Japanese Summer Institute: Movies, Museums, and Karaoke

Okay, so the title sounds kinda crazy. Karaoke? Haha. I'll do anything to get my students to actually vocalize Japanese--whether they understand it or not.

The action of voicing new and unfamiliar words--its pronunciation, intonations, and rhythms--help a language learner become more familiar and hence more comfortable with speaking Japanese. So if they're going to voice Japanese, why just limit it to the dialogue and exercises in a textbook? Why not sing along with J-pop?

Not that I should be the model of a perfect student (long story), but I sang Japanese songs a lot in my early years of learning Japanese and it helped me a lot.

Anyway, I felt compelled to write this post when I read this article published in the CCAS Newsletter. It's nice to get a write up in the school newsletter, but I'm sure the word karaoke will raise a few eyebrows, so I wanted to elucidate just a bit.

Major Fair--postscript

Thanks to all those who came to the Major Fair tonight to show your support! The Chinese teachers were like: "Wow, you guys are like a family. You help and support each other." Indeed, one student looking to minor wanted some advice and Marshall and Natasha (right) were talking to him giving him pointers--Yeah, avoid bungo at... all cost!--and the Chinese teachers were so envious to see our Japanese majors pitching in without having to be asked! I felt like a proud papa. :-P

Japanese Institute for Language and Culture

Just to let you know, summer session IS ON... well, if we get enough students to register, that is.

I've been working since last October to put together a program that will help our students and generate interest in Japanese for those GW students who want a taste of Japanese language and culture and as well as those who are not GW students. Hopefully this is the ticket.

We are integrating language and culture and hope students will feel invested in the program as we try to get instructors and students involved in all aspects of the program, including events outside of class, which is where students can aply what they are learning in class.

I'll have more as information becomes available, but for the time being, click on the flier and take a look at some of the details. Contact me or GW Summer Session for more information.

Become a J major!

CCAS is holding a Major Fair to help students decide on a major. They want a couple of current majors to come to explain to potential majors what its like to... Um... Fall in with love bungo? Eat three big serving of curry rice? er... ask for a letter of recomendation THREE weeks in advance? :-)

So if you're a major, in the area and have the time, come on by, say hello and support the Japanese Major at the Marvin Center Great Hall March 8, 7-9PM.

Grading Rubric

Once upon a time (okay, until last semester) I graded in an holistic manner. This means that I read, made comments and applied a grade that represented an amalgamation of all the impressions I had of the paper. While there is nothing wrong with this approach--I'd bet most professors grade in the same way--I always ran into trouble when a student came to ask me about his or her grade.

Now, as I said, I write comments, sometimes detailed comments--at times funny or sarcastic, too--in the margins: "excellent intro" "dic." "This doesn't make sense" "sp" "Good point" "inc. sent." "if you say this here, whe say it there?" "I like this". I will also write copious comments at the end of he paper to spell out what I think is both good and what needs improvement. As a result, I don't get a whole lot of students coming in asking about why they got a certain grade, but every so often they come in.

"Hey, I got a B on this paper, but I thought I'd get at least an A-. Can you tell me what I did wrong so I can get a better grade the next time?"

I will look at their paper and read the comments I wrote, but I've read anywhere between 20 to 50 papers for any given class, so I don't always remember exactly why I write something. The fact that I grade holistically doesn't help me recall either.

Well, fortunately for me, just when I was thinking about what to do, we get a message from those above talking about how we need to spell out "learning outcomes". One step in this process is to detail exactly how we evaluate so we can articulate exactly what we expect from our students and what we see as the learning outcome from an assignment and ultimately from the course. So I set out to analyze and break down my mental process so students may gain a better idea of how I evaluate an essay, thereby allowing them the opportunity to write a better paper. The result was the concrete rubric of criteria below. You will notice that I apply a letter grade to each section which represents a percentage of your entire paper. This is, of course, a general outline of how I grade and, to a greater or lesser extent, I am still influenced by the general impressions I develop as I read. I'm only human.

Still, please consider these criteria as a check list when you write your paper. If you successfully follow them, chances are you will get the grade you want.

Grading Rubric

Structure/Style (25%): A) Information organized in a logical and interesting sequence with balanced sections and clear transitional sentences. B) Information organized in a logical sequence but progression is not smooth. C) Information is poorly organized; difficult to follow. D) Stream of consciousness approach. Introduction→ Body [Motivation→ Argument 1 w/evidence→ Argument 2 w/evidence→ (Argument 3 w/evidence)]→ Conclusion	Idea/Knowledge (25%): A) Demonstrates a firm understanding of the topic/subject and knowledge of its details. B) Demonstrates an understanding of the topic/subject but manifests a few errors in the details. C) Demonstrates a tentative understanding of the topic/subject and manifests errors in the details. D) Demonstrates little to no understanding of the topic/subject.
Argumentation (25%): A) Presents an argument with an original point of view, providing convincing evidence in a logical manner. B) Presents an argument with evidence that is logical but mostly regurgitates the position and evidence of others—previous scholars or in class discussion. C) Presents an argument based on thin or incomplete evidence. D) Presents an argument that is wholly unconvincing—evidence is inconsistent, unrelated or illogical.	Presentation—Grammar and spelling (15%) A) Virtually no spelling or grammatical errors B) No more than 2 obvious errors C) 3-5 obvious errors D) More than 5 errors
	Layout (10%) Typed Margins: 1” Line spacing: 1½ Word count included Long quotes: Indented Paginated, page numbers☺ Font: Times New Roman, Arial, 12 point Citations: formatted correctly (both inline and footnotes). A) properly formatted; B) missing 1 item; C) missing 2; D) missing 3 or more