Hi Everyone
Hi Everyone,
I'm very happy to be here. My name is Kevin and I'm a high school English teacher here in Japan. I used to blog a lot and sometimes write short stories for English language learners. I also am interested in basic reading research. So I was thinking about combining all of this together to try and put together a sample chapter of a book which contains: 1) a very short story of 500-1000 words with ~90% of the vocabulary consisting of the most frequent words of English 2) two to three pages of theory about how reading skills are developed and how reading the short story can help develop those skills 3) a series of activities to be used in lessons, or by a parent with their child, or by a group of friends which is also based on the theory in part 2. The completed chapter will, I hope, be about 8 to 10 pages and will serve as the template for the rest of the book.
I'm also really excited to spend time with other teachers who are interested in material development and seeing how we can best use technology to help meet our students (and our own) needs.
I'm very happy to be here. My name is Kevin and I'm a high school English teacher here in Japan. I used to blog a lot and sometimes write short stories for English language learners. I also am interested in basic reading research. So I was thinking about combining all of this together to try and put together a sample chapter of a book which contains: 1) a very short story of 500-1000 words with ~90% of the vocabulary consisting of the most frequent words of English 2) two to three pages of theory about how reading skills are developed and how reading the short story can help develop those skills 3) a series of activities to be used in lessons, or by a parent with their child, or by a group of friends which is also based on the theory in part 2. The completed chapter will, I hope, be about 8 to 10 pages and will serve as the template for the rest of the book.
I'm also really excited to spend time with other teachers who are interested in material development and seeing how we can best use technology to help meet our students (and our own) needs.
That sounds like a perfect project. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Kevin, nice to meet you. I'm also planning to work on a short story :) Mine will be for very young learners with tips regarding how this story can be used. I'm looking forward to working with you and everybody else on the course.
ReplyDeleteMargarita Kosior It's great to have a partner i crime to work with. If you are interested in sending your story to me, I would love to read it. If it is already online, you could link it here, or you could send it to my email. kevchanwow@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteDorothy Zemach Thanks, Dorthy. This is a project I've been thinking about for a long time. Barbara gave me a nudge to join the class, and I am so happy she did.
ReplyDeleteMargarita Kosior I'm thinking about using this story:
ReplyDeletetheotherthingsmatter.wordpress.com - For One Picture
It's a beautiful story, Kevin. Well done. My situation is very different since I'm preparing something for very little ones. But still, I'm sure we can help each other. Mine is still in the making; in fact, I'm working on it today a bit. But I'll also need some illustrations and I hope my 12-year-old daughter can draw them for me. She is still away on her summer holidays as the school year is not starting till 11 Sept here in Greece. I hope to have the text ready and proofread by the time she returns in a few days.
ReplyDeleteMargarita Kosior I'm really looking forward to reading it. And thank you for taking the time to read my story.
ReplyDeleteMargarita Kosior same interest here: YL! However, I'm not good at writing stories. If you need my help, here I am!
ReplyDeleteKevin, your project sounds great! 👏👏👏
ReplyDeleteLaura Perrotta Thanks. And I'm feeling like this class is a great way to motivate myself to get it done. Looking forward to working with you.
ReplyDeleteHi Kevin, I was very inspired by the stuff you've done around tankas. I think you may have presented something about it in a webinar a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteAdi Rajan Wow! Thanks for remembering that presentation. I did and still do tanka and poetry work with my students.
ReplyDeleteLaura Perrotta Thank, Laura. Not sure I'm any good either. So far, I've had some experience writing graded readers, and a couple of very simple stories for learners as young as 3 years old maybe. But I want to get a message across, you'll see what kind of message, so if it takes writing a story, I'll write a story :)
ReplyDeleteKevin Stein Beautiful story! I love your idea.
ReplyDeleteMargarita Kosior great! I'm sure the final result is going to be amazing! 😉
ReplyDeleteLaura Perrotta I just uploaded my idea (delayed :/ I didn't realise there was an early deadline...). I hope you like it :)
ReplyDeleteKevin Stein The story is not online. I have been working on it for several weeks, but only finished it a couple of days ago. I hope Dorothy agrees that it can work as an ebook... Then, I will definitely need as much feedback as possible :) Thanks for offering help!
ReplyDeleteSo cool!
ReplyDelete