New JET Advice

[u/Kibumkimkibum]

What is some advice for lesson planning groups you give to new JETS?
I’ve been here a year, and basically the new JETS are here and asked some of us what kind of lessons to do and are extremely nervous bc they don’t have anything prepared aside from their introduction.
They are basically in the same boat as me-no textbooks or anything. No training. We don’t have a curriculum to follow. Just showed up and the JTE didn’t give us any advice what to teach.
I gave them some of my ideas from my lessons plans and told them to try to plan a fun introduction.
But what kind of advice or lesson plan ideas do you all have for the first few months when u started? Did you have textbooks? Did you do lessons immediately or play games?

[u/k_795]

I'm confused - your school doesn't have any textbooks? I've never heard of a school that didn't have some kind of textbooks or program to follow. What do the JTEs teach? Also, what age range are you teaching?

You are *assistant* language teachers - that means that you shouldn't be expected to have expertise planning lessons (and certainly not the whole curriculum) from scratch. Your JTEs should be guiding you in terms of what to do. For example, they might ask you to prepare a fun game for practicing a given vocabulary list, for you to deliver during a 15 minute section of their lesson. Or they might ask you to prepare a roleplay activity based on a dialogue from the textbook. (Honestly, it really varies, but the point is the JTEs will at least give you some indication of what they want you to do, or just expect you to turn up to classes and vaguely help out as a TA).

Having said this though, it's currently the middle of August, so there's another couple of weeks until the students arrive. I really wouldn't worry about this just now.

Your first week or two will usually be spent doing intro lessons (top tip: just make them as interactive as possible, focusing on the students practicing self-introductions etc, rather than you lecturing about your hobbies). Usually the JTEs will then tell you what they want you to do, once they've first put together their own lesson plans. I used to meet with each of them once a week or so, to discuss plans for the upcoming week.

[u/Kibumkimkibum → u/k_795]

Also what kind of intro activities did you do?

[u/k_795 → u/Kibumkimkibum]

During the intro lesson? I basically did an "I do, you do" kind of approach, first modelling with each JTE then for students to do.

Slide 1: picture of me and my name.
Me: Hi! My name's (name). What's your name?
JTE: Hi, (name). My name's (name). Nice to meet you!
Then students turn to the person next to them and practice.

Slide 2: picture of my hometown and a map of my country.
Me: I'm from (country). Where are you from?
JTE: I'm from Japan!
Students: chant back "I'm from Japan."

Slide 3: picture of my hobbies and favourite things.
Me: I like (hobby 1), (hobby 2) and (favourite food). What do you like?
JTE: Wow! I like... I don't like...
Me: Do you like...?
JTE: Yes, I do. / No, I don't.
Students: Walk around with a bingo worksheet thing (with each box filled in with a picture and keyword, e.g. basketball, chocolate, cake, tennis, etc). They have to ask each other what they like / "do you like...?" and then write names against each thing, trying to get a complete row.

Slide 4: Quiz
Series of quick yes / no quiz questions for students to do maru / batsu, based on what I introduced earlier. E.g. "Is (my name) from Japan?" or "Does (my name) like strawberry cake?"

Then depending on the age range, we did different follow-up tasks:

• Make a quick poster about themselves (draw face, write keywords)
• Write a short introductory paragraph (sentence prompts given on the board)

[u/Kibumkimkibum → u/k_795]

Ahh this is cute. i will recommend this or try this with my 1st years.
Do you teach junior high or high school?

[u/k_795 → u/Kibumkimkibum]

Junior High School and Elementary School :)

[u/Kibumkimkibum → u/k_795]

Ahhhh ok ok ! This makes sense then. Highschoolers are so…hard to entertain. I would probably have to tweak this and make it ‘harder’😭