Grade 5 - Acquiring Information

This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will:

locate information from age-appropriate Japanese-language resources to complete authentic tasks
convey acquired information in oral and visual forms, and to some extent in writing using some words and short phrases in romaji

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Acquiring Information in other grades click on an icon below.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Students employ various strategies in learning a new language. At this level, they are encouraged to use a variety of Japanese resources to acquire information to perform authentic tasks. Students take an active role in their learning by collecting and using Japanese words and short phrases of personal interest and recording them in lists for future use.

Have students review Japanese manga and identify common expressions. Ask them to fill in speech balloons on blank manga with appropriate words or phrases from their personal picture dictionaries.
Provide students with Japanese menus and ask them to infer meaning by finding loan words (e.g., hanbaagaa ) and listing them. Students use this information to draw and label foods served at the restaurant. Students in pairs then survey the class to determine what types of Japanese food each person has sampled.
Ask students to examine a variety of Japanese greeting cards for various celebrations. Encourage them to identify common Japanese expressions and to use these to create their own cards for classmates. Students could use computer programs to generate text and graphics for their cards.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

At this level, assessment focusses on how well students are able to acquire the information needed to perform assigned tasks. Tasks should be designed to allow students to represent and use the information they have acquired without relying on spoken or written language.

As students work with Japanese resources, note and support their efforts to:
- recognize learned words and apply them to new situations
- use visual clues (e.g., illustrations, graphics) to gain meaning
- make predictions based on what they know about Japanese and its forms
Use visual representations to assess students' abilities to listen for information or acquire information from reading. For example, when students read Japanese menus and then draw and label foods served at the restaurant, focus on the extent to which they:
- accurately label foods
- try to include some details
- include a variety of foods
- persist when they have trouble finding or understanding the information they need
Encourage students to reflect on and assess their strategies for extracting specific information. Pose questions such as:
- Were you able to find or figure out from the Japanese resources more or less information than you expected?
- What parts were easy for you?
- What kinds of problems did you have? How did you solve them?
- What strategies did you use when working in Japanese that you want to remember?

RECOMMENDED LEARNING RESOURCES

Print Materials

Basic Japanese-English Dictionary
Everyday Japanese
Japan: An International Travel Map
Japanese - An Appetizer
Martin's Concise Japanese Dictionary
Merriam Webster's Japanese-English Learner's Dictionary

Multimedia

Niko Niko

Revised: January 26, 1999

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