The first Saitama JALT event of the New Year: Cooperative Learning by Joël Laurier
Date: Sunday, January 19th, 2014
Location: Sakuragi Kouminkan 5F


Cooperative learning: teaching that is as easy as 1-2-3-4

Current reforms in the educational landscape are pushing toward a more student-centered approach to education. The talk is now of learning more than teaching. Cooperative Learning (CL) is a research based teaching pedagogy that provides an effective teaching approach, especially in language learning. Through interactive, task based activities, students learn to take control of their own learning. By making students the center of learning, the role of the teacher becomes that of a facilitator, reducing the need to rely on teacher-centered presentations. The classroom then becomes a place where students and teachers work together to create meaningful and fulfilling learning experiences. This hands on workshop will show how attendees how they can use CL to increase active participation between students, build confidence for teachers, and deliver more student-centered English lessons. Attendees will be shown effective CL structures that make learning the student’s responsibility and facilitating the teacher’s concern.

Joël Laurier is a teacher at Gunma Kokusai Academy. Originally from Ottawa, Canada, he is equally proficient in both of Canada's official languages. His research interests are bilingualism, language policy and cooperative learning. He is a 2013 Kagan Academy Scholarship winner and recipient of the 2011 John F. Fanselow Scholarship from Teachers College, Columbia University where he is an MA in TESOL graduate. Along with his son Noah, he is the voice and face of the award-winning Yomiuri Kodomo Shinbum’s Hello Eikaiwa weekly feature. <waldolaurier@gmail.com>


Bryan Darr - Beyond Red Xs and Os [Short Format]
Bryan Darr presented a study of writing correction effectiveness, and the implications of such effectiveness for a teacher tasked with providing writing correction to their charges. Do we just circle errors? Shall we make notes in the margin? Do we demand re-writes? Do we take this information as something which can be used to counsel and conference with our students? In this presentation, Bryan provided his own shorthand for writing corrections as well as providing praise.

Yukio Watanabe
Knowledge of culture is power to communicate-How I made and used Audio Visual teaching materials

文化の知識は、コミュ二ケーションのための力－視聴覚教材をどのようにして作り、使ったか

Actually, most students don’t need English ability in their future as long as they live in Japan. Their motivation to study English is focused on their entrance exams. When they graduate schools, it means graduating from English. However they need the ability to communicate with foreigners, and the ability to understand each other in the future because of so many foreigners living and working in Japan.

In order to raise their ability to communicate, teaching cultures is very important. Culture, history, religion, geography, and so on should be dealt with in English class. Then how can we do that?

実際のところ、生徒の多くは、日本に住むかぎり、彼らの将来において、英語の能力は必要ではないだろう。彼らの英語を勉強するモチベーションは、入学試験に焦点化されているのであるから。彼らが学校を卒業することは、英語を卒業することを意味している。しかしながら、彼らは外国人とコミュニケーションする能力は必要であり、おたがいに理解し合う力は必要である。なぜならば、多くの外国人が日本に住み、そして働いているのであるからだ。

彼らのコミュニケーション能力を育てるためには、文化を教えることが重要である。文化、歴史、宗教、地理などが、英語の授業で扱われるべきである。それでは、授業でどのようにしたらよいのだろうか？

Bio:
Since his retirement Yukio Watanabe works for a junior high school in Saitama City as an adviser of a new teachers two days a week.　His motto is to deliver the real-world into his class.　He has made a lot of visual teaching materials such as slide pictures and video for more than 30 years. He has visited lots of countries and met lots of people to take video and to interview for a long time.

渡辺幸男は、退職後、初任者研修指導教員として、週２日、さいたま市の中学校に勤務している。彼のモットーは、授業に現実の世界を届けることである。彼は、スライド写真やビデオなど数多くの視聴覚教材を30年の間制作してきている。彼は、ビデオをインタビューをするために、長い間、多くの国を訪問し、多くの人々に会ってきた。

Joël Laurier
The Cole train is here. All aboard! See how cooperative learning will get your students (and you) to your destination

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). MEXT’s latest revisions of the Courses of Study (CoS) call for a more communicative teaching approach in English classes. For this to happen, teachers roles will have to change from those of instructor to that of facilitator. This transition can happen by using cooperative learning. This short presentation is intended primarily for Japanese Teachers of English (JTE) but will equally benefit Native English Teachers (NET).

Bio:
Laurier teaches at Gunma Kokusai Academy. His research interests include bilingualism and language policy but he is best known for his teacher development in cooperative learning. He recently completed his MA (TESOL) at Columbia University’s Teachers College, where he was co-recipient of the 2011 John F. Fanselow Scholarship. Along with his son Noah, he is the voice and face of the Yomiuri Kodomo Shinbum’s award-winning weekly Hello Eikaiwa feature.

Sylvain Bergeron
Music to My Ears: Using a Song-based Activity to Improve Basic Language Skills

For the purpose of improving basic language skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – this short presentation will introduce a song-based activity that is sure to keep students (at any level) interested, actively engaged and motivated to learn.

Bio:
Originally from Montreal, Canada, Sylvain has been teaching EFL in Japan since 1993. He is currently teaching at Maebashi Ikuei Senior High School and is an MEd (TESOL) candidate at the University of Wollongong. His research interests include collaborative, learner-centered and task-based teaching/learning

David Gann
A few considerations on critical thinking instruction

In recent years critical thinking has become a popular subject in university courses. In this My Share, the presenter will pose several questions and offer several answers for consideration. These include: What is critical thinking? What are the four major approaches to critical thinking instruction. How is the issue of which approach is most appropriate changed by the shift from an L1- to an L2- learning context?

Bio:
Gann is an adjunct professor at five universities in Gunma and Saitama. He is the JALT Critical Thinking SIG Coordinator and the co-producer of Critically Minded Podcast: Critical Thinking for Second Language Learners. His interests include reading strategies, technology and language learning and critical thinking instruction.

John Larson
Guided imagery – an unconventional listening exercise

Listening to Mr. White and Mary talk about her school trip to Kyoto isn’t very interesting or relevant. This presentation will introduce the idea of using edited guided imagery scripts as an alternative to orthodox listening exercises. Let’s relax and let our imaginations run wild.

Bio:
Larson has been a teacher at Gunma Prefectural Isesaki High School for eight years. He is President of JALT Gunma Chapter and his interests include chess, Grateful Dead bootlegs and humanism.