English Demonstration Lesson
Mood:  celebratory
Thursday, Nov. 18th

Demonstration lesson

Wow, what a great day. One of my favorite teachers, Sasaki-sensei, had a very important demonstration lesson today. This morning we bussed 36 1st grade students down to Mukogawa University. These 36 very active students (teachers said, "Why are you bringing such loud kids for a demonstration?") were just fantastic. Sasaki speaks almost exclusively in English in class. He has had this 1st grade class since April and people couldn't believe how much English these kids could understand and speak.

There were junior high, high school and university teachers here at an all day conference. There were probably around 100 adults watching this class. Sasaki taught his class just like any everyday class that I've experienced with him. The kids stood up and he greeted them with "Good morning, everyone!" The kids enthusiastically responded with, "Good morning, Mr. Sasaki!" Then he asked the kids to turn around and address the audience. It was adorable to see these 36 kids turn around and in unison say, "Good morning, ladies and gentleman!" Then they all put their hands to their ears waiting for the "Good morning" response back from the audience. It was a great way to put the kids at ease and on an even footing with the crowd. The lesson was great with the kids being on task and involved every step of the way. Sasaki has them discuss and practice asking each other questions and answering each other. There is a lot of interaction and practice of verbal English. At the end he gave them only a couple of minutes to write their own skit from a template script that he handed to them for the first time that morning. In a matter of minutes these kids were up performing their skits to members of the audience. I thought it was awesome although, I must admit, i'm a bit biased.

Right after this demonstration i walked over to another room where a high school teacher was doing her demonstration. She was from a very elite international business high school. I almost fainted when i heard her say, "Yonju yon pagie." She was telling her students to turn to page 44 in Japanese! Good grief. I couldn't believe that in a high school class she was still speaking to them in Japanese instead of English. And this is for a demonstration in front of all those teachers. I was embarrassed for her and disappointed for the students that they were not experiencing an English class taught in English. How very sad. After the demonstrations there was a question and answer session with the two teachers as part of the panel. Sasaki was questioned about what kind of tricks he used to get his kids to understand English. I had a few teachers ask me in disbelief if he really taught all in English. It is such a foreign concept. These teachers are entrenched in their old ways of teaching English, and it is just incomprehensible that these kids can understand spoken English. I do hope that there are more teachers like Mr. Sasaki who continue to challenge these kids and help them attain the level of English communication that they will need to survive in this global environment. I hope that the high schools step up to the challenge because when Sasaki's students hit high school (he will teach them for another two years) they will be bored silly in that high school class that i just observed!

I am so fortunate to work with such a high caliber of teacher. By the way, i have taught and AM teaching with other wonderful teachers. I hope that the school districts will encourage other Japanese English teachers to improve their English and teaching skills so that they can begin to attain the kind of excitement and interaction that i experience everyday in his classroom.