I’m really proud of this project with my 1st year students at Hyogo Koko. Students worked in groups of 4 or 5 to make small zines about Kobe, travel, seaweed, and other strange topics of their choice. The project took 4 class periods, once a week, for 50 minutes each. It took a lot of my time outside of class, though! I worked hard planning the lessons and I had to check a lot of their work. Each student wrote 1 long essay, 1 “top-10” list, and 1 page of art of any kind. Some of the students worked hard on it, and some didn’t. That’s okay with me. It’s about intrinsic motivation! Here are two great essays from Karoshi:
I wish I had a couple more weeks to do this project. I was really, really rushed, but at least that made the lessons focused, and the students didn’t have a hard time keeping the pace. I wouldn’t do this project with teachers I didn’t have great chemistry with, because it takes flexibility and enthusiasm on everyone’s part. Also it requires the approval of the kyoto-sensei because I made a lot of photocopies in the staffroom!! The project is really rewarding, though. I don’t know if my idea was ideal, but I’m always thinking about how English education in Japan generally lacks creative elements, so I tried something new. I think all of the students enjoyed this course and were really proud of the finished product.
By the way, I made one zine each week to explain the day’s activities, and they’re officially Weird Schmeird canon.
