Waking up in Japan

• How did you work as a group? What did you do well together? What could have been done better?

• Is information recorded in your own words and have sources been documented?

• Does your group know its topic? Are you ready to show your expertise?

• How could you present your topic to your audience? (Take a look at the next Present section.)

The following ideas address specific topics. You may be able to adapt them for your own topic.

• Produce a short play to demonstrate Kabuki or Noh theatre styles.

• Teach a JPop dance or a dance that your group creates in the JPop style.

• Compose or review a JPop song.

• Present one or more characters in an Anime series you create. Give an overview of the series and act out some parts.

• Hold a parade of Anime hairstyles, make-up or fashion.

• Draw a poster displaying Manga, or draw or write your own short Manga.

• Plan your presentation and check everyone understands and agrees with the plan before you start.

• Make sure you have enough time to finish the presentation, including all props.

• Write scripts for live presentations.

• Check that all the equipment you need is available.

• Allow time to review and edit your work.

• Brainstorm a list of the jobs that need to be done. Add to the list if you think of more tasks later.

• Everyone in your group should have one or more tasks to do.

• Consider the skills and strengths of each team member when assigning tasks.

• As a group, check that everyone is on track.

• Don’t be scared to ask for help. Discussing problems with team mates can help you find solutions.

• Do at least three complete run-throughs of everybody’s parts of the presentation so you feel comfortable and prepared for the whole show.

• Do a full rehearsal, including with equipment and props.

• Double-check that you know how to use all the digital and other equipment that is in your show.

• Even if you are reading part of your presentation off a script or screen, you still need to look up at your audience and make sure they can see and hear you.

• If you have a smile on your face while you are presenting, you will feel better about your show, and the audience will feel the same way.

This resource addresses the NSW Japanese K–10 Syllabus (2003). It could be adapted to other modern languages (by changing the content/topic areas and suggested resources) without affecting targeted outcomes.

Key learning outcomes relate to the objective, Moving Between Cultures: Students will develop knowledge of the culture of Japanese-speaking communities and an understanding of the interdependence of language and culture, thereby encouraging reflection on their own cultural heritage.

Stage 4:

• 4.MBC.1 demonstrates understanding of the interdependence of language and culture

• 4.MBC.2 demonstrates knowledge of key features of the culture of Japanese-speaking communities

Stage 5:

• 5.MBC.1 explores the interdependence of language and culture in a range of texts and contexts

• 5.MBC.2 identifies and explains aspects of the culture of Japanese-speaking communities in texts.

Teachers are encouraged to provide opportunities for students to engage with the objective, Using Language (UL.1, listening and responding, UL.2 reading and responding, UL.3 speaking, UL.4 writing) through topic vocabulary (Stage 4) and a Japanese-language interview (Stage 5) as relevant to the topic chosen by the group.

The topic menu includes suggested themes and topics from the Years 7–10 Scope and Sequence for Languages, such as home and neighbourhood, travel and transport, youth culture, food, music, sports and hobbies, and leisure time.

Waking up in Japan provides opportunities to address cross-curriculum content:

This project targets 21st century learning¹³ skills including the following.

The article What is co-operative learning: More than just working in groups¹⁴ identifies five key elements that differentiate cooperative learning from simply putting students into groups: positive interdependence, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, interpersonal and small group social skills, and group processing.

Ensure that students practise good digital citizenship by attributing information sources and use of third-party material. This includes providing correct attribution and copyright information for images.

Useful links

Digital Citizenship¹⁵ for schools

Creative Commons Australia¹⁶

Explain that the Japanese title, 目を覚ます (me wo samasu), is a 表現 (hyougen — Japanese expression) means ‘to open one’s eyes’ or ‘to become enlightened’.

Ask students to read the scenario and suggest how the Japanese title relates to their task.

Hold a quick class brainstorm about aspects of Japanese life that they could be expert in. Watch the video Waking up in Japan for stimulus and have students identity as many of the activities, topics or themes as they can.

Let students know:

• how long they will have to research and develop their presentations (allow at least 2–3 weeks)

• when the presentation is due, how long it should be and who their audience will be
  The resource asks students to hold a dress rehearsal in class and then present to parents and friends at a school event. Alternatively, the audience could be their classmates, or another class or school group

• how you want them to work through the resource.
  Classes that need more support could begin each stage together. If groups work at their own pace, review the next three sections and highlight important points before they start.

Decide how to group students. For example, do students choose their own groups, are groups randomly assigned (such as picking group numbers from a hat), or do you assign members to ensure a mix of ability and learning styles?

Give groups about 6 minutes to discuss the three questions on the screen (What do you think you will be doing in this project? What are two benefits of collaborating in a group on this project? How will you make sure you work as a team?). Groups could pool their ideas in a class discussion.

Highlight that this is a group task: team members will work together to research and to prepare and present the demonstration of their learning. You may like to share and discuss the following chart with students.

(Text version – Rules of engagement for online collaboration)

Students work through the four teamwork activities, beginning with setting up a shared work space. These steps are important to students establishing a collaborative and constructive working group. At the end, students should have a shared workspace that contains:

• discussion guidelines

• a roles and responsibilities document

• an evaluation document.

Ensure each group gives you access to their workspace so you can monitor progress and support students as needed.

Coordinate the research task of this project with the school librarian.

Hold a class discussion on information skills before students being their research. The research guide in the resource follows the steps in Information skills in the schools¹⁷. Discuss the issue of copyright (see the ‘Organise’ step). Remind them to keep a record of information sources and acknowledge third-party material used in final presentations.

Ensure students in Years 7–8 are aware that they should investigate key Japanese words related to their topic.

Ensure students in Years 9–10 are aware that they should conduct a Japanese Q&A interview related to their chosen topic.

• Brainstorm who to approach for the interview.
  This might include community members, sister schools, video conference partners, other students of Japanese in Australia. The person does not need to be a topic expert.

• Encourage students to provide questions in advance for face-to-face interviews.

There is a wide array of tools that students can use to prepare and present their demonstration of learning. You might ask students to use tools they already have access to or are familiar with. Limiting the choice of tools to 3–4 options may also assist students who need more direction.

Technology rubrics for any classroom¹⁸ is a resource that provides guidelines for assessing digital student work in a variety of modes and media. Use these alongside your regular content and syllabus focussed outcomes.

Stage 4 students might produce a simple video diary or blog-based record of their learning. They should to be able to explain and demonstrate the key elements of their topic.

Stage 5 students are expected to show more evidence of reflection and evaluation of their learning. They should deliver a more sophisticated explanation and demonstration of their chosen topic, including reflecting on how they discovered material and developed their presentation.

This resource might be adapted to produce assessment tasks for Stage 6 students in Preliminary and HSC courses.

Presentations could include one or more of the following components:

For Moving Between Cultures outcomes (mandatory task):

• a digital creation that records each group’s learning activity and investigation (for example, a video diary, how-to video, blog, Sway presentation)

• hands-on demonstration based around a tangible artefact or showing the group’s learning. This is especially appropriate for groups that choose a practical activity, sport or handicraft for their topic area.

For Using Language outcomes:

• Basic (Year 7–8) – a written or video/audio glossary of key Japanese vocabulary items that are associated with the group’s chosen topic. For example, if the topic is shinkansen, explain terms such as eki, kippu, mado-seki, shuppatsu-suru.

• Extension (Year 9–10) – evidence of interaction in Japanese with other learners and speakers of Japanese to find out more about their topic. The resource suggests this is a Q&A interview in Japanese, either in written or audio/video form.

Evaluating and reflecting on the learning content and the learning process is a critical part of 21st century education and is encouraged throughout this resource.

The Evaluate section addresses both audience evaluation and reflecting on one’s own learning. Introduce this section before student presentations so groups have time to make an audience feedback form or quiz if appropriate.

Audience feedback

Forms and quizzes should be short and simple to respond to. Some suggestions for the feedback form are provided. The whole class could use the same feedback form.

Have students complete a peer evaluation as part of the dress rehearsal (or final performance if the class is the intended audience). Download and adapt this peer evaluation – sample (.docx 121kB) or use one of your own.

Reflect on your own learning

Use the questions provided for student self-reflection or devise your own.

In Get organised, the resource suggests students keep a learning log during the project. Follow your regular reflection or journaling routines, or guide students to use online tools to capture their thoughts.

As the teacher you also may like reflect on how you might improve on the delivery of this project. What have you learned about embedding 21st century skills into a learning experience?