Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Cram School ★ October 19, 2005

Teaching Practice at cram shool

To readers
I was teaching English at cram school to prepare my teaching practice in junior high scnool. I thought there are mamy differeces between cram shool and junior high school. So I want to introduce how to teach English at cram school.


① Greeting
② Home room (10 minutes)
Taka attendance.
We have to give students useful imformation about the entrance examination.
We have to make a good atmosphere to make students study hard.
We check students' homework. If students forgot doing homework or bringing their
notebook, students have to show the teacher the notebook next time.
③ Test 1 (20 minutes)
We do test to check whether they could understand the grammar which they learned last week or not every week. (5~10 questions, from homework and workbook) Teacher asks each students how many questions you could solve. (80%~:pass)
④ Explain new material (20 minutes)
Writing the points of new material, we explain the grammar.(Students have to take notes quickly. Students speak nothing.)
⑤ Laboratory (40 minutes)
Every student have workbook, and students have to solve the question inside stated time. We check how students did in the labotatory.
⑥ Test 2 (30 minutes)
We do test to check whether they could master the new grammar or not. (15~20 questions, from workbook, 80%~:pass)
⑦ Greeting


The differences between junior high school's English class and cram school's.
① Don't use English in the classroom. (Explain in Japanese)
② Deductive instruction > Inductive instruction
③ Presentation⇒Practice⇒(×Production)
④ Writing!! (×Speaking, Reading, Listening)
⑤ Goal: To take good score. (×To communicate with foreigners in English)
⑥ Only teachers are speaking.
⑦ Make a point of grammars.
⑧ Don't do any activities.

There were many differences between junior high school's English class and cram school's. Today, many students go to cram school after school or weekend, and they are studying like this. I have never gone to cram shool, so I can not understand the feelings of students. But many students say that we will not be able to pass the entrance examination if we come to cram school and study grammars. The idea of students confused me. Gami (V)o¥o(V)

3 comments:

Guy Jean said...

Hi, Gami! I came to visit. You are THE first Japanese teacher of English I have found who has a blog in English! Good for you! I admire your courage. I sometimes think I should start a blog in Japanese for my own language improvement, but I'm too lazy...I have a son in SHS and another in JHS, so I'm very interested in your blog.

JH said...

Gami, This is a very interesting post. I think that cram school can have a negative influence on the English classroom in junior and senior high schools. It turns the children into very passive learners and they become more reluctant to participate in the jr. and sr. high school English classroom.

AJ Hoge said...

Interesting

Gami, very interesting. Ive had a little experience teaching in a cram school and I can understand your students seeming frustration. Its a strange system, huh?

In general, Im happy to see your blog... its very interesting to get the opinions and insights of a Japanese English teacher.

So much of EFL is dominated by the opinions of native speakers... so I encourage you to keep writing and keep educating us.

Thanks.