Creative Lesson Planning TJF hopes that Japanese language study will help young people develop not just proficiency in the language but skills they will need to make their way in the twenty-first century. Through a series of essays by teachers, follow how teachers apply this idea in actual lesson development.

Making Personal connections with Global Issues

The author believes that the most important role of her lessons is to cultivate students’ viewpoint globally and prepare them for the future when they will take an active part in that world. She attempts to lead her students to think about global issues and also to face their inner feelings through poetry. This essay introduces the process of creating this unit of work.

VI.When the word shows it's power

V.Creating poems

IV.Reciting favourite poems

III.Reading the poem "Dear Fukushima"

II.Individual as a global citizen

I.Poetry, "Dear Fukushima" and I

Yoko Nishimura-ParkeYoko Nishimura-Parke
(National Asian Languages Studies in Schools Program - Languages Support Officer,Secondary Education, Learning and Leadership Directorate, NSW Department of Education and Communities)
Immigrated to Australia in 1990 as a high school Japanese teacher. Employed in the NSW Department of Education and Training since 1998. Currently promoting projects involving Asian languages as an expert in developing educational materials for Japanese as a foreign language. Co-authored Japanese textbook series Mirai and iiTomo (Pearson Education). Became involved in education for Japanese as a Heritage Language in recent years and is deeply engaged in developing educational materials in this field.

A Project for Community Involvement

Noticing that many of my students had little personal contact with Japanese despite living right here in Japan, I wanted to create an activity that would give them a greater sense of using Japanese in real life by interacting more with the society around them. After starting the project, in which the students address a specific social problem, I realized that many students have trouble framing a real issue to deal with. In the following pages, I describe my approach in guiding those students in their project work.

IV. Students Learning on Their Own

III. Experiencing the "Real Thing"

II. Getting Students to Recognize Issues

I. A Call to Action

Inahara KyokoInahara Kyoko
Japanese-language Teacher (High School, the American School in Japan)
Ms. Inahara grapples constantly with the questions of what skills students will need when they become adult members of society and how activities in Japanese-language class can develop those skills. Regarding her role as that of a facilitator, she incorporates a variety of activities into her lessons with the aim of bringing out the students’ latent abilities. B.A. in education, Aoyama Gakuin University. MA in education (educational administration), Aoyama Gakuin University. Served as faculty head of the Japanese-language center, Hanoi University of Technology, Vietnam. Took up current position in 1998. Coauthor of Doraemon no dokodemo Nihongo [Doraemon’s Magic Door to Japanese] (Shogakukan, 2009).