Eric Kane , Ben Shearon , Lesley Ito

Location: Zoom link will be sent to all who RSVP at http://bit.ly/TJALTrsvp Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/230039791967592 
This event, sponsored by Tokyo JALT and the TYL SIG, is for teachers of kids to young adults, so teachers of preschool, kindergarten, elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school, are all encouraged to come! As always, there will be great, short presentations and lots of time for discussion and networking. Here is the line-up of presenters:
Eric Kane: Boom Chicka Boom Boom – Rhythm and Melody Basics in the Classroom
Ben Shearon: From Torture to Bliss: How a focus on fluency made JHS English better for teachers and students
Lesley Ito: Title Teaching grammar to children: What’s the best way?
Eric Kane:
Abstract: COVID-19 has affected families, friends and all professions, including teachers. Especially teachers! Our school found ourselves leaning a lot on online resources, and as we primarily teach children, most of those resources were chants and songs. Why is that? Rhythm and melody are core components in a child’s path towards English language acquisition. Understanding and using these concepts frequently can increase the depth and pace in which our students acquire language. The best part? It’s pretty easy. Bonus! In this online seminar, we will look at how and why the human brain absorbs language easier and better when funky beats are a part of the curriculum. We will look at practical ways of incorporating this into our classrooms and hopefully have a darn good time doing it.
Bio: Eric has spent the past 25 years in Japan as a student, teacher, school owner, YouTuber, and founder of ELF Learning. In his free time he enjoys barbecuing, craft beer, spending time in Nagano, and tickling penguins when the opportunity arises.
Ben Shearon:
Abstract: Teaching junior high school students in an eikaiwa setting is a challenge for many schools. Often students and parents choose to move to a juku to focus on ‘academic English’ and even students that remain can feel their studies are not helping them much with their school classes. In this presentation I will describe the evolution of a medium-sized eikaiwa’s English classes for junior high school students, and how they went from the least enjoyable to most enjoyable to teach. Student engagement, achievement, recruitment, and retention went through the roof after implementing these changes. For teachers at public and private junior high schools it should be possible to implement the same principles in regular school English classes.
Bio: Ben Shearon was born in Germany and grew up in Spain but is saddled with a British passport. He’s been teaching for 21 years, 20 of them in Japan and has taught in public elementary, junior, and senior high schools as well as universities. He helps his wife run an English school, blogs infrequently at sendaiben.org and writes about personal finance on his other website.
Lesley Ito:
Abstract: People often mistakenly think that methods used to teach grammar to adults , such as explicit teaching of grammar rules using meta-language or consciousness-raising, will work well with children. The presenter will share what current literature says on this matter, as well as the results of her own action research. Methods that are effective for teaching grammar to children will be demonstrated, such as storytelling and extensive reading, as well as grammar triggers, a method developed by the presenter in her own classroom.
Bio: Lesley Ito is a well-known teacher, teacher trainer, school owner, and award-winning materials writer based in Nagoya. She has taught in Japan for over twenty-five years, won “Best of JALT” in 2011, and has presented professionally throughout Japan, and at the ER World Congress in Dubai, UAE. Winner of the 2015 LLL Award in the Young Learner Category for Backstage Pass, her ELT writing credits include teacher’s guides, workbooks, graded readers, and the e-book Fifty Ways to Teach Young Learners: Tips for ESL/EFL Teachers.