The Curriculum Through ICT Program
Ideas Bank

Japanese Story Books: Creating a School Resource
Years 7 - 10Years 10 - 12

THE TASK

A group of early adolescence students were set the task of creating a range of Japanese language textbooks for use by upper primary students.

Students worked with the LOTE teachers of both classes as well as the target group of students to identify the Japanese language learning needs of the target group. Using this information, students drafted fictional recounts and narrative stories in Japanese. Drafts were reviewed by peers and both LOTE teachers before being edited by the authors. This resource was published in print, supported by appropriate illustrations created during Art classes. The books were also published electronically as an eBook. These eBooks were enriched with multimedia, including student voice-overs recorded in Japanese, Japanese character sets, appropriate photos/images, and interactivity to enable the user to direct their viewing experience.

ICT ENRICHMENT

  • ICT obviates the need to have good skills in forming the characters. This enables the students to write with greater fluency.
  • Achievement and demonstration of LOTE outcomes can be enhanced by recording the students reading orally and including the audio file in the eBook.
  • Editing and improving the draft books was simplified by working digitally.
  • Using ICT enabled the finished products to present very tidily. In particular, Japanese characters were clear and easier to recognise by other students.
  • Completed books were published both as a print resource and electronically on the school Intranet. These publication methods were compared and evaluated for effectiveness and accessibility by both classes.

ASSESSMENT

  • LOTE outcomes were monitored in an ongoing way throughout the learning task.
  • Assessments were based on draft work, final products and over-the-shoulder monitoring during class.

LEARNING AREA OUTCOMES

The Arts
Arts Skills and Processes

Languages Other Than English
Viewing, Reading and Responding
Writing

Technology and Enterprise
Technology Process
Information

Based on a learning program developed by David Simons.
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