Thursday, May 30, 2019

Freshman English Reading A: 5/22 & 5/29 board notes・5月22・29日のボードノート

Hello!



How are you? Here are all the board notes in our classes from 5/22 and 5/29. The notes at the top are from 5/29.


Here are some other notes from our class on 5/29:





Now here are the board notes from our class on 5/22 last week:




See you with your presentations next week!

Good luck!

Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, May 28, 2019

Culture through English A: Spring semester mid-term presentations・前期中間プレゼンテーション

Hello!



How are you? Today, I will introduce our spring semester mid-term short presentations. Our topic will be about our family origins (素性and migration (移動patterns. 

Where did your parents - your mother and father - come from? How about your family history before your parents? Which parts of Japan did your grandparents, or their parents, come from? 

If you are from another country, which part, or parts, of the country did your family come from? If you have part of your origins in Japan and part in another country, which country was it and which side of your family - your mother's or father's - is the connection with the country on? 

Topic, task, & guidelines 
Look at the picture above. It's a small rough poster from a student who researched her family's migration history - the places where her parents came from and how they met. 

This is a good example of what you can do. I would like you to do some research - which could include asking your parents and/or grandparents - on your family's origins. You can make a Power Point show, or a small poster. 

Have some maps - you can hand draw them or download from the internet and note them yourself on computer - and some pictures of the places where your family and some relatives (親族) came from and where they went. 

If you hand draw things, simple pictures are okay - but make your posters or scanned pictures colorful and interesting to look at. 

Important note: To make this a little more interesting, imagine that you are going to tell a story about your family's history and migration from one part of Japan (or elsewhere) to another - let's call it "My Family's History as a Journey." 

Making this as a story might help you remember how to speak on details and make your speaking smoother and easier for you to remember and for others listening to your talk to follow. 

Include information on your displays such as: 
  • Where your grandparents (or great-grandparents, if you can find out) came from and where they met
  • What the family names of the grandmothers (or great-grandmothers, if you can find out) were
  • Where your parents met and when they got married
  • When your parents moved to where they now live
For this presentation, you can design a small poster or make a Power Point show. 

If you design a poster, I would like you to follow these guidelines:
  • It has to be on A3 size paper
  • You have to have 3-4 pictures on it (hand-drawn or photos, or a mix)
  • It has to be colorful and interesting to look at
If you make a Power Point show, I would like you to follow these guidelines: 
  • You have to have a title slide - then 5-7 slides with pictures and text on it - then a closing slide
  • It has to be colorful and interesting to look at
  • Bring your own computer or tablet - I cannot give anyone any computers!
Deadline (締め切り
Our presentation day will be on June 12th (6/12), so you have two (2) weeks to prepare.

For next week (6/5) - bring enough content so you can give me an idea about how you would organize your talk. This way we can do some basic presentation practice

You do not have to be 100% finished with your display - but you should have enough content to practice with. I would like to see the work you have done and give you some advice on what you can do to make the best presentations you can. You can then finish your work outside of class after and be ready to present on 5/30. 

Important note:
Because this is our mid-term presentation, we all have to be here on the day of the presentation. Not coming will lower your grade. This is because we have to move onto other topics after these presentations, so we have to keep going on the syllabus. We will have no time for makeup (補講presentation days for this. 

Another difference from our first presentations is that this time, you will check each other's presentations. I will show you how we can do this in the next class on 6/5.

Here are the board notes for our class today on 5/29:




Good luck with this! I look forward to our presentation day!

Image: Personal photograph of student poster. All rights reserved on content to the student.

Writing English A: Opinion writing about hikikomori・引きこもりのオピニオン

Hello!



How are you? Here is a post for any of you who might be interested in social issues - as an example, about hikikomori

Activity/homework

This is a video of a TED Talk in Japanese of a mother who had an adult hikikomori son. This might give you also some more background, this time from someone directly a part of this issue, about hikikomori and what they need to re-enter society. 

Watch it as many times as you need. There are no questions - but note down your reaction. What do you think of it? 



Here are the board notes for our classes today on 5/29:




Good luck with this! See you next class!


Image: By Hiroh Satoh from Japan - HIKIKOMORI night, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28635776/Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the video or content. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for educational purposes.

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Writing English A: Opinion writing about tattoos・入れ墨のオピニオン

Hello!



How are you? Today, let's begin writing about opinions

Look at the picture above. What is it? It's a tattoo machine - for making tattoos

Tattoos have a negative image in Japan, but some young Japanese people feel they may be cool because many young people in other countries have them. 

Activity
Here is a selection of pictures of some tattoos. Which ones do you like - or not like? How do you feel about tattoos? Do you have a negative image about them - or do you think they're cool and stylish? 

Choose one (1) picture and write a quick paragraph in five (5) minutes about itWrite anything that comes to your mind when you look at it. Negative opinions are okay

1.

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

What do you think of these tattoos? Have you seen any like these here, or on the internet? 

Extra activity/homework (for those who are interested in this topic)
Choose one (1) of these tattoos and write two (2) paragraphs about what you think of it. (It's okay not to like it - you can write about what you don't like about it). 

Here are the board notes for today's (5/22) class:



See you next time!


Images: Top - by Manfred Kohrs - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12806627/
1. Courtesy of gettattooideas.net/2. Courtesy of netluxury.com/3. Courtesy of www.tattoosbeautiful.com/4. Courtesy of inkdoneright.com/5. Courtesy of tattoowell.com/I do not own the rights to the photographs of tattoos or their designs. All rights to images and designs reserved to the copyright holders of the images and/or artists. Uploaded strictly for classroom use. 

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Culture through English A: Family origins・家族の出身

Hello!



How are you? Today, let's look at where we come from. The picture above is of the Chikuzen-no-kuni family register (戸籍謄本).

This is from Fukuoka-ken, and it's the oldest known family register in Japan, at over 1,300 years old!

All of us can trace our origins (先祖) - that is, our family beginnings - to somewhere. So let me share with you my origins








So those are my origins. But how about your family? How far back do you know about where your family came from - in Japan, or maybe another country?


The picture above is a shot of a student's notes. She researched about the origins of her family (家族の出身). Her family came from Kanagawa.

Activity/homework
How about your families? Which parts of Japan - or which parts of other countries - did they come from? 

Let's find out about our families and where they came from!

Here are the board notes for today's (5/22) class:



See you next time!

Images: Top - screenshot from internet of Chikuzen-no-kuni household register courtesy of Asuka Historical Museum. All rights reserved/Screenshots of Power Point slides - personal images. All rights reserved/Student notebook page - personal photograph. All rights on content reserved to the student. All rights reserved on personal photograph.

Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Freshman English Reading A: Board notes for 5/15・5月15日のボードノート

Hello!



How are you? Above are the board notes for today's (5/15) class.

I'm very sorry to cut off some of the notes at the bottom. This is what it says you should do:

5. New homework (for 5/22)
*begin reading your book and making notes - check the blogpost about the mid-term presentations again about guidelines! 

Show me your notes about where you are in the book and what you think of it!

Special note: 
If you would like a refresher about the mid-term (中間) presentations, click on this link here

I'm also very sorry we couldn't check the textbook homework for today. We'll check it next week (5/22) before checking the new homework.  

See you next week!


Image: Personal photograph. All rights reserved. 

Writing English A: Board notes for 5/15・5月15日のボードノート

Hello! 



How are you? Above are the main board notes for today (5/15). 

Overall, you're doing a great job on your composition drafts. Good job! I'm looking forward to seeing your great final drafts next week (5/22)! 

Here are the other board notes for today:



Especially look at the notes below for correct formatting of your Word document. (For the 3rd period class - remember to put "3rd period" after 'Writing English A" - not "4th period"!


See you next week!

Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved.

Culture through English A: Board notes for 5/15・5月15日のボードノート

Hello!



How are you? Here are the board notes for today (5/15). Above are the main lesson notes.

Overall, you did a good job on your presentations. Congratulations! 

Here are the other board notes. These are especially important because you could use these for future presentations:



See you next week with your summaries (要約) about your presentation topics that you did today - and your presentation posters. I will take pictures of the posters

If you want to refresh yourselves about what to do on the summaries, click on the link here

See you next week! 


Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved. 

Sunday, May 12, 2019

Freshman English Reading A: Spring semester mid-term presentations・前学期中間プレゼンテーション

Hello!



How are you? Here are the guidelines and deadline for our spring semester mid-term presentations (前学期中間プレゼンテーション).

Before we start, as a refresherhere are the board lesson notes from our class last week (5/8):



Now let's look at the mid-term presentation information!

Mid-term presentations (中間プレゼンテーション)
You will make a presentation about the book you chose, and have been reading. Please have these points in your presentation:
  • A short summary (要約) about the story - what is it about?
  • The main character(s) of the book (or for a non-fiction book - the main real people)
  • The qualities () or characteristics (性状) of the main character(s) or people
  • The most interesting or exciting situation or event in the story or real book
  • The character or person you liked the most - and what qualities he or she had 
Guidelines
For this presentation, you can design a small poster or make a Power Point show. 

If you design a poster, I would like you to follow these guidelines:
  • It has to be on A3 size paper
  • You have to have 4-5 pictures on it (hand-drawn or photos, or a mix)
  • It has to be colorful and interesting to look at
      If you make a Power Point show, I would like you to follow these guidelines:  
  • You have to have a title slide then 5-7 slides with pictures and text on it - then a closing slide 
  • It has to be colorful and interesting to look at
Deadline (締め切り)
We will do these presentations on June 5th (6/5), so you have three (3) weeks to read your book and work on your presentation display.

Next week (5/22), please show me what you are presenting on and we will make some time to do some work in class on the presentations. 

Then on 5/29, I would like to see your work and we can have a presentation practice time. I can give you some advice on what you can do to make the best presentations you can. 

Please be ready to present on 6/5! 

Good luck! I look forward to our presentation day! 


Images: Top- by Strebe - File in w:en, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10554354/Lesson notes - personal photograph. All rights reserved.

Writing English A: Basic comparison & contrast・基本的な比較対照

Hello!



How are you? Let's review some basic comparing and contrasting (基本的な比較対照). 

Special note: Not all of you may need this review, but for those of you who would like it, it's here for you. 

First, as a refresher, let's also review the board lesson notes from our class last week (5/8):



Now let's look at comparing and contrasting (比較対照)! Let's first look at comparatives (比較)!

In the picture at the top, we can say the sports car is fast (早い). But in the picture below, this old car is slow (遅い):




So - you can say: 

The sports car is faster than the old car
The old car is slower than the sports car.

Now look at these pictures. What comparatives (比較) talk about these pairs? Match these!

taller     shorter     newer     colder
longer     younger     hotter     older 

1.


The man is __________ than the woman.
The woman is __________ than the man.

2. 

The man in the black suit is __________ than the man in the blue suit. 
The man in the blue suit is __________ than the man in the black suit.

3. 
   
 The church is __________ than the office building.
The office building is __________ than the church. 

4.
The beach is __________ than the mountains. 
The mountains are __________ than the beach. 

5. 


The flowered dress is __________ than the animal-print skirt.
The animal-print skirt is __________ than the flowered dress. 

Try these! See you next class!

Images: Top - "Classic Porsche 959" (courtesy of M-Pics)/Lesson board notes - personal photograph/Old car - "Vintage Car" (courtesy of Tom Clare)/1. "Senior Couple with Arms Crossed" (courtesy of stockimages)/2. "Two Businessmen Smiling" (courtesy of Ambro)/3. "Old Historical Church" (courtesy of Stuart Miles) and "Blue Sky And Office Building" (courtesy of Sura Nualpradid)/4. "Sunset Holiday" (courtesy of kenfotos) and "Denali National Park" (courtesy of Liz Noffsinger)/5. "Taking Leg Measurement" (courtesy of imagerymajestic)  and "Legs of Young Woman" (courtesy of David Castillo Dominici)/All images except board notes from FreeDigitalPhotos.net/All rights reserved on personal photograph.