Sigh.
In my American Culture class, the students are currently giving group reports. Groups of four-five students have been researching topics in American culture of their own choosing, writing reports on them, and presenting them in class. We can do two 25-minute presentations plus Q&A per class. I've told the students more than once that they should be on time to class and stay awake in class and pay attention in class, and that doing those things is even more important during their group reports. Well, last Thursday I noticed that during the first reports a couple students were sleeping and one boy came to class fifteen-minutes late, so after that report and before the next I gave them another stern warning, telling them that sleeping and so on during the reports would be doubly bad for their grades etc. And then during the second report I noticed a boy with his head pointing suspiciously down to his desk, as if he were sleeping or something. So I kinda sneaked up on him from behind, looked over his shoulder, and saw that he was reading a manga on his smart phone! I didn't want to disrupt the group's report (about Disneyland, Disney, Disney movies, and Disney Princesses), so I just grabbed his phone and took it back to where I'd been sitting in the back of the room, and returned it to him after class. Next time... next time I'll warn them more severely! But will they listen? Maybe it's because I usually speak English to them and because they are Japanese, but many things I say, I am discovering, do not sink in. I've been telling them since spring semester about plagiarism and so on (using Melania's pilfering of Michelle's speech as an example), and have given them warnings and explanations in handouts and in lectures not to copy paste from the Internet, etc., and so far probably six students in the first six groups have done a little or a lot of that kind of thing. So I've been telling them to do things over a fair amount... I don't want to complain too much about the class or students! They are presenting some interesting information, and most of them have worked hard on their reports (even the copy pasting kids have at least been visiting multiple English websites!). I liked a report trying to explain why American doors, unlike Japanese ones, tend to open inward instead of outward. The Disney report presented a pretty fully rounded picture of the phenomenon. A report on street culture did some neat things with art and fashion and dance. A report on education revealed some interesting things about American schools, like special events. And so on. But gosh I wish they'd respect their classmates and listen harder to their reports and ask more questions or make more comments afterwards!
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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