Online Japanese Learning during School Closure

Background:

Under the COVID 19 pandemic students are now limited to home learning with limited exposure (synchronous if available) to the teacher and classmates. Japanese teachers in SUHSD among other teachers had to come up with online platform to serve students in a short time. We quickly realized that merely transferring classroom activities in to online format wouldn't be feasible and would result in high volume of work on our students. This may be fine under the normal circumstances; such as when students are provided designated time to study at school and free from house chores, babysitting siblings, sharing a room with other family members, etc. This led us to shed some content from our regular curriculum and focus on how learners learn instead of how teachers teach. We see this as an opportunity to nurture our students to become more independent learners; who are both resourceful and self driven. Then, how can we as teachers support them remotely? After exploring ways to best provide learning opportunities to our students we agreed the following elements were important in developing online learning platform. (not in particular oder)

• personal connection

• choices for learning

• choices to show newly acquired knowledge and skills

• meaningful language tasks

• self paced learning environment

• instant feedback for self paced learning

• learner autonomy

• cultivate learner curiosity

• less is more

• short lessons

• sense of humor and optimism

Our online lessons are constantly evolving. Our aim is not to create a bullet proof online lesson. Rather, it is experimental in nature and we are constantly learning as we go. Learning from research, students feedback, and fast changing world and your feedback! We appreciate your feedback and comments if you use our lessons.

Challenges and limitations have been the following.

• lack of face to face feedback

• fluid nature of social environment

• possible anxiety and stress of students and their family members

• not enough data to show how this model is effectively engaging students in learning (as of 4/5/20 - 2nd week of implementation) UPDATE: IMPACT DATA

Tech Tools Consideration

We use Google Classroom as platform as it is already in place. Lessons are organized with Google Forms for integration and easy sharing. We have selected a few online tools rather than creating a variety of them...less is more. However, if you are a teacher who wants to explore more tech tools, please see this link.

Some of the resources which informed us.

• Visible Learning Effect Sizes When Schools Are Closed: What Matters and What Does Not by John Hattie - Corwin

• Teaching Through a Pandemic: A Mindset for This Moment - Edutopia

• Stanford scholar offers ideas to upgrade lessons for kids at home during coronavirus school closures - Stanford University

• What Is and Is Not Working as Educators Transition to Online Learning - Education Week

• 4 Tips for Teachers Shifting to Teaching Online - Edutopia

• Video Chats, Phone Calls, Postcards: Teachers Rebuild Connections With Students During Coronavirus Pandemic - Education Week

• As School Moves Online, Many Students Stay Logged Out - the New York Times