Rationale
These journal entries are part of the requirements for the completion of the High Level Training course for Elementary School JTEs and ALTs which I have attended since August 2024. The main objectives are to reflect on my performance in the classroom as an ALT working with a team-teacher, the conduct of the lesson i.e. how JTEs and ALTs conducted team-teaching, and how students responded to the lesson, as well as the activities and teaching materials that were used in the classes conducted from September to December 2024.
Details
A small [about 300 students] municipal school in Tokushima
Grade-level and Class number — 4th Grade class 1
In the MEXT Curriculum, foreign language classes such as English are considered “electives” and are not given “grades” or evaluation marks.
There are about 30 students — boys and girls aged 9-10 years old
The class meets once a week on Fridays — second period 0935 to 1020.
The HRT and ALT are the key teachers.
The textbook is called Let’s Try 2.
UNIT 5 — Do you have a pen?
September 13 - Take it easy - one step at a time
Today, I meet the students again after the summer break. It’s been a while and I feel that everyone wants to have a longer summer break. We don’t want the kids to feel like we’re pushing the lessons on them just for the sake of going through them. We want the kids to enjoy each and every lesson as much as possible. The good thing is that we’re starting with Unit 5 - Do you have a pen? I think the kids enjoyed the chant and I kind of like it too. In my opinion, chants are a fun way to help kids say, understand, and recall key phrases that are otherwise boring to learn without music. We did not focus on the phrase per se, but we started off this lesson by introducing the vocabulary words. Most of the kids know the vocabulary words although a few seems difficult to remember such as ruler, stapler, pencil sharpener, among others.
September 20 - Team-teaching matters
Today was ok. Much of the teaching work was done by the JTE and I only assisted and walked around. It was rather relaxing but I also took it as an opportunity to take note of the strategies employed by my JTE. I want to point out in this entry that teamwork is important - not every lesson do we need an active team-teaching. There are lessons in which the JTE takes on the main teaching responsibility and the ALT mainly supports. What I appreciate about my JTE is that she also asks for suggestions. I think learning is reciprocal. Learning from each other complements our skills and enhances our abilities.
September 27 - Discipline + Guided Practice matter in classroom management
Today was fun. We had to do a few segments of the lesson exercises. I noticed that most of the kids are able to listen and understand the words from the audio file. There were a few, i.e., from the special class, that were struggling with understanding and writing so I focused on supporting them. As usual, Kensuke was rather loud but very interested in the lesson. Yuma was quite noisy but I could not discipline him because I am an ALT. Even after over three years as a JET ALT, it still feels little uncomfortable when the class becomes too noisy and the JTE can’t manage the class well. I usually help in calming down the students especially after a game, but I can only do so much. Discipline is an area that ALTs are not supposed to do. The HRT/JTE basically has to do it. Anyway, a few takeaways from today’s lesson — a thorough review of the phrases and vocabulary before doing any exercise helps a lot so the kids feel supported. I remember that guided practice’s purpose is for students to discover what they can and can’t do yet, and an opportunity for the teacher to support the students before they continue working on the succeeding tasks. This way, assessment and evaluation tend to be more effective. Another important point is that discipline in the classroom is an important factor in classroom management. However, as an ALT, it is still a gray area.
October 4 - Adding fun activities is a great strategy to teach and learn
Whenever we do a fun activity, the students get motivated, excited, and active. I think this is true in almost all grade-levels but especially effective in elementary schools. It is rather a given that children between 7 to 12 are more motivated to learn when they are stimulated by fun activities especially in the form of games. I learned last summer from an ALT seminar about the difference between a fun activity and a game. A fun activity is anything that is well, fun and enjoyable. However, a game involves a point system. Do points matter? Unless they don’t really care about anything at all, points may help increase motivation among students. When we played keyword game, bingo, and missing game, the students looked more excited and the motivation from these activities propel them to practice and remember the key aspects of the lesson and interact with their friends in the process — I think, if I may just add, that social interaction helps a lot.
October 11 - Challenges add to improvement and are important in any lesson
Last time, I noted that fun activities and discipline are important in the conduct of the lesson and in classroom management. Today, I’d like to emphasize that challenges play a vital role in the learning development. In the previous weeks, students have gradually adapted to the beat of the second semester and are now “dancing” to the rather reasonable speed or pace of the lessons in Unit 5. It is important to note that although we don’t want to students to feel any pressure when learning a foreign language, we want them to feel “challenged” - the lesson should be too easy enough that they feel lethargic, disinterested, or apathetic to learning but should not be too tough that they lose their confidence and interest in the lesson. The exercises should be “challenging” enough to make them feel that they are moving from level to another.
UNIT 6 — Alphabet
October 18 — Flexibility, adaptability, and creativity are important teaching skills
Last time, I provided a few suggested activities for this lesson. Learning the alphabet can be fun but there are not too many activities in the textbook itself. I also learned, from the teachers themselves that this part of the curriculum seems to be lacking sufficient activities or ideas for teachers to employ in the classroom. It’s interesting that I go to another elementary school where I also teach 4th grade. I find this an opportunity to learn about and share activities with other JTEs - whatever is fun and exciting. It’s also quite interesting that both 3rd Grade and 4th Grade students are learning about alphabet during this time. When I find something applicable for the other grade-level, I suggest it to the teacher. I think this stresses flexibility, adaptability, and creativity. These are important skills that teacher should possess especially when a material ex. textbook does not provide many fun activities. I am not saying that the book is bad. In fact, the book has a few fun activities but to stretch this lesson just so it covers about 4 lessons may be quite challenging.
October 25 — Appropriate exercises maximize the potential for learning in ESL
In this entry, I would like to emphases that appropriate exercises maximize, if not complement, the learning potential of students insofar as ESL is concerned. Today, we played matching game and BINGO. I think the matching game was ok but did not necessarily add up to the learning experience. However, would I agree that it was appropriate? I think so. They were supposed to match big letters with small letters —- I think it is necessary for students to be able to recognize which letters are which and be able to match them with their small/capital letter counterparts. As to BINGO, the students should be able to quickly recognize the audible name of the letter and be able to recognize what the letter looks like. Would I agree that it was appropriate, I think so. Although we’re not focusing on phonics, it is necessary that kids are easily able to recognize the name, sound, and appearance of the letters — just before they gradually begin to read words when they reach 5th and 6th grade levels.
November 1 — Sorry Im skipping today’s entry. I am not really feeling well. I need to take a rest.
November 8 — Clarity of instruction matters
Today was our last day to teach Unit 6 Alphabet. The last segment/part of this unit is a lesson on colors. I think it was quite as I had the opportunity to play with the kids again as we do pair activities. I think, though, that it could have been easier for all children to understand the mechanics of the game if instructions were explained clearly. One good thing that we did is that we did a demo before we let the students work in pairs. This way, the students had a better idea about how to do this activity. I also like the fact that this game was reasonably simpler but still challenging enough than what we did in my other 4th grade class in another school. The rules were quite complex that it sort of made the activity less exciting.
UNIT 7 — What do you want?
November 15 — Visual aids prop up students’ interest
Today is our first day to teach Unit 7 - What do you want? Basically, it is a lesson on fruits and vegetables and using key phases such as “What do you want?” and “I want… please.” I personally find this lesson fun and exciting because i love fruits and vegetables, the kids find fruits and vegetables fun to learn, and they’re going to make a parfait and pizza, well at least using a worksheet or a tablet. What makes today’s lesson interesting is that my JTE showed what she had for breakfast — a picture of what she really had for breakfast. Although she was not able to smoothly relate it to the lesson by using the phrases, it somehow caught students’ interest and kept them motivated to stay up. I also gave my JTE a photo of my fruits and vegetables basket at home — but it was not maximized. I think the timing in which I was given the floor was not right so I felt like I was kind of put on the spot. Nevertheless, we were able to accomplish this lesson.
November 22 and 29 — Realias make demonstrations a lot better
My JTE brought real fruits! Three apples, 4 persimmon, and 2 kiwi fruits. I admire her dedication and effort. But I have to agree that the kids looked more excited, if not surprised, to see that there were actually real fruits in the bag. It was also a great opportunity to integrate numbers well into the lesson. In my opinion, although the use of realias is not necessary, especially when it would take so much effort on the part of the teacher or students, it is nevertheless a great way to make students excited about the lesson. When they are motivated about something — because of a visual, audio, or kinetic stimulus, it is likely that they will also be motivated to learn.
December 6 — Use technology appropriately i.e. only when it helps.
Although I suggested the use of technology, even provided the name of the app and website, some JTEs/HRTs could not utilize them in the lesson for various reasons, including but not limited to a. don’t want to use technology because they find it too difficult to learn or b. although they want to use technology, the school equipment may not be up-to-date or too slow such that it will only hamper the flow of the activity. In comparison to my other school which used technology, this class used a worksheet - pizza crust and cut-out vegetables. It was smooth. The main reason for not using technology is because the tablets seem slow. The app and website may be great but they should be used when they are really helpful to students’ learning.
December 11 — Presentation skills are important
Today, kids had to do a very short presentation about their original pizza. They had to use simple phrases such as “This is for ~” and “I have 3 green peppers, 5 tomatoes, 10 pineapples” and so on. Of course, they’re not necessarily grammatically correct — “I have 10 pineapples on my pizza” sounds strange. But these are 4th grade students, we can’t teach them “I have 5 small pieces of pineapples, 5 slices of green peppers and so on”. The idea is just for them to use the vocabulary words that they have recently learned. Just before the students were called to present one by one, my JTE asked the students what they think are important elements of a speech presentation. The students identified each one — eye contact, voice, smile, and gesture. Then, my JTE asked me to do a demo. I’m really glad that the students tried to apply almost all these elements! I told them after the presentations that they did well and they looked happy!
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