After reviewing project four I realized that this is going to be a lot of hard work. My group and I are reading chapter of the Pedagogy book, the chapter is short but it looks like its short but with a lot of information. Our plan is to try to meet at least once a week but if we can we are going to try to meet twice a week to go over the book and information we researched. Also our plan is to research curriculum/ standardized testing/NCLB. I think that this is a very broad topic and will be easy to research. For our visual we are all going to work on a power point presentation. I have my workshop next week and i think it will be very beneficial to our group.
The PSA ad opens with soft subtle music, a women walking down a side walk to drop some mail off in a mail box; at the same time a man is stopped at a traffic light. The traffic light and mailbox are with a thought bubble making viewers think why this is. The traffic light and mail box are highlighted with thought bubble, making viewers think why this is. After seeing the man go through the traffic light a narrator comes in and explains the PSA.
“Support minority education today so we don’t miss out on the next big idea tomorrow.” Quickly after the dialog comes in viewers learn that the thought bubbles come from just ideas, and ideas can come from minorities or any African American. To me, the test is telling me that by giving everyone a chance to learn we can all benefit from this in many different ways. We can all grow from these ideas and we don’t know where we would be without some of these ideas.
Some elements that grab viewers’ attention are the slogans that are said at the very end of the PSA. The first one is “support minority education today so we don’t miss out on the next big idea tomorrow.” This slogan is easy to interpret by watching the video, we can clearly see that all those inventions came from just ideas and without proper education to minorities there would be none of those inventions or even ideas. The next big element is the very last text of the PSA, “a mind is a beautiful thing to waste.” This is also the motto for the UNFC. To me, this means everyone has ideas or thoughts and everyone has the right to express them. By education minorities we can get more of those thoughts or ideas out there.
Even though there are no written words the text to me is the little thought bubbles around the traffic light, mail box, or lawn mower motor. This describes a piece of communication the PSA is trying to portray to viewers. By putting thought bubbles around the different inventions the viewer learns that from the dialog that all inventions come from just an idea. Later in the video viewers learn that those inventions were invented from African American or minorities but most minority education are not property funded. This is where visual texts comes in telling viewers, “help fund the UNFC, the mind is a beautiful thing to waste.”
I think the movie Lean On Me is an inspirational and educational movie, not to mention it is actually a good movie. Eastside High School used to be rated highly in the state until the new mayor decided to make some drastic changes. The school was soon known as the “cauldron of violence”. The state said that if they couldn’t raise the scores of the basic skills test they would shut soen the school. The mayor and superintendant of education decided to bring back Joe Clark as the princle who would save the school.
When Clark came back he made sure he laid down the law, with everyone even teachers and coaches. Clark didn’t want to deal with any students who were going to be a disturbance in his school, the first thing he did was expell the delinquents as an example to the other students. To teach other students how to act properly and stya out of trouble he would embarass them and yell at them. For example Clark told one student to jump off the side of the building to kill himself. The student was smoking crack and Clark said by smoking crack your killing yourself slowing, and that if you are going to kill your self do it quickly. disapinary actions such as these set examples for other students. quickly students started to realized that Joe Clark was trying to help them instead of being someone who wants to boss them around. through out the movie you see the relationship between Clark and his students become stronger; more students and teachers go to him for advice.
The day of the basic skills test Clark gets arrested for locking the doors and creating fire hazards. the students are enraged and go to city hall to bail him out, students protest outside. After awhile the mayor gives up and sees what Clark has done for the school and the students and frees Clark. That same night becomes free he finds out that the students have passed their basic skills test and Eastside High can remain a school. It is the perfect ending everyone wanted.
At 39 years old, some can argue that former quarterback, Brett Favre, of the Green Bay Packers had his best game yet. After being a “cheese head” for 16 years Favre decided to retire, but we all knew that it wasn’t his time. Favre quickly realized he wanted to come back to the league, but unfortunately for the Packers they would not take him back. He soon played with the New York Jets, he didn’t make much of an impact there and many said it was time for Favre to give it up. It wasn’t fair for Favre to go out with a bad season, giving it another try he moved to the Minnesota Vikings.
The season was going great for the Vikings so far, with no losses and good stats but the October 5th Monday night game was the night to be remembered. Brett Favre vs. Aaron Rodgers. In the years Favre played with Green Bay no one ever thought or even imagine that one of their greats would we stomping on them like he did.
With Rodgers career high 384 yards and 8 sacks and still with two touchdown passes, it was no competition for Favre. Every time Rodgers had a good series Favre would one up him, with the help from his blood thirsty defense and crazed fans roar. Green Bay wanted so badly to ruin Favre’s big night by giving him interceptions but they clearly failed, instead Minnesota gave those interceptions to Rodgers, with a total of three by the end of the game. It is obvious to say that every football fan will remember this competitive game.
**I know this has nothing to do with English or urban teaching but i thought it would be something interesting and new to blog about.
I never realized that talking to your child could be so critical to your child’s development.Even though the child does not understand what you are saying it is still good to talk to your child. Some say by talking to your child as early as birth it is comforting for the child to hear the soothing voice of their mother. Also, many doctors and researchers go back and forth in saying that picking up and carrying your child can harm a childs development in the long run, but the American Medical Association says that you can not spoil your child enough. Lastly, I learned that give your child choices. When talking to them ask if they want to walk or ride in their stroller. Toddlers need as much exercise as anyone else, it is good for their minds and bodies.
The article mentions that teaching your child two languages at an early age will not delay the child’s language development. I didn’t think that people thought teaching your child two languages at a young age could delay the child’s language development. The article enforces that teaching a child to be bilingual at a young age can be helpful to language development and helps them become better speakers and good at both languages.
After reading this article i have learned that it is better for the child to better talked to than ignored, i think that is obvious. But when the child is just an infant does the child pick up on daily language of adults or does the child pick up on “baby talk”? When talking to an infant what should a parent say them? It is interesting to see how talking can help them so much in the future.
I think that everyone can agree that project three has been the most confusing project yet. with three different phases, getting together in groups, and writing about a PSA, it is a lot and slightly overwhelming.
In phases one we have to look at a PSA and write an essay about it. This is going to be really hard because we have to write an 800 to 1000 word essay on something that is just a poster or commercial. But this makes us think about the little details of the ad and makes us analyze the ad to get to a deeper meaning. I still think that this is going to be hard but a good project to learn how to look past just what is obvious to the ad.
Phases two we have to get together with our groups and watch a movie. Getting together with people can be very hard since no one ever has the same schedule. i think this will be interesting to see how the movies portray issues or urban education. will the white suburban teacher be the hero again?
Then lastly in phases three we will be creating a visual instead of the usual text. I think its funny how creative teachers are and I am not creative at all and I want to be a teacher.By using visuals to this phase of the project will help us be prepared for the future and let us explore english other than just writing rhetorical texts.
This project is going to be hard and time consuming , but at the sae time it will let us look at our issues in urban from three different aspects of learning.
I didn’t know what to expect when we were told we were meeting at the library. To be honest I have never been to the library before yesterday. I was hoping for a tour or how the library works and whats on each floor. To me the library is a bit overwhelming since the library at my highschool was one story and about the size of a large classroom. I was kind of confused when listening to the speaker tell us how to search for our project two papers. I thought the paper was supposed to be about us and not about something we searched on the internet. Although I did gain something from the speaker, I learned how to use the library online to find scholarly articles for any research I will have to do in the future.
I was also confused when we were sent into the library to some books. Maybe I was the only one but I didn’t know what kind of books I was looking for. I knew they were supposed to be books about urban teaching but I had no idea there could be that many books on one subject. At the end I felt like I had grabbed two random teaching books off the shelf. It will be interesting to see how we will be using these books in class.
Late response to the discussion on the rubric….
Last week we talked about making a rubric to project one. Everyone had their own opinion and it seemed liked no one could agree on one thing. In class we didnt get really far, we ended up saying that we would not have a letter grade until the final portfolio. I thought this process was a bit stressful. For one, no one agree on anything and when I thought we had something to work with someone would give other ideas to shot it down. Secondly, this is my grade and I want to know how I stand in this class. I have never had a class where letter grades arent the main focus, all throughout highschool thats what all my teachers would drill into our heads. Although not having a letter grade might be stressful, it could also benefit us at the same time. If we dont have letters grades to worry about all the time we can work on the quality of our writing. In years passed the way I wrote was the way I would be getting graded. I felt like when ever I added my own twist to a paper I would get marked down for it. Now, I have the freedom to write how I want and not worry about a strict point by point rubric.I liked discussing the rubric in class, by talking with our peers it was very helpful to come up with different ideas. I know we didnt get far with it but it put some ideas into our heads about how grading will be done in this class. Im up trying trying new things.
1. Finish this statement: Good writing is…
Good writing is being to express thoughts and ideas in a way that make other people think and learn. Good writing is interesting and entertaining to the reader. Therefore, some readers might disagree with the definition of good writings. Sometimes good writing is defined as grammar free and perfect flow, that’s not always the case, as long as the writer puts their thought and ideas to appeal to the reader. To me, that is good writing.
2. Does the way you speak influence the way you write? Explain your answer.
Yes, the way I speak definitely influences the way I talk. Sometimes when I’m writing formal papers I catch my self writing how i text or talk by using slang or abbreviations. When writing in blogs or IMing to friends its OK to use slang or write how you speak but its harder not to when writing something formal.
3. Is it more important to you that writing (yours and others) is grammatically and stylistically correct or that it communicate relevant and insightful content?
I think when writing a paper or a formal essay it is necessary to have it grammatically or stylistically correct. when a teacher or professor grades a paper or an essay, i think, they expect to see good grammar. although, i don’t think it is necessary to have it grammatically or stylistically correct when writing in a blog or i journal. In writing in either of thoughts its important to express your thoughts and connect with the reader rather than it be grammatically or stylistically perfect.
4. Discuss this statement: There is one true, correct, standard version of written American English
I disagree with this statement because people are taught differently from where they are from and there isn’t just one correct standard version of written American English.
5. Can writing be taught? Explain your answer.
I think that writing can be taught because i know that i still need to learn how to write better. Also, people don’t go into school knowing how to write.
After going over the syllabus I learned a few things about this class, I know that it is very important to go to class. Not only show up to class but be there mentally and participate to the class. In class we do a lot of peer activities and projects to improve our writing. I understand how important it is to save work because at the end of the semester all of our work goes into a portfolio. The portfolio is a huge part of our final grade and it is wise to save everything and start preparing the portfolio early in the semester. I also understand that we will be learning about teaching in urban areas and how to face situations we would find in those urban areas.
I understand that the portfolio is very important and is a huge part of our grade, although I do not understand how the grading works with the portfolio. Is each paper being graded the same or depending on the paper are they weighed differently? Another thing I don’t quite understand is what kind of text we will be discussing at the meeting outside of class. Will we be reviewing something we wrote in class or a project we have written? Mostly I understood everything in the syllabus and this class is to help us improve on our writing.
One of the biggest questions I have is, why do we have to write in a blog two times a week? If we are not being graded on this writing what is the purpose. Also, I do not understand the format we are supposed to be writing in, is it more formal or informal writing?
