1/28-29 KANAZAWA HIGH SCHOOL

Reflection:
Jan 28. Wed.
Some thought-provoking ideas from the talk with the principle of Kanazawa High School.
1. Ask students to write some questions after the lesson on a small piece of paper. The questions will be a quiz for other classmates. If the question is good, the teacher will include it in the mid-term exam. Everyone works hard on the questions.
2. Autonomy: Students are more willing to make effort to clean the school if they're going to wear slippers in the school. 
3. Why do Taiwanese teachers use microphones? They want to make sure everyone can hear them, but is teaching only about teachers' "show and tell"?
4. Newspaper test: Every class gets 6 types of newspaper every day. And every week, students have to take a test on current news. The test is a competition between classes and the student who gets the highest scores will be awarded.
5. There are two blackboards in the classroom, one in the front, the other at the back; one is for teaching, the other is for discussion.

We observed an English class with exchange students in the afternoon:
Procedures:
1. Students sit in groups with 2-3 exchange students.
2. They have a worksheet to work on: How much is .... in your country?
3. When time is up, exchange students move to a different group.
4. Students continue to ask the rest of the questions.
Notes:
1. Teaching can be done as a big class; practice can be done in small groups.
2. The person who leads the discussion in small groups should be well-prepared (in this case, the exchange students with better lg proficiency).
3. Ask more open-ended questions.
4. Tasks should be cognitive challenging for perception, but suitable for production. 
5. Tasks should have clear goals.
6. Worksheet is simple and easy to fill in.
7. Spend short time on instruction.
8. Comprehension check: Q: Are we on the same page? Am I making sense? Am I clear?

Japanese English textbook:
1. Topics are more local (Japanese).
2. The layout: Reading--> Comprehension Qs--> Grammar--> Activities
3. There is no Vocabulary section. All definition are written in the margin only.

Jan 29. Thu.
We participated in Taiwan Hour, which is an activity that these students will do with Taiwanese students. The Japanese students researched on a topic to compare Japan and Taiwan and they made posters to display. There are some questions they want to ask TW students and we try to help them with their presentation and answer the questions. There is a check sheet that both the students and us have to complete.
Procedure (in groups):
0. Teacher gives instruction on the procedure.
1. Students sit in groups. 
2. Self-introduction as ice-breaking.
3. Start the poster presentation.
4. QA section.
5. Advice from us.
6. Advice from peer (L1 allowed).

Check sheet:
1. Notes and suggestions for each presenter.
2. Advice for the group as a whole.
3. Advice for the activity as a whole.