You might be wondering about the course requirements. Not wanting to scare people away, I have wisely included them way, way, way down at the bottom of the page in 2-point font. Actually, you will find them hiding down below, but just not in 2-point font. Let's cover some admin things, just for fun.

Hereafter you will find a reasonably detailed synopsis of the respective classes we will enjoy this term. We will be not be using a textbook, but we will instead utilize a bevy of readings, which will be available on two cloud service—details in class.

Thus, with no further ado, here are the sessions.

Session #1

 October 13, Morning — Introduction; Theoretical Underpinnings 

As often happens on the first day of class, we'll be speaking in somewhat general terms about our course and some of the topics therein.

Let's begin with a schema-activation exercise, good people. First, on a paper, please jot down ...

Having gotten some preliminaries out of the way, we now will dive into a reasonably brief treatment of some of the various theories that help us make sense of what we do.

Result(s): In our remaining time this morning I would like to get you started on your final project(s)—does it sound a bit early to be doing so? Didn't we just begin a mere two hours ago?

The primary result of our course (in addition to your grade, of course) will be a written paper (guidelines here) that does at least one of the following:

Second, I ask you to share (even briefly) an idea, plan, or speculation with a small group of your classmates at various times throughout our two days together. This does not have to be anything huge or radical; any idea you have—no matter how small—would be appreciated by your classmates. I can imagine, for example, a descriptive talk, a demonstration, an activity in which everyone participates, or some other inspiring contribution.

If you decide to do an oral presentation, you might find the following to be useful. I teach my undergrads to use a particular style of title slide, which I think will stand you in good stead in the future. Incidentally, I'm finding that affiliation logos are increasingly common, so you might consider including the logo of your particular school (as you'll see on my Students page).

Session #2

October 13, Afternoon — The Bread and Butter 

Our afternoon will be spent looking at and experiencing a variety of topics which will include (but not be limited to) the following:

Reading Aloud

This is an activity that receives far too little attention, I suspect. Quite a large amount of learning is implicit, and if we ponder the learning that small children undergo, a great deal of it is from being read to or talked to.

Here we have quite a collection of children's stories on the World Stories for Children webpage. Another that is certainly worth your time is this, the Cultures of the World webpage sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children.

Hunts

One activity that constituted one section of a test (yes, a test) in an oral English class some years ago was a treasure hunt. Follow this link from One Stop English to learn more about treasure hunts.

Puppetry

This particular area is near and dear to my heart. I really first encountered puppetry many years ago when I was a member of a university musical and performing group called New Genesis. We used music, skits, and puppetry to entertain, teach, and hopefully inspire audiences in churches, high schools, and senior citizen facilities. Let's have a look at one of my puppetry webpages.

Next, I would like to spend some time on being creative! Yes, Gentle Students, you need to consider how you might extend or change a traditional story, either about Japan or about another country. This is an idea with which I had some success in a rather challenging class some years ago, but when I challenged the students to write a next chapter for the Bremen Musicians, I suddenly had a room full of budding writers.

Thus, my Good Folks, your task today is to first brainstorm ideas about how the Bremen Musicians story could be extended. It might help to consider this question: "What happened the next ______?"

Homework:

Session #3

October 14, Morning — A (Worldwide) Wealth of Ideas 

Good morning, everyone, and welcome back for our second day of fun and games.

We'll begin with group discussions of two points, your research about a theoretical aspect and then an explanation of cultural materials you might use in your EFL class.

Cultural Materials

Next, I would like to devote some time to cultural materials. I suspect we all recognized the necessity of including such materials in our courses, and here we have a nice summary of this necessity by Barry Tomalin for the British Council. The idea, of course, is to tap into the veritable cornucoppia of possibilities that exist. Let us turn to actually teaching about culture in your EFL classroom. With an assist from Stevie D. at Fluent U, here is a list of tips for enhancing your teaching of culture.

1. Expose students to authentic materials—Quite an obvious point, I think, but how does one obtain such material?

2. Compare cultures—Imagine you have a group of elementary students that enjoy the school lunch program. In your English class, you might pose a question about school lunches in other countries, which likely are quite different. For example, what might a school lunch in France be? How about in other countries?

3. Keep an eye on the calendar—Here I am referring to special days on the target culture calendar. For example, quite soon we will encounter a special day on the US calendar; this is one in which horror stories abound and children collect and eat lots of candy.

4. Bring in native speakers—This is, of course, a rather obvious step to take, and it's not as difficult as in the past inasmuch as we're in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Moreover, bringing in a virtual speaker might be possible as well ... perhaps you could skype in someone from abroad?

6. Include food—One of my favorite topics, food is a universal winner. I'm not sure I can improve on this webpage, so let me just direct you to Follow the Food from the Center for Global Education.

7. Use memory-friendly songs

8. Use online resources to add value to your lessons

OK, folks, at this point I would like to have you work on a fairly substantial task with your nearby students.

Creation Stories

An area that has I find quite interesting—and worth presenting in an EFL situation—is creation myths. Not only is the inherent variety fascinating, but the cultural elements included make this worth your students' time. One place to begin could be Origin Stories: Geography, Culture, and Belief, which as a very nicely written article and well worth your time. In addition, and just for your reading pleasure, here we have an overview of a university course taught by Cora Agatucci a few years ago; the course was titled Culture, Religion, & Myth: Inderdisciplinary Approaches. (This is strictily optional, but it is a good overview.

More Activities
Following are some activities and materials that you might employ in your classroom.

If we have time, we'll take a look at more ideas in the following list. If we don't, I'll leave this for you to check when you have time!

Session #4

October 14, Afternoon — The Finale 

In this final session we will begin with groups of eight people; in each group I would like each member to give a talk about an idea or technique you think would be (or has been) useful in your classroom.

Here we are nearing the conclusion of our weekend together, and I would like to thank you all for tolerating my stories, my jokes, and perhaps some wisdom. If we have some time remaining, I'd like to offer some reflections on a particular strand of research that I am involved with a colleague from mighty Chiba University.

I confess that I have no idea how active this group is, but JALT has a special interest group (a SIG) devoted to Teaching Younger Learners.

1. A final presentation/demonstration/talk in the afternoon of Sunday, October 14 (20%)


2. Your final paper, which is due by Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 22 (60%)


3. Active participation in class (20%)