April 27th/ Critical Pedagogy with Curtis and his 8 followers

April 27^th/ Critical Pedagogy with Curtis and his 8 followers

Problem posing:

The issue of age also comes into play as it seems to me that while a skilled teacher could become an equal participant in the learning process of older teenagers, an elementary teacher needs a certain authority to manage the class, for it is not only the practice of English but also of good behavior with which those in my context must concern themselves.

Question: How can we design critical practices that are appropriate for young learners?

Problem solving:

We as teachers should prepare carefully as we need to consider the size of the class.  In critical practice, small groups of three or four is good for kids as we can maximize their participation and involvement. While they are sharing their ideas, they should keep the classroom rules for other students. If they did not follow the rules it could be a messy class in which no one concentrates on the target goal. Also, teachers can be focused on students’ level. When they make groups, we need to organize them based on their level determined by scores, their formative assessment results, etc. Teachers usually have general data of students’ results; it is not particularly difficult stuff. 

When we apply a critical practice to our actual class, teachers should focus on easy and authentic context from the students’ circumstance. Even though we try to apply the context, it may not work well in an actual class, so we need to prepare supplementary material in case.

Our Education System

Do you prepare white clothes?

Cyber Bullying (Dialectics Perspective)

Date		April, 17th 6th period		Theme	Cyber Bullying (Dialectics Perspective)	Teacher		Ann
Objective		By the end of this lesson, the students should be able to 1. say the definitions of cyber bullying and take a stand on anti-cyber bullying 2. say and write a reflection about the activities.
Procedures			Activities				Teaching Aids
Introduction (5 min.)			• Greetings • Review the previous period with the pictures used in “Little Beauty” • What is friendship to us? What are friends? • Motivation: Watching the video “Cyber Bullying Virus” • Present objectives				Movie Clip
Development (30 min.)	Look & Say   Theory & Thesis		• Watch the movie and guess what’s happening in the movie.   • Guess what will happen next in the story. •- Watch the whole movie and check the context • Listen again and think about the context • How can we define bullying in school? • What causes and results does bullying have? • Brain storming – Fill in the cluster diagram.				Computer, Cluster Diagram
	Speak & Play   Practice (Praxis) & Antithesis		• Prepare two pieces of paper : Draw the same face on the paper; Put one piece of paper on the table and share the other with each other. Then, crush the paper that has bad words. When they finish the activity, students should say sorry to the paper face. Even though they apologize the paper face, it is still creased. It shows we cause give bad wounds to others minds like this. • Students will realize how bullying is bad for everybody.				Computer, Paper faces
	Take a Stand Synthesis		• Watch “Take a stand Anti bullying Movie” in our blog. • Talk about what happens in this story. • We can write our feelings and what we felt through this lesson on our RDBC' blog. •
Closing (5 min.)			• Review today’s lesson with the pictures. • Assign homework

How can I apply Dialectics to world Englishes education? - Cyber Bullying Virus -

 

Education For Whom and For What?

Paulo Freire - An Incredible Conversation

Bakhtin Meets Pocahontas II

Bakhtin Meets Pocahontas I

What is the Hegelian Dialectic?

Received Reading & Oppositional Reading

Received Reading

l  Who is the intended audience? (Who is it speaking to?)

This ad is for parents who want their kids to study English and may want to send them to study in the USA or abroad.

This ad is for English learners who want to study more than the basic level. It is for the English language learners who want to study intensively without going abroad.

If the learners join this course, they can expect to get two benefits: The learner taking this course can enter SUNY without SAT or TOFEL scores.

This ad also emphasizes that this program has lots strengths such as improving the four skills of English.

The Korean man looks stronger than the native. The Korean represents studying in Korea and the Native represents studying in USA or abroad. It could also be the programs which are supported in the USA.

To compare the cost of studying in the USA, a learner can obtain the four skills with less money in Korea by attending this academy.

Oppositional Reading

What is the intended message for the ideal audience?

This Pagoda Academy shows that they might have a more intensive program than in the USA.

The “native” means the white male in this advertisement.

Studying abroad is not the only way to learn English.  Studying with natives is not the only good solution for overcoming our difficulties with English but we can study more intensive course which was for.

While the Korean guy pulls the rope, the native can barely stand.  This represents that they might support a more qualified program than the USA.

The rational price is 400,000 won which means it is not a lot of money to invest in studying English. To spend 400,000 won monthly is less money than if we participated in a similar program abroad.

It also shows that the language level of potential customers is quite a bit higher than I expected. This ad is marketed towards learners who want to study abroad or to have a program with the same effect.

This ad is using the quite stimulating words, “Better than Native.” No one think that Koreans have better language abilities than Natives do to teach their language.( L1)

If the customer takes this program they can save much more money than if they went abroad.

This academy has a certain connection with SUNY. It shows power through this connection with a reliable authority that makes program.

It shows that the power of Native teachers is minimal compared to local Korean qualified programs.

Graffiti art into Critical Pedagogy Class - How fun!!

We had class on Saturday in April 3^rd

While taking this critical pedagogy class, I found myself wishing that the class with students could be exactly like this.

I really wish the class that I touch would be like this. Most of students enjoyed the class and joined the activity together.

To learn something is to do intellectual work with peers, share ideas, draw our thoughts together, build upon these thoughts and ideas, absorb new ideas, etc.

We share the same concepts, but we produce different ideas. It makes us more interested.  It is really an honor for us to take this class.

We saw the same instance, but in subjectively different ways and we started to figure it out with various perspectives. So the meaning of the instance is changed with the viewer’s perspective. I am beginning to consider deeply my educational philosophy.

Is making students shut up and be quiet a better way to convey knowledge and teach the class? Hmmmmm.

Does a teacher who has more authority in the classroom manage the class and teach better than one with less authority?

If we as teachers make the students be quite, does it mean they can gain more knowledge than we expected before? Is the silence in class representative of efficient, deep learning?

Does the silence of students mean they are learning? I don’t think so. In my opinion, we need to be hatched from the rotten idea.

What the hell? Who made this map????

What would I like to change about this class?

What would I like to change about this class?

First of all, I would say that I always feel satisfied with this critical pedagogy class.

It’s really true.

However, what I would like to change are the homework assignments.  Even though Curtis said, “We don’t need to confirm what we read through the articles,” sometimes I really wanted to know what the articles were about and what the authors’ intentions were. I don’t trust my understanding because I often realized through peers’ communication that I misunderstood something. If we have time in class, I would like to hear Curtis’ opinions.  For example, what the goal of the class was and why he suggested this articled to us.

Second, before reading assignments, let us know the definition of specific words. I tried to find the meaning of some words, but it is used in different ways in the case of history of philosophy. I know Professor Curtis is always super busy. If he has some time before we start a new chapter, I would like to suggest hearing brief explanations of specific words or theories from him.  I don’t want to walk in the foggy and dark side all day long. (It means I am confused sometimes)

Reflection of reading “ Exploring the possibilities for EFL critical pedagogy in Korea: A Two- part case study by Shin & Crookes “

What are some barriers to doing this in your teaching/learning context?

-      Reflection of reading “ Exploring the possibilities for EFL critical pedagogy in Korea: A Two- part case study by Shin & Crookes “

In my understanding, critical pedagogy is that the students are taught by active participation, discussion or debate within social issues based on society and local culture (could be country). That is, teachers focus on usual communications between teacher and student as well as student and student. Also, teachers promote students’ critical thinking through various teaching contents with different approaches than traditional education. I think, as homeroom teachers who teach other subjects, it is possible to do this, but we still have some barriers such as big size class and diverse knowledge level of students. Usually a class which is focused on debate and discussion is a time consuming. We have a limited time of forty minutes in elementary school. Forty minutes is not enough to talk and make the students more involved in discussion. We cannot usually draw a conclusion in other subject classes.

Therefore, this year I am running an extra class after school, the RDBC.  It is short for Reading and Discussions Booking club of Heongdeock. I have two types of classes with my students.  One is the regular 4^th and 6^th grade classes and the other is an extra class after school of voluntary students who were picked after an interview. There are lots barriers to making the RDBC class settle down. Most big problems are their parents’ fault. Some of parents, even though their daughter failed the entrance interview test of RDBC, strongly pushed for their daughter to join to the RDBC. Because she wants to send her daughter to an international middle school, she need a career such as SPEC(스펙Knoglish?) as member of a book club related to the English subject. Her daughter is quite good at speaking and understanding, but not enough to join RDBC. Sometimes, parents are so selfish and greedy and this is quite exhausting.

Even though I have had only two classes with RDBC it has been fun. Their speaking level is almost equal though a few of them are a higher level than others. Most of them can express their thoughts when they want to talk. However, if I apply Shin’s into my regular English class, Oh!!! No, I cannot say. I expect that would not work well. It might be impossible with a regular English class. There is diverse level of students in class. It is not easy to deal with them. Also, the class size is much bigger compared to RDBC in which there are 12 students. However, we have about 30 students in one class. During critical pedagogy class, we discussed “How are you?” target language about greeting people. How can we apply this topic with critical practice or critical thinking into actual class? I think it’s really hard to say “How are you? / I’m fine, thanks.” That is all. It is just natural conversation. Does this include any social issues? Or is this sentence a matter among society? Do we discuss this topic with critical thinking?

I don’t think so. In my teaching field, in a regular English class, it’s impossible though. We are always in a hurry following the regular steps of the curriculum which is provided by the government. We usually focus on speaking, listening, reading and writing according to the text book.

We don’t have enough time to do this. No one denies this truth if they know Korea’s system of English education in English classes. If anybody knows the solution to overcome this problem in Korea, let me know, please!