an archive of lesson plans
Author: Kozue Matsumoto
Language Resident/Assistant Name:
Kozue Matsumoto
Day and Date:
Tuesday November 24, 2020
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):
Advanced
Class theme/topics discussed:
- Last class: kanji games
Goal of the class:
- Guess how to read unusual kanji
How did you structure the class?
- How are you doing? Hanging in there? Good news if any??? (7 min)
- Hawaiian Thanksgiving dishes – lots of Asian food included
- Guess and read the kanji (45 min)
- Veggies
- Fruits
- Things in the water
- Family names
- Most complicated kanji (10 min)
- Some legendary mysterious kanji
- Officially registered real kanji
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Class agreement, breakup rooms
Zoom, white board
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
- We talked how we feel at the end of the semester. Since everything happened online at home, there is not a huge difference compared to pre-COVID time when students used to move back to their hometown etc.
- We talked a bit about Hawaiian Thanksgiving food
- Kanji guessing game was fun, and they had very good questions such as when these vegetables were introduced to Japan and how their kanji were decided like that.
- One student was sharing her knowledge about how Taiwanese use the same kanji for the same fruits and how a kanji was chosen for a certain fruit because of the meaning of kanji (蕃)
- We guessed some strange and rare family names and some super complicated kanji as well.
- We had a pretty fun time. They used everything they know to guess the kanji, such as a documentary film about fish that they watched the other day, the knowledge of Taiwanese usage of kanji, etc.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
- There are lots of kanji. Some are easy to guess, and others are just impossible to guess. We can do a lot about this.
If you have a more detailed lesson plan, please attach it below (OK to use target language for that). Please attach any handouts as well.
Below are what we did with whiteboard
Fruits
Vegetables
Things in the water
Rare and strange family names
Complicated kanji
Taito たいと – a family name (not officially recorded in anywhere but there is a story around this kanji)
Biang – From Chinese kanji
Jin ジン – dust
Language Resident/Assistant Name:
Kozue Matsumoto
Day and Date:
Monday October 5, 2020
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):
Intermediate / Advanced
Class theme/topics discussed:
- Haiku
Goal of the class:
- Learn about Haiku
- Create haiku and kigo
How did you structure the class?
- Good news (5min) *We share positive stories at the beginning of each class.
- Today’s plan and watch a video: https://youtu.be/BNyPE93fXh8 (10 min)
- Example of “kigo” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_kigo#Autumn:_8_August_%E2%80%93_6_November (5 min)
- Break out room (2-3people) (25 min)
- How we appreciate season? Any new “kigo” that we can create that’s specific to American seasonal moments?
- What reminds us of seasons? What kind of things do we appreciate in a season? What do we do, see, hear, taste or feel in a season?
- Let’s make a haiku!
- Main room (15 min)
- Share the haiku each group made.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Class agreement, breakup rooms
Zoom, Breakout room, emails, YouTube and internet resources.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
- They knew the basics of haiku. The video helped them understand a little deeper about haiku.
- “kigo” is an interesting concept. Instead of telling them this as a rule, I let them think about and come up with their own “kigo” in their own environment (American or California or whatever they think of)
- I believe it’s a nice activity to reflect how we are related to our environment, such as nature or seasonal events.
- This also turned into finding a little nice or memorable moment in their daily life relating to a season
- They enjoyed thinking of “kigo” and they explained how seasonal a certain word is to me, as I’m not quite familiar to American seasonal practice.
- They enjoyed making haiku, too, and they are using some techniques such as ji-amari (extra letter) or taigen-dome (ending a phrase with a noun)
- I also had them type their poem into the chat so I can make sure I know what they did and also I can save it.
- This was also finding a little nice or memorable moment in their daily life
How could this class be improved/ modified?
- We focused on fall as it’s fall now, but we can do this any seasons
- We can also do “senryu,” which is like haiku, but you do not need to use “kigo” in it. So this could be a little freer and more hilarious.
If you have a more detailed lesson plan, please attach it below (OK to use target language for that). Please attach any handouts as well.
Some concepts:
俳句、季語、字余り、字足らず、倒置法
Student works (with my quick translation):
天の川（あまのがわ）
今晩月は（こんばんつきは）
珍しい（めずらしい）
With Milky way, tonight’s moon is rare.
紅葉狩り
カリフォルニアで
火事がある
While enjoying the colorful fall tree leaves while it’s on fire in California
コーン畑
踊って来てる
骸骨は
At Corn field, a skeleton is coming while dancing
花枯れる (はなかれる)
BTS が来る (ビティエスがくる)
うれしいな
The season the flowers die, it’s also a season BTS comes here. Feels happy.
タコ火曜
感謝祭と
食べすぎる
Taco Tuesday, also Thanksgiving, I’m eating too much
秋のくれ（あき）
カボチャをほって
光入れ（ひかりいれ）
At dusk, I curve a pumpkin and light inside.
秋の時間
色々な色
思い出す
Fall time, I remember lots of colors.
秋に来る
外を見る時
しあわせな
Coming in the fall, I feel happy looking outside
春寒のころ
電車を待ち中
あの子見た
In early spring, while waiting for a train, I saw the girl.
宿題が
飛んで行ってる
貝寄風のおかげ
My homework is all blown away, thanks to a strong spring wind!
蝉の音
種を吐き出せ
ネバネバな手
Cicada sounds, let’s spit out seeds with my sticky hands
最初の雨
上に雪が降る
山眠る
The first rain, and then snow falls, the mountain sleeps
大雨で 峰
白くなり
山眠る
A huge rain fall, the peak of mountains become white as mountains sleeps
雨の後
雲吹き飛ばし
白い山
After the rain, the clounds are blown away and I see a white mountain.
Language Resident/Assistant Name:
Kozue Matsumoto
Day and Date:
Wednesday October 14, 2020
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):
Intermediate
Class theme/topics discussed:
- Student suggested theme #2
- Embarrassing Stories
Goal of the class:
- Share embarrassing stories.
How did you structure the class?
- Good news (5 min) *We share positive stories at the beginning of each class.
- Continue from last class (5 min)
- Today’s plan (5 min)
- Your embarrassing story is awesome, but something you witnessed counts, too. For example, your siblings.
- Break out room (2-3people) (25 min)
- Share embarrassing stories
- Ask at least 1 question to each other’s stories
- Main room (20 min)
- Share each others’ story.
- My partner’s story is like this. I asked this question, and their answer was that.
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Class agreement, breakup rooms
Zoom, Breakout room.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
- They have hilarious stories! I thought the last class “Childhood stories” were amazing, but this was as amazing as last time if not more.
- We didn’t get to share all the stories, so we will start next class with sharing the rest of the stories.
- Students spoke a lot, and we laughed a lot.
- I felt students are trying very hard to tell a story as they wanted to deliver the story and how funny the story is. Also I sensed that everyone was listening hard because they didn’t want to miss the funny point.
- They were definitely sharing more stories while I wasn’t with them in breakout rooms.
- This is one of classes students chose as the best.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
- Several students said that they had hard time remembering any stories as they wanted to forget embarrassing stories. So I think it was a good idea to let them know that it’s ok to use some embarrassing stories that they witnessed as well as their own stories.
Language Resident/Assistant Name:
Kozue Matsumoto
Day and Date:
Wednesday November 4, 2020
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):
Intermediate / Advanced
Class theme/topics discussed:
- Check in with everyone and see how they are doing
- Onomatopoeia
Goal of the class:
- See if everyone is cool to do a class (This class was right after the presidential election)
- Explore Onomatopoeia
How did you structure the class?
- How are you doing? Hanging there? Good news if any??? (7 min)
- Introduce Onomatopoeia (8 min)
- ザーザー and パラパラ
- Animal voices etc.
- Breakout room (30 min)
- Describe a moment or create a story
- Pick 3 or 4 Onomatope from https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/japanese-onomatopoeia/ and use it in sentence. One sentence one onomatope.
- Main room (15 min)
- Share the sentences that each group creates
- Wrap up. Stay positive, and stay calm
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Class agreement, breakup rooms
Zoom, breakout rooms online resource
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
- Students were tired and stressed out with election situations.
- Students loved Onomatope. They sound funny and cute apparently.
- In the breakout rooms, students were laughing so hard finding new Onomatope and how they sound like
- They were so creative about making a story. This is a lot more than I expected.
- In the main room, students typed what they created in a chat and read aloud. It became almost like a theatre at some point. One student acted character A, another one was character B, and another one was a narrator, etc.
- They were so good at creating, writing, and using new words. I gave a little grammar correction to make a phrase sound natural after every group presented their stories.
- I enjoyed so much how engaged they were in today’s activity.
- I wanted this class to be somewhat fun. I’m glad that this class created some cheerful moments for them, especially after hearing them saying that other classes were all ok today and that they were just ok.
- This is one of classes students chose as the best.
Advanced:
- They knew a lot more onomatope than the intermediate class.
- They were very nervous and worried about the election results.
- We ended up with talking a lot of feelings and situations around the election with onomatope.
- We also had some fun moments with some fun and positive and funny onomatope.
- Students also expressed some feelings about COVID.
- Onomatope are very nuanced expressions, so it was a great exercise to think about what the equivalent expressions are in English. I ended up with doing a lot of acting and facial expressions to tell them the nuances. That was fun.
- Manga is a great way to learn onomatope.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
- Onomatopoeia is very fun and great things to know. I used an entire class focusing on this. But also it’s possible to introduce a few Onomatopoeia at the beginning of every class. This would give students some laugh and create a positive mood to start a class.
- I used a breakout room with 3-4 people. It could be smaller groups.
If you have a more detailed lesson plan, please attach it below (OK to use target language for that). Please attach any handouts as well.
https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/japanese-onomatopoeia/
Student works: Each group created a story.
- ある日かえるさんとあひるさんが、いけに会いました。あひるさんは、かえるさんにかっこつけて、大きな声で 「ガーガー」と泣きました。かえるさんは、これを聞いてクスクス笑いました。じつは、あひるさんはじこあいせいでしたので、笑われたことがなかったです。あひるさんは、これを聞いて「ブルブル」ふるえました。かえるさんは、それを見て「おほん、きみはキャンセルドだ！」と言いました。あひるさんはもじもじして、こいにおちました。そして、かえるさんは、「へんなやつだなー」と思ってたたたたにげました。
- ある日、マイケルジャクソンは馬をみました。馬はマイケルに向かってサクサク走りました 。 マイケルも馬に向かってタタタタ走りました。 マイケルのマネージャーは「マイケル！馬の話をできない」と言いました。 でも、マイケルはガミガミだけを聞きました。 マイケルは気にしませんでした。 馬は「ひひいん」と言いました。 マイケルはうっとりです。 マイケルは「ひひ」と言いました。 その後、マイケルは馬と友達になりました。 マイケルは歌手をやめて、カウボーイになりました。
サクサク = stepping in dirt
タタタタ = running
ガミガミ = being lectured/nagged by someone above you
ひひいん = sound of a horse
うっとり = being fascinated by something beautiful
- 昔々 きみちゃんという六歳の子供は もりに すたこらに あるいていた。 きゅうに おおきくてこわいくまが 起こった。 でも きみちゃんは ゆうかんな子供 泣かなかった。 くまさん、大丈夫ですか？一人で もりにいるのは さびしいでしょう 。 くまさんは、ええええ、何これ？どうして この子 怖くならないの？ きみちゃんは、私の方が くまさんより こわいよ！それで、どんなに大きくても ぜんぜん ぶるぶる ふるえない！ くまさんは、そうなんだ。じゃあ、一緒に 世界せいふくをしよう！ きみちゃんは、世界征服 したくないけど。でも、人間は 最悪から 一緒に 森を 守ろう！ それ以下 きみちゃんとくまさんは もりを守ったり 毎日ラーメンをたべたり 幸せに 住んでいた.
Language Resident/Assistant Name:
Kozue Matsumoto
Day and Date:
Monday November 9, 2020
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):
Intermediate / Advanced
Class theme/topics discussed:
- Descrbe music videos
Goal of the class:
- Get to know some contemporary attempt of Japanese traditional music
- Describe music videos, what do you see? What do you hear?
How did you structure the class?
- How are you doing? Hanging there? Good news if any??? (7 min)
- We are trying to stay calm with the presidential election result being updated.
- Today’s plan (3 min)
- Breakout room (30 min): Each group has a different music video
- Watch the videos
- How many people are there?
- What are they doing? What are the instruments?
- What do they wear?
- What kind of music?
- What is traditional and what is not traditional?
- Do you like it or not and why?
- Main room (20 min)
- Explain the music video and watch video
- Wrap up. Stay positive, and stay calm,
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Class agreement, breakup rooms
Zoom, breakout rooms, youtube videos
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
- Students were a little tired at the beginning with upcoming exams and all the homework they have
- Each breakout room had a different music video. So I told them to describe the video really in detail.
- They enjoyed the videos.
- We learned some way of describing music, terms such as “traditional,” “contemporary,” and other terms used for traditional clothing.
- In breakout rooms, they asked me some words that explain musical moments, things artists are wearing, or the scenery. They used these terms when shearing in the main room.
- I first let all the groups explain what they watched. After that is done, I shared my screen and played all three videos at once. They loved it.
- Students enjoyed the music, costumes, the techniques of artists, and other details.
- This is one of classes students chose as the best.
Advanced:
- Students enjoyed the music, costumes, the techniques of artists, and other details.
- We ended up with talking a lot about Japanese arts and elements in videos.
- Students have a little more knowledge about Buddhism in this class, and it made some discussions very interesting.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
- I noticed that students used chat a lot as we all watch the videos together. Probably I can make use of the chat function more effectively with music moment. I don’t know how yet though. Something to keep thinking for the next time.
If you have a more detailed lesson plan, please attach it below (OK to use target language for that). Please attach any handouts as well.
Videos Shared:
Vocabulary that we learned:
袴：はかま
ばち
伝統的：でんとうてき：traditional
楽器：がっき：musical instrument
稲荷：いなり
畳：たたみ
和室：わしつ
襖：ふすま
和紙：わし
障子：しょうじ
きつね
竹：たけ
竹林：ちくりん
帯：おび
頭巾：ずきん
お経：おきょう
般若心経：はんにゃしんきょう
袈裟：けさ
邪道：じゃどう
Students’ comments on chat for each video
https://youtu.be/KHna8ngTaOg
17:06:41 From Lena She-Her : This lit
17:06:50 From Mason Cai : ^^
17:06:54 From Marina Aina : ^^^
17:07:00 From Ruby Hoffman : ^^
17:07:10 From Ashley Cheng : ^^^^^
17:07:32 From Marina Aina : The mv visuals are so nice too 😮
17:07:48 From Alyssa Zhang : those masks damnnnnn
17:08:06 From Mason Cai : :OOOoOOO:
https://youtu.be/cbObLy5MjWU
17:10:24 From Marina Aina : Ive never felt more untalented in my life LMAO they’re so good 😮
17:10:32 From Kate McHale : this really slaps
17:10:34 From Ashley Cheng : It really do be one of those days
https://youtu.be/nvIGCMhjkvw?t=120
17:12:03 From Kano Cheng : I want to be this man when I grow up
17:12:29 From Ruby Hoffman : yes oh my god
17:12:37 From Marina Aina : i think you can accomplish that dream :,)
17:12:40 From Kate McHale : immaculate vibes
17:12:42 From Ashley Cheng : I wonder if my buddhist grandma would appreciate this
17:13:07 From Alyssa Zhang : i want to know what hes saying
Language Resident/Assistant Name:
Kozue Matsumoto
Day and Date:
Wednesday September 16, 2020
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):
Intermediate / Advanced
Class theme/topics discussed:
- Naomi Osaka
Goal of the class:
- What Naomi Osaka did, and how the story was told.
- Think about racism and BLM movement, think about them in Japanese context, and express ideas in Japanese
How did you structure the class?
- Good news? (5min) *We share positive stories at the beginning of each class.
- Ask about some Japanese news they know (5min)
- Listen to the news (10 min)
- https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10012615261000/k10012615261000.html
- Check the basics of the news (Who she is, what she did, her action of wearing masks etc.)
- Breakout room (30 mim)
- What do you think about her action of wearing masks during the US Open?
- Lots of Japanese people believe that top athletes like her shouldn’t talk about any political or controversial issues. What do you think about it?
- For so long time, for Japanese people, “Japanese people” mean people who look like Japanese, speak Japanese, live in japan for entire their life, and have both Japanese parents. Now things are changing. The Japanese society needs to adjust to multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-everything reality. As a person who lives in USA, what would you like to suggest, advise, or teach Japanese people about living in a diverse community?
- Main room (10 min)
- Share ideas regarding the last question (4.c)
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.)
Class agreement, breakup rooms
Zoom, Breakout room, chat section, news web site
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
- Listening to Japanese news stories (created specifically for children and non-Japanese native people) seemed to be a little difficult, but they got a basics about the story (I believe the photos helped too.)
- Students had so much to say about this topic. They had thoughts and ideas. They sometimes struggled to express it in Japanese. But I felt their willingness to challenge themselves and share their thoughts in Japanese. I think this is great.
- I had another news story to discuss as I thought that one topic wouldn’t cover the whole hour. I was wrong. Students had a lot to think and share.
- I tried to reflect some reality of Japanese society. Also, I tried to have them think about it in relation to their reality in the USA. I received a lot of great points about question 4.c. One said that the USA has lots of issues itself and that it is difficult to provide any advice. This is understandable, too.
- I wasn’t sure how students would react to this topic, but they were very serious, and I can tell that this is not a new topic for them. They have been thinking about this issue for a while.
Advanced:
- Even before we start first discussion about Naomi Osaka, students had a lot of questions about Japanese society, such as how Japanese people understand things like BLM, whether there is racism in Japan and if so what kind, how Japanese people think about being different, whether and how people talk about politics, about the media’s political stance, how people learn about the USA. We had a good discussion.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
- Providing a basic key terms in Japanese at the beginning of the class might have helped. But at the same time, if I did it, that’s going to frame how and what they are going to think. So probably, just start free flowing, and help them when they ask about certain words.
- I see that the advanced class can learn and discuss a lot about Japan’s social and political issues as well as cultural things. I appreciate their curiosity.
Language Resident/Assistant Name:
Kozue Matsumoto
Day and Date:
Wednesday September 2nd, 2020
Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class):
Intermediate
Class theme/topics discussed:
- Your Hometown
Goal of the class:
- Introduce hometown using Google Map
How did you structure the class?
- Sara introduces language table, language partners, and tutors (5min)
- About Labor Day (3 min)
- Good news (5 min) *We share positive stories at the beginning of each class.
- Introduce the topic: Hometown (5 min)
- Where is it? What’s there?
- Anything special about the town
- What did you do? What do you remember?
- Breakout rooms: 3-4 people (30 min)
- Share stories each other using Google Map
- Back to main room. Share briefly each other’s stories (12 min)
What technology, media or props did you use? (internet resources, playmobiles, handouts, etc.) Class agreement, breakup rooms
Zoom, Beakout room, google maps, share screens.
What worked well in this class? What did not work?
- Hometown stories developed to family stories and high school stories.
- Students enjoyed showing their homes, hometowns and the places they know using google maps and episodes related to such places
- Internet became a little slow when zoom and google maps were used at the same time. But students were handling it with no problems
- This time each student spoke for a long time when they were sharing stories. Rather than exchanges of a couple of short sentences, this time it was more like a speech.
- I didn’t get to hear everyone’s stories as I was moving around among breakout rooms, but apparently, they were sharing some funny stories when I wasn’t there and laughing.
- It was good to see that one student talks about another student’s story when I ask what’s been happening. It means they were engaging conversations and finding something interesting in stories.
- One dog joined at the beginning. That was cute.
- Students liked this, and one of them used this activity for another class/session.
How could this class be improved/ modified?
- Today’s class was more like each one’s story sharing with a few questions from others (as far as I saw). Next class probably I will try to do a more interview-oriented topic.
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