2015 IIME REPORTCountrySchoolPartner[ Taiwan ][ Wen Ya Elementary School ] Teacher [ Hsiu-Jung Tsai ] grade ( 4 ) student number (26 )[ (JP) Yonaizumi Elementary School ] Teacher [ Noriyuki Nakamura ]# Subjects, Activities and Times of the lessons
Subject
Conception of the lesson
We learned the local history in social studies. So, we introduced the importantSocial Studies
features in Chia Yi City to our Japanese friends.
We pointed out the good manners that our school would like us to follow thisMoral Studies
school year. We presented the theme on the mural as well.
We read the information given by our partner class and we understood theCulture Studies
differences between Taiwan and JapanArt

We made the draft and painted on the mural.

Hours422
10# Theme and Message of the mural
Theme

Lessons We Have Learned

Message

There are so many interesting topics presented in the textbooks. So, we decided to paintwhat we have learned from the curriculum and showed it to our partner class.

# Effects and the Problems
Effects your students have gained
From the Artmile Project, the students had thesecond chance to present what they have earned
from the curriculum. From reading what the partnerclass has painted, we had the chance to know thatevery culture is unique and admiring.

Points for further improvement
Limited English ability made the student-to-student
communication a bit difficult. However, short video
clips facilitated the visual communication. For theyounger kids with less English ability, the use ofvideo clips is certainly a good solution to the verbal
communication.

# How has your impression toward your partner country and/or the world changed?
Change in student’s impression
Change in teacher’s impression
Elementary school students cared about the changes Students were creative and full of energy to makein the city they lived. They read the old story of their their dreams come true. Teachers had positive
city and they develop their own ideas about the feedbacks about global exchange and it was not a
future of the city. They earlier they were encouraged hard task for them.
to think beforehand, the better their ideas would
come true in the future.

# Flow of the Activity
ContentMonthIntroduction

ResearchSep.

Oct.

Composition

Nov.

PaintingJan.

Appreciation
Reflection

Feb.

What you did
We wrote greeting cards toour partner class and asked
them to offer the theme
they liked to research.
Our partner offered us abroad topic so we got a bit
confused. However, painting
what we have learned fromthe curriculum helped us toreview the lessons we hadlearned.
We downloaded the drafts
and thought carefully what
we could draw on the mural.
We read through our
textbook again to find themost suitable ideas.
We formed into small groups
and took turns to paint. Mostof the time, we listened toour art teacher because she
had a clearer view of themural.
We read through the muralagain and again. We tried tofind the balance on the twosides. So, we tried hard toinclude
Taiwanese
andJapanese ideas on themural.

Your students attitude/reflection
Writing in English is not easy. We could
not write much English to our Japanese
friends.
Focusing on the features of our city isgood for us to pay extra attention to ourown culture. We would like to have aclose look at what we have had to sharewith our partner class.

Students were excited to talk about theirideas and some suggestions did soundgood. Maybe some points could notmatch well with other points. We decided
to wait for our partners’ drawing andmade the final decision later.
It was fun to join the project. We set up
the schedule and started painting during
winter vacation. It was good that we had
winter vacation so that we could pay ourfull attention to painting. We did not haveto worry about the busy class time.
The more time we read the mural, themore ideas we had. In order tocorrespond well with our partners’
drawing, we added more points on themural. We hoped our partners would likeour ideas.

Subject
EnglishSocialStudies

SocialStudies
EnglishArtArt# Aim of the Lessons and Result
Aim: Rank A to C in order you put emphasis on (A: very much/ B: much / C: not so much)
Result: Rank 5 to 1 (5: very effective / 4: effective / 3: so- so / 2: not so effective / 1: not effective at all)

Expected Effect

Aim

ResultUnderstanding our own
cultures

A5

Understanding theother’s cultures
Communication abilityin the class/with partners

IT skills

B4C

3C

3

How your students have reached it
We read through our textbooks again, intending to find thepossible topics or features that we could paint on the mural.
Our partners painted the mural quite well so that it was easy for
us to understand what they wanted to share on the mural. As aresult, we could find the similar images from Taiwan to cope withthe theme.
Because of the limited English ability, we needed English
teachers’ help for communication. So, the communication
across countries was a bit hard.
Students did not have the chance to work on the forum. They
did not deal with the technical problem while the Skype talkstarted. However, they had good abilities to sort out the photos
and information they might need on the project.

Creating friendship

B

4

A

5

Attitude in learning

B

4

Expression ability

B

4

Appreciation abilityB3

in the class/with partners

Collaborationin the class/with partners

We had good time reading every message from our partner class.
We saw the value of having the friends from Japan. Language
difference did not stop our sense of attachment because weread the loving faces from photos and video clips.
We were proud of ourselves because we formed into smallergroups and finished the painting work. Everyone was important
while working on the project. We loved to feel that we werecapable of completing the huge mural.
We were highly motivated to find the time to complete theproject. We did not worry if we would paint anything wrong. The
paints always dried quickly so that we could paint again if wefound anything less perfect.
We knew more about our own culture and our partners’ culture.
We could explain what we wanted to show in Chinese and wehope we would be able to explain it in English, too.
Our students always looked at the positive sides of the mural.
They did not care if the objects looked like the real ones
because they understood that painting perfectly was impossible.