Japanese Lesson 9

[Victorino Eagle]

In Japanese classrooms, however, teachers took a different approach. After learning how to find the area of a rectangle, students would be given a parallelogram. Their task was to take what they knew about rectangles to try to figure out the area of this new shape.

Hiebert says to improve education in the United States, we need to shift from thinking about how to improve teachers to thinking about how to improve teaching. Lesson study is one way to do that, he says.

The lesson takes place on a Friday afternoon. Third-graders have gotten special permission from their parents to stay after school. They get a quick snack of pizza and then file back into their classroom, where a crowd applauds for them as they enter and sit down at their desks.

But lesson study can be challenging in American schools. There are practical challenges, like finding time for teachers to plan together and watch each other teach. Japanese teachers have this kind of time built into their work schedule.

In their new book Teaching Better, Brad and Genevieve Ermeling describe their first-hand experience with Japanese lesson study and the important lessons they learned from collaborating with colleagues. Today, they share some of their key learnings.

It turns out Japanese educators have a specific pedagogical term for describing this mode of instruction called kikan shidō (between desks instruction), carefully distinguished from a separate Japanese term, kikan junshi (between desks patrolling), which focuses merely on checking for right answers and behaviors.

The Japanese Model
We first learned of kikan shidō while participating in Japanese lesson study with a district-level research group in Saitama prefecture. Lesson study is a well-established form of teacher collaborative inquiry in Japan, which also gained popularity in the United States after publication of results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) video study. The central feature of lesson study is the observation and analysis of live classroom lessons collaboratively planned by a group of teachers.

During one lesson study project hosted at our school, the English department prepared a detailed lesson for a ninth grade oral communication course and asked one of us to teach the lesson for the scheduled observation. The goal was to foster student development of more advanced communication skills to generate and sustain English dialogue. The lesson included teacher modeling and several extended pair exercises that challenged students to produce and practice authentic English discourse with classmates.

During the post-lesson reflection, one observer suggested a more systematic approach to the use of kikan shidō, pointing out that most of the between-desks instruction focused on a few pairs of students were struggling with the assigned exercise, while intermediate and advanced students received virtually no guidance or support. The observer suggested a shorter length of time with each pair focused on brief episodes of concise feedback.

Based on our specific lesson goals, he emphasized the value of using this lesson segment to gain a more complete perspective on the progress of all students, including any emerging patterns that might warrant whole-class attention. These observations prompted further analysis and revision of the lesson as the team discussed ways to more intentionally distribute and differentiate support for all students during kikan shidō without neglecting the lower-performing subgroup.

In our ongoing work to support schools, we have also found teachers need sustained, collaborative learning opportunities and new professional development resources to practice and refine this mode of instruction and facilitate deeper learning. Below are some example questions teachers find useful in preparing and reflecting on kikan shidō:

Using lesson study or collaborative inquiry to plan and reflect on lessons that incorporate these questions is one way to develop effective kikan-shidō practices. Carrying a copy of the lesson plan on a tablet or mobile device during kikan-shidō is also useful; teachers can review the plan on the fly during instruction and take notes as they observe students, perhaps even capturing audio and visual examples of student work.

Reflection
Teacher teams can then discuss these observations in post-lesson reflection meetings. As we describe in our book, they can discuss kikan shidō choices in the lesson, such as the the type of guidance teachers provided during specific moments of student interaction, or which groups they selected to present at the end of the lesson and how kikan shidō observations informed those choices. Did these examples help facilitate a rich discussion on the range of problem approaches? Given the options available from the various approaches observed in observations, what were some other possibilities, and how might they have added or detracted from the culminating discussion?

However, this journey is going to take a lot of effort and hard work on your part. Anyone who tells you learning a language is going to be easy is either misinformed or trying to sell you something. And eventually, after the honeymoon phase of learning wears off, progress feels slower. You burn out. Sh*t hits the fan. If you've ever tried learning something new, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

This method for learning Japanese starts at the very beginning. I assume you have zero knowledge of the Japanese language and guide you through each step. I'll cover reading, writing, speaking, and listening. And we explain what you should use, when, and why.

Just keep in mind that because of this, some steps may seem counterintuitive. They may even seem slow compared to other methods, but everything has been carefully selected to get you to the finish line faster and more efficiently. We'll talk more about that later.

A bit of housekeeping first: This is a living document, meaning it will be updated from time to time. Check back, subscribe to our email list, or follow us on Twitter to know when these updates happen. And, if you already have experience with Japanese, I still recommend you give it a read. There's a good chance you'll find something important to help you on your own Japanese language journey.

Welcome to learning Japanese! This section is for the true beginner. You know little-to-no Japanese. Maybe a "konnichiwa" here and a "baka" there. These first steps you take are especially important because they're going to set a foundation you can build off of.

Carefully completing this section is going to be necessary if you want to avoid the thing that takes down most learners: the intermediate wall. Instead, take your time on these foundational steps. What feels slow now is actually speed later on.

Hiragana is Japan's version of the alphabet. It is one of three Japanese writing systems you need to learn to be able to read. The other two are katakana and kanji, but hiragana is where everything starts.

The ability to read hiragana is going to be a prerequisite for most beginner Japanese textbooks and resources. It's the first thing you learn in a traditional classroom. Surprisingly, I agree with everyone else. This is a good place to start.

Most Japanese classrooms spend an entire month learning how to read and write hiragana. That's too long! Instead of writing out each hiragana character over and over to memorize them, use the guide below and you may be reading hiragana later tonight. It uses mnemonics and worksheets that are designed to help you learn and be able to recall hiragana faster than you thought possible.

It's important to note that this guide is going to teach you how to read hiragana and not how to write it. This has a purpose! While it is important to learn how to hand write Japanese eventually, right now it will slow you down immensely with very little payoff. Typing covers 99% of modern day writing so you will learn how to type hiragana (and katakana and kanji) instead.

In order to complete this section and move on, you need to get to the point where you can read all of the hiragana. Even if you're slow, as long as you can recall each character, as well as the contractions, without cheating, that's enough. You're about to get plenty of practice and your reading speed will naturally increase over time as you move on.

Good pronunciation starts with hiragana. While hiragana alone won't teach you everything, it is the key to understanding how and why Japanese words sound the way they do. It will also help you get the foundation you need for a native-sounding accent. At the very least, hiragana will get you 80% of the way there.

For the remaining 20%, we wrote a guide covering the basics of Japanese pronunciation. Before you begin learning how to read hiragana, you should read up to the "Japanese Sounds and Your Mouth" section.

Once you've finished learning how to read hiragana, go though that section again, but this time read about "Important Differences" as well. This section will cover all of the sounds that don't exist in English, giving you a head start. Make sure you can pronounce all of the hiragana characters correctly before moving on.

With pronunciation, it's best to put the time and work in now, at the beginning. Don't ignore it because it's hard. When things get more difficult, it's very important that you've spent time speaking and hearing these sounds so that you can learn about all the differences and exceptions headed your way.

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