For our March meeting, we will have two sessions focussing on teaching younger learners. Our first session with Chelanna White will begin at 5:30 pm and run until 6:10 pm. After a short break, our second speaker Mark Fennelly will talk from 6:15 pm onwards.
Online: Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84894142078?pwd=K2tLV2lFVW5CUjNPSDJSNVNUbGdydz09
Meeting ID: 848 9414 2078
Passcode: 198905

Chelanna White
Two Activities for High School Classes

Activity 1 - After attending a talk by Dr. Krashen and Dr. Mason hosted by Kobe JALT in 2019, I became interested in the Story Listening method for teaching and reinforcing vocabulary, and decided to try it out with the English club at two senior high schools in Kyoto. I have also used this method in full classes. I will introduce the Story Listening method and share my experiences in implementing it.

Activity 2 - I took the classic foreign language activity of using a simple map to show how to give directions, and gave it a Pokémon-themed spin. Using maps created for an unofficial role playing game based on the Pokémon franchise made the content more fun and relatable for the students (and me!). I share the resources I used to make the lesson, how I interpreted the map exercise, and a fun closing activity.

Chelanna White is a 4th-year ALT with the JET Programme and the Prefectural Advisor for Kyoto. She teaches primarily first year senior high school students. She is also the Co-Chair of Programming for the Kyoto JALT chapter.

Mark Fennelly
Understanding and Applying the New Course of Study at Elementary School

Since the early 1990s the government has been implementing English at the elementary school level. From 2020 the new course of study for elementary school was introduced with foreign language activities required at the third and fourth grade and English being taught as a subject in the fifth and sixth grades. This change will be followed by the introductions of the new course of study and subsequent textbooks at junior high in 2021 and senior high in 2022. This presentation will offer background into the implementation of the new Course of Study and its implications at the classroom level. As a member of the committee which produced the course of study, the committee which developed the materials based on the course of study, and textbook development, the speaker hopes to offer insight into d the main aspects if the New Course of Study and offer concrete ideas, based on classroom research at research and local schools and textbook research, to identify how school English classes need to change in the future to follow the government outlines. A large change in teaching style and evaluation is expected throughout the school system.

Mark Fennelly is a professor at Shikoku University. He has 30 years teaching experience in Japan, with 13 years in elementary and junior school, and 17 years involved in teacher development at the university level. He has been involved in the production of Ministry of Education policy materials and related teaching materials.

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