Down time.

Feeling a bit under the weather this week, friends -- not enough to keep me out of class (I suspect it would take the plague to do that -- I've always prided myself on my attendance record), but enough to keep me from researching or writing for this week. So I'm taking a week off for this leap day, but I'll be back next Wednesday with something interesting.

Beauty is...

We just read “My First Conk,” from The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and got involved in a discussion of what beauty is, and what a person will go through to be “beautiful.” In the passage, Malcolm X expresses his own disgust at the length that black men (including himself) went through to fit a standard of beauty which equated “beautiful” with “looking white”:

http://teacherweb.com/NJ/JohnFKennedyMemorialHighSchool/Cice/First_Conk001.pdf

“This was my first really big step toward self-degradation: when I endured all of that pain, literally burning my flesh to have it look like a white man’s hair. I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in America who are brainwashed into believing that the black people are “inferior”—and white people “superior”— that they will even violate and mutilate their God-created bodies to try to look “pretty” by white standards.”

What followed was a great class discussion about what beauty is, who sets the standard of “beautiful,” and the lengths a person was willing to go through to find it. There's no shortage of resources on this particular topic – during my years teaching at a girls' high school, I became aware, through numerous research papers, of the various facts and figures regarding eating disorders and the obsession with fitness, so I, in the interest of novelty, decided to go a different path.

I remembered an episode of the National Geographic show Taboo entitled “Body Perfect,” which charted three vastly different cultures and explored the lengths people there went through to become “beautiful” by their standards – an Indonesian woman agreed to have her teeth filed to sharp points in order to appease her village spirits, a Beverly Hills man underwent surgery for (of all things) butt implants, and a Chinese man had his legs surgically broken and reset in order to become taller.

The episode is available on most streaming video services, including Netflix, and a preview of the episode itself can be found on National Geographic's educational video website:

http://www.natgeoeducationvideo.com/film/763/taboo-2-body-perfect

The video is not too graphic (there are some surgery scenes, but nothing explicit), and I found it an interesting tool for getting students thinking about other cultures – I especially appreciate how, like many of the show's episodes, in included a distinctly American custom (in this case, Beverly Hills plastic surgery) as a means of comparison. All told, it's an interesting resource, althoguh best suited for older, more mature classrooms.

Some of my students used the video as a springboard to discuss their own and their culture's notion of beauty – as well as their commonalities. One student remarked that the Chinese fixation on height from the third segment, for example, was more or less universal – height is often associated with power and status. It opened their eyes to different cultures and ideas, while still giving them a reference point for their own.

All told, I would suggest this episode for any kind of discussion on health or beauty in which the educator wants to put a multicultural spin. The series in general is very good, although some topics are less appropriate than others.

Also, it's just plain interesting, even outside of class!

Another book review

Goodman, B. (2004). English, Yes! Learning English Through Literature. Level 7: Transitional New York: Glencoe. 184 pp., 9 units. Last book of a series.

This book is used on a secondary/adult education level, best suited for students at WIDA levels 4-5, Expanding and Bridging. It is a stand-alone book with no supplemental material or online component.

The topics are age-appropriate, using adaptations of classical and contemporary literature, with each unit focusing on a different short story. Language instruction is covered though vocabulary and grammar exercises at the end of each story/unit, which always relate the questions back to the story itself. Comprehension exercises are scattered along with the vocabulary and grammar exercises, integrating content and language instruction. The exercises themselves, however, don't contain any sort of answer key, and are for the most part, open ended questions (short answers, essay prompts, etc.,) which don't allow for much assessment or evaluation without the teacher's presence.

 As the theme of the book is learning language through literature, reading and writing skills are stressed, at the expense of others. Some of the more advanced language functions include using language to persuade (in an essay format) others to a certain opinion or action, comparing and contrasting characters within a story, and summarizing and describing events. There are almost no grammar exercises at all, although vocabulary is stressed through definition, synonym and antonym drills – mostly in a multiple choice format.

Exercises are grouped in a predictable pattern at the end of each story/unit, although there is some variety in the exact format of each exercise. For example, while the vocabulary exercise for one unit may be fill-in-the-blanks, the next unit's vocabulary drill will be multiple choice. The variety, however, is still somewhat limited, which is not helpful for different learning styles. There are no group activities or oral communication exercises of any kind, so there are no opportunities for students to use their newfound knowledge in a hands-on scenario. The book is the last of a series, presumably the last step before mainstreaming, so there is no noticeable differentiation of instruction.

The book has very few hand-drawn illustrations, usually only two or three per story. As the stories themselves come from a variety of cultures, from China to Latin America, so do the illustrations. Many of the stories are not contemporary, so the illustrations are not either, although they are historically and literally accurate to promote understanding of the text. Not nearly enough illustration or realia is included to help English Learners, but as this book is the last of a series, this may be intentional in order to focus the reader on the literature unassisted.

This book is the last step in a series before mainstreaming, and I wish I could've seen some of the earlier books to get a look at how the series handles developing readers. I was very disappointed in the complete lack of oral or group exercises, something which is now standard even in mainstream Literature texts. The book seems to assume a high level of proficiency because that is what it is designed for, nevertheless, some differentiation of instruction and appeal to multiple intelligences would have still been a wise move to help those students who may not yet be up to the expected level.

Another classic review.

Wiley, K. (2004). Shining Star. White Plains: Longman. Book 1 (Introduction) of a series. 289 pp., 8 units.

This book is used in middle schools, best suited for students at WIDA levels 1-2, Entering and Beginning. It comes with an audio CD but no online materials. The topics are age-appropriate, gradually preparing students towards mainstream school subjects and topics. Language instruction is covered all throughout the book, beginning heavily in the introductory unit, “Getting Started,” which provides exercises not only for basic terms (numbers, directions, classroom objects, etc.) but also a primer for terms in specific subjects (social studies shows how to read a map, math gives the basic fractions). The following units incorporate these lessons into themes which cover most of the content matter, for example, Unit 4, “Family Ties,” includes a short story for Language Arts,, a section on families around the world for Social Studies, and even a section on heredity and traits for science classes. Every unit ends with a “Review and Practice” as well as a “Connect to Writing” section, which provides both oral and written exercises for students to do for the teacher to assess.

The book is focused primarily on reading skills, with the Audio CD used primarily for the introductory chapters only. Students should be able to answer factual questions through exercises such as Wh- question charts, requiring them to express facts as well as judgments of opinion. Grammar exercises are presented in “Connect to Writing” exercises, covering basics such as subject-object agreement and use of pronouns. Vocabulary is covered mostly as highlighted words in the chapters, where the meanings are either given as footnotes, as in a standard literature book, or else used at the end as part of a comprehension exercise where students must choose the meanings from a list based on the context the word was used in.

Most of the exercises appear in either the beginning (“Prepare to Read”) or the end of the chapters, with very few exercises actually appearing during the reading passages. The prereadinig exercises lack variety, but they do draw heavily on students' prior knowledge, containing a “Background” section dedicated to having students use their own knowledge to answer questions and make predictions, making good use of scaffolding. There is a mixture of exercise types, within each unit, which are useful for both visual and verbal learners. End-of-unit exercises to include group work with gives students hands-on activities which let them share their knowledge with each other in meaningful communication. The book is already geared to an introductory reader, so there is not much differentiation apparent.

The book is well illustrated with numerous photographs which are on topic to provide background information for the students. Multiculturalism is given special emphasis, as topics and illustrations range from the ancient Greeks to the Native Americans – in fact, almost every photograph in the book illustrates a non-American culture. The photos appear recent, and show both recreations of ancient peoples as well as modern counterparts. There are more than enough photos in each unit to clearly illustrate and provide background.

From what I've heard, the Shining Star series is a commonly-used book for introductory ESL education, and I can see why. While not particularly creative or imaginative in its approach, it nevertheless is a solid series which provides a firm foundation for beginning ESL learners. I think the book would've benefited from more exercises, and more opportunities for students to evaluate and assess themselves, but on the whole, Shining Star offers a ground-level introduction to both language and academic content.

How good does your English have to be?

I recently came across the following storyline, and have been following it with some interest:


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/us/arizona-candidates-english-under-challenge.html?pagewanted=all

The short version is this: Alejandrina Cabrera is in the midst of a legal battle because she is being barred from running for the San Luis City Council because her English isn't good enough. Cabrera speaks English as a second language, but is far from fluent. Which raises some questions: Given that English is not the official language of the US, how good does it have to be in order to participate in government? And who decides what's good enough?

 San Luis is an Arizona Town (pop. 25,000) on the Mexican border. In fact, many of its residents hail from the "other" San Luis, just on the other side. According to the article, Spanish is the dominant language of the town, with bits and pieces of English thrown in.

I plan to use this article in a future class to ask my students what they think: In a town where most of the residents speak Spanish, should a potential civic leader be disqualified, not for not speaking English, but for apparently not speaking enough? How much is enough? And what should be the standard for determining enough.

I think there is some good material here for discussing the difference between a dominant language and an official one -- Official being required by law; dominant just being what the majority speaks -- and a good debate question: Should English be the official language? The "English Only Movement" is nothing new in politics, but it's interesting to see how the roles of language and government clash here.

Has anyone else been using or following this?