Language Resident Name: Miki Saigo

Day and Date: January 28, 2019

Language and Level: Advanced Japanese

Class theme/topics discussed:

  • Fashion

Goal of the class:

  • Discuss preferences and opinions on fashion

How did you structure the class?

  • Greetings and announcements
    – Study Break: Calligraphy Feb. 6th
    – Oldenborg Open House Feb. 13th
  • Activity I: Whose outfit?
    I show students pictures of various outfits. In groups of three, students discuss who/what kind of person would wear them to where and if students themselves would try wearing these outfits. After they discuss in groups, they discuss with the whole class.
  • Activity II: Discussions on fashion
    In groups of three, students discuss the following questions:
    1. What type of outfit do 5C students wear?
    2. What would you wear when you go to:
        – a family gathering for Christmas
        – a friend’s wedding
        – a job interview
    3. Do you take time to pick clothes in the morning? What do you do when you can’t decide?
    4. Do you stick to certain brands? Do you like fast fashion?
    5. Imagine you traveled to a somewhere far away… and you find people there wear completely different from you (e.g. everybody is wearing ルーズソックス!). What would you do?
  • Activity III: Idol group audition
    I mention how idols/groups wear unique fashion and do various types of activities on media (e.g. singing, dancing, cooking, comedy, acting, harvesting…). I divide the students into groups and tell each group to imagine they are going on an audition as an idol group. Using a worksheet, students first ask each other their hobbies, skills and things they want to try in the future. Students list up the keywords and then discuss what they can do as an idol group using their talents. They also decide their group name, goals and theme fashion (draw what they are going to wear on media).
    When they are done, they present their idea to the whole class.

What technology, media or props did you use?

  • PowerPoint slides
  • Pictures from the internet (for the picture cards)
  • Worksheet

What worked well in this class? What did not work?

  • Activity I was visually entertaining. It is open-ended and made students talk, too.
  • Students had fun in Activity III. They were creative and talked spontaneously to share their ideas. It was nice to have them draw their costumes.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

  • I would add a discussion on trend fashion next time. (e.g. What kind of fashion item is popular now/went popular in the past?)

Materials (Download the files for better view):