Monthly special topic: Summer vacation homework

夏休みの宿題

Summer homework, to the best of my recollection, wasn't a big thing way back when I was growing up in Missoula, MT, half a century or so ago. As a matter of fact, the concepts of homework (school work) and vacation—"freedom or release" from school (Dictionary.com, vacation, definition 3), still seem diametrically opposed. Air-conditioning wasn't a big thing in many places, either.

Reading, however, was a big thing, at least in my family. Visits to the public library downtown were, generally speaking, a weekly affair. During the summer they may have been even more frequent.

Though the archive photo below predates my childhood reading career by a few years, and the children's coats (and the date stamped on on the back of the photo) suggest a colder season, the Children's room was in the basement of a Carnegie grant-funded library building. That basement remained pleasantly cool throughout the summer!

Children and books at the Missoula Public Library (1956)

Image source: Montana Memory Project (https://goo.gl/QHH82m)

As I recall, there were story hours once a week, and children could get library cards as soon as they could sign their names—in cursive not printed script. However, the one book per child checkout limit proved irksome.

Once I'd gotten hooked on reading, one of my parents had to check out extra books to get us through the week. It wasn't too long before they had to persuade the librarian to let me check out books from the upper-elementary school stacks.

The old library building now is home to the Missoula Art Museum (http://www.missoulaartmuseum.org/), which offers a wide-range of art experiences for children (https://goo.gl/oQonjP).

Missoula Art Museum, 335 N. Pattee St., Missoula, MT

Image source: Corey McClure (May 2017), Google Maps (https://goo.gl/VbEbea)

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Places to order Extensive Reading books online

There will be a summary of today's PIGATE meeting, but this is probably worth a separate post. There are 2 online booksellers in Japan that you should be familiar with.

The first is Englishbooks.jp and the second is ETJ's book service. Both offer a 20% discount and englishbooks offers free shipping for orders under 8000 yen and ETJ offers free shipping for orders under 10,000 yen. For the latter, you need to be a member of ETJ, but it's free.

This is, of course, great for small purchases, but if your school is trying to buy a large order of books, this can be a big savings and I encourage you to contact them directly.

Thank you messages from Rob Peacock and Keiko Willhite

Dear Pigate members,

Thank you so much for inviting us to join your meeting last Saturday. It was a pleasure to meet with so many enthusiastic, dedicated teachers and trainee teachers from a variety of backgrounds. I hope that the teaching ideas and materials which we presented on the day were useful and that everybody found some interesting concepts to bring into their classrooms.

Teacher group meetings are always a great chance to share ideas and experiences with other educators, and I certainly enjoyed being able to do so during the discussion sections of the workshop and during the break.

Thank you once again for such a warm welcome. I hope to have a chance to meet with you all again sometime soon.

All the best,
Rob Peacock

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Dear PIGATE members,

Thank you very much for attending Rob’s presentation and taking a look at OUP books.

I had such a great time talking to everyone and hope that I will get a chance to meet you all again soon!

There are many links I would like to share with you that I hope will be helpful. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or requests.

Oxford Teachers' Club: By becoming a member you will get to download various handbooks and worksheets for free.

• https://elt.oup.com/teachersclub/

「英語の授業を英語で行う」ための教室英語と授業例

• https://oupjapan.co.jp/ckt

Graded Readers: You can find worksheets and handbooks on graded reading here:

• https://elt.oup.com/teachersclub/subjects/gradedreading/

For further information on graded reading, also check out the Extensive Reading Foundation:

• www.erfoundation.org

With warmest regards,
Keiko Willhite
Contact me at: keiko.willhite@oup.com

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Feb 2015 Meeting: Rob Peacock from Oxford University Press

Rob Peacock from Oxford University Press was the main speaker at our meeting, held on 14 Feb, 2015 at KGU's English Lounge. He spoke on the topic of "Teaching English in English", fitting right in with the ETE (English Through English) special interest section of PIGATE!

And whatta crowd! 30 participants enjoyed Rob's 2 part presentation, first taking us through some great ideas for the classroom and then working through ideas in Extensive Reading.

Takaki sensei wrote the following:

Let me express my sincerest gratitude to you all for your great contributions to the Feb session of PIGATE. It was a big success, and I could tell that the participants really enjoyed the presentations, materials exhibition, and getting to know various people with different background. Rob's presentations were not just well-organized, but also informative, educational, and persuasive. Many participants told me that they learned much from them. It was also a very good thing that they

actually touched some OUP materials, talking with Keiko and discussing their concerns with her and among themselves. If possible we would really like to welcome you back to more PIGATE sessions in the future. Thank you once again. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Rob will be sending me a post with all of the links he shared along with his powerpoint presentation, so rather than write a summary, I'll just end here and ask everyone who attended to write a short reflection on the session and what they learned. Thanks!

Feb 2015 PIGATE meeting: Teaching English in English: Grammar, Vocabulary and Extensive Reading in an All-English Classroom

The February meeting will be at Kumamoto Gakuen University (KGU) on Sat., 14 February, from 13:30-17:00, on the first floor of Building 11, in the English Lounge.

Rob Peacock of Oxford University Press will on speak about Teaching English in English: Grammar, Vocabulary, and Extensive Reading, in an All-English Classroom.

Rob wrote (5 Feb 2015):

In this session, we will look at some practical ways to teach all-English classes to elementary, junior and senior high school students in Japan. We will start by brainstorming some methods of introducing classroom English, before dealing with the practicalities of teaching grammar and vocabulary without using translation. Finally, we will review the benefits of introducing an extensive reading program.

Rob currently works for Oxford University Press, and is an Oxford Teachers' Academy certified teacher trainer. He has spent many years in Japan, teaching students of all ages, as well as providing teacher support through workshops.

Hope you can join us!