2015 IIME REPORTCountrySchoolPartner[ Taiwan ][ Wen Ya Elementary School ][ (JP) Nishi Elementary School

Teacher [ Min-Yi Tsai ] grade (5 ) student number (28 )]Teacher [ Hiroshi Takamoto ]# Subjects, Activities and Times of the lessons
Subject
Conception of the lesson
We surfed on the Internet and figured out the features of Chinese cultures inTaiwan. This was something that we have learned from the social studies. So,Social Studies
we decided to introduce the important features in Chia Yi City to our Japanesefriends.
We read the information given by our partner class and we understood theCulture Studies
differences between Taiwan and Japan

Hours62ICT

We surfed on the Internet to find more information about our culture

2ArtWe made the draft and painted on the mural.

10# Theme and Message of the mural
Theme

Cultures in Chia Yi City and Kanazawa CityMessage

There are so many interesting cultural topics to share with our Japanese friends. So, wespent time collecting data and information about the Taiwanese culture, hoping that ourpartners would love them, too.

# Effects and the Problems
Effects your students have gainedForm the Artmile Project, the students had thesecond chance to present what they have earned
from the curriculum last year. Besides, from reading
what the partner class has painted, we had thechance to know that every culture is unique andadmiring.

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
In order to create more topics for exchange, we read They more the students researched on their own
through the Taiwanese features and set up the culture, they better they loved their mother land. By
possible topics that we could draw on the mural. We way of global exchange, students have better sense
found our cultures so unique and worth mentioning. of their country. Consequently, teachers had positive
The sense of loving our own culture appeared feedbacks about global exchange and it was not anaturally.
difficult task for them.

# Flow of the Activity
ContentMonthIntroduction

ResearchComposition

Sep.

Oct.

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 agood topic to research so we
got excited about the theme.
So, painting what we have
known about our own culture
helped us to review thebeauty of Taiwan.
We downloaded the draftsand thought carefully what
we could draw on the mural.
We surfed on the Internet
again to find the mostsuitable 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 Japanesefriends.
Focusing on the beauty of culture 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 but some suggestions did soundgood. We found it hard to choose so we
decided to wait for our partners’ drawing
and made 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

SocialStudiesEnglishArtArt# 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

AimResult

Understanding our owncultures

A5

Understanding theother’s cultures
Communication ability
in the class/with partners

B4C4

How your students have reached it
We read many books and written materials, intending to find thepossible Taiwanese 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.

IT skills

C4

B4

A

5

Attitude in learning

B

4Expression ability

B

4

Appreciation ability

B

4

Creating friendshipin the class/with partners

Collaborationin the class/with partners

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.
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. Thepaints 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.