Lesson 4-2 The Second lesson - "Do you like milk?" "Yes, I do, or No, I don't."...

Well, the weather has certainly been getting hotter in Japan. Halfaway into the second week of July, and you will feel as if there should be a new rule about teaching in shorts. In Japan, we can't generally teach in shorts but I'm sure in most hot places schools have bent the rules a bit. I can think of some places like Australia where cargo shorts are the staple of hot Australian summers for everyone including teachers.

Into the second lesson of this chapter, our main goal was to consolidate the meaning of nouns that use ~s and those that don't. Countable and the non-countable nouns and being able to say the full answers of 'Yes, I do' and 'No, I don't.'

So, a quick review of the things on page 25 in the textbook and a little quiz as to why I had separated the flashcards into two parts. When asked why, we did have a few hands raised up and a few of the kids had known why. But when asked about this part of English grammar during lunch with the kids, most students said they have not yet really gotten used to it. So, is it really alright to teach grammar in the Elementary School system? I think so, to a certain point. The book does have the two terms for nouns separated. For example we used the CD-rom today for the first time (since we have just received it from the local school board) and on the audio portion of page 25, the speaker introduces the variuos things in basic form such as apple, banana, and bird. But on the quiz on page 24 the book's characters say it as 'I like dogs," and so on. Would the kids have noticed? No, I don't think so. But from what I have learned in the past is that if you do not mention the rule to use the plural form with 'like' the students will generally consolidate on 'I like dog." That sounds too strange for me and I like teaching and hearing natural English as well.

A few rounds of practice later including a round of asking the kids random questions to elicit the long responses of yes and no with do and don''s and we were on to the quiz the teacher and some students portion on page 27. The kids did seem to enjoy this and we went through it smoothly.

After we had the students draw in their likes on page 28 in preparation for the group interview after the summer.

Today's lesson was also spent on using the CD-rom to review chapters 1 and 2. It takes a bit of time to set up the projecters so you may want to get a head start on that before the class chime rings. Also, make sure you've installed the CD-rom prior to the start of the class. Also, a lot of schools might have an internet line (LAN) connection in each classroom these days so if your school has one (as ours does) you can also introduce some things from the internet with the approval of your HRT's. Now, it is generally up to the kids and their parents to decide if they are going to visit anything you introduce them from the web, but you should at least take the caution of reviewing what you do introduce and make sure it it safe for kids to view.

Here are a few pictures of what the kids had drawn and I'll also leave the audio player here from last weeks lessons.

Eigo Note Book 1 Unit 4 Lesson 3 is now ready...

This is the last lesson before summer vacation and that ends on September 1st in Japan then it is back to school for the kids so you won't be seeing so many posts for a while. Perhaps, I'll take the time to run a spell check on every page since I haven't done that much checking so far. Have a nice summer and cheers to the holidays!

The kids were still cheerful and in good spirits although hot since today's temperature was a humid 35 degrees. Hope your lessons are going the same way but a bit cooler in the classroom.

The Eigo Note Blogger

Eigo Note Book 1 Unit 4 Lesson 3 is now ready...