The two high level students that I had for this last class at Smith's School of English Kyobashi were very tired because they had just finished work. One of them had just come from a meeting so I let them slowly warm up to the lesson, giving them a bit of time to get into the one point. The first lady was very anxious to get through the one point because she had memorized it while the her classmate was a bit reluctant to pull out her notebook. But we eventually got through the one point and moved onto the item.
We were doing vocabulary unit 2 today and this kind of perked the students up because they like building their vocabulary. Most of the words were new to them so we spent a fair amount of time in introducing the vocabulary before actually moving onto example sentences. They both did very well at using the new vocabulary once they had gotten a firm grasp on the proper usages. Along the way, we had a bit of a discussion on how safe Japan was in comparison to other countries because we'd gotten to the word 'seedy' and the students had a bit of difficulty relating to the word. But after a bit of talking amongst themselves, they came to the agreement that Osaka did indeed have seedy areas but very few.
After the vocabulary, we reviewed routine 7 by asking and answering the questions. We adjusted a few of them according to the answers that the students gave to make sure that the flow of the questioning made sense.
At the end, we wrapped things up with a new one point: "I want (a) to (b) because (c)" and they took turns providing their own examples. The first student said, "I want the teacher to bake me some muffins because they sound delicious." I'd told her about my muffin success earlier on and I guess that this had stirred up her appetite for trying some of them. The second student said,
"I want my dog to remain healthy because I love him."
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Pet Cockroaches anyone?
This news article gives me a mixture of good and bad feelings. It's mainly good because the students just love to discuss cockroaches, especially as terrors of their apartments and houses. The bad part is the creepy photograph of a gigantic cockroach in full color. I'm just not a big fan of these insects.
So, we were going through the article with mixed reactions from the students. On the one hand, one of the men looked fascinated with the topic. On the other, his classmate looked like she was losing her appetite for dinner. But despite their rather extreme reactions to the subject matter, they still managed to get quite a lot out of this lesson. After they had taken turns reading the article, we went through the new vocabulary. There were a handful of new words to be explained and after this was done, we moved onto the questions. This took a bit of time because the students had to look back through the article to find the answers, and occasionally rephrase things. Overall, they did a good job of thoroughly answering the questions with the appropriate answers.
At the end, we discussed the pros and cons of having these gigantic cockroaches as pets. The female student insisted that regardless of how the article had hyped these insects, she would never consider keeping one as a pet. She stood by her feelings of how cockroaches were dirty and creepy and gave her the shivers just to think of them. Her classmate was quick to jump at the opportunity to keep this type of cockroach as a pet, saying that it would be a fun experiment for him. He was interested to see what the differences were between regular cockroaches and gigantic ones.
At Smith's School of English Kyobashi, having such interesting articles like this one is great because it sparks conversations and encourages the students to have their own opinions.
So, we were going through the article with mixed reactions from the students. On the one hand, one of the men looked fascinated with the topic. On the other, his classmate looked like she was losing her appetite for dinner. But despite their rather extreme reactions to the subject matter, they still managed to get quite a lot out of this lesson. After they had taken turns reading the article, we went through the new vocabulary. There were a handful of new words to be explained and after this was done, we moved onto the questions. This took a bit of time because the students had to look back through the article to find the answers, and occasionally rephrase things. Overall, they did a good job of thoroughly answering the questions with the appropriate answers.
At the end, we discussed the pros and cons of having these gigantic cockroaches as pets. The female student insisted that regardless of how the article had hyped these insects, she would never consider keeping one as a pet. She stood by her feelings of how cockroaches were dirty and creepy and gave her the shivers just to think of them. Her classmate was quick to jump at the opportunity to keep this type of cockroach as a pet, saying that it would be a fun experiment for him. He was interested to see what the differences were between regular cockroaches and gigantic ones.
At Smith's School of English Kyobashi, having such interesting articles like this one is great because it sparks conversations and encourages the students to have their own opinions.
Customs
Since many students travel abroad I find this Smith's School of English lesson very beneficial. Last week I had a lesson with 1 green and 1 red level student. After reviewing the one point "You shouldn't have" from their lesson last week I asked if either of them had visited any foreign countrys in their lives. 1 student had been to a few countrys but I was surprised when the other replyed that he had never been to any country outside of Japan.
This was a good time to pause and review the routine 9 Finnegan's Bar story. Each student had already completed this routine once just last week so the story's content was fresh in their minds. They didn't have too much trouble with the question and answer session. They were a little confused however with the "That should do the trick" expression. But after a little explanation they quickly had no trouble grasping the meaning.
I introduced the customs curriculum to the students by showing them the copy of the customs declaration form. The 1 student who had traveled to a few countrys had already seen it and in fact had filled it out before. Not surprisingly this form was brand new to the other student but his green level was quite high so he had little trouble deciphering its contents. I then introduced some common questions asked at airports these days including the most important one "Do you have anything to declare?" . With very little delay I had the students begin role playing the passenger/customs officer. As always the picture cards in this lesson are great to present real life travel situations. I was happy to see each student forming very creative questions to ask each other like "Why do you have a ______ in your bag?" , "Where did you buy it?" , "Do you always travel with a _______?" or "How much is it worth?"
The students role of the customs officer finished off well as they responded to the rest of the picture cards accurately during the cool off stage. They seemed to really enjoy themselves and comprehend the significance of this important part of traveling. I gave them today's C28 one point "I don't mind________" to round off this successful lesson.
This was a good time to pause and review the routine 9 Finnegan's Bar story. Each student had already completed this routine once just last week so the story's content was fresh in their minds. They didn't have too much trouble with the question and answer session. They were a little confused however with the "That should do the trick" expression. But after a little explanation they quickly had no trouble grasping the meaning.
I introduced the customs curriculum to the students by showing them the copy of the customs declaration form. The 1 student who had traveled to a few countrys had already seen it and in fact had filled it out before. Not surprisingly this form was brand new to the other student but his green level was quite high so he had little trouble deciphering its contents. I then introduced some common questions asked at airports these days including the most important one "Do you have anything to declare?" . With very little delay I had the students begin role playing the passenger/customs officer. As always the picture cards in this lesson are great to present real life travel situations. I was happy to see each student forming very creative questions to ask each other like "Why do you have a ______ in your bag?" , "Where did you buy it?" , "Do you always travel with a _______?" or "How much is it worth?"
The students role of the customs officer finished off well as they responded to the rest of the picture cards accurately during the cool off stage. They seemed to really enjoy themselves and comprehend the significance of this important part of traveling. I gave them today's C28 one point "I don't mind________" to round off this successful lesson.
Comparisons 2 - "Brad Pitt is not as handsome as Tom Cruise"
Today at Smith's School of English Kyobashi, the two gentlemen who walked into my lesson were both looking forward to the lesson and seeing each other again. They had established a kind of rapport in the previous lesson, having discovered that they had quite a few things in common. So, they were eager to take a lesson together and have a bit of fun while learning.
The item for this lesson was Comparisons 2. I threw some questions at them as a warm up, asking them who the most beautiful actress was. They both had their individual opinions on that, as well as who the richest person in the world was. From there, I wrote up some questions on the board where they had to form comparisons. For example; Tom Cruise is not as (tall) as Brad Pitt. They practically flew through this stage because they were having a bit of friendly competition. One would answer pretty quickly, and the other would shoot off an answer just as fast, not to be outdone.
We took the comparisons to a new level by introducing some opinionated comparison statements and having them take turns agreeing or disagreeing. This became a bit tricky because the disagreeing meant having to change the structure of the original sentence. One particularly difficult sentence brought the lesson to a dead stop. "Brad Pitt is not as handsome as Tom Cruise." The first student was very adamant on insisting that neither Brad Pitt nor Tom Cruise were handsome and therefore would neither agree nor disagree. After a bit of coaxing, I assured him that for the benefit of the lesson it was okay to make up an answer. He was a bit reluctant at first but finally replied with, "I disagree. Brad Pitt is as handsome as Tom Cruise." Problem solved.
In the last few minutes of the item, the students were given the opportunity to make up whatever types of comparisons they wanted with cats and dogs, trains and planes etc. They had a lot of fun with this part and the agreeing and disagreeing part.
Afterwards, we did a review of Routine 6 and followed it up with a new one point: When I was young, I could never (a) but now I (b) because (c).
The item for this lesson was Comparisons 2. I threw some questions at them as a warm up, asking them who the most beautiful actress was. They both had their individual opinions on that, as well as who the richest person in the world was. From there, I wrote up some questions on the board where they had to form comparisons. For example; Tom Cruise is not as (tall) as Brad Pitt. They practically flew through this stage because they were having a bit of friendly competition. One would answer pretty quickly, and the other would shoot off an answer just as fast, not to be outdone.
We took the comparisons to a new level by introducing some opinionated comparison statements and having them take turns agreeing or disagreeing. This became a bit tricky because the disagreeing meant having to change the structure of the original sentence. One particularly difficult sentence brought the lesson to a dead stop. "Brad Pitt is not as handsome as Tom Cruise." The first student was very adamant on insisting that neither Brad Pitt nor Tom Cruise were handsome and therefore would neither agree nor disagree. After a bit of coaxing, I assured him that for the benefit of the lesson it was okay to make up an answer. He was a bit reluctant at first but finally replied with, "I disagree. Brad Pitt is as handsome as Tom Cruise." Problem solved.
In the last few minutes of the item, the students were given the opportunity to make up whatever types of comparisons they wanted with cats and dogs, trains and planes etc. They had a lot of fun with this part and the agreeing and disagreeing part.
Afterwards, we did a review of Routine 6 and followed it up with a new one point: When I was young, I could never (a) but now I (b) because (c).
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