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Introduction
Taking attendance is a very strong method of pulling a class together and sending signals to
its members that "now" is the time to speak English. Students are naturally quiet when
attendance is being taken because they are waiting for their name to be called.
In addition,
taking attendance is also a subtle way of getting students to know each other's names. Unlike
regular school, where they get to be together five days a week, most private English school
classes consist of students from various areas of the community who only get to meet once a week.
When the teacher takes attendance, it is a cultural dip into a foreign custom because in English,
as you all know, the first name is called before the last. This is a natural way for students to
notice that this is how names are called in English. In addition, the children should be taught
how to say HERE in English as opposed to yes which is a direct translation for the Japanese 'hai'.
Some Ideas
There are many variations of how the teacher can take attendance. For beginning students I would
recommend that the teacher use the procedure described above. For a step higher level class, the
teacher can say to each student "How are you?" after calling his/her name. And the
student would reply "I'm fine, thank you."
With a higher level class, after calling the student's name, the teacher could ask the student a
question, such as "How old are you? When's your birthday? What's your favorite color?"
The student would reply and the other students would listen.
With yet a higher level class, a student could take attendance and ask his/her peers these
questions or other ones. Elementary students who have been studying at our school for several
years can easily do this. They have lots of English questions/phrases in their heads!
Also with higher level classes, the teacher can write some questions on the blackboard which
reflect the grammar points you have done in class. And the student can chose from those questions.
For example, Who is tallest in your family? Do you have your own room? Can your mother drive a
car? Do you have any brothers or sisters?
Summary
The point that I would like to make is that taking attendance is more than meets the eye. It
should never be overlooked. It can be used as a way to document who is in class for the teacher,
but it can also be used as a warm-up and an ice-breaker to ease students into the English
speaking mode.
Students thrive on asking simple questions of each other at the beginning of
class, which in turn helps them acclimate themselves in the transition from the Japanese world
to the English speaking one. Taking attendance can work as a catalyst to achieve this goal.
Please use it to your advantage.
Helene Jarmol Uchida
Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum
development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan.
She is the director of the Fukuoka-based
Little America English Schools
and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the
LATEM seminars every year
in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book',
an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese
elementary school students.
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