'm working on for the 二年生。 I'm not sure what final form it will take but I really like the visuals that go with it. Superheroes! And here are larger versions of the same characters. I've chosen the superheroes I'm familiar with because I thought it would make it more interesting. And because they don't know these characters they really will have to ask questions about them.
So, how am I going to use them?
I was thinking of using them in Grade 2 Unit 7. In this unit they learn to make statements and questions using comparitives and superlatives.

Here's an idea.
I pick two superheroes. I tell them the superheroes have had a battle. Hulk versus Thor or Superman versus the Blue Beetle. Then the kids have to quiz me about the relative strengths and abilities or other special attributes of the characters in question; then they tell me which one they think would win. What kind of questions could they ask?

Who is stronger Hulk or Thor?

Who is faster Flash or The Atom?

Who is bigger.....

Who is more intelligent.....

Who is more powerful.......

Can Batman.....

Does the Blue Beetle have.....

Really I don't have a lot of hope on those last two questions coming out without a lot of prompting.

Grade 1 Unit 8 Object Pronouns

I was asked to come up with something for an observation class this month to practice object pronouns or possessive pronouns. It hasn't been decided yet so I'll do something for each just in case. Here's the activity for object pronouns. It's called It's Good to be the King.

A group of kids do a janken (thank god for janken) and the winner becomes the king. That person has to give an order to all of the members of group he is playing with. If he does so successfully then he gets to make a mark under the crown on his activity sheet. With five lines he (or she) can make the Japanese character for tadashii 正. If he wins five times and makes the character he is the winner of the first round of the game. The kids can do as many rounds as they have time to do. All of the orders have to involve an object pronoun:

Tell me your name.
Touch him on the shoulder.
Give her a pencil.

Things like that.

There are examples sentences on the activity sheet and of course the teachers will spend the first part of the class explaining or reviewing object pronouns so it shouldn't be too hard. Kids with less confidence in their English can keep giving the same orders; those with more confidence can be encouraged to ask the teachers for ideas for interesting orders. No punching, kicking or kissing allowed.

A good ideas is to have the kids form groups of five. (Where five isn't possible including the teachers will help.) Then make it a rule that a king has to give orders to as many different people as possible. Five different people, five different marks to make the 正.

Grade 2 Unit 5 What's Wrong

Here's a great activity for Second Grade when the kids are studying the Speaking Plus 3 on page 56. I wish I could take credit for it but the JTE came up with this one.

After the kids have practiced the Speaking Plus conversation pass out copies of the first sheet which is basically the same conversation. The JTE writes the questions What's wrong? and How do you feel? on the blackboard along with the answers that will be used in the activity.

What's wrong? I have a headache.
a stomachache
a fever


How do you feel? Not so bad
Bad.
Terrible


After the kids have practiced this vocabulary for a while the teachers pass out the slips of paper that are on the third sheet. These are the answers to questions that the teachers will ask the students.

When they are ready to go the teachers explain that they are doctors. The kids make two lines. One with the JTE and one with the ALT who then ask the kids questions about their symptoms and how long they have had them. Based on the answers the "doctors" make a diagnosis. The Medical Chart, which is the second sheet, tells the doctor what the student's problem is. The JTE who made this activity included cold, flu, eat too much, and cancer. I realize that last one might be a downer especially if someone in the class has had a relative with that problem but things worked out okay. If you want to, go ahead and change it. Maybe it could be AIDS. No just kidding. Anyway feel free to make it any illness you feel comfortable talking about.

Oh. The last line of the dialogue is I'll give you some medicine. The medicine is a sticker. It's surprising how such a small item can motivate even students who ordinarily don't talk much. After the kids have got their medicine have them trade answer sheets with someone else and they can go again and see how may stickers they can get.

Grade 2 Unit 5 "When..."

In this Unit the kids are learning how to express opinions and how to make sentences with if and when clauses. So I was asked to come up with something to practice this grammar. It wasn't so easy. All my ideas looked like worksheets which is something I kind of want to get away from. So I came up with this idea. I'm not completey happy with it because it doesn't require any speaking beyond reading what the teacher has written on the board. On the plus side it looks like it might be fun and lead to a gut level understanding of the causation implied in sentences like:


When the teacher says, "Open your books." you must cry like a baby.


At the begining of class the JTE and I pretended to be upset over the class's behavior. Talking, not listening and what have you. Now the class we tried it in is actually a pretty good class so they knew right away that there was something fishy going on. Still we pretended to be angry and told them that there were going to to be some new rules put into practice. Then we started writing them on the board:

When the teacher is speaking you must be quiet

We wrote this on the board and had the kids practice it backwards and forwards. (We showed them how the clauses could be interposed while retaining the same meaning) As we continued writing the new rules became increasingly strange, as in the first example and the stranger the rules became the more the kids enjoyed reading aloud. After all the rules were on the board we continued class as we usually do but the kids still had to obey the new rules. When I scratched my nose the kids clapped. When the JTE wrote on the board the kids had to call out, "Tooth!"( I don't know what this means but it's some kind of gag that appears on TV) when I put my hands in my pockets everyone had to stand up, turn around and sit back down.

It made for an interesting forty-five minutes.

Grade 2 Unit 5 "If..."

In unit 5 the kids get their first look at conditioinal sentences like:

If you can go, please call me.
Please call me if you can go.


Here's a game that allows the kids to practice/review the grammar. One of the things I like about it is that it requires nothing more than a blackboard. It went quite well when I tried it with 2-3. Divide the class into groups and then write on the board half of a conditional sentence.

If you are hungry....

The first group to come up with a well constructed logical second half of the sentence wins a point. Write the complete sentences on the blackboard and then have the kids practice them chorally. Some of the responses that we got in 2-3 weren't always logical although they might have been syntactically correct in the way that Hungry green ideas sleep furiously is syntactically correct.

If you are hungry run.

The words fit together in the right place but it doesn't make any sense. In this event the JTE was given the task of being the judge.

If you are hungry eat.

gets a point.

After a number of sentences have been put together, written down and practiced erase the board and present the kids with the sentences inverted.

Eat...

They should be able to remember the sentences they have just seen and practiced and should be able to come up with the correct response. Then you can add some that they haven't practiced and work in some with negative expressions. As I said it went well. It's probably best to divide the room into lunch groups so they can be encouraged to work together.

Grade 1 Unit 6

Here is Classroom Bingo for the first grade. First the teachers pass out the questionaires and have the students fill them out and hand them back in. If you don't want to do it all on the same day the questionaire bit can be done beforehand during a previous class. You can even give it as homework if you have a class you can trust to do its homework.

Next the teachers explain that it is a bingo game and that the kids have to write the names of their friends into the squares. Most classes are larger than sixteen so not everyone will have the same names.

Using the information from the questinaires the teachers read three hints. If the kids think that the classmate, or teacher being described with third person singular grammar is represented on their bingo sheet they circle that person. You won't be giving the name of the classmate but the kids being spoken of will probably identify themselves to the class. The ALT square in the middle, which you may need to edit, is a freebie and is an example to show the kids how to play the game.

One drawback I can think of is that the game is all listening. So how to get around that? Maybe have the first kid to get a bingo can, with the teacher's help, read the next clues. I'm open to suggestions.

Grade 1 Unit 5

After a long time away from the blog I finally do a post. (The Flying Fish is back too). Here is an activity sheet (I'm going to stop calling them worksheets. To me the the worksheet is something the kids can do sitting down by themselves and not the kind of thing an ALT should be doing. I realize the distinction might be a slight one but I want to make Activity Sheets ( and we could all use a little activity in our sheets couldn't we?) that have the kids getting information from other kids and the teachers.) for Grade 1 that allows them to ask the how many question with their classmates.

Okay so the teachers pass out the sheet and explain that the kids will be asking this question of one another. The question and response on the activity sheet is modeled along with the short answer that Mike gives Emi on page 45. That is to say that the kids can answer the question with only a single word, a number, or no if they don't have any of the items in question. This will give the kids who are a little behind an out so they won't be embarassed.

Here's an idea. Make two copies of the sheet. On the second round really encourage the kids to answer just and the dialogue is modeled. Also have them collect the signatures of classmates they haven't talked to yet.