The exact same thing happened last year, and it made the kids stressed out and miserable. I explained the text book is designed to be split into three semesters and accommodates school events, he is convinced that we will fall behind last semester, like we did this semester (We did not fall behind at all, in fact we have just finished unit 3 for both 5th and 6th today).
-Update!-
Thank you for the comments! I have convinced him to start unit 4 next semester after the summer holidays. He was worried about falling behind on schedule because of a couple of cancelled classes, and I pointed out that even with those cancelled classes we still managed to finish well before the semester ended. We'll be doing review to cement what the kids learnt this semester until summer break.
by Aegisman17
11 comments
Why does he want to do this? Are parents asking him to?
Why is it a bad idea?
You don’t. Let the jtes decide the pace and lesson structure. Even though you may have a legitimate reason that it’s bad.. It isn’t your place or decision. You could bring up your concern gently as “why are we going to rush so much… If we do we can’t do xyz”… But honestly expect to be ignored or dismissed because you aren’t the jte or in the jte planning group.
I think the JTE is a good teacher. I think he/she is just concerned about his/her students’ learnings and is actually willing to teach more than what the textbook has to offer.
Why not just tell him exactly how you feel? I have my schedule for my entire year. How would you even think you’d fall behind. You can show him the text books and how they’re laid out. Then feel free to tell him it’s not normal and he’s weird. Then let him do his weirdo ways if he’s the T1/JTE. Then tell your vice principal or principal if you have a good rapport with them.
Japan illustrates why coverage vs. comprehension fails
OP are you new to Japan. That’s not your job That’s above your pay grade too. You’re an ALT. The students are not your kids. Just know that anything bad happens, you’ll be blamed, not praised.
Glad to see the situation worked out. Would you look at that, you talked to the JTE and changed their mind! Don’t you know you should’ve given up because it’s pointless and above your pay grade? lol
It depends. If your colleague seems like a reasonable person who usually welcomes your observations and input, then by all means, respectfully discuss the matter. If he or she is a total control freak and/or undermines your intelligence and interest in contributing, then just let them proceed how they are determined. The poor language system in place is one of the major reasons why the students, on average, so not build any long-term acquisition.
I have one as well who is already finishing the fourth unit in JHS and I don’t think the slower students are anywhere close to keeping up. At least one of the classes has a high percentage of excellent students.
I had a JTE once, perfect English as a result of living in America for 12 years and a foreign husband. They really believed in having a well-rounded classroom, with time for phonics practice, reading, integrating cultural topics. The thing was, it put them “behind” in the textbook. Guess where more of the complaints where coming from? The cram schools. They kept telling parents, “Well, teacher A at XYZ school is on Unit 10, and so your student is two units behind”. And the teachers would in turn complain to the school. The thing is, I rotated between both schools, and the JTE who was “behind” was miles better than teacher A. Teacher A was slogging through the textbooks, this JTE was actually teaching.
Anyhow, I’ve found teachers plan more short term/day-to-day than longer term, and often feel overwhelmed. I’ve found that sitting down with them, counting out how many classes we have left, and making a plan to cover X amount of pages over X amount of days work well. When they can visualize more what’s left, it makes it a lot more approachable.
Also, sometimes textbooks align with real life events. If Unit 4’s theme is a recap of summer events, then point out that it’s meant to be after summer.