Archive for the ‘Reading and Writing’ Category
Monday, May 17th, 2010
As I mentioned in the last post, I gave my students homework to answer a specific question about bullying. They also had to find expert opinions online. The next day was the discussion of their findings.
That class was very lively.
In general, the students correctly predicted the very negative effects of bullying on victims (lifelong psychological scarring) and the fact that shy or quiet children were often targeted — those who couldn’t fight back or were afraid, especially among girls.
But they did not predict the high rate of later criminal behavior among bullies. Sometimes students got “leadership” and bullying mixed up. Nor did they predict the studies revealing that bullies of both sexes were quite often victimized, beaten, or denigrated in their own homes.
The interesting point for everyone was how much this problem preoccupied people in all countries. In some countries, students committed suicide when they did not do well enough in school to please their families or were shamed in front of fellow students. In other places, it was tied to dating and rivalries among girls.
One question to research was how to prevent or stop bullying. The students were very skeptical about the “conflict resolution peer groups” used in many high schools in the U.S. today. They were interested in the fact that such efforts existed here while in most countries the problem is ignored. However, they doubted that anything could be done.
Next year, I would like to invite a speaker from one of these groups to speak to the students. This was a very lively discussion and in addition to fluency practice, we learned a lot of new vocabulary and a lot about each other’s countries and culture.
Tags: bullies, bullying, class discussion, discussion, efl, esl, esol, northstar, online research, Pearson Longman, research, tefl, tesl, tesol
Posted in R/W 4, Unit 7, Reading and Writing, Reading/Writing 4 | 1 Comment »
Friday, May 14th, 2010
Last time, my students discussed memories from school, and the subject of bullying came up across the board.
For the next class, I prepared a question sheet about bullying and the students worked on answering the questions to the best of their ability in small groups of mixed nationalities. The questions were:
- Why do some children become bullies?
- Why are some children victims of bullying?
- What should you do if you see bullying?
- What are the consequences of bullying for the victims? For the bullies?
For homework each group was given ONE of the questions to research on the web. They were told to find expert opinion on the issues by consulting reputable websites (and we discussed how to tell websites of value by looking on the web together as a class).
The students had to find answers to the question their group was assigned and report back to the class. They also had to compare their original thinking with the experts’ opinion.
I’ll report on the actual discussion next time.
Tags: bullies, bullying, class discussion, efl, esl, esol, northstar, online research, Pearson Longman, tefl, tesl, tesol
Posted in R/W 4, Unit 7, Reading and Writing, Reading/Writing 4 | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
As I mentioned in the last post, we did a free writing activity on what my students remembered from their school days as children.
Almost all the students remembered some positive experiences learning about friendship or loyalty or how to get along with others. But students from all nine countries, from Western Europe to Eastern Europe to Asia and Latin America, remembered incidents of bullying as they grew up.
They said it was rampant and were very shocked to hear that it had not been a major problem in past generations. Now it seems ubiquitous. Each student (sadly) gave examples of bullying and the worst seemed to be among girls. We practiced indirect speech and paraphrasing by having another student summarize what had just been said and we compared experiences.
This gave an interesting background for what most of my students did not at first understand: home schooling. Put in this context – as a possible reaction to bullying and other negative influences — the home schooling movement from Reading One became less completely strange to them.
How have you all handled discussions of bullying with your students?
Tags: bullying, discussion, efl, esl, esol, free writing, home schooling, indirect speech, northstar, paraphrasing, Pearson Longman, summarizing, tefl, tesl, tesol
Posted in R/W 4, Unit 7, Reading and Writing, Reading/Writing 4 | No Comments »
Monday, May 10th, 2010
We’re wrapping up the term’s work and we ended with the NorthStar unit on education.
We started with Reading Two, the great story from Isaac Asimov called “The Fun They Had.” In the story, children from the future looked back on “the good old days” and how great it was to go to school (instead of relying on computer-learning at home). The children of the future were starved for the companionship and relationships that school can bring.
Then we asked the students to write for 5 minutes in free writing (not paying attention to errors but just brainstorming) on what they learned from other children in school: good and bad. Then they read their paragraphs to other students and commented on the results.
I’ll post the results of this activity next. How do you work with this particular unit?
Tags: computers, education, efl, esl, esol, free writing, Isaac Asimov, nortshstar, Pearson Longman, reading, teaching, tefl, tesl, tesol
Posted in R/W 4, Unit 7, Reading and Writing, Reading/Writing 4 | No Comments »
Monday, April 26th, 2010
After our discussion about Passive Voice, we looked at common contexts in English that take Passive:
- In science experiments the agent (the grad student or the professor) is not as important as what was discovered.
- The lab assistant obtained DNA from the remains. The lab assistant is not important.
- DNA cells were obtained from the remains. (by the lab assistant = can be left out)
- We don’t really know who or what the agent is.
- All questions will be answered within 24 hours. We don’t know who will answer them – maybe a group of employees of the corporation.
- We want to avoid responsibility.
- Mr Dupont and I will lay off 100 workers. ->
- One hundred workers will be laid off. This is more impersonal and makes it seem that no one is responsible.
As an example from the news, I gave the students this news article from many (many) years ago. I also gave them these exercises to help them see that the passive voice is often used to shift the focus from the agent to an impersonal source.
It’s easy to see from the article that not much information was available and no one wanted to say anything. Nothing was sure. However, the papers needed news so the reporters wrote this article.
The press was a really interesting topic for my students and I think the lessons with this chapter were very successful.
Tags: esl, esol, media, news, northstar, passive voice, teaching, tefl, tesl, tesol
Posted in L/S 4, Unit 1, Listening and Speaking, Listening/Speaking 4, R/W 4, Unit 1, Reading and Writing, Reading/Writing 4 | No Comments »
Friday, April 23rd, 2010
Hi again!
To review the passive voice (in the unit on media), my colleague asked the students to bring in news articles of their choice and in summarizing them, use the passive voice when needed. That brought us to the question: when is it needed?
I planned a class to explain the use of the passive voice and to make sure students don’t OVERUSE it. In other languages it may be used much more than in English and in different ways.
Although in general, English prefers the active voice, there are some contexts when we prefer the passive.
Example:
Active: The doctor operated on the President yesterday.
Passive: The President was operated on yesterday.
The active sentence is awkward because the subject of the sentence is “the doctor” and the subject is supposed to be the most important focus of the sentence. But the really important person in the sentence is “the President.” Thus shifting the focus from the doctor to the President is logical and the passive voice helps to take the focus away from the agent and onto the important person.
Posted in L/S 4, Unit 1, Listening and Speaking, Listening/Speaking 4, R/W 4, Unit 1, Reading and Writing, Reading/Writing 4 | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
The next day after the discussion about the advantages of a free and open press, we considered the problems and abuses of the press by reading the NorthStar selections carefully.
All of these discussions gave the students a little taste of university courses on Media Studies. We made a list of the kinds of things people criticize in the press:
- news companies want to make profits and they like sensational stories (like the NorthStar story about coverage of the bombing suspect)
- sometimes they print things without being sure of the evidence
- they are too intrusive in people’s private lives, particularly politicians (Gennifer Flowers in the NorthStar story)
- they give too much time to stars and athletes
- they only talk about what’s good for their own country
What do yours students think of the press? Do these issues come up in class? How do you usually structure the discussions and activities?
We also discussed libel laws in different countries. In the U.S., if you are considered a “public figure” a libel verdict is very hard to prove since it is assumed that you put yourself forward and have to take the consequences of the “free market of ideas.” In other countries, the question of libel is more narrowly defined.
Tags: bias, discussion, efl, esl, esol, libel, media studies, northstar, press, teaching, tefl, tesl, tesol, tips
Posted in L/S 4, Unit 1, Listening and Speaking, Listening/Speaking 4, R/W 4, Unit 1, Reading and Writing, Reading/Writing 4 | No Comments »
Monday, April 19th, 2010
In a subsequent class we listened to Bill Moyers Journal on subject of the Alternative Press. He interviewed the journalists from “Democracy Now” and salon.com.
This was a very challenging listening for the students BUT I played only the first 7 minutes of the interview. Then I allowed them to read the interactive transcript provided by the program. We listened again and discussed the answers to my comprehension questions in groups.
Here are the exercises I used.
The students really got into the discussion.
One student said he thought journalists were killed in some countries (including his own) because they told lies. Another student asked him why anyone would kill reporters because they told lies. It seemed more likely that they were telling a truth that powerful people didn’t want to hear.
Lots of silence after that exchange.
Some students defended censorship on the internet “because young people can be influenced to do bad things.” The idea of being able to “make up your own mind” and having access to information was discussed –“the right to know.” In a dictatorship, it doesn’t matter whether the average citizen is well-informed. In fact, it’s better for government control if they are not.
These discussions have been great for getting students to really engage with the language and use new words and expressions. What lessons have you created that got students’ interest?
Tags: authentic listening, Bill Moyers, censorship, debate, discussion, efl, esl, esol, freedom, ideas, press, teaching, tefl, tesl, tesol, tips, video
Posted in L/S 4, Unit 1, Listening and Speaking, Listening/Speaking 4, R/W 4, Unit 1, Reading and Writing, Reading/Writing 4 | No Comments »
Friday, April 16th, 2010
After our initial discussion about freedom of the press, we broke up into small groups and discussed where we get our information about the wider world:
__ TV
__ radio
__ newspapers
__ the internet
The class had some lively contributions about all of this. Most of the young people from countries with a free press said they preferred the internet because they thought it was easier to find what interests them.
However, students from some countries said less than 5% of households in their country had internet access. For them, the “information overload” was non-existent. We discussed how the internet allows for more varied sources of information but also some dangers, such as unfiltered information from biased sources.
What about your students? Do you have a similar breakdown among your students? How have you handled this?
Some students asked about Fox News and how biased that network was against the President in the recent health care debate. We discussed whether a “free press” means that every news broadcast has to be objective.
Is total objectivity possible? Many said yes. We discussed the fact that if some channels are pro-conservative, others are pro-liberal and if we know that, we can get some balance. Some students were shocked that the country allowed people to make fun of the President.
Have you ever looked at bias in US news media? How have you structured those lessons?
Tags: bias, efl, esl, esol, freedom, media, news, northstar, press, teaching, tefl, tesl, tesol
Posted in L/S 4, Unit 1, Listening and Speaking, Listening/Speaking 4, R/W 4, Unit 1, Reading and Writing, Reading/Writing 4 | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
Hi Everyone!
Last week we worked on Unit 1 on the Press. One of the reading selections in the NorthStar Reading/Writing book deals with the intrusive nature of the press and the other discusses a miscarriage of justice that occurred when press coverage vilified someone who was merely a “suspect” in a crime.
These are definitely important issues to consider but to address the needs of my students, many of whom come from countries where there is no free press; we decided to start back at the beginning: why is a free press essential in a democratic system?
We began with a series of exercises on the First amendment.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Journalism is the only profession specifically protected by the Constitution. There must be a reason. First we worked on the meaning of the first amendment (in a general way).
The idea of an “established” religion was hard for them to understand but I cited the example of Great Britain, where the official religion is the Church of England and the king or queen is the titular head of the Church and the State. At a certain point in history, even if you were not a member of the Church of England, your taxes still went to support this Church. This is what the founding fathers wanted to avoid.
We then discussed why freedom of speech naturally leads to freedom to PUBLISH and CIRCULATE ideas. Why is this right necessary? My students came up with:
- everyone’s ideas have to be heard in a democracy
- the press can tell about government corruption or mistakes
Tags: constituion, efl, esl, esol, freedom, media, northstar, press, teaching, tefl, tesl, tesol
Posted in R/W 4, Unit 1, Reading and Writing, Reading/Writing 4 | 1 Comment »
