New Horizon: Grade 1, Unit 9

[Otaku]

UNIT 9: CHRISTMAS HAS COME

--KORO: Koro is the dog’s name. Koji is the husband’s name. I think these two names are too similar because my students kept mixing them up during reading.

--GRANDMA/PA: On page 73, I can only conclude the people who I don’t know in the picture are the grandparents? There is no reference anywhere about them in the text, but page 72-73 mentions everyone else in the picture. Uuumm…why even put them in the picture if you’re not going to reference them everybody? Come on! You reference the dog but not the old folks?!?!? Put the old fogies out in the snow, for goodness sake!

--CHRISTMAS PRESENTS: On page 73, why are there no presents under the tree? And, why is the tree in the corner of the room?

--CHRISTMAS CARDS: Honestly, we all remember being a kid. Look at Shin and Mike and honestly tell me if you were ever that excited when looking at a Christmas postcard. It was all about the cards that had money in them and the presents.

--AUSTRALIA: On page 74, it says, “In Australia is in summer.” To me, that sounds kinda strange. I think it would be better stated: “It is summer in Australia now.”

--TIME-SPECIFIC LESSONS: I’m not quite sure I like lessons that focus on specific times of the year because to me it perpetuates the mentality to teach to the tests and for everyone to teach at the same speed. Considering the culture and the mentality that everyone is the same in Japan, AND considering that schools don’t separate students based upon their actual ability (handicap and uber-smart students), teachers move through their textbooks at different speeds – some faster than others. When one of my teachers got to this lesson one year, it was at the end of February…Christmas was waaayyy past.

--DEER: I don’t think it is a good idea to use this particular word in the example because the plural of deer is “deer”. Students had recently learned how to make nouns into plurals, and now you tell them this noun doesn’t need an ‘S’. There’s enough for the students to be worrying about than confusing them with this little piece of information. Simply change the sign to a bear.

--“OH, RIGHT”: I don’t like this sentence. It sounds too similar to “all right.”

--CONVO NOT STUDENT ORIENTATED: On page 76, there’s a conversation between Lisa and Koji that takes place in a car. Students are 12-13 years old. They ride bikes. No experience with cars, so why include a ‘car’ conversation?

--WE VS. I: On page 78, it describes an average student’s daily schedule. All of the events are explained using “I” except for the lunch area; it uses “we”. No! No! No! Talk about YOUR OWN schedule, not as a collective whole.

--SPEAKING PLUS 3: Oh, where do I begin!?!? 1.) It has two different “goodbye” and “Bye” phrases on these pages. Why not only use one to keep it simple for the students? 2.) In red text, on page 81, it says “goodbye,” “good-by” and “good-bye” are all expectable forms of “sayonara”. Uuummm, what the hell is “good-by”? 3.) Also, in red text on page 81, Bin responds with, “OK, let’s.” English-speakers always joke around about this particular expression half-heartedly mocking Japanese/English but I didn’t think it was actually in the textbooks!!! 4.) What are the actual chances that a Japanese student is going to be talking on the phone in a foreign language? 5.) Nowhere in the phone conversation does it say where the party is at.

[gsuiris]

--CHRISTMAS PRESENTS: On page 73, why are there no presents under the tree? And, why is the tree in the corner of the room?

My family always had the tree in the corner. That is where the outlet was, plus it made it so we didn't have to rearrange our house totally every year.

Also, since they say it is Christmas Day, and it looks like they are going to serve Christmas dinner, maybe everyone already opened their presents? I know a lot of families open presents in the morning, then have dinner.

[peet]

I wouldn't have noticed this is a previous ALT hadn't penciled it into my book, but on p.76 "Driving near Toronto" - judging by the photo, "near" means 3000km west, in the Rocky Mts.

[Otaku]

I wouldn't have noticed this is a previous ALT hadn't penciled it into my book, but on p.76 "Driving near Toronto" - judging by the photo, "near" means 3000km west, in the Rocky Mts.

Is that picture REALLY from the Rocky Mountains?

[peet]

Definitely looks more Rocky than Appalachian. Looking closer, I guess there could be some areas of upper-state New York that might look a bit like that; but even that would be a few hrs east. Toronto is pretty flat.

At any rate, it cracked me up when we were reading in class today and I noticed that someone had written in my book, "Rockies are 3000km west of Toronto" next to the photo.

[Richard_BenoitEnglipedia Drone]

Is that picture REALLY from the Rocky Mountains?

Hard to tell. The mountains look pretty significant, but I couldn't rule out the area around the blue mountain ski resort in Collingwood. (near Toronto)