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The language is graded for vocabulary, complexity of grammar structures and also by the number of words. They are made to cater for all levels from beginners through to advanced.

Many schools use graded readers so find out if your school has some. They can be a great resource if you feel the need to do something a bit different and change the class dynamics.

Why use graded readers
For most language learners, reading a book in English would be a daunting task. They would find too many unknown words and be presented with language way beyond their level which would make understanding the book very difficult. If learners start with graded readers they won't have to stop and look up lots of unknown words in the dictionary. Research has shown that students who read in English improve in every area of language learning at a faster rate than students who don't read. Readers can be an excellent way to motivate your students and they should be a really enjoyable part of the course.

Class readers
If you have access to class sets of readers they can be an excellent teaching resource. The idea is that every student in the class has a copy of the same reader. How students actually read the book depends on many factors including their age, motivation levels and class time available. If you do have time to make the reading part of the class there are many ways to go about it. Some classes like to read silently, others like to read aloud in small groups and some enjoy being read to by the teacher. However you go about it, be sensitive to the class and ask for their opinions. Reading should be seen as a pleasurable part of the course and not something to be endured. The great thing about reading a book together is that you suddenly have a whole set of characters and a story that everyone is familiar with to use as a basis for class activities.

Class libraries
If your school has a library or a collection of graded readers, you could bring a selection to the class. Students should choose their own book according to their personal preferences. If you have a large selection of books and students are keen to read why not start some sort of reading club? I have recently set up a 'Bookworm project' with an off-site class and the library consists of a selection of readers which we keep in a shoe box. I rotate the selection on a weekly basis from the school library. Students have a bookmark each and on the front there's space for them to write the titles of the books they've read. On the back they record new words. In the class we have a 'Bookworm chart' and each student has their own worm they move up the chart each time they finish a book. I've been really surprised at how keen the students have become at reading. One student has flown off the chart and I've had to make an extension as he's read 12 books already. As they finish a book they spend a few minutes telling me about it and I ask them a few simple questions.

Activities
Readers can be a starting point for hundreds of different types of project work. Here are a few tried and tested ideas to get you started.

Pre reading activities

Guess the story from the cover
Show the cover to the class and elicit as much vocabulary as you can. Students then guess the story and write short summaries of the imaginary plot. These could be kept until you have read the book to see which one was closest to the real story.

Jumbled chapter titles
Give strips of paper with the chapter titles on to students in pairs or groups. They decide the best order for the chapters and think about the possible story. Compare the answers with the other groups and then look in the book to see who was closest.

Find out about the author
Ask students what they know about the author. Ask students to write some questions about the author that they would like to know the answers too. Then use the internet to search for the answers to the questions. If you don't have access to the internet for the students try to print off some information yourself and have it stuck around the room for the students to skim read and try to find the answers. Try typing the name of the author and the title of the book into a search engine and select the most suitable site for the age group or level. You could also try the site www.biography.com which has over 250,000 concise and clear biographies.

Photocopy the pictures
If the reader has pictures or photos, enlarge these and use them to familiarise the students with the main characters. Students can read the introduction page or the back of the book to guess who is who.

During Reading

Comic strips
Choose a suitable chapter or chapters that can be broken down into chunks to make a comic strip. Encourage students to be creative with the characters and give them examples of the type of language to put in the speech bubbles. This can also be done when you have finished reading the book.

Radio plays
In groups students select part of the book to make into a radio play. Students are assigned character roles and one is the narrator. Plays can be recorded and listened back to. Encourage students to really get into the roles of the character they are playing. For younger students the tapes of all groups could be listened to and students could vote on the best radio play. If you are into podcasting it would be great to publish their plays on the internet afterwards!

News articles
Students become journalists and report on part of the story. Choose a piece of action and students write it up as if it were to be published in a national or local paper. Focus on writing good headlines and prepare the articles in the format of a newspaper story.

Video parallels
If the reader you are using in class has a film version use this to spot the differences in the plot between the book and the film. Ask students whether they want to start with the book or the film. It may be better to start with the book so that students can create their own visual images of the characters. They can then compare their imagined characters with those in the film.

Horoscopes
At an appropriate stage in the plot development, students write horoscopes for the characters predicting their future. From what they know so far about their personalities, which star sign do they think they are? At a later stage these can be used to compare against the real events of the book. Did the horoscope prediction come true?
In the characters' shoes
Students role-play an interview with one of the characters. Take a couple of the main characters 'out' of the book and bring them into the classroom! Assign students the roles of the characters and the rest of the class prepare questions they would like to ask them. The students playing the roles of the characters must try to put themselves in the characters' shoes and give suitable answers. Time and support must be given by the teacher to both the interviewees and the interviewers in order to make this successful. Depending on the book you could imagine that the interviews are taking place in a police station, on a TV chat show or wherever seems appropriate.

Post reading activities

Book reviews
The most obvious post-reading task is a book review. Get students to give the book a star rating from one to five. Before doing this it would help to look at the style and language of book reviews. Have a look on the websites of the publishers of your reader. They have lots of simple book reviews that can be used as models for the students' work. For children's classes take a look at www.kidsreads.com for some ideas.
Quiz time
In teams students prepare questions about the book's plot and character's. Questions would be used in an inter-team quiz to see which group is the most knowledgeable. This may involve students re-reading parts of the book.

All the publishers of graded readers have materials on their websites to accompany the books. Check out the sites for some ready-made downloadable material.

Further reading

Extensive reading. by Graham Stanley.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/extensive.shtml

Reading aloud, by James Houltby.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/

Using Readers in the ESL, EFL Classroom, by Lindsay Clandfield with Jo Budden
http://www.onestopenglish.com/teacher_support

Helbling Readers blog with resources and lesson plans
blog.helblingreaders.com

Helbling Readers
www.helblingreaders.com

Publisher's websites

Macmillan
http://www.macmillaneducation.com/

Cambridge University Press.
http://www.cambridge.org/elt/readers

Penguin Readers.
http://www.penguinreaders.com

Mary Glasgow Magazines.
http://www.link2english.com

Burlington Books.
http://www.burlingtonbooks.com

Black Cat.
http://www.blackcat-cideb.com

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The language is graded for vocabulary, complexity of grammar structures and also by the number of words. They are made to cater for all levels from beginners through to advanced. Many schools use graded readers so find out if your school has some.

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You're beginning to learn Japanese, so you need to learn hiragana. Most Japanese teachers will get you started with a hiragana chart. Unfortunately, the majority of charts aren't that great.

Having made a few hiragana charts in my time, I've seen a lot of them. There are so many styles, types, and methods out there. But you have to find the chart that fits your learning style.

That's why we collected 27 of the best (and only the best) hiragana charts out there. You can compare charts and pick the one that's right for you. Or you can grab them all and fill a binder. The choice is yours. Scroll on.

Standard Hiragana Charts

These hiragana charts are simple and boring. But there's nothing wrong with that. 99.99% of Japanese learners will receive charts like these. They do their job and are easy on printer ink cartridges. For new students of Japanese, any one of these would be my first recommendation.

Tofugu's Hiragana Chart

The first on our list is our very own. It's used on Tofugu's "Learn Hiragana" page (you should check it out if you are learning hiragana and haven't picked a method, or just want to learn hiragana way faster than everyone else). It's very basic, printable (in black and white), and contains not only the main kana, but the dakuten/combo hiragana as well.

No bells and whistles and nothing fancy about it, but it works. Click the image to download the full sized version. Same rule goes for the other charts in this list (click for full size).

Dr. Moku's Hiragana Chart

Dr. Moku is an app that teaches hiragana using mnemonics. It's effective, and I recommend it to anyone that doesn't connect with Tofugu's hiragana mnemonics.

This is their basic hiragana chart, though, so no mnemonics here. Still, it's a nice, simple one that will be helpful for a lot of Japanese students.

Alternatively, download it from the original source. Be sure to check out all the other things that Dr. Moku has to offer as well, especially if you're learning hiragana.

Tofugu's "Retired" Hiragana Chart

This is our old hiragana chart. Nothing wrong with it. You may even prefer its patina.

It's similar to our current one. It just has a different style.

Mnemonic-Based Hiragana Charts

When it comes to learning and memorization, mnemonics are the best way to go, hands down. So it's only natural that a few mnemonic-based hiragana charts have been created. If you're planning on taking this route, you should feel free to mix and match individual kana mnemonics. Not all mnemonics connect with all people. Some will feel more personal (and thus more effective) than others. Grab the mnemonics that work best for you to learn hiragana even quicker.

Tofugu's Hiragana Mnemonics Chart

Because our hiragana learning method is all about mnemonics, we put together a "hiragana mnemonic chart".

If the mnemonics do their job, you won't even need this chart after awhile.

Hiragana Mnemonics Chart by Timothy Stouth & Alexis Cowan

These hiragana mnemonics, made by Timothy Stouth and Alexis Cowan are a lot of fun. There are a lot of mnemonics in here I hadn't seen before.

Alternatively, download the original hiragana chart pdf.

Hiragana Mnemonics Chart by Hatasa-Sensei

I found these hiragana mnemonics on this page. This person got these mnemonics from a Hatasa-Sensei. It looks like he's a professor at Purdue.

Good on Hatasa-Sensei for coming up with and sharing these hiragana mnemonics. I love it when teachers put in extra time and effort to help their students.

Michael Rowley's Mnemonic Hiragana Chart

This chart comes from a 1992 book called " Kanji-Pict-O-Graphix" by Michael Rowley. Love the title. The X at the end makes it cool.

It's floating around a lot of places online uncredited, so thanks to Tofugu reader "A L" for letting us know the source.

Hiragana Charts With Stroke Order

When writing by hand, stroke order is quite important. You can tell when somebody writes in the wrong stroke order because, well, something just looks off. Your handwriting will improve tenfold if you write your hiragana correctly.

With kanji, you can learn stroke order by following a small set of stroke order rules. With hiragana, you're better off learning each individual kana's stroke order. There aren't that many, and these charts will help.

Mama No Yume Koubou's Hiragana Stroke Order Chart

This stroke order chart covers all the main hiragana and uses colors, as well as number indicators to show the correct stroke order.

You can find the original over on the Mama No Yume Koubou website, though it's all in Japanese.

Wikipedia's Hiragana Chart

It wouldn't be an article on the web if there wasn't a link to Wikipedia. There are actually a few sections of Wikipedia's Hiragana page that could be considered "hiragana charts," but this is the nicest looking one.

Here's the original image minus all the fluff around it.

Sasagami358's Hiragana Stroke Order Charts

Nice and simple and gray. Why is it gray? So you can write over top of it to practice.

Get the original, here. You'll also find a darker (not so gray) version, for looking at (and not tracing over).

Hiragana Charts That Help You To Practice

Hiragana charts get even better when you're able to interact with them. Sure, some of these might not be "hiragana charts" in the traditional sense, but they're close enough to include in this list.

Happy Lilac's Hiragana Practice Charts

Happy Lilac is a treasure trove of hiragana practice. In fact, they'll pop up a few times in this article. For this particular hiragana practice chart, all you have to do is write over the gray lines (in the correct stroke order, of course).

Visit Happy Lilac's website for more practice based on the above sheet.

On top of this, Happy Lilac also has a ton of other practice sheets for hiragana too. If you're learning hiragana, I definitely recommend checking them out.

Mama Note's Hiragana Practice Charts

Mama Note's Hiragana practice booklet shows the kana, then has you write over some gray lines before kicking you out of the proverbial nest. I wish it had more "on your own" practice, though. I suppose that's what blank pieces of paper are for.

For the original, visit this page (all in Japanese). You'll find this hiragana practice pdf along with other study materials for Japanese children.

Print Kids Hiragana Fill-In-The-Blanks Charts

These are so useful, because they make you fill in the blanks and actually recall your hiragana. There are so many separate downloads I'm not even going to put them here. Just click on the image or link below to be overwhelmed with all the hiragana practice you could ever want. And if that's not enough, there's always more practice on our learn hiragana page.

Grab all of the practice pdfs right here. Click the green ダウンロード buttons to download each individual page.

Kid's Nifty Fill In The Blank Hiragana Charts

These practice sheets let you practice the individual kana, one at a time. Seems like a lot of paper to me, but perhaps you can just print out the kana giving you the most trouble.

Visit the Kid's Nifty page and click on the blue ファイルをひらく buttons to view (and print) each individual sheet.

Tofugu's Learn Hiragana Book

Well, this is technically not a "chart" (it's more of a book), but if you are looking for something that is a hybrid of all the features we've shown so far - mnemonics, stroke order, and writing practice - check out Tofugu's Learn Hiragana Book.

Hiragana Charts For Kids

In Japan, guess who's learning hiragana. Of course, it's the children. So, there are a lot of charts aimed at children (and very few aimed at adults).

If you're teaching your kid(s) hiragana, or if you have the heart of a child, these will be the hiragana charts for you.

Kidsmoji by KF Studio

The Kidsmoji charts are too friggin' cute. Although the illustrations next to the kana relate to a Japanese word using said kana (so they're not really mnemonics), they might help you, or your kids, learn a little extra Japanese vocabulary.

Here's the standard kana.

And this is the combination plus dakuten hiragana.

And finally, the color-me-in version.

There's more charts on their website, including katakana and the English alphabet. You'll also find more black and white color-me-in charts.

Hiragana Chart by Hiroko Nishibayashi-Liston and KYOZAI - L.O.T.E. Teaching Aids

A reader (thanks!) pointed us to where this chart came from. It is part of a series of Japanese teaching aids for classrooms created by Hiroko Nishibayashi-Liston and published by KYOZAI - L.O.T.E. Teaching Aids (now out of business).

PDF versions of the books and other materials (including some free to download) are available here.

Imotoyouko's Hiragana Chart

This hiragana chart is available for purchase on Amazon.co.jp.

It contains an animal (or some other cute thing) for each of the kana. わ is わに (alligator), for example. Sadly, か is not かに (crab).

Mama No Yume Koubou's Hiragana / Katakana Chart

Bright, bold colors. Both hiragana and katakana ( for those of you learning katakana too). Color-in-able illustrations.

It's very simple, but solid. Grab the original here.

Thomas The Tank Engine Hiragana Chart

Every Japanese child loves Thomas, and so should you! Trains with faces, what's not to like? This is a simple hiragana chart with stroke order, but for Thomas fans, there's no other hiragana chart out there.

You can find the original, along with other Thomas things, right here.

Pokemon Hiragana Chart

This Pokemon Hiragana chart includes hiragana and katakana, as well as Pokemon illustrations to help you to remember them... that is, if you already speak Japanese. Great way to learn Japanese Pokemon names too.

The physical version of this hiragana chart is available for purchase on amazon.co.jp.

Happy Lilac Hiragana Chart

This chart comes in multiple sizes. If you want a bigger one, just print out more pieces of paper and tape them together.

Happy Lilac is really killing it with hiragana charts. Visit their site for this one, and others.

Color-Me-In Hiragana Chart by Benesse

Kids (and apparently adults now) love coloring. This chart includes example words and illustrations that you can color in yourself.

Grab the original, here.

Happy Lilac's Hiragana Chart 2

Yet another Happy Lilac hiragana chart. If you didn't like that last one, perhaps this will be more your style?

See its birthplace, right here.

Genki Kokugo Hiragana Chart

Bright, gaudy and... why is this chart even on this list? I'll tell you why. That beautiful, beautiful face near the bottom left-hand corner.

Get the original here.

Niji-no-Ie's Hiragana Chart

Isn't this hiragana chart adorable?

The original, as well as another color version, can be found here. If you're ever in Okinawa, stop by their store.

"Other" Hiragana Charts

These hiragana charts don't quite fall into the above categories. But that doesn't mean they're not useful/cool.

Hiragana: Origins Chart

Hiragana came from somewhere, and that somewhere is kanji. This chart provides side-by-side comparisons of hiragana and the kanji from whence they came (making it a kind of combo kanji chart).

Now that I think about it, probably not all that useful if you're a beginner. But still interesting!

See the original, and more, on JapanAKAluigi's files page.

Team YumYum's Hiragana Chart, Pins, Et cetera

This, I think, is one of the more beautiful charts on this list.

But, if you don't agree, they've made a blank version just for you. Print it out and add your own illustrations. It might help you to remember your hiragana better too, because you're making it personal.

They make a variety of other hiragana-related goods as well. Like this set of hiragana pins:

Check out their other hiragana-related products. You'll probably need to visit a physical location to get them, though.

Learning Hiragana

A hiragana chart won't actually teach you hiragana. You have to learn and practice. That's why we created a method for learning hiragana. It's free to use, and you'll be able to read every character when you're done. It doesn't take as long as you think, either. And as soon as you finish, you can learn katakana next.

I hope you found a hiragana chart you liked. If you didn't, you can always do a Google search for Hiragana Chart or ひらがな表. But, don't spend all your time looking for charts. You should get started now, because the sooner you learn hiragana, the sooner you can go learn kanji ( or other useful Japanese language related things).

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27 Hiragana Charts: Stroke Order, Practice, Mnemonics, and More

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A lot of hiragana charts are awful. Find the chart that's right for you. Choose from our curated list of best charts and learn hiragana fast.