Understanding Time Zones (NH 1 4)
Sunday, September 19, 2021I only go to my junior high school three to four times a month, so the days I go there are times when the teachers ask me to have a fun activity for the students. Of course there are also teachers who just want me to be a CD player and practice students' pronunciation and reading.
A few weeks I ago, I was asked make a lesson for the first years (7th grade). This activity was for Talking about foreign countries and time zones.
In made this activity pretty last minute, but not by choice! I was scheduled to go to school on Tuesday, but the teacher in charge of scheduling didn't email me about what each individual teacher wanted me to do until Monday. It's a reoccurring issue. I know that he's busy so I try not to get mad, but sometimes it's really annoying. It's the worst when I bring something just in case, but it doesn't match the students' skills or the teacher doesn't like it.
This was made in a rush so it's not my best, but I think it's not bad. Because of Covid restrictions, I wasn't actually able to try it. I don't know why they couldn't have just told me on Monday because we've been in the state of emergency for a while now. It really doesn't make sense to ask me to make something and then the day of, tell me that because of the restrictions, they want to limit student speaking. So basically, the students were just doing their own work and I just helped out when they needed it.
It was such a waste of time...because like I said, I'm only there 3-4 times a month. I see each grade (7th-9th) once a month. So when I'm there I'd like to do something to interact with the students, but classes like this one doesn't really allow for that.
Anyway, in the original email from the coordinating teacher, the 1st year teacher wanted me to do a lesson with the grammars from unit 4 in the New Horizon 1 textbook. I chose to focus on pages 42 to 43.
© 文部科学省
© 文部科学省
The key grammar I based my activity on were:
1) What time is it?
2) What animals can we see in New Zealand?
I based my activity on the general idea of Cards Against Humanity. One person asks a question that the other members of the group answer, and the first person chooses the answer that they like. Then the person who gave that answer gets a point.
In my version for unit 4, the activity starts with introducing the involved countries:
I chose countries that have come up in their English textbooks over the years. I would give basic facts about the country. On the board, I would put up each country (plus a city, city's distance from Japan, and the time difference from Japan).
Step One: What time is it?
In groups, students play rock paper scissors and the winner goes first. The winner chooses one of the cities and asks the others: What time is it in (city)? The other students look at the board to see the time difference and calculate the time. The first person to answer correctly (It's __:__) gets 1PT.
Step Two: What _____ can we see in (city)?
Next, the winner asks a question about the city they chose. The textbook has "What animals can we see in New Zealand?" as the example, but I thought the question could be easily changed.
After this, the next member takes on the questioning role and goes through the process again. This continues on until time is up, and the person with the most points is the winner!
Overall, this is an activity to just practice the key sentences and have students think back to their vocabulary. It doesn't require much preparation, though very thorough demonstration would be needed. I think it would be a really easy activity to do with any grammar.
Like I said, I unfortunately I didn't get to actually try this activity, but hopefully Covid calms down a bit soon so I can try it next time.
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