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2017 J-LEAP REPORTOCTOBER, 2017: BREEZE ISSUE #120
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OFJAPANESE

2017 J-LEAP REPORTBY MIYAKO TADADunsmore Elementary School
La Crescenta, CA
Konnichiwa! Hello. My name is Miyako Tada, aJapanese assistant teacher from the J-LEAPprogram. I came from Tokyo, Japan. I havebeen working at Dunsmore Elementary Schoolin La Crescenta, California, for a month and ahalf and I teach Japanese to second gradestudents, to be more precise, I teach somesecond grade subjects in Japanese with my lead teacher, Erlewine sensei. I would be happy toknow if you have some interest in the place where I live, my school, and Japanese education inthe U.S. through this article.
State of California and La Crescenta
California is the third biggest state by area and has the largest population in the U.S. When I
heard that California is almost as same size as Japan (it’s about 1.1 times as big as Japan) for
the first time, I could not believe it for a while. What a big country! I can’t forget that surprise.
There are many famous cities in California such as San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, andLos Angeles. La Crescenta is located north of Los Angeles County. Many people might imagine
blue sky/ocean, and beach when they hear “Los Angeles”. I was also one of them. However, La
Crescenta is closer to the mountains and it is a bit far from the famous sightseeing spots or
beaches of Los Angeles, but it is a very calm and quiet town surrounded by a lot of nature. My
school’s campus is also full of tree and flowers, which I really like.

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Dunsmore Elementary SchoolMy school, Dunsmore Elementary, is a public school for students from kindergarten to sixth
grade, and is operated by Glendale Unified School District (GUSD). This school district offers
dual immersion language programs called the FLAG program (Foreign Language Academies ofGlendale). This program allows students to study in two languages, both English and the target
language in their classes. Japanese dual immersion program is available in two elementaryschools and one middle school in the district and Dunsmore Elementary is one of them. TheJapanese immersion program started in 2014 at Dunsmore Elementary and because of that
there are currently only 4 grade levels for immersion students (kindergarten through thirdgrade). Grades will increase by one every year until all seven grades are covered. Since ourschool adopts the 50/50 immersion program, students receive instructions in Japanese for 50%of the day and in English for the remaining 50% of the day. Each grade has 2 classes and 2teachers, Japanese speaking and English speaking teachers. The language used in class
instruction is “switched” in the middle of the day, so both languages are covered. This meansthat a teacher gives instructions to 2 different classes every day and it is one of biggest
difference compared to non-immersion schools.
My ClassAs I mentioned earlier, my lead teacher, Erlewine sensei and I are in charge of the secondgrade Japanese class. My main job is to help my lead teacher and students during class tomake the class run smoothly. We teach various subjects such as Japanese literacy, math,science, social studies, music, art and PE. Now, I want to introduce some subjects that ourstudents are studying.
Japanese literacy: students learn Japanese words, practice Kanji (Chinese character) andOndoku (reading Japanese stories aloud).
Science: the current topic is life sciences and they learn how rocks get smaller in nature.
Music: they practice “Tonbo no megane” that is a famous Japanese children’s song.
The main feature of this immersion program isthat we basically use only Japanese when weare in class. This means that all of the classactivities such as giving instructions, writing,and having conversations with students arecarried out in Japanese. At the same time, thestudents are also expected to use Japanese
during the whole time in our class even whenthey speak to their friends. However, I feel thisis one of the most difficult points in class. We
have a total of 46 students in second grade
and our students have a very diverse
background. Some use Japanese at home andsome don’t. Some have experience living in Japan while some have never been to Japan.
Some are so-called half, double, or mixed-race children and some are not. Because of theirdiversity, the level of Japanese ability differs from student to student. Problems happen Privacy - Terms

frequently like students who are weak in Japanese and can’t follow the lecture. Therefore, weare trying to figure out a good way to close this gap using different strategies. For example,
using a lot of visual materials, using easier words, splitting class into smaller groups, orteaching individually while one of us is giving the main instruction in class. Sometimes, I feellike using English because it is easier way to explain and understand each other. However, I amvery happy when students finally understand in Japanese and they respond saying “Arigato(Thank you)”. This is the moment that I feel the most satisfaction from this job. I am a novice
teacher now, but I want to keep improving my skills, and trying to make our class more
comfortable to study and fun with Erlewine sensei for the next 2 years!

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