jalt64

AKITA JALT meetings in 2013
picture album page 1 - the 1st meeting of 2013

April

Guest speakers: Christine Winskowski
Date: Saturday, April 20th, 2013
Topic: Online Tools for Teaching and Learning
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Place: Akita Prefectural University, Honjo Campus
Room: CALL kyoshitsu (Second Floor of Kyotsu-shisetsuto)

7 people attended.

Chapter Report
(to be printed in The Language Teacher)
Guest speaker: Christine Winskowski

AKITA – April 2013 - Online Tools for Teaching and Learning - Christine Winskowski. This presentation was a workshop conducted in the CALL Lab of the Honjo Campus of Akita Prefectural University. It consisted of a tour of the latest, and coolest online tools for teaching and learning ? Some of the tools were more for teachers, several of the tools were more for students, and, of course, some work well for both. The online sites included sites to easily construct online lessons, text-to-speech, quiz construction, rubric construction, graphic organizers, whiteboards, and mindmapping. The presenter guided everyone through the well-organized links and explained the purpose of each resource as well as providing ideas on how to incorporate them into creative lesson planning.

Reported by Stephen Shucart

AKITA JALT meetings in 2013
picture album page 1 - the 2nd meeting of 2013

May

Guest speakers: Mamoru "Bobby" Takahashi & Stephen Shucart
Date: Saturday, May 25th, 2013
Topic: Motivating students by talking about novels
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Place: Joinus
Room: Kenshushitsu 6

5 people attended

Chapter Report
(to be printed in The Language Teacher)
Guest speaker: Mamoru "Bobby" Takahashi & Stephen Shucart

AKITA – May 2013 - Motivating students by talking about novels - Mamoru “Bobby” Takahashi and Stephen Shucart, Akita Prefectural University. Experts say that students read more graded readers (GR) if teachers talk about books with enthusiasm. The presenters described the two main types of stories: character-driven novels and plot-driven novels. In general, the action is focused internally in character-driven novels and externally in plot-driven novels. The first part of the presentation focused on the art of creating believable characters and the second part focused on distinguishing between the several varieties of plot-driven stories in the genre of mystery novels. With many concrete illustrations, the audience learned the different patterns of development in these two types of novels and became better able to guide their students in selecting the proper books in an extensive reading program.

Reported by Stephen Shucart

AKITA JALT meetings in 2013
picture album page 1 - the 3rd meeting of 2013

June

Guest speaker: Rachael Ruegg
Date: Saturday, June 22, 2013
Topic: Facilitating written feedback on students' writing
Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Place: Joinus
Room: Kenshushitsu 6

9 people attended.

Chapter Report
(to be printed in The Language Teacher)
Guest speaker: Rachael Ruegg

AKITA – June 2013 - Facilitating written feedback on students' writing -- Rachael Ruegg, Akita International University. Teachers of writing often wonder when to give feedback, how to give it, how much to give and how often. In addition to this there are different sources of feedback – Should the teacher give feedback on every assignment? How about peer feedback, is it really useful? For over a one-year period the presenter conducted PhD research with 71 Japanese students. In this presentation the presenter used the results of her research to give advice about how to facilitate written feedback on students' writing. The presentation was attended by several local Japanese High School teachers, so the Q&A period was most informative for the multiple perspectives it afforded.

Reported by Stephen Shucart

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