Learning Learning『学習の学習』 23 (1): local Get Together Reports

Getting Connected: Local Get Together Reports fromKansai, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, and Tokyo
つながりを求めて：関西・広島 ・福岡・東京

KansaiChris Fitzgerald & Anita Aden
In the current incarnation of Kansai Learner
Development get-togethers, a growing groupof teachers have been meeting at a community
center in Kyoto since November last year. The
support and camaraderie found in this LD SIG
group makes gathering together a positive
experience each month.
In our latest meeting, the fifth, held on
April 17, we began with a short discussion
about new teaching positions and newchallenges in our current jobs. We then went
on to talk about the CEFR conference, wherewe had held the previous get-together inMarch, before moving on to discussing the useof rubrics for assessment and learnerdevelopment. There was a brief discussion
about creating an event for students to meet
together or for students to do a poster
presentation on a topic of their choosing. In
response to this idea, Agi Patko described theCreating Community: Learning Together eventin December 2015, where the Tokyo LD groupbrought together students and teachers in ajoint program of presenting posters on varioustopics.
The discussions at the Kansai LD gettogethers have been dynamic and energetic,with attendees keen to hear from like-mindededucators in a variety of contexts and offer
suggestions and advice, capturing the ethos at
the heart of what makes the LD SIG such an
inclusive and friendly SIG. We have managed
to get good-sized groups through word ofmouth and online forums, but are always
looking to get the word out about our gettogethers to the broader LD community. All
are welcome to future gatherings and the next
meetings are scheduled for May 14, June 11,and July 19: we look forward to yourparticipation. For more information, pleasejoin the Kansai Learner Development group onFacebook.

Newsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>

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Learning Learning『学習の学習』 23 (1): local Get Together Reports

Hiroshima
Jim Ronald
Over the last few months the Hiroshima
Learner Development get-together has
continued to meet, on a more or less monthly
basis. We meet at a table in the lobby of theRyugakusei Kaikan, or in one of the meetingrooms. With a total group of about 20 people,
and a core of maybe 12-15 occasional orregular joiners, there are usually about six toeight of us at the meetings. We’ve continued,with varying success from chapter to chapter,
to meet to discuss Thomas Farrell’s Reflective
Language Teaching: From Research toPractice. Our December get-together wasreplaced with our annual, and increasingly
popular Inter-College Scrabble contest,
managed by Monika Szirmai. In March, six of us
met for our regular LD get-together just before
the new school year started. We started byhearing each other’s news and changes: newworkplaces, new family circumstances, newclasses and activities. One such new out-ofclass activity just starting at Hiroshima Shudo
University is the English Dreamers’ Club. Thisidea was born through a student’s story andthe reflection of the LD SIG Talking Points blog
with Naomi Fujishima last year, then revised
and now being managed with a great bunch ofstudents. We also talked about games in andbeyond the classroom. These ranged from
Taboo to picture shiritori to “message brick”
Jenga: with DIY messages or bought
readymade. (One version, “Love Jenga”,
sounded interesting but may not be suitable
for most classes!) Exit tickets for student
reflection at the end of class (see Jim
Scrivener’s Classroom Management Techniques

学習者ディベロプメント研究部会 <ld-sig.org/>

for an explanation) were also mentioned, andwe heard about an electronic version of theseavailable at Socrative (thanks, Ariel!).
Altogether, it was a good end to the old school
year—and a good start to the new one.

FukuokaMathew Porter
There’s not much to report from Fukuoka atthe moment. There aren’t a lot of LD SIG
members in Kyushu (perhaps a dozen or so)and the few people who seem interested indiscussions or collaboration haven’t been able
to get together due to scheduling conflicts.
Regardless, the dream lives on. I’m hoping tofind like-minded educators willing to meet a
few times a year to share ideas about
supporting learner autonomy in the classroom
and greater use of the target language outsideof the classroom. In particular, I’m interested
in the possibility of working together with agroup of educators in Fukuoka to recreate theACE Conference (http://acestudentconference.weebly.com/
about.html), which provides students with twodays of English discussion, collaborative
problem solving, and presentations. With somany schools in the area, I’m confident that
we could create meaningful opportunities forall of our students if we worked together. If
you are interested or have other suggestions,please don’t hesitate to get in touch<portermathew@hotmail.com>. You don’t
need to be an LD member to join thediscussion.

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Learning Learning『学習の学習』 23 (1): local Get Together Reports

Tokyo
Andy Barfield, Blair Barr & Ken Ikeda
We'd like to share with you some directions
for the get-togethers in 2016 where, following
discussions in February and March, we areaiming to create a common focus on doing,talking about, and sharing small-scale/
practitioner research into learnerdevelopment issues thatinterest you and otherLD participants.
Our first get-together this year took
place on February 21. In the afternoon people
shared their research histories and talked
about their learner development interests forthe coming year. For a more detailed set ofreflections on the February get-together,please go to <http://ld-sig.org/tokyo-gettogethers/february-2016/>. At the end of theafternoon people wished a fond farewell toAgnes, who is moving to Kyoto to start a newstage in her career, and a warm welcome toBlair as co-coordinator for the Tokyo gettogethers in 2016. Talking through ideas forthis year, the three of us thought it would beinteresting to include as part of the April, Mayand June get-togethers a workshop focus for
60-90 minutes on different inclusive
approaches to practitioner research on
learner development issues. The idea would
be that in the first part of each get-together
people taking part would have space, asbefore, to talk about their own learnerdevelopment interests, questions, andpuzzles, while, in the second half, there
would be an interactive workshop on aparticular way of doing practitioner researchon learner development issues.
For the April 24 get-together, Alison

Stewart started this new approach with aworkshop on Exploratory Practice (EP) in thesecond half of the get-together, which
included a lot of lively discussion of theconcept and its possible application. A warm
thank you to Alison for helping set in motion
this new way of doing get-togethers. For theMay 15 get-together, we are very pleased toannounce that Alex Shaitan and Caroline
Kocel-Ross will be leading a workshop on
doing interviews, and for the June 19 gettogether, Masuko Miyahara will run a 60-to
90-minute workshop on narrative research.
These workshops are expected to follow
roughly the same format as for April, so again
people attending will have plenty of time andspace for talking about their own learnerdevelopment interests. Our sincere thanks go
to Alex, Caroline, and Masuko too.
If you would like to know more about theTokyo-get-togethers, you can find informationon the SIG’s website here: http://ld-sig.org/
tokyo-get-togethers/. Feel free to email us
too at <ldsigtokyogettogethers@gmail.com>.

LD SIG get-together Contacts
Kansai: Anita Aden
(strawberry2410@yahoo.com)
Hiroshima: Jim Ronald (jmronald@gmail.com)
Fukuoka: Mathew Porter(portermathew@hotmail.com)
Tokyo: Andy Barfield, Blair Barr, Ken Ikeda(barfield.andy@gmail.com;digger75ca@yahoo.ca; kodanuki@gmail.com)
If there isn’t a local get-together near you,and you know of two or three LD members who
might be interested in joining you, why notstart one?

Newsletter of the JALT Learner Development SIG <ld-sig.org/>

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