Communicative Language Teaching in Japanese Elementary Schools

「児童英語『楽しく』第一」(Youth ELL "Enjoyably," Part 1), no author listed

Asahi.com (the Asahi Shimbun is one of Japan's largest newspapers; this is their website)

http://mytown.asahi.com/nara/news.php?k_id=30000171010250001

Summary: Although Japan's public school system has taught English as a compulsory subject beginning in middle school (7th grade and up) for many years now, the upcoming school year, beginning in April, will be the first year that it enters the elementary school curriculum. The "Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology," (MEXT) which overseas the nationally-standardized curriculum, has introduced 35 hours / term (or approximately one class period per week) foreign language study requirements for 5th and 6th grade elementary school students.

The traditional model of English study has been drill-and-kill, even more focused on test results ( specifically the entrance tests for non-compulsory high school education, and higher ed) than in America. This has generally resulted in a group that can answer obscure grammar questions for a test, but cannot speak more than a sentence or two. The idea that MEXT is encouraging communication as a goal is a big step out of the dark ages of language instruction, and into the modern era in which the "communicative" approach is one of the most widely followed philosophies.

Key Points:

• elementary school teachers are excited, but apprehensive-- many of them have never taught a language before
• the system of assistant language teachers (ALTs) is already stretched thin trying to cover all the high schools and middle schools to which they are dispatched
• the school featured in this article is trying out several approaches, including relying on the textbook from MEXT that accompanies the new curriculum; they are also trying to keep students engaged with the TPR-style activities highlighted in this article

Audience: general public curious about what the changes in mandatory curriculum will mean, educators wondering how their school might smoothly adopt the new requirements

Relevance: I am rolling around ideas for a grant that will take me back to Japan for a month or so in summer 2012, and my current top choice is a project looking at how elementary schools are integrating the newly mandated curriculum-- and whether they are doing it "successfully" or not. I realize that this article doesn't have much relevance to most of you (and that probably no one can read it), but it really caught my eye and I wanted to use it in a review. I would love to talk about it if anyone is interested!

My Teacher is a Lesbian

“‘My Teacher is a Lesbian’ Coming Out at School” by Jody Sokolower

Rethinking Schools Volume 24, Number 2 (Winter 2010-2011) pg. 30-33.

Topic: A middle school teacher in the Bay area struggles with how/when it is appropriate to come out to her students and the politics of it all.

Summary: A lesbian teacher in the Bay area shares her story about how she has chosen to come out to her middle school students over the years of teaching. She shares stories about questions students have asked, backlash she has received from administration (and surprisingly – lack of backlash from parents), and the “unexpected benefits” of the entire process.

Intended audience: Teachers (Straight and LGBTQ), Administrators

Key Points:

• Coming out is difficult/controversial even in the Bay area.
• Being honest with your students can create a more dynamic classroom community where other issues can be discussed openly and respectfully.
• This is something that will be encountered no matter what district/school you are teaching in and it is important for schools to be a safe place for students and teachers. That being said, students and teachers should not share more than they are comfortable sharing.

Relevance: I thought this article was a good lead up to the conference we are going to tomorrow and it is relevant to me personally as well as to our upcoming cultural identity assignment for Learning Communities. I really liked the section about the “Identity Poster” to further explore the idea of my own cultural identity.

Mobile Learning - How Cool Is This?!

"Mobile Learning: Not Just Laptops Anymore" by Jennifer Nastu
e School News
Published Online on February 25, 2011
Complete URL:  http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/02/25/mobile-learning-not-just-laptops-any-more/?

OK, I admit the title of this blog entry is not the title of this article, but I wanted to get your attention because this is an awesome article!  As we have been reading articles not many of them get me really excited, but this one sure does.  It is a long article - 11 pages - but it is a pretty quick read.  It will take some work to get it as you have to register with e School News to be able to read the whole article.  I received the link via an e-mail from the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education which we can join), so if you are already a member you may have received this notification.

So, let's get started on the article.  The main point is taking my previous article on George Lucas' idea one step further: using the mobile devices children carry in their pocket (smart phones, small tablets and other mobile technology) for learning in the classroom and outside the classroom - a term now coined as "mobile learning".  Since last Fall, nearly 50% of all middle and high school students had smart phones, it is believed that in 5 years, all students in every school grade will be using mobile devices 24/7 to learn.  Whereas not everyone has a computer, computers could only be used for supplemental learning at best and not independent learning.  Mobile devices would solve that problem.

Now I know you are asking yourself, "How does everyone get a mobile device?"  Ms. Nastu gives plenty of ideas, with many of them already tested.  They involve schools buying them for kids, children who do not have them working with kids who have one or kids simply owning their own mobile device.  Security would be provided by having the kids logging into the school to use it therefore having content monitored.

One study was done for a 5th grade class in New Jersey where everyone had a smart phone and every student handed in every piece of homework on time.  That had never happened before.  Another study used 150 low-income ninth graders to see if they could improve their learning of Algebra 1.  The mobile devices were downloaded with Algebra 1 content, the teachers were trained on how to use it and the kids were encouraged to work together.  By using this program their average math test scores increased by 30%.  Some kids who had struggled with math now wanted to pursue a career in math!

I really do not see a downside here and it is definitely relevant to us as teachers as it would be a complete change on how things are done now.  As the article states in its last paragraph, “The model of teaching where the teacher is the sole source of information is changing... Teaching is not telling, and learning is not listening—it’s doing. So curriculum changes need to take place. And if we can pull it all together, the U.S. will no longer be 15th in the world.” 

George Lucas Wants to Transform Learning

"Join The Movement to Transform Learning" by George Lucas
Huffington Post
Published Online on February 28, 2011
Complete URL:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lucas/join-the-movement-to-tran_b_828962.html

This article is the first of three I have on technology in learning or "Trifecta of Technology" or T.O.T. for short as we are focusing on children.  :)  Mr. Lucas begins his writing by stating much has changed in technology since he started the George Lucas Educational Foundation, but schools have been incredibly slow to adapt to the new advancements.  The reason for this, he argues, is schools are stuck in the Industrial Revolution mindset where all schools want to do is stuff as much information into kids as possible, have them regurgitate it and then get a diploma.  However what society needs is for kids to use technology to do three things: "find information, rigorously analyze the quality and accuracy of information and creatively and effectively use information to accomplish a goal."

Lucas also argues it would be more cost advantageous to have computers for learning as opposed to buying textbooks that are expensive and outdated within a couple of years.  He sounds much like Jerome Bruner in he wants to combine technology with classical education and have an inquiry based and project-based learning process.  Lucas feels this would make education fun and exciting for kids again.  It is ironic to me that Lucas considers his thoughts as innovative when Bruner argued them 50 years ago!  

However adding one-on-one computer learning would certainly make the learning process much different than what Bruner would have ever anticipated.  As new teachers, we may very well see our worlds changed by the possibility of all kids learning from portable computers or iPads and giving them problems they can instantly research and solve on the web while working together.  When the "textbooks" need to be updated, it can be downloaded in a short time to be able to allow children to use current information so there is no lag time on current issues or discoveries.  How cool would that be?!

What is refreshing is Lucas does not blast the schools or teachers in his article.  His basic point is to leave the old way of schooling behind and embrace the new age of thinking and technology.  Since I think that is something we would all favor, it does not sound like a bad idea to me.

Educational Rhetoric

Sean Cavanaugh
In War of Words, ‘Reform’ a Potent Weapon
Key phrases provide powerful short hand for those with specific policy bentEducation Week
Published Online: March 1, 2011
Complete URL: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/03/02/22rhetoric_ep.h30.html?tkn=POUFxb/Vj5VzNixgG90D7oTvAypDVTZFe3iZ&cmp=clp-edweek

“The rhetoric of education today tends to divide the world in two: between those who favor "reform" and those who don't.”

Rhetoric used today:
Status Quo: Those who want things to stay the way they are, basically anyone not in favor of the type of reform currently in fashion. I.E. – support for charter schools, tougher standards and testing, evaluating and paying teachers based on performance, and challenging teachers unions on traditional job protections.
Reform: Those in support of the above mentioned list of amendments.
Education Establishment: Generic term used to include teachers unions, general administrative, and bureaucratic stasis.
Students First: (or any variation on that) Names associated with the type of reform noted earlier.

The aim of this article is to educate the reader on educational rhetoric. To provide aid as we navigate this messy issue, and read between the lines. Helps us answer the question - What’s really being said here? The language is divisive – big surprise. You either are or are not in favor of reform. There doesn’t seem to be much room for moderation. You can see how titling a new piece of legislation Students First would be divisive. It seems to insinuate that those not in favor are against students or that somehow their position is Adults First. The intended audience for this article would be anyone trying to move beyond “specific policy bent” and really get to the meat of the issue. This article is relevant to the population at large – the news is filled with stories about education reform – we could all use some assistance as we make sense of it all – trying not to get taken in with the language.

"The Disciplined Mind" Chapter 3

Note: I decided to read some more Gardner, so I picked up and have been enjoying The Disciplined Mind. I thought it might be interesting to try out a chapter review instead of an article for a change, with half a mind on how it would feel to review a whole book.

The Disciplined Mind, Chapter 3 (pg. 41-59) by Howard Gardner

Simon & Schuster, 1999. New York, NY.

Intended Audience: thinkers, educators, policymakers

Summary: In chapter 3, "Education in the Future," Gardner continues to set up his position with regards to our current educational system and where he sees it going. He introduces six major themes that he sees as modern (circa 1999) issues affecting schooling now and into the immediate future. Before introducing these, he makes the interesting claim that although there have been many "trendy practices," these have proven "vapid if not useless or damaging" (pg. 42). Separate from this group but still in the "trendy" category, he mentions specifically that Montessory, Steiner, Dewey, and others have "had relatively little impact on the mainstream of education throughout the contemporary world." He goes on to say that the current era is characterized by such rapid and drastic change, in contrast to the recent past, that his six themes must affect that same world.

Key Points:

• Technological and Scientific Breakthroughs: the first theme he mentions, and the most obvious. It's fun to read his twenty-year-old list and watch as he lists, awestruck, CD players and other fairly outdated equipment.
• Political Trends: Gardner's second theme, and another fairly straightforward one. He encourages the reader to look at a very slightly expanded time scale and consider how different it must have been to teach history in Eastern Europe in the 1950s, and in the 1990s.
• Economic Forces: "Students must be educated so that they can participate and survive in [the] unrelentingly Darwinian environment"(47) of the modern economic world. Gardner stresses globalization of commerce, and reminds us how this resonates in areas only recently brought under consideration-- such as the environment. He also brings up the idea that what is valuable to employers are skills increasingly knowledge- rather than labor-based. Suggests that students must be educated to deal well with an increasingly commercial world.
• Social, Cultural, and Political Trends in the Modern Era: Gardner brings in some points from previous themes and describes how they combine to create an increasingly exposed world; it is more and more difficult to be an isolated, un-influenced culture. Some cultures react to this with xenophobia, some assimilate ideas but retain a unique identity, and some join in the fray gladly.
• The Shifting Cartography of Knowledge: The "last man in the world to know anything" was Matthew Arnold, who died in 1888 (52-53). The information within disciplines expands at impossible rates. While it is still "appropriate to continue to teach disciplinary thinking in high school and perhaps even college," (53) the most successful students (and software programs) will be able to make quick decisions about what is actually useful, and what should be discarded as useless.
• Beyond Modernism: A Postmodern Jag and The View From Multiculturalism: I am leaving these themes out, as Gardner starts diverging a bit from his mission in introducing the other themes, and falling back on quite a bit of personal philosophy. But read it if you are interested in a light, good description of postmodernism and what Gardner's stance is on it (he's a middle-grounder), and what it means to curriculum.

Relevance: We are reading a bit of Gardner in 561, and he is clearly an influential character in the field. Beyond that, he continues to be an exciting read-- this book is based on his ideas that education should rest fundamentally on the pursuit of the true, the beautiful, and the good; basic literacies aren't excluded by this, and it remains up to each individual to assess what represents those three traits in her culture and situation. He keeps throwing stuff out there that is both challenging and makes me go "Yes!" and it's always fun to read something like that.

Better off Bakrupt

Jeb Bush and Newt Gingrich
Better off Bankrupt (http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/27/opinion/la-oe-gingrich-bankruptcy-20110127)
L.A. Times
January 27, 2011

Summary: A proposal to alleviate budget issues by allowing entire states to declare bankruptcy, thereby eliminating their outstanding debts and union contractual obligations. This would directly lead to the loss of pensions for tens of thousands of teachers.

Intended Audience: General Public

Key Points: 1) State budgets are being choked by decades of irresponsible concessions to employee unions, namely in the form of pension plans; 2) A mass of former state employees are cashing in (California owes 12,000 former employees over $100,000 each in pension payments this year); 3) Bankruptcy would provide a mechanism to avoid tax increases and eliminate debt.

Relevance: We are entering this profession at an interesting time. For the last forty-five years teacher unions have deferred better annual salary for the promises of repayment in the form of pensions. This has proved, however, to be unsustainable. During an interview on OPB Radio yesterday, an author (I forgot her name entirely) reported that the annual salary of a first year teacher in 1970 plus inflation would be approximately $70,000 today. First year teachers are lucky to earn half of that. The idea has been that teachers make up for what they are not payed in benefits and pension plans. Now a proposal has been made that would eliminate the carrot. Personally, I am not banking on Social Security or company or state pensions, and feel other young people would be wise to do the same. It is high time that we take an active stake in our own retirements, make our own investments, and save our money in places that draw more than %0.5 APY. I would much rather take a higher salary up front and use an IRA than hope that our government can fulfill its financial obligations.