Reading: Beyond comprehension, and encouraging interaction with texts

The development of Japanese students’ critical thinking skills is being encouraged by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). Unfortunately, many students at the tertiary level in Japan are still not able to use these skills effectively, and many students lack a basic understanding of critical thinking. In order to develop university students’ critical thinking skills this presenter has combined a variety of different reading techniques including, SQ3R and signposting, in combination with effective questioning techniques, such as Costa’s Levels of Questioning. For this presentation, after a quick description of the scaffolding used to teach students, participants will be presented with the results of a classroom-based project on the implementation of this scaffolding. Examples of students’ improvement on question development as well as the connection to deeper text interaction, will also be presented.

Starting Moodle LMS for your Classroom

A learning management system (LMS) supports learning activities such as discussions, quizzes, and interactive elements and has become essential for classrooms. A well-organized LMS requires good planning and execution to thoroughly distribute learning objectives and resources. The shift to online learning has necessitated the digitization of the classroom environment to aid instruction and support for teachers. Moodle is an academic LMS software that has helped support the presenter's classroom. This presentation will focus on its standard features, advantages, and improvements over other systems and the challenges it presents. The future of Moodle and e-Learning systems beyond COVID-19 will also be discussed. The presenter hopes that participants will find LMS software valuable as a long-term augmentation to their classrooms, whether in-person or online.

Using Google Docs For Collaboration In Schools On Material Preparation

Many teachers working in private language schools or in the public and private elementary, middle and high schools have limited time for material preparation. Some have access to shared resources that individuals have made and posted on various websites, which may or may not be behind paywalls. But even these resources never seem to match ones own particular teaching situation, or the materials may actually be quite flawed. A solution to this problem would be to collaborate with colleagues in your own school or with others in a similar teaching environment using Google Docs. This workshop will show a real case study of a collaborative effort of three teachers to make materials at a private children's English language school in Japan that enhanced our classrooms and matched perfectly with the vocabulary and targets in our textbooks. Finally, the participants will be able to try their hand at collaborating on a small project.