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Leading ESS club
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TokyoLiz



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 2:41 am    Post subject: Leading ESS club Reply with quote

I'm on the club leader roster as the English Speaking Society (ESS) tanto. I've got 10 lovely girls, grades 1 and 2, who have attended faithfully all April sessions, which we hold twice a week.

They're typical EFL learners, not in an intensive English program, but regular core English course. They're eager to do activities.

I'm considering next year asking the admin if I can use the ESS club for an accelerated English writing or test prep course.

Any anecdotes or projects you've done?
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timothypfox



Joined: 20 Feb 2008
Posts: 492

PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 3:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Haven't had such luck. My club participation is like pulling teeth. Their supposed to interview teachers for the school newspaper...
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Nemu_Yoake



Joined: 02 Aug 2015
Posts: 47
Location: Iwate

PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 4:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A podcast? They choose the themes, write the scripts etc. They can put it on Youtube and get comments from foreigners if you advertise enough on the Internet.
Two years ago, I made a website with my students (during my teaching practicum). Even those not interested in English wanted to know the content of all the comments they had received.
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TokyoLiz



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 8:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Timothypfox, did your ESS members choose to make a newspaper? Is this a task assigned to them? You say they're not producing...

Nemu_Yoake,
My school has a YouTube channel already, so we could easily put up ESS. Did you do audio only for that assignment? Admin may object to having kids' faces in videos.
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Nemu_Yoake



Joined: 02 Aug 2015
Posts: 47
Location: Iwate

PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 8:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

TokyoLiz wrote:
Timothypfox, did your ESS members choose to make a newspaper? Is this a task assigned to them? You say they're not producing...

Nemu_Yoake,
My school has a YouTube channel already, so we could easily put up ESS. Did you do audio only for that assignment? Admin may object to having kids' faces in videos.

Just audio.
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marley'sghost



Joined: 04 Oct 2010
Posts: 255

PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2016 4:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

timothypfox wrote:
Haven't had such luck. My club participation is like pulling teeth. Their supposed to interview teachers for the school newspaper...


Sounds like the "English" club at a high school I was at years and years ago. The teacher in charge would literally dash out of the staff-room after the last class to catch the "members" before they fled the school grounds. We did manage to wrestle them into some creative writing and made a video, but yeah, pulling teeth. My only other experience was at a JHS. One of the JTE's was really ambitious and set up an English club. Sadly, this being a public school, it could not be a "real" club and could only meet once or twice a term. The kids would have to get actual written permission to be absent from the teacher in charge of their "real" club to attend.
Sounds like Liz has a much more motivated bunch of kids, and a much more supportive environment thankfully.
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timothypfox



Joined: 20 Feb 2008
Posts: 492

PostPosted: Sat May 07, 2016 1:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My school is a private school and I have to usually chase down members to get a meeting going. The school newspaper is something that was assigned to me to do with them. Most club members are in other clubs, so getting us all together seems to only happen when I organize a party with donuts...
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TokyoLiz



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Sat May 07, 2016 3:41 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Now I've got some ideas, thanks!

I think 8've settled on a project - a tourism video on YouTube describing the sights of our town.

It'll be a steep learning curve for all of us - they'll have to narrate, and I'll have to learn how to make a video. It'll be interesting.
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kzjohn



Joined: 30 Apr 2014
Posts: 277

PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2016 7:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sure, a youtube/tourism thing is a great idea!

I'd suggest that you lower expectations by suggesting that you all do it the first time as a trial or learning experience--a rough draft, and that you then try again next semester (year?) using what you (and they) have learned. (A second, separate tour site, or do the first one over.)

Don't try for perfect from the get-go, and don't try to do the whole town (just one spot/area at first). Phones should work fine for stills or video, and the basic apple video-editing software will be more than enough (iMovie).
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TokyoLiz



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Sun May 08, 2016 9:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good advice.

My partner and I intend to do our own YouTube videos first, in order to learn how to manage a project before I ask my students to do a project.

We've been experimenting with Splice on the iPad.

There's a lot to learn, managing files and memory on our devices.
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TokyoLiz



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2016 10:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

An update on the ESS club I lead - The girls thought they could just sit and chat and eat snacks for an hour. They show little motivation to write, read or converse in English.

They're not ready or motivated to do a YouTube project, so I scaled back my plan. Instead, they're writing tourist info for a Facebook page I created for them. They write the post content, I provide original photos, or photos I get from Wiki commons.

We're already up to 400 page views. I'm hoping that by next week, we hit 1000. The attention, I hope, will wake them up.


Last edited by TokyoLiz on Fri Nov 17, 2017 11:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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rxk22



Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629

PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2016 10:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That's too bad. But really, with most kids they have to find the motivation to do something. I'll give you some hits though.
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TokyoLiz



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 6:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for spreading the word!

When the ESS members saw the number of hits today - over 500 - they got excited. I have asked them to respond to comments and questions from readers. They got turned on Smile They were smiling and told me they want to write more.

My hope is to get page engagement up to 1000 in a week or two.
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rxk22



Joined: 19 May 2010
Posts: 1629

PostPosted: Wed Jun 01, 2016 10:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Oh, I didn't know they would respond to posts. I'll see if I can post a bit here and there.

That is great that you found a "hook" for them to get interested in English.
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TokyoLiz



Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Posts: 1548
Location: Tokyo, Japan

PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2016 3:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

We did it! Thanks to a huge network of friends, and likely interest from teachers here, we got page engagement over 1000 in one week.

My students were surprised, and most of them are eager to write more. They'll have time next week to respond to questions and comments as we have club sessions.
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