American High School Traditions =
Great Japanese Learning Opportunities
by Patricia M. Thornton (Minneapolis, MN)
The students first selected some events on the school calendar in which they were most interested, and this determined the dates that we would study these topics. For the purposes of sanity--mine, of course--I limited the students to three events; they selected homecoming in October, the student council food drive in February, and the prom in May. The students also discussed how they would go about learning these uniquely American school events in Japanese. For my part, I determined and developed the target structures, vocabulary, katakana, and kanji that each unit would involve.
For each event, the students worked in groups of 4 or 5 to develop a plan for their own learning project. For the first event--homecoming--the students were placed in assigned groups; for the food drive and the prom the students self- selected their groups with the caveat that they not work with the same people twice. Two weeks prior to each event, the students handed in a learning/teaching plan for their project idea, and at approximately the same time I would begin introducing the structures and vocabulary I had determined would compliment the event. Each group needed to develop a way to explain the school event to an audience, and they had to work with the assumption that the audience would know nothing about the culture of American high schools. This required the students to research information on Japanese schools and the Japanese school calendar and to use various resource materials to take them beyond the vocabulary and structures that I had provided for them. For each event, I allowed three in- class work days and two days for presentations. It was important that the groups have ample time to consult with me on their projects and that I was able to check on progress. The remainder of the work was done independently by the groups outside of class time.
The resulting student projects were engaging and truly fun. One group tried to do a simple explanation of the rules of American football that left the blackboard looking like a white puzzle. Another group video-taped sections of the homecoming game and provided play-by-play audio. Yet another group attended and photographed the homecoming queen and king coronation and presented a poster presentation on this feature of homecoming.
The food drive required the students to delve into vocabulary that might be considered far outside the realm of high-school Japanese such as poverty, hunger, housing projects, and more. Some of the projects that the students developed had to do with nutrition (a poster presentation on which foods are good for health and especially for children); student government (what the student council is and how it is selected); and the Twin Cities and its neighborhoods (which neighborhoods might be considered poor and which affluent).
The last project--the prom--I was reluctant to do just because it can often be a very difficult event for those students who don't participate. However, this turned out to be a natural way to involve shy classmates in this overly momentous event in the American high school tradition. Five students who admitted to me that they had no intention of going turned in the best project. With lots of discussion and anticipation, we determined together that they would go and videotape the dance--a sort of "roving reporter" kind of activity. They decided to dress for prom, go out to dinner in a group, and then "do their homework" at the dance. This turned out beautifully as they videotaped interviews with Japanese classmates about the dance and where they had eaten dinner. Another group did a post-prom fashion show that was the favorite project of their classmates. However, I would recommend that anyone doing this sort of learning opportunity in class consider whether or not the prom should be included. It can be overly emotional for many students and excessively expensive.
An important feature for me when students are doing self-directed projects is that their peers learn from them. The usual secondary mode is to "check out" as soon as your presentation is finished. To counteract this I always add an assessment feature to any kind of student led and presented projects. I develop note-taking sheets for the student audience that must be handed in to me at the conclusion of each presentation so I can see that they were active listeners. I also ask each group to give me three questions about their presentation that they would deem important enough to be included in a test on the material they are presenting. In effect, the students develop their own tests on the unit this way. This causes the audience to listen carefully and ask for clarification on things they do not understand rather than sit passively. It is all a part of my never-ending campaign in the secondary classroom for students taking responsibility for their own learning. Happy teaching!