Well, today I'm talking about class preparation for junior high school students.
At the cram school where I worked, classes for junior high school students were 50 minutes per session.
Classes start at 7:00 p.m. and run for 150 minutes (50 minutes x 3 grades) until 9:30 p.m.
Unlike the Japanese textbook for elementary school students, that for junior high school students only has a free-writing section, so I have to be very enthusiastic and do a lot of prep work.😜
Let's take the first-year junior high school student's "Taketori Monogatari" as an example of what I'm talking about here, and let's think about prepping!!
Let's assume that the next class is the beginning of the famous "Taketori Monogatari," which begins with the words, "Once upon a time, there was a man named Taketori no Okina.
By the way, in Japan, junior high school students are required to recite the beginning of "Taketori Monogatari".😝
About a quarter of a century ago, as a first-year junior high school student, I memorized this.😎✨
Back to the prep. 👍
The ultimate goal of Japanese junior high school students who come to study at our cram school was to pass the high school entrance exam.
In Gifu Prefecture, where I was working at the time, many students were applying to public high schools in the prefecture.
The entrance examination for public high schools in Gifu Prefecture was decided on the basis of the total score, on the day of the examination & their school report score.
This school report scores were based on the regular junior high school tests, homework assignments, and classroom attitudes.
In addition to developing the academic skills needed to pass the high school entrance exam, I had to teach my students to score well on the regular junior high school exam.
So the first thing I would do to prepare for class was to look at the regular exam of each junior high school to see what kind of questions would be on them.
After reading through the regular exams, I will read and understand the beginning of "Taketori Monogatari" myself, and make notes on the points that will be on the exam.
I write the contents of this note on the blackboard in class.
This note is completed by repeating the draft many times.
It takes two to three hours to review the regular exams and make the notes.
Once I have made these notes, 80% of my class preparation is complete.
In the next time, I'll talk about making practice questions!
to be continued...
