Name:
June 16, 2005
- Develop a computer-based writing assignment relevant to the theme of your portfolio.
- Explain how this assignment will promote writing skills through the use of computer based resources.
Typically there are no writing assignments given in Secondary Physical Education classes. For this portion on language I worked with my peer tutor Christian on his writing assignments because his area is history which requires lots of writing. I asked all of my master teachers about writing assignments and none of them had given writing assignments to their students.
Sample Instruction Set to Students:
Directions – “Tear Down this Wall” is a line from a famous speech by President Reagan. Listen to this clip and answer the following questions:
- Who is President Reagan speaking to? Provide a screen capture of a map, illustrating the country in which President Reagan is speaking.
- What country is President Reagan speaking about? Provide a screen capture of a map illustrating this country from the year this speech was delivered in 1987.
- What did President Reagan mean by saying “Tear Down this Wall”? To what wall is he referring? Find an image of this region in 1987 and today. Take a screenshot and discuss, in two paragraphs. Were President Reagan’s demands fulfilled? Why or why not?
This sample assignment blends basic computing skills with historical relevancy. It asks students to listen to a short speech clip by President Reagan regarding the decline and fall of the Soviet Union, to geographically map the region, and analyze the significance of the impending consequences. Students must be familiar with the use of screen capture software, basic internet search engines to pinpoint required information, the ability to utilize online reference resources to adequately answer the questions, and present their findings with a word processor. A traditional assignment would have differed significantly, relying on a written transcript of the speech, printed reference material such as maps and encyclopedias, and a handwritten analysis. This traditional assignment would have been more costly, requiring physical references, more time consuming due to the lack of streamlined internet based content, and perhaps less entertaining for students. Watching a video excerpt of a famous speech visualizes the dramatic content and provides students with a more accurate depiction of the original event. These factors combine to present students with a template that can enrich their capacity to research and present material relevant to their academic pursuits, thus promoting the development of essential skills necessary to literary competence.
(2) Editing: Research indicates that students edit and revise more when writing on a computer than when writing by hand.- Use the footnote feature to identify all of the mistakes you can find in this document without the aid of a grammar checker, and repeat with the aid of a grammar checker.
Errors I found without the use of a grammar checker.
The causes of the Revolutionary Warr[1] was that the the[2] English put tacks[3] in[4] their tea. Also, the colonists would send their parcels through the post without stamps. During the War[5]. the Red Coats and Paul Revere was throwing balls over stone walls[6]. The dogs were barking and peacocks crowing.[7] Finally the colonists won and no longer had too[8] pay for taxis .[9] delgats[10] from the original 13 states formed an Contented Congress[11]. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were towo[12] singers of the Declaration of Independence. Frankin declared "A horse divided against itself cannot stand."[13] Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.[14] Soon the Constitiion[15] of the united states[16] was adopted to secure domestic hostility[17]. Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent.[18] Lincoln's mother died in infancy[19], and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands.[20] Lincoln said,: "in onion there is great strength."[21][22]
Errors I found with the use of a grammar checker.
The cause of the Revolutionary War was that the English put tacks in their tea. Also, the colonists would send their parcels through the post without stamps. During the War. the Red Coats and Paul Revere was throwing balls over stone walls. The dogs were barking and peacocks crowing. Finally the colonists won and no longer had too pay for taxis. Delegates from the original 13 states formed a Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin declared "A horse divided against itself cannot stand." Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead. Soon the Constitution of the United States was adopted to secure domestic hostility. Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. Lincoln said, "In onion there is great strength."
- What kinds of errors are generally not detected by the software? Give examples. Would you encourage your students to use a grammar/style checker? If so, explain how it might be best employed. If not, explain why not.
Identifying and correcting factual data regarding contextual subject matter remains beyond the scope of existing software devised to check for errors contained within the parameters of the document text. In short, the software itself cannot yet estimate the accuracy of the data, other than the manner in which it is presented, such as basic spell checking and grammar usage.
A program to perform this task would have to be linked to, at the very least, an encyclopedic database or a web crawling application, whereupon the incorrect information in the document would have to be recognized upon association with the source deemed to be “true”. The problem with this approach is that it is difficult to contextually identify “incorrect” information, due to the abundance of possible means to express the data. This complicates recognition, as the variations capable of presenting essentially the same content though language expression vastly expands the complexity of requisite coding instructions. A system capable of performing this function would likely demand a language sourcing program that could trace the root of expressed verbiage to more easily identifiable patterns.
Thus, the correction tools utilized by modern office software perform a rudimentary check, prone to omission of minor and especially systemic user mistakes. Additionally, obscure or less than popular proper names are frequently highlighted as incorrect spellings because the dictionary reference used to spot misspellings contains a minimum number of words in the English language as a consequence of the limited nature of the program.
Regardless, this function can serve beginning and intermediate students well in identifying obvious errors. Students who rely upon this service should always recheck and specifically approve any recommended changes. To not do so would be adsorb and rediculous[23].
(3) Analysis of your textbook: Readability is a measure of the comprehensibility or understandability of written text. There are many methods and formulas for determining readability and the related reading age. Teachers should be aware of the readability level of their text as well as the reading level of their students.- Scan three or more paragraphs from your textbook into a word processor file using OCR software. Perform a document check and readability estimate on the text and include the results in your portfolio.
“The Scarlet Letter” Excerpt:
A throng of bearded men, in sad-colored garments and gray, steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods, and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden edifice, the door of which was heavily timbered with oak, and studded with iron spikes.
The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison. In accordance with this rule, it may safely be assumed that the forefathers of Boston had built the first prison-house, somewhere in the vicinity of Cornhill, almost as seasonably as they marked out the first burial-ground, on Isaac Johnson's lot, and round about his grave, which subsequently became the nucleus of all the congregatedsepulchres in the old church-yard of King'sChapel. Certain it is, that, some fifteen or twenty years after the settlement of the town, the wooden jail was already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front. The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its oaken door looked more antique than any thing else in the new world. Like all thatpertains to crime, it seemed never to have known a youthful era. Before this ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street, was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pig-weed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison. But, on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.
THE AMERICAN JOURNEY – US HISTORY, 8TH GRADE:
The Virginia Colony
The first permanent English settlement in North America was at Jamestown.
Reading Connection Would you be willing to stay in a community with few jobs and where many of the residents were starving? Read to find out what happened to the people of Jamestown and what discovery saved the town.
In 1587 a group of English colonists financed by Sir Walter Raleigh sailed for North
America. There, they founded a colony on Roanoke (RO•uh• nohk) Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina. After six years, however, the colonists disappeared. No one knows for certain what happened to them. For this reason, Roanoke Island became known as the “Lost Colony.”
Virginia For a time, the failure of the Roanoke colony discouraged further plans for English colonies in North America. However, in 1606 the idea emerged again. The Virginia Company, an English joint-stock company, received a charter, or the right to organize a settlement. With the backing of the company, more than 100 people braved an Atlantic crossing and set up the first permanent English settlement in North America in 1607. The settlers named it Jamestown after King James I. Jamestown was the first town of a new colony called Virginia. Life in Virginia was very hard. The colonists had come hoping to find gold or silver. Instead, they could barely find enough to eat. Many settlers died from starvation and the cold winters, and others were killed in clashes with Native Americans. The colony survived under the leadership of Captain John Smith, a soldier and explorer. Smith forced the settlers to farm and managed to get corn from the Native Americans. During those first years, the colony made no money for the merchants who had invested in it. It might have collapsed had not one of its settlers, John Rolfe, discovered that tobacco could grow in Virginia’s soil. Tobacco became the first cash crop of the English colonies. A cash crop is grown in large quantities to sell for profit.
- According to the computer-generated readability estimates, does this text appear to be appropriate for your students? Explain. (Note: In some programs, document analysis appears at the end of a grammar check).
The readability estimate appears to suggest that the material from the current 8th Grade US History text, The American Journey”, exceeds the intended difficulty level. At 9.6 on the Flesch-Kincaide Grade Level readout, this material seems to be better suited for High School students approaching 10th Grade.
(4) Equations: Many teachers have the need to incorporate equations into handouts, tests and notes. Equation editors allow you to make equations and then export them as graphics to word processors.- Use an Equation Editor to create two or more complex equations from your discipline. If your discipline does not use many equations, you may select from the following list.
(5) Word relationships : English dictionaries contain more than 250,000 words, while Spanish dictionaries contain approximately 100,000 words, and most other languages have far fewer. English has an extensive vocabulary and many synonyms. This can cause difficulties for English learners. An electronic thesaurus may be used to help students understand the complex relationship within the English lexicon.
- Using a thesaurus, paraphrase the preamble of the Constitution. Include at least ten logical substitutions for the original words. You may use the built-in thesaurus (Tools/Language/Thesaurus) in Word or internet resources such as Merriam Webster's Dictionary & Thesaurus, or Roget's Thesaurus. Describe (with an example) how you can use a thesaurus when tring to explain the meanings of difficult words to your students
Preamble
Original: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Modified: We, the Citizenry of the United States, in Order to create a more ideal Nation, bestow Justice, guarantee domestic Tranquility, secure the common defense, elevate the general Welfare, and assure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Descendants, do erect and proclaim this Constitution for the United States of America.
(6) Mastering Content Vocabulary: Although modern English has the largest and most complex lexicon of any language in history, the meanings of many words can be determined if one knows the common prefixes, suffixes and root words. Knowledge of such morphemes is particularly useful for English learners who face the formidable challenge of mastering English vocabulary, with all of its many nuances. According to Richard E. Hodges of the University of Puget Sound ("Improving Spelling and Vocabulary in the Secondary School; 1982, p 30) ,“If you were to examine the 20,000 most used English words, you would find that about 5,000 of them contain prefixes and that 82 percent (about 4,100) of those words use one of only fourteen different prefixes out of all the available prefixes in the language.” Thus, if students master these prefixes, they will know clues to the meanings of thousands of words." *TPE-tip. TPE 7 requires teachers to "implement an instructional program that facilitates English language development, including reading, writing, listening and speaking skills" You may wish to develop a root-word bank for the subject you teach and show how it facilitates vocabulary development (TPE-7)- Identify five words commonly used in your subject. Identify one or more prefixes, suffixes or roots from each. Use an online dictionary to identify 5 or more other words in the English language that use these morphemes as per the example. When searching, you will need to use standard wildcards: *=multiple characters; ?=single character.
Root / Meaning / Five or more related words that share this root
dict-
(from dictionary) / tell, pronounce / dictator (one whose word is law), diction (enunciation), edict (a formal pronouncement or command.), dictum (an authoritative, often formal pronouncement), dictate (to say or read aloud to be recorded or written by another)
poli- / city / political, police, policlinic, policy, polity
dem- / people / democracy, demographic, demagogue, demonstrate, demographer
com- / with, jointly / community, , common, combat, comfort, command
gen- / produce / general, gene, gender, genre, genesis
liber- / free, book / liberty, liberate, libertine, liberal, libertarian
- English has acquired words from many languages as seen in this story. It is helpful to show students these foreign words and cognates so they can better understand the historical relationship between English and other languages and look for cognates when learning new terms. Translate 5 or more words from your discipline into each of four languages using Sherlock, Logos or other resources. Include the translations in your portfolio. Identify cognates and explain how you can use them to help students master English.
Cognates are a linguistic terminology for words that have a common root. Many words in the English language can be traced back to such roots, meaning that knowing major cognates will allow one to comprehend an unfamiliar word if correctly able to identify the cognate. This is particularly useful for English language learners, as knowledge of words and their roots can dramatically expand one’s familiarity with the English lexicon.
Words to Translate: political, democracy, community, general, liberty
French - politique, démocratie, la communauté, général, liberté
German - politisch, Demokratie, Gemeinschaft, General, Freiheit
Italian - politico, democrazia, Comunità, General, libertà
Portuguese - político, democracia, comunidade, general, liberdade