Each year for the last three years the JLTASA has held a Year 10 Movie Making Day to give Year 10 students studying Japanese across the state a chance to meet other like-minded students studying Japanese, use social learning, be creative and innovative, use Japanese language in authentic ways, and challenge themselves. The students do some warm up games, and get to know each other to start the day and then watch some for the year’s best Japanese commercials in order to start developing an understanding of the common ideas, themes, messages and music. There are good discussions around analysing culture, comparing Australian and Japanese commercials and thinking about what this teachers us about Japanese people, culture and society.
From here in groups of four from different schools, students select one of the Japanese items and create their own commercial for it using Japanese props, and locations around the school such as the Japanese garden and わしつ at St John’s Grammar School. Key vocab and helpful grammar is discussed and teachers support students throughout the day. In this time-frame, students create, write, direct, act and edit their commercial ready to show to the group where they are presented and judged by the teachers and ‘people’s choice’ by the students.
Feedback has been very positive from the students involved and they always enjoy the sushi lunch. It would be great to have more schools involved. It is held in the early Term 2 to be mindful of subject selection timing and Japanese school visits. Please let Catherine Emmerson know if you are interested in attending and also if there is a better time for your students. cemmerson@stjohns.sa.edu.au