Application: Teaching Activities for a Language Learning Project Background Context A.

Description of the Program EFL setting in Hokkaido, Japan. The program focuses on enhancing students communicative English skills through alternative assessments and conversation opportunities with English-speaking International Students. The English Program has close ties to the local college study abroad program, since they are constantly paired with American study abroad students in conversation lunches and such. Because of this, the study abroad office was able to send enrolled English learners on a short-term faculty-led study abroad program to Hawaii to practice English in many excursions and settings. The program covers two classes: a technologybased writing class and a daily conversation class. B. Description of the Students 12 high school students are participating in the program, some of them on scholarship. All are upper intermediate, though might come from different classes. They are fairly evenly split between boys and girls. Their level means they have studied form-based English throughout most of junior high school, but their productive skills need some considerable revision before entering an academic institution in English-speaking countries through study abroad. Most want to try studying abroad in college to an English speaking country like England, the U.S. C. Description of the Course

A technology-based English writing course with some other skills integrated. The course spans the entire year, however in the following lesson plans the students and teachers are currently on a class trip to Hawaii for three weeks. The course is temporarily being hosted by a native speaker of English teacher that frequently travels to their high school to teach summer English classes. They meet twice a week for 1 hour each class. The entire course culminates in an online portfolio with a variety of components, one of which is a photo-journaling component that the trip to Hawaii focuses on completing. D. Description of the Unit There are five lessons spanning 2 weeks in this unit. This unit covers the photo-journaling component of their major assignment, the online portfolio. The first lesson will introduce the material, while the following lesson will help students draft, edit and post their work and comment on the work of their classmates. The unit will be followed by as school-wide presentation, which the final lesson helps prepare the students for by presenting it first to their fellow classmates. E. Recent Work In the conversation class, the teachers bring them on mini-field trips around Hawaii to take photos and hear English being used. They are also being asked to record interviews with native speakers to include in their online portfolios.

Lesson 1: Introduction to Photo-journaling Goal: To introduce photo-journaling to the Ss and review previously-learned vocabulary. Objectives: 1. 2. 3. 4. Write freely to improve fluency in spontaneous writing Describe orally to classmates various aspects of a photograph Write a description of a photograph with other classmates Use descriptive adjectives and nouns to describe a photograph to the class with other classmates

Materials: Teaching the Lesson: Activity 1: Opening (8 minutes) 1. Greet Ss 2. Ice breaker a. Introductions plus: i. One thing the Ss are excited about being in Hawaii ii. One thing the Ss are nervous about being in Hawaii Activity 2: Free-writing (15 minutes) 1. Tell Ss to take out a piece of paper and writing utensil 2. Explain the free writing aspect of the course (HO #1) a. Ss are given 10 minutes in the beginning of every class b. The subject/theme of their free writing does not matter c. If they get just, the important thing is to keep writing- repeat the same word if necessary d. They can only write in English e. Counts as attendance/ participation- make sure they write their names! 3. Model free-writing on the board 4. Ss perform activity 5. Ss turn into teacher for attendance/participation Activity 3: Application (20 minutes) 1. 2. 3. 4. Tell Ss to form groups of three Pass out a different picture to each group (HO #2) Have groups try to describe the picture and collaboratively write out a description Have Ss present the descriptions to the class

Activity 4: Lecture (15 minutes) 1. Introduce photo-journaling a. Tell Ss that the previous activity was an example b. Explain the three parts: Take a picture, describe the picture, and present the results 2. Explain written assignment (description) in more detail a. Tell Ss what theyll be expected to do b. Write theme1 prompt choices2 on the board c. Ss go up to the board and write their name under the theme they want d. Record individual Ss prompt choices Activity 5: Homework (2minutes) 1. Pass out prompts 2. Tell Ss to take as many pictures as possible by Friday (in concurrence with their prompts) 3. Tell Ss to bring their photos on a USB drive

1 2

Prompt themes: nature, people, concept Nature: beauty, water, light, air, earth People: smile, strong, family, anger, style Concept: thought, label, fly, depth, foreign

Free-writing Guidelines!
What to remember.

1. You will be given 10 minutes in the beginning of every class to free write 2. The subject/theme of your free writing does not matter- write about anything! 3. The important thing is to keep writing- repeat the same word if necessary 4. You can only write in English 5. Free writing counts as attendance/ participationmake sure to write your names!

Lesson 1 HO#1

Lesson 1 HO #2

Lesson 2: Drafting Descriptions Goal: For students to begin drafting the descriptions for the photo journals and look at examples. Objectives: 1. Write freely to improve fluency in spontaneous writing 2. Write short descriptions about their photograph 3. Ask questions to fill in gaps of knowledge about photo journaling Materials: LCD projector Teaching the Lesson: Activity 1: Opening (5 minutes) 1. Greet Ss 2. Ask them how their week in Hawaii has been going Activity 2: Free-writing (10 minutes) 1. Tell Ss to take out paper and writing utensil for free-writing activity 2. Ss perform activity 3. Ss turn into teacher for attendance/participation Activity 3: Application (30 minutes) 1. Tell Ss to open their photos from USB drive on computer 2. Extract their pictures into a Word document 3. Work on writing descriptions under the pictures with three sections: a. Prompt word or phrase b. Why they chose to take this picture c. Brief description, including location of the picture Activity 4: Lecture (10 minutes) 1. 2. 3. 4. Turn on LCD projector Show Ss examples of photo-journals http://ngstudentexpeditions.com/student-photo-contest/2013-winners/ Ask Ss for any questions

Activity 5: Homework (5 minutes) 1. Tell Ss to print three copies of their descriptions for the next class and three different colored highlighters

Lesson 3: Peer-edit and posting Goal: For students to peer-edit and learn how to post their pictures and descriptions to the class site. Objectives: 1. Write freely to improve fluency in spontaneous writing 2. Distinguish peers grammatical, punctuation and spelling mistakes 3. Post pictures and descriptions onto the class blog Materials: Teaching the Lesson: Activity 1: Opening (5 minutes) 1. Greet Ss 2. Ask them how their weekend in Hawaii was Activity 2: Free-writing (10 minutes) 1. Tell Ss to take out paper and writing utensil for free-writing activity 2. Ss perform activity 3. Ss turn into teacher for attendance/participation Activity 3: Application (25 minutes) 1. Tell Ss to get into their groups of three 2. Pass out highlighters 3. Explain Jigsaw activity a. Ss give their drafts to three other classmates b. One classmate highlights spelling errors with a green marker c. One classmate highlights grammar errors with a yellow marker d. One classmate highlights punctuation/indent errors with a blue marker 4. Ss perform activity 5. Ss give feedback back to original author Activity 4: Lecture (15 minutes) 1. Explain to Ss that youre going to model how to post pictures on their web pages on the class website

a. Post pictures on the website b. Post descriptions under the pictures 2. Ss edit their corrected descriptions based on classmates feedback 3. Ss perform task Activity 5: Homework (5 minutes) 1. Tell Ss to finish 90% of prompts and submissions 2. Tell Ss they will have a workshop next class to add finishing touched and practice for their presentation