Culture through English B: Fall semester mid-term presentations・後期中間 プレゼンテーション

Hello!

How are you? Here is the topic, deadline, and guidelines for our fall semester mid-term presentations (後期中間 プレゼンテーション). 

Topic

In this assignment, research about an educational system in another country. 

You can choose any country. While I showed you the videos on the blogpost about education in Finland, India, and South Korea, these are only examples. You should find other videos and readings on educational systems in other countries. 

Please do not do the educational systems of Finland, India, or South Korea, or Japan! 

You can choose any level of education to bring more focus to your presentation – elementary, junior high school and high school, or university.

Deadline (締め切り)

Our presentation day will be on November 27th (11/27), so you have two (2) weeks to prepare them. 

On November 20th (11/20), I would like to see your work and have presentation practice if we have time, so that we can be ready for the real presentations on 11/27.  

Guidelines

You have a choice between doing a poster presentation or Power Point show. I will remind you all about guidelines for posters and Power Point shows.

NEW - here are the board notes for our class on 11/13:

Good luck! I look forward to our presentation day! 

See you next time!

Image: By Gunnar Creutz, Falbygdens museum - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28211895

Culture through English B: Fall semester mid-term presentations・後期中間 プレゼンテーション

Hello!

How are you? Here is the topic, deadline, and guidelines for our fall semester mid-term presentations (後期中間 プレゼンテーション). 

Topic

In this assignment, research about an educational system in another country. 

You can choose any country. While I showed you the videos on the blogpost about education in Finland, India, and South Korea, these are only examples. You should find other videos and readings on educational systems in other countries. 

Please do not do the educational systems of Finland, India, or South Korea, or Japan! 

You can choose any level of education to bring more focus to your presentation – elementary, junior high school and high school, or university.

Deadline (締め切り)

Our presentation day will be on November 27th (11/27), so you have two (2) weeks to prepare them. 

On November 20th (11/20), I would like to see your work and have presentation practice if we have time, so that we can be ready for the real presentations on 11/27.  

Guidelines

You have a choice between doing a poster presentation or Power Point show. I will remind you all about guidelines for posters and Power Point shows.

NEW - here are the board notes for our class on 11/13:

Good luck! I look forward to our presentation day! 

See you next time!

Image: By Gunnar Creutz, Falbygdens museum - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28211895

Freshman English Reading B: 11/6 board notes・11月6日のボードノート

Hello!

How are you? Here are the board notes for our class on 11/6. Good luck with your presentation work outside of class - and I look forward to seeing your great presentations on your books next week.

See you then!

Image: Personal photograph. All rights reserved.

Writing English B: Writing assignment 5・作文5

Hello!

How are you? Today I will introduce our 5th writing assignment (作文5) - writing a comparison and contrast (比較対照) about two different works of art or two different pieces of music.

In this assignment, you have a choice about comparing and contrasting two (2) different works of art, or two (2) different pieces of music.

About works of art
Let us begin with an example of a work of art. The image above is a very famous painting by the great 20th-century French artist Henri Matisse called Red Room (Harmony in Red). It was painted in 1908. 

What comes to your mind as you see this painting? Is there a reason for the design the way it is - for example, where the window is placed in the picture? Or the white apron of the woman at the table on the other side of the picture?

Do you feel it is a peaceful picture? Or maybe is it not so peaceful, because red is a strong color?

These are examples of things you can write about with art.

Accessing pictures 
Go to this link. It is a separate page on this blog, but it is not a regular blogpost. (On the Web version of this blog, you can find it in the sidebar menu under this name: Artwork for student writing.) 

When you see these works of art, what comes to your mind? What other images, feelings, or even scenarios do you imagine? Follow the steps that are shown on the blogpage when you go to it. 

NEW - when you write about your two works of art, include these points:

1. General description (描写) about both artworks - what is in the pictures, such as the background or setting (outdoors, indoors, and such), figures or objects, and/or shapes and designs, what kinds of colors are dominant (支配的), and so on.

2. Mood and impression - what might be the dominant mood or impression that you get from the figures or objects - what kind of happiness, lightness, seriousness, or darkness in feeling or emotion comes through, what kind of message seems to be communicated, and so on. 

3. Preference (嗜好、好みこと) - in the end, which artwork you like more, with reasons - which artwork seems more powerful, or moving, or interesting, or convincing (説諭、説得的) to you. 

About music
You also have the choice to write about pieces of music. Here is an example of one such piece of music by the 20th century American jazz bandleader Sun Ra and one of his pieces, "Saturn." 

As you listen to this piece of music, what comes to your mind? What combinations of musical instruments are there and what do you feel they express? Are there reasons for the kind of tempo it has, or the instruments that you hear the most? 

Does the tempo and instrumental sound express the title of the piece of music and the location that the title comes from? 

These are examples of things you can write about with music.

Accessing music
Go to this link. It is also a separate page on this blog, and like the page with artwork, it is not a regular blogpost. (On the Web version of this blog, you can also find it in the sidebar menu under this name: Music for student writing.) 

When you hear these pieces of music, what comes to your mind? What other images, feelings, or even scenarios do you imagine? Follow the steps that are shown on the blogpage when you go to it. 

NEW - when you write about your two pieces of music, include these points:

1. General description (描写) about both pieces of music - what the main instruments (楽器) are, such as guitar, piano, saxophones, keyboards, and so on.

2. Mood and impression - what might be the dominant mood or impression that you get from the music, and perhaps individual instruments - what kind of happiness, lightness, seriousness, or darkness in feeling or emotion comes through, what kind of message seems to be communicated, and so on. 

3. Preference (嗜好、好みこと) - in the end, which piece of music you like more, with reasons - which music seems more powerful, or moving, or interesting, or convincing (説諭、説得的) to you. 

How much to write
I would like you to write around 4-5 paragraphs on one (1) of the pairs of pictures or pairs of music pieces. But - do not stop yourself! If you can write more - go for it!

As I mentioned in class, if you do not want to write about any of the artwork or music on the blog  page links, and want to write about two works of art or two pieces of music of your own, you can.

Special note: If you write about your own choices of music, I ask that they be instrumental - no vocals - and that they be short - each one no more than four (4) minutes each. 

Collection of your writing into books
I am gathering your writing about the artworks from the blogpage link into a book called Every Picture Tells a Story - student writing about art and photography. 

Likewise, any of your writing about the music from the separate blogpage link I am also gathering into a different book called Words on Music - student writing about music. 

So whichever task you choose - writing about the artworks or writing about the pieces of music - try to write to the best you can. Your writing could get into a book!

Deadline (締め切り) 

It will be due on November 20th (11/20), so you have two (2) weeks to work on this. Next week on November 13th (11/13), I would like you to have a rough draft in pen or pencil in your notebooks ready to read aloud, then work on to finish as you need it. 

The rough draft does not have to be 100% finished, but please have enough for you to read aloud and check with me and a classmate. 

While I say above to write around 4-5 paragraphs, I would encourage you to write as much as you can, because your work may be published (出版した) on both this blog and in the Every Picture Tells a Story and Words on Music books. 

Here are the board notes for the class on 11/6:

Good luck! See you next time!

Image: Red Room (Harmony in Red) by Henri Matisse - Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8553576/Board notes - personal photographs. All rights reserved.
Video uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to the video or the musical composition within it. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for educational purposes only.

Culture through English B: Foreign educational systems・国際教育制度

Hello!

How are you? We'll keep going with our theme of education. 

I have three (3) short videos for you about educational systems in three different countries - Finland, India, and South Korea. 

Let's watch one of the videos in class - as a class, you choose which one. Let's answer these questions after you watch:

1. Do you see anything like your own educational experiences in the country's system you watched?
2. Is it anything like your experience? If so - how is it the same? If not - how is it different? 

Here are the videos. The first one is about education in Finland: 

This next one below is about India.

This last one is about South Korea.

Homework
Watch the other two videos we did not see in class and make some notes about your impressions. Now answer these two questions:

3. Which educational system is the most different from your experience?
4. If you could bring some things together from all three (3) of these countries into a single educational system, which parts would you take from each country? Which do you think are the best parts? 

Post your impressions as comments to this blogpost if you can. I'll be interested to read what you have to say and will value it greatly.

Now here are the board notes for our class on 11/6:

See you next week!

Image: By Laboratorio de Escritura - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18242352

All videos uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to these videos. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for classroom purposes only.

Culture through English B: Foreign educational systems・国際教育制度

Hello!

How are you? We'll keep going with our theme of education. 

I have three (3) short videos for you about educational systems in three different countries - Finland, India, and South Korea. 

Let's watch one of the videos in class - as a class, you choose which one. Let's answer these questions after you watch:

1. Do you see anything like your own educational experiences in the country's system you watched?
2. Is it anything like your experience? If so - how is it the same? If not - how is it different? 

Here are the videos. The first one is about education in Finland: 

This next one below is about India.

This last one is about South Korea.

Homework
Watch the other two videos we did not see in class and make some notes about your impressions. Now answer these two questions:

3. Which educational system is the most different from your experience?
4. If you could bring some things together from all three (3) of these countries into a single educational system, which parts would you take from each country? Which do you think are the best parts? 

Post your impressions as comments to this blogpost if you can. I'll be interested to read what you have to say and will value it greatly.

Now here are the board notes for our class on 11/6:

See you next week!

Image: By Laboratorio de Escritura - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18242352

All videos uploaded from YouTube. I do not own the rights to these videos. All rights reserved to the copyright holder(s). Uploaded for classroom purposes only.

Freshman English Reading B: 10/30 board notes・10月30日のボードノート

Hello! 

How are you? Here are the board notes for our class on 10/30. Above are the main board notes.

Now below are some notes on Power Point tips:

If you need a review of the mid-term presentation assignment about your books, go to this link. 

See you next week for our practice on our presentations! 

Images: Personal photographs. All rights reserved.