Warm Thoughts (or Warm Fuzzies!)

Anna Stassis

Objectives

• To encourage creativity
• To facilitate focused conversations with both ALT and JTE
• To promote self-esteem and positive relationships among students in the class
• To develop a communicative atmosphere between the students, ALT, and JTE early in the year
• To give the ALT and JTE a better understanding of the personalities and relationships between the students

Background Information

This is a lesson plan that I came up with based on a popular email that has been circulating around, and also because one of my teachers in junior high school actually did this with us. I did this activity with my students very early on in the year, and it proved to be a great way to encourage the students to try and communicate with me in English and ask questions for the first time. It was a really good "positive atmosphere" builder, and set the stage for lessening the students' shyness about trying to talk to me both in and out of class. Just as importantly, it left a lasting legacy for them, both for their sense of self and self-esteem, and for how they would remember their classmates. I personally have only done this activity with my third year graduating students, as the students need to have been together as a class for some time and the activity holds particular impact and poignancy in the final year of high school. Having said that, it may also work with any grade level, including JHS, if it is approached in the correct manner.

Lesson Outline

1. Prepare a handout sheet before class listing the names of each student in the class, by order of their student number. Be sure to leave enough space in between each name for the writing (by hand) or one or two sentences. Be sure to write which class this list belongs to (if you are doing the activity with several classes), and which school this is for (if you are teaching at a number of different schools). This will help you get organized later on.
2. With the help of your JTE, explain the title of this activity, and explain that you would like each of the students to write one sentence in English saying something nice about each of the other students in the class. Make sure it is clear that only nice things are allowed, and explain the difference between a "compliment" and a "description". Some of my girls would write things like "She is a basketball player" and I had to explain that this was only a description, and that to make it a compliment they needed to write "She is a very good basketball player". Make sure to also explain that the compliment has to be something that is true about the other person.
3. Circulate around the classroom with the JTE and help the students. Dictionaries are a must!
4. Collect all of the sheets at the end of the class. After class, begin typing an individualized list for each student in the class, going through every sheet collected and listing out every nice thing that the other students in the class said about them. Be aware: this can be time-consuming if you have a lot of classes.
5. As an added bonus, create a special farewell message (or any kind of message) for your students in English and also get your JTE to translate it into Japanese (if necessary). Photocopy the message and any pictures or decorations you want to add onto the back of the list of individualized list that you will give to your students.
6. Hand the individualized sheets out to the students during your final class together, or during their last day of school. The girls were really happy with this parting gift, and were genuinely surprised as I never told them that this was what I was intending to do when we originally did the activity in class. It is a lesson they will not forget!