We started at the “top” of Africa, learning about the Sahara region.  These countries were the hardest for him to pronounce.  We started with Sudan, and given how many shirts related to the subject on campus today, I thought he might have at least heard of “Darfur”.  But he didn’t, so we talked about that issue for about two to three minutes.  We then moved on to countries such Algeria, Lybia, and Morocco.  I was unsuccessful in activating any schema relating to these topics either.  For Algeria I brought up to cultural connection to France, and of the large Algerian population inside of France.  He likes soccer, so the Zinidene Zidane “headbutt” was brought up but he hadn’t heard of it; I was kinda bummed about that.  For Morocco and Libya I talked about movies that had scenes taken from those countries, but he hadn’t seen those either.  

It was at this point I wanted to stress the idea that Africa has three distinct climate zones, the desert, the sahel, and the jungle regions.  Each of these has unique cultural and historical heritages, and the general idea of this point was in my mind important to emphasize.  We finished the desert region with Chad and Niger, and we then moved onto the ”Sahel”.  We learned about the regions large countries such as Nigeria and Cameroon, and the French influence exhibited by both.  I brought up Dasagna Diop (former Mavericks center) and the Cameroon soccer team as sports references to maybe making those countries easier to remember.  The Democratic Republic of Congo’s troubled history was addressed with some refrences to popular culture.

It was at this point we were able to move on to South and West Africa.  Somolia (blackhawk down), Kenya (distance runners) and Rwanda (its ethnic troubles) were all addressed.  Uganda was discussed a little and it’s problems with rebel movements, but it’s great success in fighting AIDS relative to similar countries in the region.  Zimbabwe and South Africa were easy to discuss with “apartied” being a subject already addressed.  The World Cup will take place there so that was discussed a little.  Zimbabwe didn’t technically have “apartied”, but it does have a similar history of race relations and Mugabe’s wrecking of the countries economy was addressed.

Angola was addressed with a reference to Cuba’s excursions there during the Cold War, the issue of communism was briefly discussed.  The Christian “island” of Ethiopia and it’s ongoing dispute with Muslim Eritrea was discussed.  The issue of religious conflicts is a prominent theme in modern African history, so this point was stressed along with the geographic zones.  In all eighteen countries were chosen to be memorized during the hour.  I thought these best reflected Africa’s diversity, and a general working knowledge of and about these countries are critical for any discussion of the continent.  

Assessment was taken with a blank map with the countries to be tested numbered from one to eighteen.  Not accounting for minor spelling errors, my student was able to get 17 out of 18 right without the use of an answer key.  I stressed the fact he now knows more about the geographic area of Africa than the majority of the American population, and anytime he sees a map it’s important to briefly remind himself of the location of each country so that information eventually becomes second nature.  Hopefully if he remembers the different climate zones and the general placement of 4-5 of the bigger countries, then I think our time spent learning together was a success.

I’ve learned that language does matter in teaching.  It’s wrong to assume every student comes into a lesson with the basic reading and writing skills college students take for granted, and instruction should be modified with such issues in mind.                          

On another note, after observing the subject, I’m not sure I want to teach Economics.  The areas of study that caused me to fall in love with the subject (development and labor economics) aren’t addressed in a high school class.  Listening to fellow Akins bloc interns talk about how interesting their lessons involving history are, I feel like that is the path I want to go down.     

I’ve learned a lot about teaching from both my observations and lecture in the Eagle’s Nest.  Given that “interactive” lecture is my favorite way to teach the material, it was helpful to learn some different perspectives in that area.  I will definately incorporate several of the reading and writing strategies learned throughout the semester, especially the interactive strategies involving synthesis of information.   

Hearing these stories from all the ELL’s and their classmates was a rewarding venture.  I’ve lived in an environment the past five years where 99% of my peers haven’t experienced anything close to the hardships which these students have endured.  Immersing oneself into a foriegn country at a young age was among the tamest of the speeches.  One girl finished her speech, a discussion which included being kicked out the house by her Mother and being beat as a child, with a message so profound it had no business being spoken by a fourteen year old.  Her ten minute speech ended with a genuine standing class ovation only a speaker with presence could generate.

Other stories included estranged parents and deep internal family conflicts.  It makes one truly appreciate the gap that exists between the average teacher and many of these students.  Empathy is an important characteristic to have in addition to consistency.  The master teacher understood that, and did his best to make these students feel comfortable when many other adults in their lives haven’t been up to the task.        

I liked the assignment the class worked on today.  It was a “simulation” in which students analyzed a situation involving a newly formed monopoly in the computer industry.  It was the sort of assignment that had no right answer, but required students to use information presented in previous lectures to make value judgements.  Was this corporation a natural monopoly?  Could its domination of the industry hurt consumers or actually help?  What are possible negative consequences to the economy?  The assignment was by far the most challenging I’ve since observing, and it was in the form of interactive group work, which is my favorite.     

The only reason I mention this subject is that it’s necessary to properly understand my cooperating teacher’s style. She doesn’t push the kids to hard, she can’t. As the Professor said, “as a teacher you must pick you’re battles”; and an uber strict teacher would not survive at this school in my opinion. She would spend to much time involved in disputes which would detract from learning. With that said, learning does take place, but it’s in a manner which best suits this school. I know one or both of our Professors will disagree with this, and I will undoubtedly be more strict in my classroom, but I don’t think I could educate these kids using my style as much as she can hers.

She knows the subject, a definite bonus. But she has a knack for shrugging off minor problem behaviors, and doesn’t allow them to distract from the lesson. Major problem behaivors haven’t occured, and I don’t anticipate they will. My cooperating teacher uses PowerPoint a lot and groupwork. I like powerpoint to supplement lecture in small doses, not as the primary source to communicate the material. But I do like how she uses groupwork for a variety of reasons. Thats all for now.

I noticed my cooperating teacher has a printout of Bloom’s taxonomy stapled to her wall; and the lecture activated several of the levels theorized by Bloom. Students were engaged in the activity through the use of funny anecotes combined with real life examples. These techniques helped ensure the students were paying attention during the dry but important details found later in the lesson.

Students were instructed to take notes during the lecture, which was a power point presentation. An open note quiz immediately followed, and students were allowed to use use their notes. None of the questions completely reached the evaluation level. A couple of them were taken litterally straight from the lecture, and the other two addressed slightly higher levels of the taxonomy. The quiz did a good job of identifying the most important aspects of the material, but nonetheless was still fairly easy.

The group project following the quiz challenged the students to apply the information learned in lecture using their own creative impulses. Students were asked to design a product competing in a perfectely competitive model, using the models four basic tenets learned through the lecture. At the very least, the project approached the evaluation level; although student motivation determained how high up the ladder to climb. Students who tried to be innovative and challenge the material learned a lot.

We started with a simple goal, memorize six countries which are important to understanding the region. The five I chose were Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. We learned these five really fast, roughly 3 or 4 minutes, and I started to get optimistic. But the next landmarks were undoubtedly going to be a lot tougher. On the agenda were seas such as the Red, Arabian, Mediterrean and Caspian; Mountians such as the Tauras, Elburz, and Zargos; and Gulfs such as Aden, Oman, and Persian. Thats a pretty heavy plate for a student who hasn’t yet learned how to discern the Middle East on a world map.

But like the countries, he was able memorize all those landmarks and more fairly easily. We constantly reviewed previously learned landmarks and countries, so that those wouldn’t go forgotten. The best part of the session was that my student was overtly trying to memorize these terms, and did so at such a pace that rough understanding of the world map could easily be attained within a couple of weeks. The session ended when handed him a blank map and said, “fill in everything we’ve learned”. He was able to label approximently 20 terms on the map with minimal spelling errors after only an hour and no word bank. Thats pretty good in my book.

I think the main lesson I’ve taken from this assignment is how much reading and writing skills are holding him back more than would be expected. He learned those terms fast enough for me to conclude that had he recieved more one on one attention, finding the Middle East on a map should be easy for him at this point. There was a gap between what he could recite back and what he could write, which was the first time I truly grasped how his writing was more problematic than he lets on.

During the script, he appeared as if he was putting forth a decent effort in attempting to answer the questions, which as a teacher seems to be all you can really ask.   We read passages from Breaking through, and analyzed the material further by answering the questions provided.  He’s able to speak and sound out English words well.  I’m not so sure how well he is able to understand the words he is able to pronounce so effortlessly.  He could answer some of the questions correctly very fast, but others took longer than expected.  Words such as “grinned” and “motioned” gave him trouble, and it is understandable how the passage would be difficult to grasp without knowing these words.  I am very bad at gauging the reading level of a student who is well below where they should be.  Just talking he’s a smart kid who understands how to speak English, and there’s a good chance I assume he should be a better reader than is reasonable.

I tried to repeatedly check for understanding of the vocabulary, and we went over words such as “grinned” that he didn’t know.  Also, I asked him to speak in Spanish or tell me what his initial thoughts were on questions that were giving him difficulty.  But he was prone to giving the exact right answer or none at all.  On the other hand, he did immediately know the word “curandero”, noting it was some sort of person who cures.   You could tell he enjoys reading the Spanish words, so if I was trying to appeal to his interests a book rooted in Spanish would be the way to go.

Since he doesn’t like to point out words or concepts he doesn’t know; vocabulary strategies before, during, and after the lesson seem warranted.  Minimizing jargon and using correct grammer are also important.        

It was clear from the conversation that he is probably an ELL more so because of his writing abilities than speaking.  Since the regular classroom doesn’t allow him practice writing in Spanish, the language he more fully understands, his basic skills seemed underdeveloped for a student his age.  His family speaks Spanish at home, so it is likely his parents aren’t able to help out much with English language homework.  Vocabulary building should definately occupy a substantial portion of his learning time, although at his current stage the definitional approach would probably yield the most benefits.  After hearing about the conversations others had with their ELL’s, it became clear we didn’t get into the detail others did; which probably has more to do with my own conversational abilities than the ELL.  Nevertheless hopefully we can make further in roads about his interests and goals next meeting.

During the next meeting, I would like to focus more on the specific vocabulary he uses to express his ideas.  Our first conversation consisted on short answers with a simple vocabulary; which I don’t if it’s because I didn’t give him the proper environment for expounding upon his ideas, or if he really just doesn’t have an adequate grasp of english grammer yet.  The next meeting will hopefully shed some light into these areas.

The class was good about staying on task.  Each paper was written on an individual basis, but students were allowed to talk during the period; which helped their ideas and kept the subject interesting.  These were seniors, so keeping the material relevant seems to be an especially important goal for learning to take place.