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Matthew's Classroom

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I have been teaching English to kids in Japan for more than 20 years: public elementary schools in Tokyo for 11 years, and Hello Kids Komazawa for the last 9. For 3 years I have been teaching weekly lessons to students at Tsutsujigaoka Kindergarten. As I tend to stay at the same workplace for a long time, I've been able to see the long-term results of my work. Being able to really see children's English communication ability grow has been very rewarding. I mainly use APRICOT materials in my classroom. They best suit my goal of having students use as much English as possible while developing confidence and self-esteem. I enjoy teaching development, and I love discussing English education with other teachers!
  • e-APRICOT
  • 49. 10 Useful Pieces of Advice for Teaching with LEARNING WORLD #8

    https://www.apricot-plaza.co.jp/en/advice-box/usage-and-methods/jikkkun:
     
    This post will look at #8:
     
    8. Respect individuality!
     
    Each student has a unique character. Appraising a student should be compared with the student’s effort the previous week, not with other students’ effort.

    Teachers often compare their students, and in a way it’s understandable. We ask ourselves “If this student can do this task, why can’t this student?” and “These students can handle the activity, so why can’t these students?”

    It’s impossible to expect our Ss to manage aspects of our lessons in the same way. Kawahara-Sensei makes reference to “students’ effort”. In the classroom I very often try to incorporate activities that have students be recognized for the effort they make, regardless of the outcome.

    The video below is an example. The activity is inspired by LW Bk3 pg24.

      
     

     
    The students had not yet seen this page; it was an introductory lesson to it. The page was photocopied (one for each student) and the English was cut up into individual sentences. The students needed to read each of the sentences and put them together to make two stories. The resulting stories were not necessarily the same as the textbook but each warranted merit because there was possibility within each one, and each was based on individual effort.

    After the completion of the activity, textbooks were opened and students compared their story to that of pg24.

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