Summer Japanese Reading Club
Summer club. The WTMA Summer Japanese Reading Club is designed to keep students practicing their language skills and engaging in reading and discussion over the summer break. Students will come together with their instructor once a week to talk about that week’s reading.
The same reading list is used year by year so that students get the benefit of repeating the “Level 1” stories they read the previous year while also encountering new “Level 2” or “Level 3” stories. When reading, students are asked to follow the rules of tadoku, Japanese-style reading practice: (1) Begin with material that’s below your level; (2) Never use a dictionary; (3) Skip over any individual words you don’t understand; and (4) If you go multiple pages without understanding, try a different text. For this reading club, there is an additional rule: (5) No competing with your fellow club members. Students should seek to improve in comparison to their own previous status, not against anyone else.
There are no formal written assignments — class attendance and participation is the only requirement (in addition to reading the texts). Students who participate in all 8 sessions will receive a WTMA Summer Reading Club t-shirt. Participation credit is earned by attending the live class or by watching the recording of a class and then completing a discussion board response based on a prompt given by the instructor. You may find these prompts under “discussion board” on our course Blackboard page.
All assigned reading for both sections will come from https://tadoku.org/japanese/en/free-books-en/. Students may choose from a variety of options for their elective reading, including rereading texts they used in Japanese class, other books from Tadoku.org or other online sources, or the Satori Reader app if families want to subscribe ($9/month).
Summer Japanese Reading Club Information
- Class meets once per week for 50-55 minutes.
- Class cap: 20 students.
- Designed for grades 7-12.