Language Resident Name: Ayaka Matsuo

Day and Date: 9/27/2017

Language and Level (intermediate or advanced class): Intermediate Japanese

Class theme/topics discussed: Name

Goal of the class: To review words / vocabularies related to appearance and create Japanese names based on its appearance.

How did you structure the class?

Activity 1 (10 min): Warm-up

Students talk about English strange names with their neighbors.

Activity 2 (5 min): Changing Seats in Japanese Alphabetical Order

First, I ask students to re-order by their first names according to English alphabetical order. After that, we quickly review Japanese alphabetical order and ask students to re-order by their names according to Japanese alphabetical order.

Activity 3 (20 min): Naming a Character

I show students a mascot on a screen and ask them to name the mascot in Japanese. This is done in a group of 3. Before starting discussing, we briefly brainstorm the characteristics of this mascot all together. We do the same process for several times with different mascots.

Activity 4 (10 min): Giving themselves a Japanese Name

In the same group as Activity 3, I make students create their own Japanese nicknames. Students tell the group their personality or things they like and they come up with a suitable one.

Activity 5 (10 min): Japanese Social Issues on Names

I tell a Japanese social issue on names today by showing a YouTube video. After that, I ask students discussion questions such as what do you think about that? or why do parents want to name their children in that way?

Activity 6 (5 min): Announcement

What worked well in this class? What did not work?

All worked well today. We really enjoyed the warm-up, which we talked about strange English names they’ve ever met. Students like sharing their experience and I also enjoyed learning new things. Also, activity 3 worked well. Some of students were not that creative and they didn’t know how to do it but after I helped with some examples, they came up with their original ones. Generally, they were very creative and had fun sharing with their Japanese unique nicknames.

How could this class be improved/ modified?

Today I did Activity 5 just after Activity 1 (warm-up) and it worked well. Since we talk about strange English names in Activity 1, a recent social issue on names should come just after the warm up. It could be more make sense.