Job Discussion Forums

[Hoser]

Just curious what your thoughts are about this. As a former student I never encountered this. We were never threatened with genten (demerit points) as a method of classroom management and we were never offered participation points as a bribe to get us to speak up. I've only been teaching in a Japanese high school for a month and a half now but this whole points system is starting to get on my nerves. I ask the class a simple question and not a peep. I say "Ok heijouten time" and hands shoot up into the air. I've seen similar reactions before but that was from my dog whenever I rustled my hand around in the doggy treats bag. It's like the class is some big Pavlovian experiment. The whole thing just leaves me feeling a little dirty!

As for gentens I've actually yet to give one out which I think has maybe come back to bite me a little at least in one class. I had my fill of them today and I'm left with a 4 day weekend to stew over it. I'm going back in on Monday and changing the seating plans and then writing a big "10" up on the board and telling them that so far I've given zero getens but today I'm handing out ten, and every class thereafter I will be handing out ten. If their English were better or my Japanese I would tell them that I'm itching to hand out gentens so somebody just try me.

Is this heavy-handed? It seems so to me. It seems ridiculous to have to set a genten quota to meet every class. The point system seems to be the only language these kids understand however. Any advice appreciated!

[markle]

Advice:

Ditch the whole system and start asking questions they want to answer.

[Apsara]

At my middle school back in the late 80s we had a house system (based on the British system I believe- think Harry Potter, Slytherins, Ravenclaws, although we just had red house, green house etc.) and we could get points for our house for doing something particularly outstanding or lose points for naughtiness. I'm not sure about the genten/ heijouten system- is it an individual thing or a group thing?

Normal questions in the classroom probably wouldn't have got us house points, but it's something along the lines of your school's system anyway. I never took it all that seriously really.

[TokyoLiz]

Merit/demerit point systems are not very valuable, in my experience. You end up rewarding those who are strong in the language rather than those who need to speak up and develop confidence. You also lose the introverted students who tend not to speak out in class.

Asking questions in open class means only a handful of students out of a class of 40 will raise their hands, and really only a few of them get to ask the question. You end up with one active learner and 39 passive ones.

Possible other ways of doing things? You might consider borrowing from the cooperative learning model. See
http://www.lcandler.web.aplus.net/structures.htm

Also, consider Mario Rinvolucri's Grammar Games books. Some of the games require students to interact with the teacher in teacher-centered activities, but many are cognitive/movement games that create a situation in which the students are interacting with each other and the teacher for most of the time. These kinds of activities might work with a merit point system.

Another idea is to hand out poker chips, 5-10 for each student. When they are engaged in an activity within their groups, they "spend" a poker chip each time they contribute a comment or answer. Everybody has equal chips, so everyone has an equal chance to participate. No one student can dominate a group because, when their chips are done, they have to be quiet and yield to the others.

I'm with Markle, too. Allow the students to generate the kinds of questions they want to answer. Consider having groups or pairs working together to write questions that you can compile in a list, then hand out to the groups to answer. If your course is text-based, have the students make "quiz" questions for their classmates based on the text. If you're doing oral com lessons, choose a theme that they are familiar with - family, music, fashion, whatever.

When they've got answers within the groups, you can ask them in open class. Or better yet, have the students do the asking, not you. You could do any number of things with the questions - a bingo sheet or a contact sheet (they mix with other groups, compile the other students' answers, and accurate fast finishers get points.

Rather than scoring them for single responses, you can score them on their participation.

That's just a start. Good luck!

[Hoser]

I don't think I have much leeway in changing the curriculum. Also the participation points are pretty much standard in the school. My 2nd year JHS students participation points are worth 10% of their grade and 3rd year is worth 20%. So it's pretty significant.

[Hawaiibadboy]

I am constantly measuring my students against each other. I rank them. I reward them. I do not take away thing as punishment. Other than dropping them in rank.

That sad reality...as told by the many Japanese English teachers I teach is...Most of the ALT JET's are just talentless teachers who constantly fail to inspire the students they are supposed to be teaching.


If you cannot get results it is the teachers fault. Bottom line.

[fat_chris]

[Hawaiibadboy]

[Mothy]

[fat_chris]

[BobbyBan]

[Sweetsee]

My students are in teams of four. Sometimes a difficult question comes up and I will offer five tokens for the answer. When a student answers correctly, all team members are rewarded. Also, during reviews all members must have correct answers for tokens to be awarded. It works.
Enjoy,
s

[ghostrider]

There are different things I do, depending on the situation.

An easy one is to have all the students stand up. In order to sit down, they must answer a question or someone in their row. It's good for warm-up or review. You can play with this in many ways.

If I just have 1 or 2 questions, and students aren't responding, I may just call on any student, particularly if they're talking to a friend.

Our head English teacher requires us to have this point system, but how we award the points is up to us. I usually award points to teams during activities to motivate them to work faster or more creatively. I also award points for random things, usually acts of kindness, but I try not to be predictable.

[Sweetsee]

Those are good points, Ghostrider. I also award tokens to teams for being good; a team is seated and ready to begin the lesson, all members have completed an assignment, etc.
Enjoy,
s