TOOLS OF THE TRADE Ashley Greenidge Kyotanabe-shi, Kyoto-fu

Getting Organized Whether you are teaching Elementary, Junior High, or High School the most valuable skill to have in your arsenal is good organization.  Keep all of your resources in one place.  Have a good supply of inexpensive materials (hint: shop through your local 100-yen store when you arrive).  Binders (clear file pages to organize lessons you’ve done/printed)  Flashcards and clear cover sheets for flashcards  Stuffed animal or puppet or ball for activities  Prizes – stickers, pencils, erasers etc

LESSON PLANNING  Classes are usually 45 minutes  Class structure will vary on age/level but basically follows   Warm Up can also be combined with Review period depending on the lesson  Always have an extra activity (5-10 minutes) planned in case your lesson ends early. Typical Class Structure 5 MinutesGreetings/Warm Up 10 Minutes Review from Previous Class 20 MinutesMain Activity 5 MinutesReview of Main Points 5 MinutesClosing / Goodbye

Types of Lessons Introductions Warm Up Reading Writing & Listening Pair work

Self Introduction  Prepare this before you arrive in Japan  Pictures of your family, friends, local town etc  Activities you like  Prepare LOTS of visuals  Move around  It gets easier

Warm Up Activites Short Activities: Lots of Class Participation 5 – 10 Minutes Word Tag True / False (Maru/Batsu) Telephone Shiritori 2 Truths + 1 Lie Warm Ups can be related to the previous lesson or the upcoming lesson but do not have to be. Uses English in a fun way Let students “play” with English

Reading Textbooks will have reading excerpts but if your teacher asks you to prepare something: Write your own “short stories” for class Make a fake newsletter with different articles Have a short story with descriptions and then have the students put corresponding pictures in order Fill in the blank or quiz to test for comprehension

WRITING & LISTENING ACTIVITES Many JTEs prefer to use their school texts instead of creating a lot of new materials. This helps because the students are familiar with vocabulary in the books. However, holidays are great to share new cultural information and vocabulary and there are plenty of ways to keep it fun. Fill in the Blank

PAIR WORK Pair work allows students to practice English. It is great for learning new sentence structures or new vocabulary. Discuss with ALT beforehand as they most likely have done this before and have a system for dividing into pairs Don’t be afraid to use “Rotating Pairs” but make sure your JTE understands what’s going on Worksheets help keep students on point Simple 2 person board game like worksheets go over well “Describe the picture” Students create a conversation using grammar points

GOOD RESOURCES FOR TEACHING Flash cards, lesson ideas, games, songs, on-line stories: GENKI ENGLISH – DLTK KIDS – NICK JR – ED HELPER – ESL Specific ESL KID STUFF: PRINTABLE BOARD GAMES: lounge.com/board_gamesindex.shtmlwww.esl- lounge.com/board_gamesindex.shtml ESL Kids: ESL Partyland: DAVE’S ESL CAFE: ESL LESSON PLANS (ALL LEVELS): MAKE YOUR OWN PUZZLES/WORD SEARCHES ETC:

LESSON PLANNING Activity to commence after short break.