How 'English Quest' Came About

Mr. Kubo (Co-author of the New Treasure series): "Create a course that follows the New Treasure curriculum" I teach at Kaetsu Ariake with Mr. Kubo and Mr. Yamada, two of the authors of the New Treasure series. When I joined the school, it was my job to create a new Oral Communication program. The guidelines for the course seemed simple, 'Create a course that follows the New Treasure curriculum.' New Treasure is an excellent series, but with only one, or maybe two classes a week to teach oral communication to our students, there's way too much material to get through. Coordinating with the Japanese English teacher, we have to pick and choose the material we are going to teach. However, this can be a challenge, especially if you are new to the series. In my first year at kaetsu ariake, taking key targets from the grammar pages and communication sections, I created a curriculum for first and second grade. This first year required a lot of hard work; first dissecting the New Treasure textbooks, then making worksheets, finally printing hundreds to thousands of photocopies for all the classes. But it was a great learning process. One thing I noticed using the worksheet approach:

The Problem with Worksheets

• Worksheets don't create a solid flow of work that students can review;
• Worksheets usually end up lost or in the trash.
• I can spend several hours a week at the copy machine printing over 1000 sheets of paper!

From this, came the decision to put everything together into a textbook - And as a result:

Why using a textbook has been great!

• The students have taken more responsibility for their textbook and in turn, more responsibility for study in the OC class;
• Reviewing material in class has been much easier, especially around test time;
• Planning has been a breeze as everything is ready to go;
• I spend much less time photocopying - and of course, none of the worksheets end up in the trash;
• It's easier to coordinate with the Japanese English teacher about what to teach each week.

Inside the Textbook

The video gives a quick look at a lessons from English Quest. See how the target was chosen from New Treasure Stage 2, and how the English Quest lesson compliments this target.