「高校の英語教員」を志望している龍谷大学４年生の荒木力忠さんが本校の授業を見学しました。

荒木さんは、本校を2019年3月に卒業し、国際学部グローバルスタディーズ学科で学んでいます。教員志望の視点から授業を見学しました。

 

見学した授業は次の通りです。

• Gareth Warham先生のScience(Ecology)の授業
• 安井香苗先生の英語（英語Ⅱ）の授業
• Jeff Willard先生の社会科（Geography）の授業
• 種中恵先生の英語（英語Ⅰ）の授業
• 木川梢先生の社会科（国際理解）の授業

 

このブログを読むと、それぞれの先生の授業の特徴がよく理解できるかと思います。ただし、ブログを英語で書いています。英文読解にチャレンジしてみてください。

 

国際高等課程長（教頭）　滝本武

 

 

KIHS Classroom Observation

 

On May 16^th, 2022, I visited KIHS and observed the classes of the 1^st year and 2^nd year students. However, I was not mainly observing the students because I was also observing how the teachers taught the students.

In the 1^st period, I observed Mr. Warham’s Ecology class that was held in English only. The way he taught the class really expanded my knowledge on how to teach students of various English proficiency level at the same time. In his class he used rhetorical questions, contextual cues, gave time to students to read the text and answer the questions, implemented lots of group discussions, and talked extremely slowly so that everyone could understand what he said. Furthermore, he used lots of hand gestures, repetition, related discussions back to what he specifically did in the previous class. What surprised me is that he told everyone in the class that he does not judge students’ English proficiency level because what he expects from the students is the fundamental understanding of the contents that students learned in the class. Also, Mr. Warham briefly explained the context on the vocabulary and phrases, then persuaded the students to write in the passive voice, to write a scientific report. However, if students could not write the report in the passive voice, he told everyone that he would not deduct any marks if students wrote the report using personal pronouns.

 

 

Next, I visited Ms. Yasui’s English class (英語Ⅱ). Her class was mainly focused upon grammar and she taught the class in both English and Japanese. The way she taught the class was mainly using the grammar translation method. However, what I really liked about the class was that she was making students search the meaning of the words online. As her handwriting was extremely neat, it made me realize that I must improve my own handwriting. At first, she read the sentences to the students and made the students repeat after her. Then, without looking at the paper, she made the students repeat the sentence and asked the students how many words there were in the sentence.

In the 2^nd period, I observed Mr. Willard’s geography class that was also taught in only English. This class was an eye-opening experience for me. His class was free and easy going, which made the students feel comfortable to learn in class. He used lots of hand gestures and controlled his body language. By using this kind of non-verbal communication effectively, students were motivated to listen to his explanation/ story. Like in Mr. Warham’s class, Mr. Willard also spoke extremely slowly, used a lot of contextual cues, made students discuss in pairs/ in groups and related topic back to what the students had learned in the previous class. Mr. Willard included lots of jokes in the class. By doing so, it made the atmosphere of the class fun. Lastly, Mr. Willard involved a game/quiz in the class to make a more student-centered learning environment.

 

 

In the 3^rd period, I observed Ms. Tanenaka’s English class (英語Ⅰ). She was using English and Japanese in the class so that everyone could understand what she was saying. In her class she was implementing a 5-minute English vocabulary test, which was repeated at the beginning of each class so students can expand their word bank. After the test, students were self-evaluating their test. What I really liked about her class was that she made students present in front of the class, and those watching the presentation needed to assess their classmate’s presentation in the following order (out of 20): The volume of the presenters’ voice; their originality; whether it is easy to understand or not; and, their communication approach. I felt that evaluating other students’ presentation will improve their own presentation skills, too.

 

 

In the 4^th period I observed Ms. Kigawa’s International Studies (国際理解) class, that was conducted in both Japanese and English. In her class, there were lots of group discussion activities aimed at expanding their critical thinking skills (e.g., Why should we recycle paper? How do plastic bottles harm the environment/atmosphere? and more). By giving these kinds of tricky questions to the students, it automatically made the class into a discussion or debate. Furthermore, what I really like about Ms. Kigawa’s teaching style is that she always complimented the students answer, and if students were striving to give an answer in English, she give a contextual cue or a phrase, so that students could attempt to answer in English smoothly.

 

My thoughts/ impression evaluating teachers’ lessons

By observing teachers’ lessons, I have learned the importance of the usage of rhetorical questions, contextual cues, hand gestures, body language, and repetition, as well as the importance of clear explanations by the teacher, talking slowly to the students, implementing games, quizzes, short tests and group discussion, to encourage student-centered learning, self-evaluation, and evaluation of others. By going back to KIHS and seeing how teachers teach, I was extremely amazed by how every teacher’s teaching style/ approach is different. Therefore, by seeing many classes it really expanded my knowledge and gave me ideas of how I should teach my students in the future.

 

Rikitada Araki

(Graduated KIHS in March 2019)

 

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