Language - California State University, Northridge



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|(1) Writing in your subject: Students learn to write by writing. Research indicates that students write more when using a computer |

|than when writing by hand. |

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|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. |

Writing assignments are a large part of my classes partake in throughout the year. Taking advantage of these computer based resources will add to my and my students’ abilities to edit their work.

I will have my students type and bring in a rough draft for one of their essays for class on a flash disk. I will pick a student whom I have previously discussed this with, and I will use his or her essay as an example. Projecting the student’s essay to the front of the class, I will then demonstrate methods to edit. We will look at using footnotes, highlighting, and tracking changes to show how a rough draft should be edited for the specific items we are looking at. To keep our practice simple, we will only be editing for a few items, otherwise, the essay can become too complicated.

Once I have shown the students how to edit their rough drafts with these tools, their next assignment will be to use the computer lab at school or a computer at home to edit their own essays in the same way. They will bring a printout of their editing, and it will become part of their overall grade for the entire essay project

|(2) Editing: Research indicates that students edit and revise more when writing on a computer than when writing by hand. |

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|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. |

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|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. |

Software will generally not detect logical errors. For example, it missed the logical error about Lincoln’s mom. The usage of punctuation is not always correct, or someone who is very comfortable with punctuation may want a specific type of punctuation that the computer does not agree with. The computer may place commas in the wrong place thereby creating different syntax and flow than what the author had intended. The spellchecker will not catch a word that is spelled correctly but is the wrong word. The use of ‘taxis’ was incorrect for the usage in the sentence. I always encourage my students to use spell and grammar checker, for they can and normally do catch the simple errors that we may miss. However, it is vital that the students go over what the computer suggests before accepting the changes the computer wants to make. The practice of going over computer suggestions also improves students’ grammar and style abilities, for they have to think about what they are really trying to say.

|(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. |

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|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. |

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|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). |

This short story by Edgar Allen Poe is said to be of 5th grade reading level, and it certainly appears to be appropriate for my students. However, while the reading level may be low for a high school class, the themes, issues, and plotline are certainly high school level. I may not wish to teach a 5th grade class about a madman who murders his boss, but students in 7th grade and up may be able to handle to topic with maturity and understanding.

|(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. |

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|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. |

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|(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. |

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|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 trying to explain the meanings of |

|difficult words to your students |

Preamble: 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.

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I teach a few sheltered English classes (advanced ESL), and the thesaurus is a tool that almost all of the students have learned to use daily. The word posterity would be very difficult for them to understand on their own, but when they look it up, and they see, “future generations,” they understand very well what the word means. Many of my students carry around a small, computer dictionary and thesaurus.

|(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) |

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|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- |tell, pronounce |dictator (one whose word is law), diction (enunciation), edict (a formal |

|(from dictionary) | |pronouncement or command.), dictum (an authoritative, often formal |

| | |pronouncement), dictate (to say or read aloud to be recorded or written by |

| | |another) |

|Anti- |Against |Antibiotic (medicine to destroy microorganisms), anticlimax (a disappointing|

| | |ending), antidote (medicine to counteract poision), antithesis (the opposite|

| | |of something), antihero (a main character in a story who lacks normal hero |

| | |qualities) |

|Mis |Wrong or bad |Misbehave (to behave badly), misanthrope (a person who hates/avoids others),|

| | |miserable (terribly unhappy), misquote (to quote someone incorrectly), |

| | |misfire (when something fails to go off or work properly |

|Syn |Together, at the same |Synchronize (to occur at the same time), syndrome (a group of symptoms of a |

| |time |disease), synonym (a word that means something close to another word), |

| | |synapse (a junction of two nerve endings), synopsis (a summary or outline) |

|Extra |Beyond |Extracurricular (outside of the normal course of study), extraneous |

| | |(something that is not attached to something else), extravaganza (a |

| | |spectacular or incredible event), extraordinary (greater than being |

| | |ordinary), extract (to take something out) |

|Trans |Across, beyond, change |Transcribe (to copy into writing), transcend (to excel or surpass), |

| | |transition (changing from one place or state to another), translucent (to be|

| | |able to see through something), transport (to move something from one place |

| | |to another) |

|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. |

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Cognates are words that have historical relationships with each other. They are words that are seen in different languages that show similar characteristics and meanings because they originated with a common word. If students spend time studying some major cognates, their reading comprehension and ability to grasp new ideas will come much easier for them because their vocabulary has expanded tremendously.

|One way to interest students in the significance of words is to have them study the meaning of their own names. Identify the |

|meaning of five common first names of students in your class. |

Jessica – This name means “a gift” or “God beholds”

Andrew – This name has the meaning of “man” or “of a man”

Abigail – This name means “my father is joy”

Henry – A strong name meaning “home ruler”

Edward – The names means “rich guard” - many historical Kings have this name

|(8) Communicating with English Learners and their families: Southern California is home to a very diverse population, many of whom |

|are immigrants from non-English speaking countries. Translation programs can help break down some of the language barriers between |

|teachers, their students, and the families of these students. |

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|Use translation software (such as Sherlock, or AltaVista Translation Service) to translate a simple document |

|from your class into one or more languages spoken by students in your class. If possible, show this to someone who is fluent in |

|English and the language into which you have translated it, and explain any potential problems. |

The Things They Carried

Interview

Each of you will interview an adult from your family about a national crisis he or she lived through. The Vietnam War is the one I am hoping for since our book is about that war, but for parents that were not living in America at the time, the other option is to discuss a crisis from their home country they remember.

The assignment requires you to sit down and record a conversation with this adult and turn that conversation into an interesting interview I can read.

Possible questions to ask are…

1) What are your strongest memories of the event?

2) What specifically stands out to you?

3) What side were you on? Are you still on the same side?

4) How did it affect your life? Your family’s life? Friends?

5) How did the country react?

Let the interview take on a life, and let the discussion go where the person wants it to go. You will find things to talk about when you let the other person talk. Take notes about the answers of course, but also note the human side.

You will turn in…

A) Notes – planned questions with the person’s answers (20 points)

B) Rough draft (20 points)

C) Final Draft – At least two pages (30 points)

This is due June 2nd; it is worth 70 points.

Below is the same handout in Spanish…

Las Cosas Ellos Llevaron la Entrevista

Cada uno de ustedes entrevistará a un adulto de su familia sobre una crisis nacional a través de que él o ella vivieron. La Guerra de Vietnam es el para que yo estoy esperando desde que nuestro libro está sobre esa guerra, pero para padres que no estaban viviendo en América en el momento, la otra opción es discutir una crisis de su país de la casa ellos recuerdan.

La asignación le exige sentarse y grabar una conversación con este adulto y se vuelve que la conversación en una entrevista interesante yo puedo leer.

Las posibles preguntas para preguntar son…

¿1) lo que es sus recuerdos más fuertes del evento?

¿2) eso que específicamente las posiciones fuera a usted?

¿3) en qué lado usted estaba? ¿Usted está inmóvil en el mismo lado?

¿4) cómo afectó su vida? ¿La vida de su familia? ¿Amigos?

¿5) cómo el país reaccionó?

Permita la entrevista asumir una vida, y permita la discusión ir donde la persona lo quiere para ir. Usted encontrará las cosas para hablar sobre cuando usted permitió la otra charla de la persona. Las notas de la toma sobre las respuestas claro, pero también nota el lado humano.

Usted se volverá en… Un) las Notas- las preguntas planeadas con las respuestas de la persona (20 puntos) B) el borrador (20 puntos) el C) el Proyecto Final- Por lo menos dos páginas (30 puntos)

Éste es debido el 2 de junio; merece la pena 70 puntos.

The student who looked over this said that the handout translated very well. I used the email service from LAUSD because it allows for translations when we have to send something to parents who do not understand English. A few of the words did not translate perfectly because of the formatting of the document when it was sent he believes, but otherwise, the program did a fine job. Sometimes though, even the smallest of changes with the translated language can lead to confusion because we often times do not know or understand the nuances of the languages we are translating to, and words or phrases may come out confusing to the reader.

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