If you are extending the Chindogu (new product) activity, these handouts might help. One is a general reading passage about the Chindogu phenomonon. The second handout incorporates the pictures that are already available but provides a set pallette for creating a product name and description of 5 of the pictures.

Chindogu Reading Passage (adapted from Wikipedia)

Chindogu Reading Task Sheet

These are a couple of forms I use to assess the Level 3 Multimedia presentation. The first one is a simple grading rubric with categories for both the group and individual grades. The second is for feedback from the audience. Each student needs one sheet. After the presentations are finished, they can gather in their groups and go over the audience reaction. The Feedback form might be useful for other presentations besides the level 3 MM presentation.

Lv3 MM Presentation Assessment Rubric

Presentation Audience feedback form

This is a simple task sheet for launching and brainstorming ideas for the January Multimedia Presentation task. I have launched it early to give students something to do while we are doing the speaking test. This task gets students to brainstorm ideas, and assigns further information gathering for homework.

Multimedia Presentation - Tourist regions in Japan

This is a reading and discussion activity to prepare students to discuss Topic 3 in the Level 3 speaking test. It includes an adapted news story about the future financial burden faced by current univeristy students as a result of the increasing number of retired workers. Following the reading, students write answers to comprehension and reaction questions and discuss their answers in a group.

Special Report: Japan’s Aging Population

This activity will help students prepare for Topic 2 of the group discussion test: Advice to high school students. It complements Unit 8A Values, and can be done as an extension of Page 68 A, or as a review and rehearsal activity in the week leading up to the GDT. It fits nicely with the composition on page 69. If the writing teacher is not using that page, it can be a good warm up to have them read it.

Advice to High School Students

This activity complements Unit 7B, and is meant to help students prepare for the discussion test. There are four current news stories copied from Japan Today. Students get in groups of 4, read the headlines only, choose one member to read each story. After reading time, they take turns relating and then discussing each story.

News Stories and Task Sheet

Attached is a 10 item listening quiz suitable for Passages Unit 7B. The audio file consists of 5 monologues simulating a radio news broadcast. Each monologue is followed by two spoken questions, and is then repeated. Total time is 13 minutes. Themes and vocabulary from the second half of Unit 7 are recycled. You can use the attached mp3 file to preview the quiz, or to burn a CD from your own PC. I have also burnt 4 CDs and placed them on the level 3 shelf, and put paper copies of the problem sheet in the Level binder.

There are separate problem and answer sheets. Please collect all problem sheets and return only answer sheets to students, so that we can use the quiz again next year.

Passages Unit 7 Listening Quiz (Problem and Answer Sheet)

(Sorry, audio file would not upload. Look for the CD on the shelf. I’ll try to upload it later)

I liked Kay’s Understanding Newspaper headlines, and added a “sentence to headlines” translation task to it. I used it to extend Passages p. 62. Students seemed to enjoy.

Understanding Headlines (JS)

This is a simple task sheet to support “Unexpected Experiences,” Passages page 60. The sheet provides structured planning, additional vocabulary, and a record of the task. Because the “Personal Story” will be one of the topic choices for the group discussion test in December, having students create a written record of this activity might be very useful for review and pre GDT practice.

Personal Story - Planning sheet

This is a simple notetaking task sheet to be used with the Level 3 Discussion - Education video. This video is currently (May, 2005) available as a DVD on the Level 3 shelf, as well as from the ELP Web at:

http://elpweb.com/resources/slevel3listspeaking.php?id=discedu

The web version might be preferable for students with weaker listening skills because they can easily rewind and listen again for small points. If done in the FLSC, students can be sent there with this worksheet, and then come back to class to compare notes.

I am using this activity mainly to introduce how the Group Discussion test will work, and to clarify that there are many possible discussion points, such as things to change at Obirin, ways of learning, extracurricular activities, purpose of education, personal educational goals and dreams, etc. which could fit under the “Education” theme.

Education Discussion Tasksheet - to be used in conjuction with the Education discussion video.

I’ve attached two feedback forms for Level 3 Speaking Task 1 (My Family speech). One is peer feedback, to give students something to do while they are listening. Each student fills one in for each speech, we collect them and give them to the speakers at the end. The other is a combined grading and feedback rubric which I’ll use to grade speeches as I’m listening.

Enjoy
Jim

Family Speech Teacher Feedback

Family Speech Peer Feedback

This is a very simple note-taking task sheet which students can use while listening to “Jim’s Family,” the speech exemplar on the Level 3 DVD. In addition to listening practice, the two Family speeches on the DVD can give students a clear idea of how to structure their own speech, type of vocabulary which is expected, plus models of a memorized speech and a speaker using notecards.

Jim’s Family - Task Sheet

See the Level 3 Teacher’s Notes for the rationale behind True or False Dictation. For convenience, I will add new files to this post as I make them. Though I have labeled them as Quiz and Practice, any could be used as a graded quiz or as a form focused listening activity.

Dictation Practice 1 - This one is based on the personality vocabulary and grammar structures from pages 2 and 3 of Passages. I used it to introduce the concept. Took about 15 minutes to grade 20 responses.

Dictation Practice 2 - Families - taken from the grammar focus on page 7 of Passages.

Dicatation Practice 3 - Education 1, from Grammar Focus on page 11

Dictation Practice 4 - Education II, from page 15 of passages.

Dictation Practice 5 - Cities I, from page 19 of Passages

Dictation Quiz 1 - This first Dictation Quiz draws material from the first two Dication Practices.

Dicatation Quiz 2 The second quiz drawas from the Education theme, Dication Practice 3 and 4

This is a re-written and simplified version of the Structure of an Essay reading passage used for the 2004 and 2005 EAP course. I’ve simplified the language, but also made it a bit more prescriptive, focusing exclusively on how to write in the five-paragraph essay format. I’ve included a separate worksheet to supplement the reading, and a quiz to be given a week later. I plan to make a Moodle-based practice quiz to supplement it.

The Structure of an Essay - Reading

Structure of Essay Activity Worksheet (JS).doc

Structure of an Essay - Quiz

Another person's summer

A welcome back from summer vacation activity. Students interview and then write a narrative paragraph about another person’s summer. Includes a list of descriptive adjectives for describing a summer. Includes a subjunctive phrase “She wished she had . . but couldn’t because . . . A good review of paragraph structure for PI or E level.

A short description of the novel Holes and biographical info about the author. This gives students instructions to buy the book. Usually given out last class of spring semester. Can be used again to launch the novel.