It was an honor that Namiki Elementary School allowed us the opportunity to teach an English-based lesson to their 3rd and 4th grade students. We had so much fun with the students whether it was dancing, playing telephone, Simon says, or moving around and playing math games, both parties taking away something from the experience. Below is a description of what each one of us did.
Paul with 3rd graders
I introduced myself to the Japanese 3rd grade students by showing them a picture of my family. I then asked all of the students to tell me their names. There were about 25 students in this class.
I proceeded to show a short video of the 3rd grade class in which I was a part-time Student Teacher. The Japanese students were interested in seeing what my students looked like and they got a kick out of one of the boys who had a mohawk!
We then proceeded to talk about numbers and adding them in English. The Japanese students were very good with naming numbers 1-10 in English so that part of the lesson was pretty quick. The class was then divided into two sections and I had the two groups stand on opposite sides of the class. I then played "telephone" with them. The words I used were cat, hat, pen, and math. The last Japanese student in each line would come up to me and tell me what they heard and then write the word on the chalkboard in katakana. I would write the word in English and the Japanese translation.
Lastly, we played Simon Says which the students really enjoyed. We played about 4-5 games with a different student winning each time. Prior to the game I wrote the English and Japanese words on the board to ensure students knew the parts of the body I was touching and talking about.
With a few minutes remaining, I asked the students if they had questions for me so we talked about food, homework, families, etc...
Gwen and Nicole with 3rd graders
For our lesson, Gwen and I wanted it to be exciting to to get the students up and moving, As such, we chose to teach a class of third graders the Cha Cha Slide, this would introduce them a part of American culture and learn a few verbs.
First we introduced ourselves by writing our names on the board in English and in Japanese. As we were setting up, we had some minor chaos at the beginning of class because of audio and translation difficulties. With the help of the Waseda students, we were able to slowly lead the students through the dance steps. Once we went through the important steps, we finally played the song and started dancing, a couple of times with us and one time without our help.
We danced for nearly the entire period and although the adults were covered in sweat by the end, the children loved the class, even demonstrating some of their favorite dance moves at the end.
While students were cooling of from the dancing, we asked if any of the students had any questions. Some of there questions were about our favorite food, how long have we been dancing, if we have been to Disneyland, etc. When it was time to end the questions you can tell they were disappointed.
From this experience we learned how important it is for educators to be ready for the unexpected and be will to improvise. But, that is what makes teaching so exciting.
Olive and Michael with 4th graders
And the program continues-
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