Assignment 1: Annotated Bibliography

Yue Mei-Yun's, Cohesion and the Teaching of EFL Reading, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, OFFICE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAMS Home English Language Programs, English Teaching Forum, Volume 31 Number 1http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol31/no1/p12.htm
Yue Mei-Yun's article is sited on the American Government Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs site and has articles published on other government education sites in America and China.
Yue's practical demonstrations in types of ‘cohesive chains’ and how they are used, makes this article relevant in classroom situations and is an aid to lesson programming. However the language and tone is complicated and difficult to read, it is written for an academic audience and may be inaccessible to non-academics. Because of this I would advise people reading this article to start with the conclusion as this gives a concise accessible summary the author’s argument, then go back to the beginning of the text for the more complex detail.
Yue’s “Cohesive chains” offer a conceptual ideology which can be coupled with the linked to Nunan’s articles (below) on “authentic data” and “listening skills” to create a deeper level of experience and understanding for ESL learners. However the complex and academic nature of the article means it may not be so relevant to teachers of other subjects with ESL learners in their classes.David Nunan, Listening In Language Learning, The Language Teacher The English Centre, University of Hong Kong. http://jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/97/sep/nunan.html

Dr David Nunan was President of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages; teaches at Hong Kong University and is President of Anaheim University. He is a well known and prolific author on the subject of ESL. (http://www.nunan.info/)
Nunan’s article is written for ESL teachers. It is a task based article that talks about the kind of listening activities that can be included in individual lessons. Nunan stresses the need for varied texts and text responses to develop situational listening skills in ESL learners. Nunan also suggests a number of ways that make “listening”, a more complete learning experience with an emphasis on making the text contextual to the student.The conclusion in particularly useful for ESL teachers, giving strategies for making “authentic” learning experiences for the ESL learner. It is also useful for teachers of other subject with ESL learners in their classes to use different ways of giving information to increase the retention of their ESL students. David Nunan, Aspects of Task-Based Syllabus Design, Karen's Linguistics Issues, December 2001, The English Centre, University of Hong Kong, December 2001.http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/syllabusdesign.htmlNunan's expected audience in this text is ESL teachers, specifically those who program curriculum content. This article emphasis the need to create varied curriculums that give ESL learners experiences in real life or "authentic data" situations. Nunan shows that acquiring language is as much about the ability to interpret text meanings and predict outcomes from incomplete data, as it is about learning the correct grammatical usage, both of which offer important skill acquisition opportunities. This links to the "cohesive" learning experiences discussed by Yue in article one. "Authentic data" (Nunan) combined with an understanding of "cohesive chains and...devices" (Yue) allows the ESL learner to effectively extrapolate incomplete or idiomatic texts.
These exercises also offer the ESL teacher a broader understanding of how individual ESL students learn and so will show how to develop further curricular activities to maximise their current levels of ability and understanding. This makes it useful for teachers of other subjects who need to cater to individual ESL students in their classes. David Martin, How to be an Effective EFL Writing Teacher, Elf Press, Japan. http://www.eflpress.com/how_to_be_an_effectwrt_efl.html
David Martin is a teacher of English as a Foreign Language in Japan. This article is written for Elf press, which is specifically for a teaching EFL in Japan.
It is a task based article that can be included in a broader curriculum structure. Although it is specifically developed for Japan it is useful for ESL teaching in promoting strategies for helping students to "think" in English. It is also relevant for English teachers as it talks about teaching how to write creatively in "freestyle" then return to the piece and editing it.
"Freestyle" creativity that is then self edited is useful task that can be used in any creative writing class regardless of linguistic or literary ability. Because this technique includes intense scaffolding for the development of creative writing in specific and basic terms, it maximise the creative process which develops free thinking, which then is turned into an academic experience suitable for any age group.
Martin's activity gives contextual meaning, which Nunan says makes it more accessible to the student. It also allows the student to explore "cohesive chains" (Yue) that link free speech with academic knowledge enabling greater extrapolation in "listening" (Nunan) in English.

Liang Wenxia, Teaching Weak Forms (China,) Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, OFFICE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAMS, Home English Language Programs, English Teaching Forum, Volume 41 Issue 2. http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol41/no2/p32.htm
Liang article is on the American government education site and is included in other educational sites in America and China.
This is an academic article stressing the importance of teaching "weak forms" of English pronunciation to ESL students. Although this is primarily an academic article it is also activity based which makes it useful and relevant for both ESL and English teachers developing class lesson plans.
Liang explains the "weak forms" of English and gives practical examples of how to teach these to ESL students. Liang stresses the importance of this as a listening task to enable ESL students to became fluent in speaking and understanding English outside of the class room, but it is also relevant to mainstream English teaching when looking at written texts to help identify author meaning, for example; plays and poetry, which may be open to wide a wide range of interpretive issues.
This listening exercises links with Nunan's ideology that teaching a variety of listening techniques is an essential part of ESL teaching to create a real learning experience.

Taiwan Teacher, Child’s play: Playing Games in the EFL Classroom. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1979/games/articles/eflgames.html
This is a personal reflective journal of teaching practices by an ESL teacher. It is non-academic but has relevant and useful information for any classroom teacher of children. The subjects covered include how to use fun and games in the classroom to teach content, methods of maintaining student focus and classroom management techniques, all issues that affect teacher’s every day.
Game learning tasks are related to Nunan’s “authentic data” tasks because children of all ages play games, it is their natural behaviour. Game playing lessons also uses a variety of language identification skill including visual and listening abilities which links this teacher’s experiences with Martin’s “thinking in English” ideology.

Pheonix

Head bowed
She is not patient
nor a monument
Monumental sadness
etched in every pore

No happiness lives there
Ode to Joy is
purely academic
Red eyed and blotchy
She stares through
layers of ill

ill will
ill heath
ill repute

allegations that erode
the love
her person destroyed
Prometheus at least was
not eaten by those he helped

There gift - to leave him
while accepting his
Her tormentors use fire
that are fire that scorches

is she the Pheonix?

JS423 lectures 7-8

lecture 7-8

Terrorism and the American Dream

Terrorism is secondary violence. First violence is the system that allows sweeping oppression and exploitation of those who are economically weaker. By continually subscribing to the ideology of lifestyles that are systemically based on the exploitation of the weak, we are committing economic violence.

The American Dream – that perfect small town, where everyone is clean, white, beautiful and special, is a construct of the perfect society that is crafted to support a lifestyle that is grounded in economic oppression of the weak, both within America and in the world generally. If you happen to be a poor (Black/Hispanic) American, you are either absent from the dream or it is your own fault, you are; too stupid, lazy or immoral to know or deserve any better.

The American Dream is held in place by using those members of society who are most likely to be absent from the Dream. The military is full of young black and Hispanic soldiers, who’s only way of becoming part of the Dream is to die for it. Only then do they change from being disturbing ‘gang’ members into ‘worthwhile’ members of society.

This Dream comes with a price that is only now being fully realised. The Dream is being exported all around the world through the American media. Advertising American consumerism and movies about the wonderful way of life these beautiful people live is being pushed into the face of the 80% of the world that are struggling to feed themselves and who have no chance of experiencing this dream. Is it any wonder that these people are full of envy and hatred for a people that deliberately oppress them and glorify themselves for doing it!

And Australia believes and follows this Dream. We had our own dreams about a ‘fair go’ for all, but was there really any truth in it? Or was it too only for the white, bright Aussies, and if you were indigenous forget it! Either way, our dreams are being subsumed under the American Dream as we absorb more and more of their cultural take over.

If we are going to follow America in its constructed ideology, then we deserve to incur the envy and wrath of those we help to oppress.

exam notes summary

Instructionism: Outcomes based learning
Spady “Know and can do”
Constructivism: Students will only learn at their own level
Piaget: What stage it the child at?
Vygotsky: How do we get the group to the next stage?
Siemens: Social Constructivism: How you learn not what you know
Gardner: Multiple intelligence theory – how we learn affects what we learn


Summative Assessment At end
Formative Assessment Throughout
Objective assessment: Single correct answer
Subjective: more than one answer
Criterion competence in a specific circumstance
Norm-referenced comparing students.
Formal assessment Test, quiz or paper
Informal assessment Does not contribute to a student's final grade
Evaluation: determinations of merit and/or worth. Usually of the course effectivness

Exam notes

: Pedagogy exam notes

Instructionism: Outcomes based learning

• Defining what is valuable learning
• Teach what is defined as valuable learning
• Test that it has been learned
• Designing down – begin with what they should know at the end and work out how to structure the learning to attain that outcome.
• Have high expectations – let them know that you expect them all to do well.
• Expand their opportunities
• Deep learning for life, not just to know something

Constructivism: Students will only learn at their own level

Structured knowledge – steps that can be easily extrapolated – conceptualise, not just itemised information

Social constructivism:
Vygotsky: ZPD
Piaget: stages of cognitive development
People make meaning of objects – that meaning is a societal construct based on language and expectation


Piaget: What stage it the child at?

Piaget – are we forming kids to know what is already known
OR - are we enabling them to discover new knowledge

4 stages of development:

1. Sensory motor – learning to classify through touch and experimentation learning During the sensorimotor stage, infants and toddlers "think" with their eyes, ears, hands, and other sensorimotor equipment
2. Preoperational - Egocentric mental imagery, and especially language.
3. Concrete Operational - Can consider more than one perspective simultaneously the ability to pass conservation (numerical), classification, seriation, and spatial reasoning tasks. Not abstract tasks
4. Formal Operational - Are capable of thinking logically and abstractly. They can also reason theoretically

Each stage of development is culturally encoded through language and expectation.


Vygotsky: How do we get the group to the next stage?
Vygotsky: “humans use tools that develop from a culture, such as speech and writing, to mediate their social environments.”

• Children construct knowledge
• Piaget’s developmental stages are fluid but dominant at different times.
• Language is central to learning
• o Actual knowledge attained
• o ZPD Gap between the 2
• o Knowledge potential Assistance
• The scaffolding that allows each step of development is constructed through personal interaction with language and culture.
• The organisation as agency of development
• Mediation tools and cultural artefacts
• Society as the agency of development

Siemens: Social Constructivism: How you learn not what you know

• Learning = interaction between bits of knowledge – the connections between people or ideas
• Learning = can come from devices
• Exchange creates knowledge

Gardner: Multiple intelligence theory – how we learn affects what we learn

1. spatial
2. musical
3. bodily kinesthetic
4. logical/mathimatical
5. linguistic
6. audio/visual
7. naturalistic
8. intrapersonal
9. interpersonal

Spady “Know and can do”

• Outcomes based
• Structure education to prepare for life beyond school
• What and whether students learn is more important than when and how
• Success = ability to do
• Test that it has been learned
• Designing down – begin with what they should know at the end and work out how to structure the learning to attain that outcome.
• Have high expectations – let them know that you expect them all to do well.
• Expand their opportunities
• Deep learning for life, not just to know something
• Structure knowledge in a multidimensional framework to examine subject in depth at all levels of development

Assessment:
The activities of a teacher to gain information about knowledge, skill and attitude of students

Summative Assessment - assessment of learning

• At end
• To grade

Formative Assessment - assessment for learning

• Throughout
• Feedback not for grading
• Teacher or Peer

Objective assessment: Single correct answer ie, multiple choice

Subjective: more than one answer Interpretation i.e. essay

Criterion-referenced assessment
· used to establish a person’s competence in a specific circumstance
Norm-referenced assessment

• (colloquially known as "grading on the curve
• It is effectively a way of comparing students.

Formal assessment

• Is given a numerical score or grade based on student performance.
• Test, quiz or paper

Informal assessment

• Does not contribute to a student's final grade
• Assessment by self, peer observation, discussion

Evaluation:

• The process of determining programs and tools for learning
• determinations of merit and/or worth. Usually of the course effectivness

Bloom: Mastery learning

Knowledge
· Or recall of data
· It provides a basis for higher levels of thinking, but is rote in nature.

Comprehension,
· grasp meaning,
· explain,
· restate ideas
· translating,
· interpreting,
· extrapolating it.

Application,
· using learned material in new situations,
· selecting and applying them appropriately.
· Try to do

Analysis
· separate material into component parts
· show relationships between parts.
· breaking apart information and ideas into their component parts.

Synthesis
· separate ideas to form new wholes
· establish new relationships.
· putting together ideas and knowledge in a new and unique form.
· innovations

Evaluation
· judge the worth of material against stated criteria
· reviewing and asserting evidence, facts, and ideas, appropriate judgements.

500 years of women in art

I love this and had to add it

Sound files

A sound file can have many educational uses. They increasing the scope of learning and connecting students to sources they would not otherwise have access to.
Music can also be a good tool as it adds an audio cue to topics. This can be particularly useful for history and geography, to evoke a sensory idea with a time or place

It is a connectivist approach that works well with the learning theories of Vygotsky, Piaget, Prensky, Gardner.