Introduction

At Silver Creek, homework is used as an extension of the classroom work. Usually, it consists of two or three parts. The first part asks that students pick 12 kanji from our reader and write each one four times. The second part is either grammar practice activities or passage translations from the Yokoso textbook. The third part involves the creation or translation of written dialogues. Homework is given each night, Monday through Friday.  Towards the end of the 2000-2001 school year, Rushton Hurley and I discussed an idea with which I had been toying for much of the spring semester, namely, summer homework. I wanted the current crop of Japanese 2 students who were registered for Japanese 3 the following year to be able to hit the ground running. Too often, a student's language skills atrophy considerably during the summer hiatus. This rustiness on the studentís part forces teachers to spend a varied amount of time in review before new concepts and material can be introduced.

Proposed Action

I wanted to create a set of assignments that would require the students to at least stay familiar with what had been covered in Japanese 2. Furthermore, I wanted to make the assignments paper-free, capable of being ne completely online. Lastly, I wanted to expose the students to some Japanese web sites that had been discovered by Mr. Hurley's Japanese 4 class.  I knew there would be several challenges involved in making this project work. For reasons of equity, I had to be sure that each and every student had access to e-mail and to the Internet. I was lucky--all my students either had a connected computer at home or at a local library. I also wanted to make the assignments challenging, but not overly so. I realized I would have a full-scale mutiny on my hands if I demanded that the students do homework every night of their summer vacation. I also did not want to mire myself in grading during the break. Therefore, I settled for one medium-large assignment per week--nine assignments in all. The entire project was explained to the students prior to the break and deadlines for each assignment were given along with the assignment itself in weekly emails to all students (See Appendix 1). The assignments all had three parts: one section for practicing plain form constructions, one section for practicing grammar patterns and vocabulary, and one section for web-based research and language application. For example, one part 3 assignment required the students to chat online in Japanese for 10 minutes and then mail me a transcript of their "conversation." (See Appendix 2)

Challenges

During the course of the project, I ran into a number of snags. First of all, I failed to make sure that all students' computers were capable of reading and TYPING Japanese characters. I ended up having to settle for students typing out the assignments in romaji. This problem can be avoided next time by providing the students with Microsoft's Global IME Japanese language pack or Macintosh's Language font suite before they leave for vacation. Some of the web sites I chose also proved to be either too difficult or not interesting enough for the students. I also found myself spending several hours a week more than I anticipated in correcting and replying to each student.  This year, I am facing the prospect of having to address the needs of students who completely lack the technology to do the online assignments.  I have considered doing the work via snail mail.  I have also considered opening up the classroom during the summer for students to use the computers to do their homework.  Obviously, this effort would constitute a higher order of commitment from both myself and the students.

Outcomes

Nevertheless, the results and the students' responses were quite encouraging (See Appendix 3). Overall, the pass rate for Japanese 3 this year is higher than all my other classes. Even more encouraging, the number of students earning an A or a B for the first semester jumped dramatically. One class in particular scored all A's and B's with only one exception. Based on a review of the previous year's lessons plans for Japanese 3, this year's Japanese 3 classes moved even more quickly during the first month, and by the end of the semester were at least a week ahead in the amount of material covered.   Many of the students made especially keen comments and suggestions that I plan to implement this summer.

Final Thoughts

My own feelings about the program are quite simple: It represents a fair return on a good amount of work done by the teacher and the students. I plan to continue it this summer for the incoming Japanese 3 students, and with the addition of another Japanese teacher, I hope to expand it so that the incoming Japanese 2 students will not feel left out! Summer homework for everyone!