Title:

Learning through international collaboration

Grade Level:

7,8,9,10,11,12

Subject:

Foreign Languages,Japanese

Author:

mcdanielk

Time:

varies depending on your choice, throughout the year

Teacher Innovation Grant Recipient:

This teacher is a recipient of Teacher Innovation Grant.

Lesson Plan Type:

Experiential Learning

Keywords:

Foreign Language, e-mail exchanges, technology, real-life communication, purposeful learning, differentiation

Brief Description:

This is a year-long project, rather than a lesson plan. 
Throughout the year, students communicate with high school students in Japan who are studying English, mainly through the exchanges of e-mails. In order to assure security and consistency of the e-mail exchanges, e-pals (www.epals.com), a web-based secure e-mail exchange system, is used.  In addition to e-mail exchange, we exchange video and give each other feedback, exchange greeting cards, and interact on a classroom website. 

California State Standards Addressed:

Goal(s):

The main goal for this project is for the students to improve their real-life communication skills through the direct interaction with Japanese students in their target language.

Improving Japanese typing skills and promoting life-long skills for using technology are other goals that can be achieved through this project.

Specific Objectives:

Students will be able to communicate in Japanese through writing.  They will also be able to type Japanese faster and more accurately.

Required Materials:

Computers with internet connection.  Other materials such as cards, envelops, stamps, etc., as needed.

Anticipatory Set (Lead-in):

As an introduction to this year-long journey, each student came up with a sentence to describe our class in the target language and create a short video.  The video was sent to our partners in Japan.

Lesson Plan Procedure:

Throughout the year, students will communicate with high school students in Japan who are studying English, mainly through the exchanges of e-mails. In order to assure security and consistency of the e-mail exchanges, I use e-pals (www.epals.com), a web-based secure e-mail exchange system.

E-pals is a great place which provides a place to meet other teachers from all over the world who are looking for others who want to collaborate with other teachers internationally.

The e-mail system of e-pals is set up so that the teachers can monitor the students' activity closely: you can check the content of students’ e-mails in order to make sure they are appropriate; you can have a setting where students mails will be only sent to the other party after teacher’s approval. This not only allows the teacher to control the consistency of e-mail exchanges, but also allows the teacher to delete any spam e-mails before they reach the students. Reviewing the e-mails gives me feedback about each student's writing skill, which allows me to give individualized instruction on how to improve his or her writing.

In this project, e-mail exchange takes place on approximately bi-monthly basis. In addition to topics that come up in the previous e-mails or those of their interests, at least one topic which students are required to address in their e-mails based on the current lesson.

Students will take turn writing Japanese e-mails and English e-mails so that they both benefit from this e-mail exchange. My students write Japanese e-mails in the computer lab where I can give necessary scaffolding while they write English e-mails at home in order to maximize the instruction time, though topics of the English e-mails will be discussed in the class, which often provides me with great teaching opportunities about Japanese culture.

Each time when e-mails are written, teachers on both sides check the content of e-mails prior to reaching to their. If I find some significant mistakes in my student's e-mail, which can either offensive or confusing, I go over the content with the student to help him improve his writing.

In addition to e-mail exchange, which focuses on reading and writing skills, three video projects are involved in this project to help improve their oral communication skills. First video is "introducing our class," a short video in which each student describes our class in a short sentence. Video is mailed to Japan, where it is viewed by our Japanese pals, who send comments in Japanese. Second video is about school life, in which students introduce life of high school students in the U.S.  The best video, chosen by studnents, will be sent to Japan for viewing and commenting.

The last video will be created for the purpose for thanking the Japanese students for all the e-mails and for saying good-by to them. Because the Japanese school year begins in April and ends in March, we will no longer be able to exchange e-mails with these particular set of students. Students will describe what they learned from the projects or how they feel about the project in Japanese.



A Sample Calender of the Activity

• Summer 2008 Created e-pals teacher’s accounts. Communicated with the Japanese teacher throughout the summer in order to plan details for implementing this project in our curriculum.

• August 2008 Created e-pals account for students in the U.S. and in Japan.

• September 2008 Created a short video introducing our class to students in Japan. The video was mailed and viewed by Japanese students. They have written comments in Japanese.

• September 2008 First e-mails were exchanged.  E-mail exchanges continue on bi-monthly basis.

• November 2008 “School life in the U.S.” video project. Working in groups, students will create a short (3-5 minutes) video introducing their school life to Japanese students. Each group will decide what they want to focus, and write their own scripts in Japanese. Their project will be viewed by their peer and each student vote for the best video, which will be mailed to our Japanese pals for viewing and learning about the high school students in the U.S.

• December 2008-January 2009 Students will exchange the greeting cards, according to their tradition.

• March 2009 Creating a video thanking the Japanese pals. Japanese school year ends in mid-March, so the project with these particular set of students will need to come to end. My students will create a video, thanking and saying good-by to the Japanese pals.

Closure (Reflect Anticipatory Set):

The last video will be created for the purpose for thanking the Japanese students for all the e-mails and for saying good-by to them. Because the Japanese school year begins in April and ends in March, we will no longer be able to exchange e-mails with these particular set of students. Students will describe what they learned from the projects or how they feel about the project in Japanese.

Plan for Independent Practice:

E-mail exchange will first start in the computer lab, but as the students become used to it, the e-mails in their native languages can be assigned as a homework. 

Assessment Based on Objectives:

In-class writing test on computers using one of the topics given as topics for writing e-mails.  Students can submit their work to teachers through  Schoolloop. 

Possible Connections to Other Subjects:

Computer technology.
It can have connections to many other subjects depending on the topic you choose to be discussed in their e-mails.

Adaptations and Extensions:

You can create a class web-site using PBWiki (pbwiki.com) and have studnets intereact by asking others to add comments.

Additional Notes:

Additng video-tape production to this project help students to improve their listening and speaking skills in addition to reading and writing skills.
Although this project is time-consuming for teachers, it has a very strong positive effect on the way students learn.