SLAM POETRY
WHAT TEACHERS MAKE
A poem by: Taylor Mali
The dinner guests were sitting around the table
discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain
the problem with education. He argued:
“What’s a kid going to learn from someone who decided
his best option in life was to become a teacher?”
He reminded the other dinner guests that it’s true
what they say about teachers: “Those who can…do.
Those who can’t … teach.”
To corroborate, he said to another guest: “You’re a
teacher, Susan,” he said. “Be honest. What do you
make?”
Susan, who had a reputation of honesty and frankness,
replied, “You want to know what I make?”
I make kids work harder than they ever thought they
could. I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal
of Honor and an A- feel like a slap in the face if the
student did not do his or her very best.”
“I can make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall
in absolute silence.”
“I can make parents tremble in fear when I call home”
“You want to know what I make?”
“I make kids wonder.”
“I make them question.”
“I make them criticize.”
“I make them apologize and mean it.”
“I make them write.”
“I make them read, read, read.”
“I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely
beautiful, and definitely beautiful over and over and
over again, until they will never misspell either one
of those words again.”
“I make them show all their work in math and hide it
all on their final drafts in English.”
“I make them understand that if you have the brains,
then follow your heart…and if someone ever tries to
judge you by what you make, you pay them no
attention!”
“You want to know what I make?”
“I make a difference.”
“And you? What do you make?”
| I, Too, Sing America | ||
| by Langston Hughes | ||
I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, "Eat in the kitchen," Then. Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed-- I, too, am America. |
||
Crossing Modes
Often, as teachers, we think of our jobs as teaching the subjects that we are employed to teach, and yet we often forget the bigger pictures of education. We forget that there are a variety of subjects, all which are important to a student’s development and educational make-up. It is our job as teachers to ensure that students are learning concepts from other areas of study, not merely the subject of English. That is why “crossing modes” is such a valuable tool in teaching. As teachers, we need to think of creative ways in which to incorporate various subjects and topics into our particular area of study.
For this crossing modes assignment, I have created a large and broad assignment for my eighth grade students to produce. This assignment goes beyond a homework grade or a mere handout from which students will find no true educational value. This assignment will cross modes into various subjects and topics such as science, politics, and social sciences. However, these topics will be brought forth through the underlying English topic of propaganda. All these topics will converge together to give students a broad, but productive, view of how propaganda may be used to influence humanitarian projects.
During the course of learning English, students are required to undergo a section in which they are immersed into the world of propaganda, a term that students are typically quick to forget shortly after the unit has ended. We often show our students how advertising uses propaganda in order to promote particular products, but we seldom teach our students how propaganda may be used in beneficial ways. All humanitarian efforts, non-profit organizations, charitable events, and fundraisers use propaganda in order to promote their particular cause. While their use of propaganda may not be bad or used to obtain money for selfish reasons, students must still be aware of the propaganda that is taking place and be able to analyze what is being presented to them.
I want to emphasize ways in which science, politics, and social sciences make use of propaganda in order to promote noble causes. I would begin the assignment by presenting various advertisements and commercials that support these charities. Students will learn how to analyze these various texts. Here are several examples of what I would have my students view and analyze:
These are only several of the many examples of propaganda that students will be able to analyze and view. It is important to follow this lesson with practice in order to ensure students’ understanding of propaganda and the reasons for using it. Small assignments may be assigned in order to give students practice. For instance, students could create a new cereal box for their cereal, or a new movie poster for the latest movie coming to the theatre. Whatever they do, they should be able to back up ever decision they make regarding their designs.
In order to gain wider and more broad knowledge of how propaganda may be used, students will participate in their school’s Nobel Peace Prize competition. In order to integrate and incorporate various subjects into my English teachings, I will have students choose, or develop their own, an environmental issue or humanitarian effort and do extensive research on this topic.
This project will include propaganda and a research project as the basic elements of literature. However, much like the actual yearly Nobel Peace Prize competition, students will be required to submit several elements. Students will need to do extensive research into their environmental or humanitarian issue in order to write an extensive research paper. Students should show the basic literary skills, including grammatics, research, and proper source citation. Students will need to provide relevant facts, historical details, current events, statistics, and any other relevant resources to their research paper. The second half of their paper will be a creative portion in which the students will present their own (not an already developed) plan in which they raise awareness, form an organization, create a fundraiser, etc., for their particular issue. Students should strive to be creative and professional with this portion of their project. They should be thoughtful and adequately detailed in the development of their plan.
In order to give students insight into the paper portion of this assignment, I will show examples of previous papers that have been presented by former students. It is also important to have students research current and previous NPP winners in order to see how their research and proposed plans have worked.
Below are a list of websites which the students may view in order to grasp the various issues that have been dealt with over the past couple of years:
The Nobel Peace Prize Winner 2007 – Al Gore
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/
The Nobel Peace Prize Winner 2006 – Muhammad Yunus
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/
The Nobel Peace Prize Winner 2005 – Mohamed ElBaradei
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2005/
Presented on each of these websites is the winners’ documentary, research, photographs, interviews, and other resources. Students should view a variety of these elements from each candidate’s website and get insight into how they shound begin organizing their own environmental or humanitarian efforts.
Once the student’s papers have been completed, students should create advertisement for their proposed plan. Students must integrate film into their project by means of their choice. They may create a commercial, a documentary, film real events taking place, make a news cast, etc. Students should be creative and professional. They should take into consideration how propaganda plays into their film. This will allow students an opportunity to use technology, and it will also give students an opportunity to create a professional piece of work. This film portion of their project should portray basic elements of their research and promote their proposed plan.
For the final portion of their project, students will be required to present their presentations to a panel of judges. This will create the professional atmoshpere that students need to be exposed to in order to connect their learning with real life experiences. The judges may be made of local business people, parents, government officials, or whoever is felt appropriate for the positions. They will present the basics of their research as well as their proposed plan for implimentation. Students may present their information in whatever form they feel necessary as long as it is presented in a “polished” and professional manner. Students may use power points, slides, photographs, statistics, brochures, interviews, etc. in order to present their materials to the judges.
After the last presenter, the judges will be allowed to deliberate on the students’ performances and propsed plans and research. Judges will name a Nobel Peace Prize winner and that student should receive special recognition and some form of a reward. This should be a competition for the students in order to create an atmosphere in which students are striving to present their best efforts and work. This project is to be one of great professionalism and attention. By comparing a student’s work to that of a previous NPP winner, students will begin to take pride in their work and look at their work through a professional lens.
As well, this project will be crossing modes in that it not only coveres Language Arts topics, but it also hits on social sciences, environmental sciences, and a variety of other areas based on a student’s particular area of study. Allowing students to conver a multitude of areas helps students to see the bigger pictures, not only of the classroom picture, but also of the social and cultural pictures of their community. Students are growing into active community citizens, and as teachers, we want to produce students who are enthusiastic and have the tools to create change around them. We do not want to create students who are apathetic, but students who want to strive for change and improvement. Through this project, we are giving students confidence in their work and ideas, helping them to discover that they are able to impliment their plans and ideas, that they have value in this society. But we cannot merely do this through teaching ELA and not incorporating various other areas of study. Students need to see how these subjects are all interrelated and build off one another. It is important for the English student to understand the basics of science, economics, and math in order to better establish their ideas. The same goes for the science learner. They too need to know how to read and write in order to communicate their thoughts and ideas. Providing a student with a well-rounded education will prepare students to face the outside world with confidence, and this is done through crossing-modes while teaching.
VIDEOS!!!
Here are the youtube addresses:
Every Season:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69wBCG-3qfk
Love That Dog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ephMWyEYB9A
Tim’s Film
Well, I will be honest and say that I was never able to figure out how to get the movie up and running. My power went out, after it came up I couldn’t get the movie running, so I am here at the library at 6:45 AM trying to get it to work here…and I give up. But from reading other posts and doing a little research on the guy, here is what I came up with.
Tim definitely uses methods which get his students motivated to learn in the class room. It was interesting because it ties into what we learned the other day in Levy’s class about not simply going to school and doing the work to get a good grade, but actually caring about the work that you do. I feel that if the stakes were raised for students, they would be more apt to putting forth great effort into the projects. Push students towards doing their best, and wanting to do their best for their own benefits. I did raise a question in Levy’s class the other day on whether it was a good idea to assign a manditory publication (or at least an attempt) for students because they will definitely take pride in what they are writing if the possibility for publication was out there. Teachers need to find ways to get students motivated, and it seems that Tim is all about that.
As well, he advocated technology in his classroom and school. This ties into our 6100 class with a paper that I just wrote on the use of technology to get students motivated to learn about Shakespeare. Technology can be an innovative and fun way for students to learn. Tim seems to use this to his advantage.
As well, Brannon had brought up an interesting thought in his post about what Tim was saying as far as students being challenged. Sometimes, in my opinion, it seems as if schools are weary of scaring students away from learning or that they are afraid of challenging them too much. However, I feel that students need to be challenged beyond what they already are comfortable with. If they are not challenged, the progression of learning is not as significant and the student seems to loose motivation. I remember reading challenging books throughout high school, including a multitude of rather challenging classics. However, it seems as if many teachers do not have they students read the classics anymore because 1.) they are boring, or 2.) they are too challenging. Sometimes I wonder if the “boring” is a cover up for being too “challenging.” But students get to know what is expected of them, and if motivated well, they will live up to those expectations.
Although I did not get to view the short film, I do feel that I was able to gather some interesting insight from reading the other posts as well as doing a little research on Tim and his methods. He is definitely a passionate principal who really cares about his students and motivated them to reach their potential.
The Process of Editing Wikipedia
Composing a description of the characters section of the page required a lot of reading from Francesca Lia Block’s actual text. The heading of characters was copied and pasted from the Iron Man page. After composing brief character descriptions in word, the descriptions were copied and pasted into the editing page of Wikipedia underneath the heading “Characters” (characters revision.bmp). When creating the themes section, the format was also copied from the Iron Man page. The information was changed to accommodate the themes Weetzie Bat (themes editing.bmp). Next, the Weetzie Bat series section was created by borrowing the format from the Francesca Lia Block Wikipedia page (series editing.bmp). Finally, the sidebar was created by copying and pasting the sidebar from Iron Man. Then, the information was adjusted from Iron Man to Weetzie Bat (editingsidebar.bmp). Creating the descriptions of characters was the most difficult part of editing the page because it was entirely new writing. Actually formatting and creating different sections of the page was very easy because of examples on Wikipedia. It was easy to look up another book and format our site around commonly used headings.
An element that we added to our Wikipedia space was a chapter-by-chapter summary of the novel. This took a lot of effort because the novel had to be reread and then each chapter individually had to be reanalyzed and ended up being summarized page by page in many instances. Although this novel is exceptionally short and a very quick read, it was packed full of plot material because there was very little detail added to this novel. Through this process, we wanted out readers to have a quick reference in which to refer. That is why we chose to do a chapter-by-chapter summary rather than a quick overview of the entire novel. This was a great experience because it helped us to become more familiar with the text, plot, and other elements of this novel since we had to look at it so closely.
YouTube Assignment!
Here is my paper and the YouTube video!
Change through Art!!!
As we have seen through various examples, including Graziano Cecchini’s art of dumping colorful balls around Naples, we can see how art has been used to convey ideas and implement change. For this assignment, you will work individually. You will incorporate some art form in order to express a world issue that you are passionate about. Your issue should be something that you actually care about. Try to think beyond the normal issues such as global warming. Think of issues that are taking place in your own community or around the world. Remember, through your art, you want to try to implement change. Your artwork can take on many forms, so be creative!!!
Instructions:
1.) Abstract: Once you have decided on an issue that you are passionate about and have thought about what you want to do for the art portion of this project, write a one page abstract detailing the issue you have chosen and why you are passionate about it. Also, detail what form of art and how you will be using that form to detail your issue. This will be due Thursday, July 3rd.
2.) Research Paper: Second, you are to write a three-page paper on your topic. This included doing research! I expect you to be able to explain your topic as well as explain why it is a world issue that people should be concerned about. You can include one page about why you are passionate about this topic and how your artwork is going to influence people to bring about change. Through this paper, try to make your audience care about your topic. You will need to have at least three reliable sources! Do not forget to include a bibliography and to properly cite your sources!!!
3.) Artwork: This is the fun and creative part! Choose a form of artwork that you are interested in. Just like our video, create a way in which you can use your art form to bring about awareness and change for your world issue. Some ideas include:
· Posters
· Video/ commercials
· Clay models/ sculptures
· Short film or TV documentary
· A Painting
· A poem
· A song, lyrics and music
· Write a short one-act play
· Just about anything else!!! Like I said, get creative!!!!!
Resources: Here are some Internet sources that may provide some interesting facts and ideas about using art to implement change.
http://protest.net/ This site is helpful because it supplies examples of protest that have been held and describe the methods used.
http://www.art-for-a-change.com/ This site is about a young man named Mark Vallen and how he uses art to raise awareness and bring about change in his community.
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/06/the-art-of-chan.html This blog contains interesting articles of “How to Change the World.”
Evaluation of Project:
Your project will be evaluated for your research on your topic as well as the creativity of your art form. You should thoroughly explain your topic of choice and present your ideas through your artwork effectively. Your abstract will be worth 10% of your grade, your paper will be worth 50%, and your artwork will be worth 40%.
Remember that the abstract for this is due July 3rd. The research paper and artwork is due Friday, July 14th! That will give you a solid week plus a weekend to finish up. You will be required to present your artwork to the class. Put a lot of thought into your issue and remember to have fun with this project! Good luck! J
Jeanie Greenwell
Dr. Crovitz
June 30, 2008
ENGL 7741/01
YouTube Assignment Rational
In context of teaching, my class is a 10th grade English class. As a teacher, I feel that it is very important for children to feel that their opinion matters and that they can have their voices heard, not just simply the teachers, parents, and leaders. No child is ever too young to start influencing the people around them. I chose this video clip because it was so creative! I want my students to see how they can implement change through harmless ways, even though Graziano Cecchini’s way was a pain for the city to clean up. But he made a statement through art. He took a government problem and made a statement in a beautiful way. (Even the police were taking photographs.) I want my students to be able to think of an issue that they are truly passionate about and be able to use written language (the research paper) and art in order to raise awareness and bring change through their audience. I want them to understand that there are many ways of bringing change to the world, and art is just one way.
Throughout history, people have used books in order to bring about change. Just take Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables for example, or many of Charles Dickens’ works. They used writing, a form of art, to bring change to their people and country. Their works may not have brought change right away, but they certainly raised awareness amongst their people. Dickens wrote about poverty and the social stratification during his era. He also wrote of many other issues, and because he wrote about them, he was raising awareness of these issues in order to implement change.
There are many questions and examples that can be explored in order to conduct a productive class discussion. Here is a list of some questions, examples, and hypotheticals that may be asked:
1.) How does the artist, Graziano Cecchini, use art to convey his message?
2.) Do you think that art is an effective way to raise awareness of world issues? Why or why not?
3.) In what ways can literature be used as an art form to induce change?
4.) Hypothetically speaking, your country is on the verge of a civil war. In what was can you use art, most particularly literature, to raise awareness and bring about political, economic, or other sorts of change?
5.) In Charles Dickens’ novel, Oliver Twist, what was Dickens attempting to portray to his people? What areas of life was he attempting to educate the people by raising awareness and bringing change to his people?
6.) After the 9/11 attacks, many forms of art were used to raise Americans’ pride for their nation. What are some forms of art that were used to accomplish this? (Music, movies, art, poetry, etc.)
7.) Other than the 9/11 attack, what other American catastrophes have been the inspiration for artwork and how? (Katrina?)
8.) How has the film industry been used to raise awareness of certain issues? (For example: “Super Size Me,” and “Fahrenheit 9/11”)
9.) What national monuments have been made to raise awareness of world issues?
10.) As you know, the new “Wall-E” movie came out this summer and I know you all saw it. What issues did it raise about Americans and how did it attempt to implement change?
I do expect there to be several challenges with this project that I will need to plan for accordingly. One of my biggest concerns is if a student wants to be really creative and come up with an idea similar to Graziano Cecchini’s. In that case, I want to make sure that the student would be thinking of peaceful ideas. I do not want this project to turn into “revolutionary” work, but work that will raise awareness and make people want to implement change in their communities. A second issue that I feel will arise is the commonality of issues. I do not want all of my students to present on global warming or war. I want them to be creative, perhaps choosing topics in their hometown such as a poor educational system, racism, or teen addictions. I want to be sure that their topic is something that they are actually passionate about. That is why I want them to write an abstract so I may direct them if they so need. I can also see how students would be quick to pick an easy art form and not put much thought into their artwork. I want them to be creative, to come up with an interesting and unique way of presenting their ideas. This is another reason that I want them to present an abstract so I may direct them.
There are several standards in the GPS for the 10th grade that this assignment addresses. They mostly deal with the writing process, which would be a part of the research essay that the students must write for this project. Some of the standards include:
ELA10W1 The student produces writing that establishes an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals closure.
ELA10W3 The student uses research and technology to support writing.
ELA10C1 The student demonstrates understanding and control of the rules of the English language, realizing that usage involves the appropriate application of conventions and grammar in both written and spoken formats.
ELA10LSV2 The student formulates reasoned judgments about written and oral communication in various media genres. The student delivers focused, coherent, and polished presentations that convey a clear and distinct perspective, demonstrate solid reasoning, and combine traditional rhetorical strategies of narration, exposition, persuasion, and description.
Fun Videos
my favorite website is www.cuteoverload.com
Here are some of the things you will find there!
…Be prepared for cuteness…
Who I Am!
Not much to know about me 
First of all, this is all very new to me, the computer stuff I mean. Yes, I have had a xanga site which was pretty impressive…but that’s about it. Oh well.
Umm…what else…
Who I am? is a deep subject. I am Jeanie Greenwell, daughter of Greg and Nancy, and twin to Grant. I am a Christian. I am engaged to Derek, and I have the best puppy in the world named Starr. I love to act and paint…although acting is what I do best. That’s all I can think of to say. I could list my favorite movies and the such, but that’s kinda boring
Agenda #1
I think I am finally started…that was not exactly the easiest thing I have ever had to figure out!!!
ok, bear with me, I am going to try bulleting!
My favorite movies are:
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- Free Willy (I LOVE Orcas!!)
- Lord of the Rings
- Anne of Green Gables
- 13 Going on 30
Ok, that was not too hard
Here is a really cool site!
!!!
