Buha 1
Hi all! I’m a senior education major at the University of Missouri, St. Louis and am eager to take the next step toward becoming a great educator. Fortunately, I have been blessed with a strong community of family members, teachers, and mentors who have supported me and encouraged me to realize my potential inside and outside the world of academia. The amount of gratitude I hold for these people is never ending because they have made me who I am today and will continue to influence my life forever. This is important to reflect on because as a teacher I will have an opportunity to be an influence on someone’s life every day. I will continue to improve my teaching skills in order to awaken and challenge my students’ potential. I will work hard to instill pride in their work and confidence in their being, so that they will be able to look forward and envision their lives as they could be.
I have had a great experience at UMSL and feel very lucky to have shared part of that experience with the Spring Methods class. We have created a wonderful community of intelligent, driven, and inspirational individuals, and for this, I am truly thankful.
“[Teacher] presence comes from confidence, confidence comes from knowledge, and knowledge comes from study and practice.”—A. Buha
“Of all the frictional resistances, the one that most retards human movement is ignorance, what Buddha called 'the greatest evil in the world.' The friction which results from ignorance can be reduced only by the spread of knowledge and the unification of the heterogeneous elements of humanity. No effort could be better spent.” --
Nikola Tesla
“If I see the moon, but you do not, I will point at it. First you will watch my finger to see where it goes. Eventually, however, you must take your eyes off my finger and find the moon yourself.” –
Mark Salzman - The Laughing Sutra
Reading or Literature Unit
Unit 1-“English” Literature
Alexis Buha
overview
February 9, 2010
Rationale:
Our students are expected to read and interpret English Literature throughout their entire high school career and then some, but rarely do they get educated on the actual history of the English language and how much meaning is behind just the words themselves. Teaching the unique history of our language is a great introductory unit to kindle the students’ appreciation of their linguistic heritage and give them background knowledge that they can eventually connect to literary works and vocabulary that they read in the future. It will expose them to the many changes that have taken place in our language and shock them that it has held strong since the 5th century! Hopefully, this unit will intrigue and engage them long after it is over.
Summary:
The unit will start off explaining the absolute basics of language groups, dialects and regions. There will be discussion about invasions and the involvement of political and cultural identities- basically, a “who, what, when, where, and why session. The class will then move forward, focusing on a certain transition period of the English language that took place during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The main idea to present to students about this time period is the extreme variation of our language due to the disruption of England’s political system. French was the dominant language throughout England, but because of political upheaval, English returned as the prevailing language.There were dialect, word, and syntax changes across the country, so people ran into some communication problems, even though they were speaking the same language.
Through lectures and discussion, they will be referencing and reading literary works from the time period, such as, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” They will recognize trends in language variation and hold short Q&A sessions with small groups, so they get in the habit of discussing and explaining ideas with others, but won’t have to worry about speaking in front of large groups or the whole class. They will be involved in this as well as having a wonderfully creative writing assignment and project to complete.
Length of Curriculum:
The unit will last 4 weeks. They have my class every day, so there will be plenty of time to learn the basics and then some. There will also be ample opportunity and room to think creatively about their writing assignments and their projects. The project will take up several days of the last week.
Materials Needed:
*various different language dictionaries
*a few copies of the urban slang dictionary
*situational announcement paragraphs
*a plethora of literary works for reference
Assessment:
Formative assessment will revolve around two set assignments
1) The project at the end of the unit is really about getting the students engaged and immersed in the subject. They will be graded on the collaboration of creativity and the discussion afterward. 20 points
2) The written assignment is really a showcasing of their ability to communicate in interesting, cogent, and evidence based ways about the history of English. This is worth 20 points.
Summative assessment will encompass all participation during discussion days, completion of journal entries, and active use of graphic organizers that will be handed out weekly.
Objectives:
The point of this unit is not to train the students to become a linguist or a historian, but just to be simply knowledgeable about our Language and how and why it has evolved into what it is today. There is no interest in getting the students to memorize facts; we have reference sources for that sort of thing, hence, no testing during the unit, only the writing assignment and project. However, along this journey of English awesomeness, they will be exposed to many interesting things and will thus, apply it to future learning. They will be able to:
*Recognize English and its literature and link it to a time period and an author
*Understand the meaning of dialect, word order, and syntax along with recognizing change in them throughout the centuries
*Learn and use many new vocabulary words
*Understand root words and where they originated from
*Link world languages with their regions
Course Level Expectations met:
CA 4, 2.1
Compose text with:
a.strong controlling idea
b.relevant specific details
c.complex ideas
d.freshness of thought
CA 5, 6 1.5, 1.6, 1.10
Purpose for Listening
- for enjoyment
- for information
- for directions
- critically to summarize and evaluate communications that inform, persuade and entertain
- to evaluate own and others’ effectiveness in presentations and group discussions, using provided criteria
- to evaluate the validity and reliability of speaker's message
CA 1, 6 2.1, 2.3, 4.6
In discussions and presentations,
- create concise presentations on a variety of topics
- incorporate appropriate media or technology
- respond to feedback
- defend ideas
- demonstrate poise and self-control
CA 2, 3, 4, 1.2, 1.8, 2.1
Record relevant information from multiple primary and secondary sourcesusing a self-selected note-taking or organizational strategy
Reading or Literature Unit
Let’s Hear It!
Alexis Buha
LP 1
February 14, 2010
Rationale: So many assignments created for students these days are only good enough to prove that they able to memorize and regurgitate facts from a book or specific opinions of a professor. Students complete assignments within guidelines set by the school or instructor and never really get a chance to be inventive with the way they produce their work or even stop to think about how they might use or apply their learned information in the future. This assignment is a great way for students to prove their knowledge the way they want to prove it.
Summary: The assignment is very simple. A scenario prompt will be given, and they will have to respond to it. Many of the lessons given in class will be situational, meaning that students, when prompted, will learn to respond (think critically and speak) appropriately to the given topic. This would be just like having a conversation with company at a coffee shop or reading something in a newspaper and writing back to the author of the article. I want the lessons to apply to real life as much as possible.
With that said, I will be giving the students a bit of dialogue spoken by a fictional character named Max. Max will be speaking, quite frankly, about his ill feelings towards the English Language and why he thinks it is so terrible. Max represents a random person from the general public whose knowledge of the English language, despite his beliefs, isn’t quite up to par. The assignment is to correct Max’s argument or guide his opinion in another direction. A couple examples will be given on how to go about this. The students can go off my examples, or they can do it any way they want.
Objectives:
Students should be able to ethically gather, understand, evaluate, and synthesize information from the variety of sources given during the lesson.
Students should be knowledgeable and have experience in writing in a variety of different writing styles.
Materials: this is pretty much free reign here. Anything that they would like to use for their assignment they can, but they will be using lecture notes, handouts, and literary examples to guide their response.
Assessment: 20 pts total, 5 points for each of these categories:
Clarity- persuasiveness-accuracy- flair (explained in detail on student handout)
We have been talking a lot about the English language for the past couple weeks…
Do you think you will ever refer to this information again??
You Bet!
Everything in life is a learning experience; anything from talking with friends, reading the newspaper to watching TV, shopping, and traveling. Every day you are put in situations that you can either learn from or teach to. So, let’s practice, shall we?
Get into groups of 4 and devise a scenario in which you are somehow learning something from someone/something or teaching someone/something. The content of information will, of course, revolve around the English Language.
Just pick out a few things about the history of the English language from your notes or my lecture or our activities that stuck out to you.
You will present your group’s scenario to the class. KEEP IT SHORT AND SWEET and keep it as real life as possible… Be sitting at a coffee shop, waiting in line at a movie, talking to your parents, etc.
This should be fairly easy and funny to watch! And, not to mention beneficial to your writing assignment, so perk up and take some notes!
Now that you got the feel of the direction we’re going with this assignment, let’s get to it!
Similarly to what we just did, I want you to create a scenario, but in response to a prompt I will give you. I won’t make you wait any longer, here it is:
Imagine a fictional character; let’s call him Max. Max will be speaking, quite frankly, about his ill feelings towards the English Language and why he thinks it is so terrible. Max represents a random person from the general public whose knowledge of the English language, despite his beliefs, isn’t quite up to par. BUT GUESS WHAT?...YOURS IS!
SO TELL HIM WHAT YOU KNOW!
The assignment is to correct Max’s argument or guide his opinion in another direction.
************************************************************************
Here is something that you might hear Max say at a party:
“People who use non-English words in their everyday speech should be beaten with sticks. If we keep doing that, then pretty soon there will be no English left at all. Why say ‘boulevard’ when ’street’ will do? Whysay ’siesta’ instead of ‘nap?’ And don’t even get me started on ‘amigo.’“
Here is something you might hear him say at a coffee shop:
“We have to stick close to our language’s Latin roots, because that’s one of the only things that’s going to halt our decline. That means we can’t go around using primitive language like “Who did you go to the party with?” or “I’d like you to really enjoy yourself,” because Latin speakers never ended their sentences with prepositions or split their infinitives.”
And finally, here is something that Max might write in the newspaper:
(See example)
Respond to Max and knock down his arguments in their totality. Make sure not to be too aggressive with your thoughts. Again, the assignment is to correct or guide his opinion into another direction. There is no length requirement.
How you will be graded:
The assignment is worth 20 points total. You will earn up to 5 points for the following categories:
Clarity:Would someone who doesn’t know you be able to understand what you’ve written?
Persuasiveness: Would what you’ve written convince a roomful of random people who do not already agree with you? Are you arguing from fact, not feeling?
Accuracy: Have you made your clear and persuasive points without misrepresenting the facts?
Flair: is what you’ve written engaging, funny, enthusiastic, and passionate? Think about using dialogue!
You can respond to this prompt ANY way that you want! Use your notes from class and sources from class. Think about a creative way to develop your writing. I’ll show you my example of a response to my “Miss Manners” article.
See below my example of what Max might write in a newspaper and how an educated person might respond.
Buha 1
Dear Miss Manners,
I have found myself at odds with a dear friend of mine. I will refer to him as Robert. Robert and I have been chums since our days at Whitmore day School in Boston. I value our friendship very much; however, despite his education, Robert insists on arguing against my, what I believe to be superior, knowledge of the English language. I am disappointed and slightly embarrassed of the direction that the English language has taken over the past several decades. I tell Robert time and time again that we need to stay true to our Latin roots because that is the only way we can keep our society from diluting what is already a diluted language. Also, everyone living in the states needs to go back to grammar school and learn how to speak English how it was originally spoken… correctly! And for heaven sakes, people need to stop using non-English words in their every day vocabulary. Everyone throws these words around in their cutesy, slang conversations, but I think it is completely inappropriate. Although I am fluent in French as well as in English, I keep my languages separate because I fear that someday there will be no English left to speak at all. Robert fights me on these ideas constantly. He claims that, “It’s just the natural progression of things, just let it go”. This is such a typical answer from Robert. He always was the liberal of the group, which is an entirely different, exhausting issue that I won’t get in to. So, Miss Manners, the problem is that I am not willing to just “let this go”. I need someone to back me up once and for all. I hope that you will take the time to read my letter, not just for wanted support on such a serious issue, but also because dinner for two at the four seasons lies on your response.
Sincerely,
Miffed Max
***************
Dear miffed Max,
I can certainly understand why you would be so bothered by such a disagreement. You undoubtedly have a strong sense of pride in the English language and you have every right to defend it, for it is your own. But I must admit Max, there are a few things about your argument that I need to bring some attention to; first being, your opinion of staying true to our language’s Latin roots. I must point out to you that these “roots” that many speak of were actually superimposed upon the English language (which originally started out as a dialect of German) due to centuries of invasions. Because of the Roman conquest we have a chunk of our vocabulary rooted in Latin, just like many other languages. The reason Latin had been prominent for so long is because it was the language of science and more importantly, the chosen language of the Catholic Church. Actually, “varieties of Latin evolved into what we now call the Romancelanguages, such as: French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian” (notes 1/26/12). So Max, I could see if you were upset about English losing its Latin roots, if indeed, it was a descendant of Latin, but it is not. So go make a visit to your French professor at Whitmore Day in Boston, and ask him/her why the French language is falling away from its Latin origin.
The next point of your argument I would like to pick at, if you don’t mind, would be grammar. Geeesh, the topic of grammar gives me a headache. What do you believe is “correct grammar”? Are you sure you want everyone to speak how English was “originally spoken”? Because, let me tell ya, if you do, we’re all in for a trip. Sorry to break it to you, but “the last person who would have understood it, died over a thousand years ago” (notes 1/26/12). So, it’s slightly impossible to fully understand the grammatical structure of English in its original form.