Mouth mouth mouth and nose, head
This is currently my youngest English student, and seems to be getting the hang of things.
ハロウイン Halloween
In a children’s bookstore, I found new print of Kaijutachino irutokoro, Where the Wild Things Are, with two advertisements on the cover: one that Obama read this book to a group of children on Easter, and two that the film adaptation would be in theaters in Japan January 2010. The teachers and I agreed it would be worthwhile to have a Wild Things themed Halloween party this year, so we spent a couple weeks making costumes and having the children make masks from scrap paper.
We started the party out of costume, did a few songs together, then one teacher read the Japanese version of Wild Things while I and the other teachers changed. The children then trick-or-treated at each classroom, then in the teacher room where we had set up a “haunted house”. In Japan, there are traditional holidays that involve a considerable amount of scaring, so the teachers really encouraged the idea of scaring children at Halloween. Some children laughed, some cried, but everyone managed enough courage to get a piece of candy.
Now this could easily be viewed as inappropriate and seditious, as I first did, but I later realized that the teachers saw it as a fun activity, a way to give children a reasonable challenge to overcome. They respect the kids enough to feel comfortable scaring them. After two Halloweens now, I think I agree with the teachers. There’s nothing wrong with a good scaring if it’s done in fun. Although, anytime I explain this to someone, I embrace for backlash that it’s damaging and traumatic for children. People said the same thing about Where the Wild Things Are, though, to which Maurice Sendak replied, “let’em wet their pants.”
Here’s a video from our Haunted House. Enjoy and let me know what you think.
虫ーBugs
Almost daily this summer, a child approaches me with two hands clasped over each other, concealing some insect that they’ve found on the playground. The first thing I saw children doing on my first day of teaching was actually catching cicadas with butterfly nets. This year, when the semi (cicadas) congregated in the cherry blossoms, I watched the children catch dozens, keep them in plastic terrariums for a day, then release them the next day and watch them fly back into the trees.
In August, I found children huddled around a cardboard box just outside the 5-year classroom door. Apparently, a man who works at a nearby recycle shop stumbled on a colony of kabutomushi (rhinoceros beetles), and delivered about two dozen of them in a box as a gift to the nursery school. For the next month, children kept them in small terrariums, tending to them by spraying water on the soil daily, and keeping them stocked with beetle food, actual packets of food you can buy in general stores (they look like packages of jelly candy) and cabbage. The 5-year teacher planned time to share books about beetles and other insects, and helped students make posters about them and the cicadas. The language from these projects found its way into the children’s daily conversation and journals (how I learned the word ‘kabutomushi’ was from asking children what animals they liked that week).
Of other insects, I’ve seen kids with praying mantises and walking sticks bigger than their hands, butterflies, roly polies, dragonflies, and lightning bugs. The size of most of these insects (roly polies excluded) make them incredibly fascinating creatures for children to observe and interact with. It’s something I can’t quite find an equal comparison to from my own childhood.
Japan is also home to many dangerous insects, such as centipedes, spiders, and hornets, all of which in their giant forms are highly venomous, requiring immediate attention if a child is bitten or stung. Teachers have told me that about once a year, they, or the children, will find a mukade, giant centipede, on the playground. Just this week I saw all the 4 year students outside their classroom because a hornet had flown in through a window. The principal, armed with a spray can and a dustpan, managed to shoo him back out.
But the risk of finding a mukade doesn’t stop teachers from allowing children to collect insects, and the possibility of a hornet flying into the classroom doesn’t stop them from opening the windows. The fear for the worse doesn’t keep them from enjoying the best. It would be a worse crime to keep children from enjoying the outdoors, even if in the name of protecting them from it. Thinking about this and the ways in which people attempt to protect children reminded me of an Eisenhower quote I had to look up to remember, ”we must not destroy from within what we are trying to defend from without”. Whether the threat from without is an insect, or television, or a speech, this seems like reasonable advice for anyone responsible for raising children.
Catch-up
There’s a rice field just outside of my apartment, and when I last posted the plants just barely peaked out of the pool of water, so little that you could still see the clouds and surrounding buildings reflected in the fields. The rice is knee-high now, which means the summer has passed without writing about it. My apologies to those still reading, all five of you. To get caught up, here’s a clusterblog to explain my hiatus.
I did a fair share of traveling in May in June,
first to Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing for Golden Week (the Japanese Spring Break). This was a whirlwind tour of China, not for the weak-minded, requiring minimal sleep, counting in two new languages, and using every available form of transportation at our discretion (bikes in Shanghai, a mountain ascending tram in Hong Kong, an overnight train to Beijing, and a sled down the Great Wall). It wasn’t made any easier with the beginning of the swine flu media scare right as we left.
This was the last big trip for Tara and I, my fellow English teacher and all-time best traveling companion. It took us both two weeks to recover from the lack of sleep and some ill-fortuned gyouza (and we laughed when pork was being recalled after the swine flu panic).
Meanwhile in the schools, teachers were hosting Dr. Constance Kamii from UAB for a month of professional development. Each school studied children playing the games Guess Who, Blink, and Mancala to look at the development of logical reasoning in children. There were also several outdoor activities while the weather was still nice.At one school, we took a bus to the Fukuyama zoo. At another, we spent the day at the park and had a picnic. In May, we planted rice in mud fields, and lots of flowers to keep around the school.
Then in June, I came back to America to visit friends, family, and a couple conferences in Long Island, Princeton, Birmingham, Atlanta, and Columbia. Highlights include a day trip to Philadelphia (pictured), going to the zoo with my niece and sister, 4th of July barbecue with the family, disco party in Birmingham with friends, and getting to share our eye-movement study with other researchers.
At the WLU conference, 5 former and current English teachers and 5 Japanese principals reunited for the week, including a presentation of our eye movement research with nursery school students. We also relived our infamous night of salsa dancing in Brisbane last year (where we first discovered that our Japanese colleagues, serious principals by day, turned into “dancing machines” at the sound of a conga) in the one salsa club in Columbia, South Carolina. There’s something in the rhythm, I guess, that allows for a year’s worth of repressed emotion to erupt on a dance floor, so much that the owner of the club pointed out one of our most spirited principals and said, “Now this one here knows how to have fun!”
And back in Japan, I’ve returned to the things I remember from when I first came: children catching cicadas, fireworks festivals, and practicing the stilts for this year’s sports festival. This time around, though, I can understand more of what the children are saying to me and others, filling some large gaps of understanding I had the last year. I hope that this year will be spent getting to know the children and teachers better, studying more Japanese and seeing more of the country, and getting more of it written down. Here’s to the new school year!
Sakura
In this part of Japan, the sakura (cherry blossoms) have gone from pink to green this week, losing their flowers to wind and rain and growing new leaves. Most cities have cherry blossoms planted everywhere- in parks, medians, train stations- so when they are in bloom even the view during your daily commute is transformed.
Hikari nursery school has the largest sakura in the area on their playground, so last week they held a hanami, picnic under the flowers, just for the grandparents of the children.
Midori nursery school held a hanami at night for the teachers. Spotlights were placed under the tree; sometimes a hanami is more a party than picnic that can go into the night. We ate obento’s together, which are carefully arranged dinner boxes of traditional Japanese foods. I contributed Girl Scout cookies to the dessert, thanks to my parents who carried a supply to me last month.
On the weekend, I ventured out to a nearby temple famous for its sakura. Hundreds of people shared the same idea, and hiked up a mountain to Senkoji temple to picnic and drink under the trees. I wandered around, bought some local oranges and honey, and took lots of pictures.
Even without a planned event, it felt like everyone took any excuse to be outside, be it a walk around town, drinking sake under a tree, or even just taking a longer recess at school, all of which in their own way shared a reverence for the new season.
In the classroom, I started a couple new lessons, one with some of my recent graduates from Midori. It started as four girls sent to me full of pent-up energy after sitting at school all day, but now has increased to five. The other is with two brothers who graduated a few years ago from Hikari. One of them is apparently the top Karate student in the Hiroshima prefecture for his age. I’m not sure which lesson makes me more nervous (just kidding; it’s the girls).
At Futaba nursery school, we’re preparing for an upcoming open school. As of yesterday, we’re considering performing 5 Little Monkies for the parents.
More soon!
Spring
Long time no blog. Spring has come and with it new projects, vacation, baseball season, the new school year, and the blooming of the sakura, or cherry blossoms. Every year when this happens, people gather wherever there are trees and eat and drink. I would be doing this today if it wasn’t raining, so instead I’ll try to catch up on what’s been happening.
In Japan, the school year begins in April, with little break between it and the end of last year. So during March, I wrapped up English lessons with my 5 year olds. At each school, we planned cooking activities, preparing sandwiches, soup, and pizzas using recipes the children wrote.
During this time, we also collected eye movement research on about 20 children reading a picture book in Japanese. There were a lot of exciting moments documented during children’s reading, the analysis of which is my priority for April.
And just after collecting the data for our eye movement study, I took a week off while my parents came to visit me for one of the best vacations I’ve ever had. We managed to visit two of my schools and meet all my coworkers, watch a sumo tournament in Osaka, go to a Spring festival in Kyoto, spot the Hiroshima Carps baseball team, be included in a wedding photo, eat wild boar. 4 major cities, 2 islands, and just about every mode of transportation available, all in one week. Being able to connect my family with my life abroad is certainly the highlight of my time spent here.
And just after my parents left, and much sooner than I wanted, two of my schools held graduation ceremonies for the 5 year students. The largest part of my job here has been with these children, and I wasn’t ready to see them go.
Both ceremonies were very formal and emotional events, really unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed. Parents and teachers all wore dark suits. Children walked in one-by-one and sat in the front seats. The ceremony included a number of speeches where teachers, principals, and parents fought back tears to finish their message.
After the children were handed their diplomas, the 5 year class sang a song to the incoming 5 year class. This really hit everyone pretty hard, including the elementary principal who came to say a few words to his new students.
Last, the 5 year teacher spoke to her class, little of which I could understand but can only imagine was incredibly passionate and heartfelt, based on the increase in sniffles during her speech. During the year, the teachers and I talked a lot about pedagogy, and what kind of activities and methods are best for children’s learning development, etc. But really, anything that can produce that much love and care for the school, the teachers, and the children must be doing something right in my opinion.
I remember at the ceremony thinking about an article I had read recently about the U.S. Dept. of Ed. considering merit pay for teachers. Below is part of an editorial on the subject.
Public-school teachers should have their pay tied to performance, Hobbs [Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens] told Seattle Weekly.
Because merit pay has worked so well in the corporate world.
The times are schizophrenic, aren’t they? Just as we go ballistic over bonus pay in the financial world — even blaming it for causing the meltdown — President Obama and many lawmakers locally are pushing the same premise in the educational world.
There are a zillion versions of merit pay. But the basic idea is to link a person’s pay with some measure of whether they’re good at their job.
For Wall Street bankers, the gauge was profits or stock prices. For classroom teachers, it’s usually student test scores. Those who get higher profits or test scores earn more cash. Those who don’t are left behind, and eventually weeded out.
Simple, efficient, Darwinian.
Except on Wall Street it was a disaster.
Setting aside the practical questions raised by how you measure performance, I thought about what it would be like, after Mika the 5-year teacher spoke at the ceremony, to tell her that she would get paid more if next year her students did better. How insulting that idea is to teachers like her that put their heart out and work hard because they love children. What an insult.
Sorry for that tangent. Anyway, the best part of the ceremony for me was learning that 4 of the graduates were going to begin a private lesson with me in the afternoons, which I’m very much looking forward to.
If the sun comes out, I’ll be sure to get pictures of the cherry blossoms posted, hopefully sooner than later.
Baby photos of EMMA
Last October, I mentioned traveling back to the states to pick up and receive training on a piece of research equipment that my boss wanted to use for a new study on Japanese beginning readers. After staying briefly in Boston and Birmingham, holding up each security checkpoint at every airport, I made it back to Japan with two computers, mini monitors, a bunch of cables, and an ASL Eye Tracker D6, a high-speed camera and control unit that can detect and record the eye movements of a reader.
This equipment is the newest advancement in observing what your eyes do when you read, a subject that has actually been researched for over 100 years. The original researchers, of which I’m reading a book about now, used a thin plaster of Paris cup with a tiny hole drilled in the center, coated with a little cocaine and placed on the surface of a reader’s eye, and an aluminum pointer connected to the cup that flicked marks onto “smoked paper” when the eye moved while reading (lying on their back, I presume; I wish I had a picture to share).
The ASL EyeTracker allows a reader to sit comfortably at a computer monitor, while a discreet camera below uses infrared light to detect the angle between the reader’s right pupil and the reflection of light hitting their cornea, which determines where the reader is looking on the screen. EMMA, or Eye Movement and Miscue Analysis, is a recently developed research method that uses this eye-tracking equipment and audio to analyze an oral reader’s eye movements and oral reading miscues compared to the original text.
From Ken Goodman’s website,
Miscue analysis, with over 40 years of history, provides a ‘window on the reading process’ and reveals the knowledge and strategies readers use as they comprehend written texts.
And eye-movement analysis opens another window, allowing researchers to observe, in part, what a reader is thinking while they read. Research in both of these areas has found that we may not be doing what we think we’re doing when we read. For example, we don’t look at every word, we don’t consistently look from left to right, and we occasionally substitute, omit, or insert words into the text that are not there. But all of this helps us in making better sense of the text.
The image above depicts the eye movements of a nursery school teacher, Megumi, reading a few pages from an English children’s book. Although this was done just for practice, (the first line is a bit messy, due to me temporarily losing focus of the eye, and asking the teacher to reread), it contains examples of findings from this line of research that have been so “eye opening” [rimshot].
First, a quick explanation of what you’re looking at. The blue dots are fixations, or points where the eye pauses and focuses. The red lines are saccades, or rapid movements the eyes make from one point to another. Since information is only received from the eyes when they are still, the blue dots and the remote area surrounding them are the only places in the text the reader saw. The size of the blue dot denotes the amount of time the reader paused.
Now Megumi read aloud every word correctly, but her eye movements show that she didn’t look at every word. For example, she didn’t look at “Here”, or “is” on the last line, perhaps because the text repeats these words in each line. She did, however, look at bath twice. Megumi told me after I showed her eye movements to her that the word “bath” seemed odd, since the preceding lines were “blue sheep” and “red sheep”.
So whereas many researchers have interpreted reading as “decoding” or “word recognition”, and commercial reading programs heavily promote strategies to decode or sound out words, the thought here is that reading must be about more than just seeing words on a page. The reason a reader can say and understand a word without looking at it is because they are using more than their eyes to read. It’s as if your brain has a joystick that moves the eyes only to places where it needs more information to interpret the text. Or, as Goodman puts it, the eyes are merely “in service” to the brain as it constructs meaning of a text. But this idea really comes at odds with how several very popular reading programs assume reading works.
Consider the DIBELS Nonsense Word Fluency test, used by millions of children in America after it was approved as scientifically based by the Dept. of Ed. and funded in almost every Reading First grant. Children are timed and measured on their ability to sound out nonsense words (raj, zur, wal, fiv) as an indicator of reading development. Do you really have to be able to sound out nonsense before you can make sense of print? I think the eye movement and miscue analysis research makes a strong case that readers reading real texts don’t have to be so concerned with each letter or word to read. In fact, Edmund Huey, who authored the 100 year old book on eye movement and reading research I’m reading, made the same point. Interestingly, my copy of his book, which has been out of print since the 60’s, came from a library and has the word “DISCARD” written across it. I guess it was.
Our hope with this study is to see what Japanese beginning readers do when they read, and see how it compares to findings of reading in English. I’ve been really excited to do this, even though preparing for this study has begun to consume a lot of my time outside the classroom.
Meanwhile, back in the classroom, the kids and I have been reading, writing, and talking about food. We started with two big books, Monster Sandwich and Yuck Soup (both by Joy Cowley) which introduced the words yum and yuck. We then made a chart of foods we liked and disliked. We also talked about healthy foods, and found that many of our “yuck” foods the children considered to be healthy, and while there were some pictures of chocolate and cake on our “yum” side, there was also a lot of fruit.
I also realized that the children regularly eat foods they consider “yuck” when it is served to them at lunch. This is a disposition I find to be vastly different than that of children I’ve eaten with in America (and me as a child). We’re planning on cooking something together in the next couple weeks so I hope to share more about the whole project soon.
The schools have also been busy preparing for their annual Hapiokai, or music festival. It’s a tradition in Japanese schools to hold a musical/theatrical/dance performance for parents every year. Just to give you an idea of the scale, we are talking keyboards, xylophones, kotos, drums, percussion, costumes, sets, and countless hours of rehearsal. As with the Sports Festival in October, the practicing has cut into my English lessons partly, but has also given me more time to prepare for our EMMA study, hopefully to be done in March. Below is a clip from a practice session. After this week, I’ll have videos from the festivals to share.
Until then,
Hapiokai Practice: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Practice with bells: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
This is a song about colors…
An old, old, children’s song by a guy named Hap (short for Happy?). I’m pretty tired of hearing it, myself, but some children have recently been requesting that we do it. In fact, I think I’m on my 4th listen that day when I started taking the video. So here you go, a blast from the past, make way for the parade of colors!
