reading for 04/07/06: Ce'sar Cha'vez a hero for our time

hi culture club

ce'sar cha'vez's bday is today. we celebrated it in the arlington traditional school spanish for heritage learners' class along with listening to "de colores" (the theme song for the UFW, United Farm Workers) and reading a story on cha'vez.

given that immigration "reform" is on people's radar screens big time these weeks, and that ron will be leading you all in facilitating lessons on (comic book) heroism, i thought it was timely to consider cha'vez's legacy.
please read the web material on cha'vez at http://www.paradigmproductions.org/film/filmstory.html#anchor472185
which is from the website resources of the new documentary film "The Fight in the Fields"
and
http://chavez.cde.ca.gov/ModelCurriculum/Teachers/Lessons/Resources/Biographies/Middle_Level_Biography.aspx

consider for our discussion next week how you might discuss cha'vez with the children within a broader view on both heroism and immigration. when we do immigration as a theme with katie's leadership in a few weeks it will be useful to have had this historical material.

thanks and have a great weekend!

lisa

Urgent: Tomorrow's Class

hi culture club:

our babysitter has a health emergency and so i will be unable to attend tomorrow's club. but i will leave the audiocassettes with ms. callow. meghan brossea, our tech guru, will be there to help. this is the plan:

(1) have the children who would like to still tape a story -- preferably one they have heard in a culture other than that of the u.s. -- do so. MS. CALLOW HAS THE TAPE RECORDER IN THE ACTIVITIES ROOM.

(2) have everyone listen again to their stories. then they should type their stories on microsoft word, print them out, and save them on the computer.

(3) have the children riff on what the difference is between an oral and a written story. this is a great place to talk about how diction and grammar work in the different modes.

(4) have them continue to create their "webscrapbooks" by finding useful historical and geographical information on their regions. encourage those who have only written down categories (like "food," "music," "dance," etc.) to find specific details for these categories.

have fun and please let me know how things went. i apologize for not being able to make it!

lisa

Monday's Club

hi all:

monday's club was out of sight. meghan our tech assistant was impressed and has a web page for the kids to work with now! we first discussed "critical literacy" on the Internet -- they're already savvy about "untruths" and "bad" content. we then had them tell ghost stories into a tape recorder (a little delay as professor rabin forgot to plug it in) and will have them type them out, and comment on the difference between oral and written modes of storytelling, on wednesday. we also had them find three websites on a region of interest to them (preferably where their story originated), and begin writing facts about that region.

the goal is for each to create a webscrapbook including their story and a frame concerning the region is it from. their creation of this is then a kind of counterpoint to "blind" Internet use.

see you wednesday and thanks for monday

lisa

Monday's Club

hi all:

monday's club was out of sight. meghan our tech assistant was impressed and has a web page for the kids to work with now! we first discussed "critical literacy" on the Internet -- they're already savvy about "untruths" and "bad" content. we then had them tell ghost stories into a tape recorder (a little delay as professor rabin forgot to plug it in) and will have them type them out, and comment on the difference between oral and written modes of storytelling, on wednesday. we also had them find three websites on a region of interest to them (preferably where their story originated), and begin writing facts about that region.

the goal is for each to create a webscrapbook including their story and a frame concerning the region is it from. their creation of this is then a kind of counterpoint to "blind" Internet use.

see you wednesday and thanks for monday

lisa

Next week's classes

Hi again:

I am facilitating a creative response on the children's part to their schooling in the "knowledge society" on Monday and Wednesday. That is, we will be working with them first

• To identify what are some of the "traps" of the Internet, in spite of (and sometimes because of) its "freedom" and "democratic access." To this end we should encourage them to explore how "freedom" to publish on the Internet can lead to unregulated content (pornography, untruths (cf. the Wikipedia case), and how "democratic access" has led to ethical problems like identity theft, illegal pirating of intellectual property, and illegal downloading of the same.
• To then enact a kind of critical response to what I'm calling the "blindness" of Internet use. That is, we and a technology assistant who will attend both days as well will be working with the children to create "webscrapbooks" that gather critical material -- and show forefront a critical perspective on "gathering" and sifting through information -- from the Net on a subject. Since the children love storytelling so much my idea is that they each create a "page" on a story they like the best to tell. Their pages should include historical and geographical material on the country the story is set in and ideally a small riff on a poet or storyteller from the region. Monday we will be introducing them to this project and working with them on the Internet to find these things. On Wednesday they will be writing down their stories on the page.

I believe the children's heritage is for the most part in El Salvador, Bolivia and the Dominican Republic. If you all can look over Latin American literature, history and culture knowledge on these regions so as to lead them in their research that would be great.

Can't wait

Lisa

Reading for 03/31/06: John Willinsky and Norman Fairclough

The next reading and discussion pieces are found online. They are

John Willinsky, "Just Say Know? Schooling the Knowledge Society," at http://research2.csci.educ.ubc.ca/eprints/archive/00000049/01/Ed_Theory[1].pdf

and

Norman Fairclough, “Global capitalism and critical awareness of language”: http://www.schools.ash.org.au/litweb/norman1.html

Please respond to the following questions in reference to these articles:

(1) How are Willinsky and Fairclough critical of the ideologies of our "information" or "knowledge society"?

(2) What are their recommendations for resisting these ideologies and how do you see these translated in our teaching of the Culture Club?

Thanks!

Lisa

Innovations contest?

Hi Culture Club:

Can I convince you all to enter the Innovations 2006 contest with your Culture Club curriculum and project? It's a chance to show the GMU community the superb and truly, truly innovative work in critical literacy you are doing with the Gunston students. It's a very easy application, and I think I can enter it (summarize it) for you all if someone can volunteer to be a student contact. The deal would then be for you to create a visual display that could, say, be a poster of your lesson plans and perhaps a video of a class (provided we get the children's parents' permission), or even some version of the blog.

There is a small monetary prize for the best project, also. If you're interested go to http://media.gmu.edu/innovate/index.html

Please let me know asap if you'd like to enter as the deadline is April 19.

Lisa

Article for tomorrow's lesson on Miss America

Here is the link to the page with the Miss America winners' measurements for the students to look at and discuss. Sorry I forgot to include it with the other materials. Hope all goes well tomorrow!

Shavon


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/missamerica/sfeature/sf_list.html

Sorry for posting so late- Lesson plan

Here is the lesson plan for this week. I will bring all the materials...


Week 7: Representation of Gender

This is a two-part lesson plan for this week and our focus will be the representation of women through blues music in the past and the Miss America pageants. Monday we will work with Blue music and women artists.

SOL Objectives to be met:
Oral Lanuage objective 6.2 and 7.3
Reading objective 6.5 and 7.7
Writing objective 6.6 and 7.8

MONDAY

Today our theme will be “Men, Women, and the Blues.” We will show the students how blues music shows the gender divisions in the U.S. both past and present. Through this lesson plan our students will recognize and explore gender stereotypes and their influences on behavior, consider different sides in debate on the role of women in society, and understand how women blues artists were both limited and defiant of the gender expectations that they experienced.

Songs to be used:
“Mannish Boy” by Muddy Waters
“Three O’Clock Blues” by B.B. King
“The Other Women” by Shemekia Copeland

The students will be given a list of questions to consider while listening to the three songs and then we will discuss the questions as well as the gender roles and stereotypes in general afterwards.

Our next exercise will be a discussion of “Gendering Instruments.” We will discuss and make a list of musical instruments that are viewed as appropriate for men to play and for women to play. Then we will discuss reasons as to “why” these instruments have been branded this way.

Lastly, if there is time left, we will go to the library and have the students research one of the women of the 1920’s time period, Bessie Smith and other women of the 1920’s. They should write a short paper of no more than one page hand-written describing the photos of the women, analyzing their posing, clothes, etc and then come to a general conclusion about the representation of women in the 1920’s.

Homework for Wednesday: Find as many photos in magazines, newpapers, etc of women in general and bring them in on Wednesday.

WEDNESDAY

Today our theme will be “Miss America” pageants. We will look at the various aspects of the pageant including cultural and historical.

First we will read an article titled, “The swimsuit competition and the century of svelte” and then look at a chart that has the height, weight, and measurements of Miss America winners. Then we will have a debate/discussion over the following question, “Does the Miss America pageant cause women to judge themselves- and to be judged by others- by unhealthy or unrealistic standards?

Second we will discuss read about America’s beauty culture and then discuss the use of makeup. Consider the following question- Do women use makeup as a way of expressing themselves or are they forced to use makeup by social pressures? The students should research ads and articles in magazines and newspapers on the internet and prepare a short oral report supporting their argument on this question.

Lastly, if there is time left, have the students make their own collages of different photos and images from magazines they collected for homework on Monday. We will see if we can provide the art supplies to make this happen.

Reading for 03/24/06: "Cinergi'a"

Hi Culture Club and happy break!

Your reading for this week is on reading and interpreting gender in film, as you will be working with the children on identifying gender representations in film (and magazines) this next week. Please consult and surf the website http://www.mediaandwomen.org/

Please go through especially the four links on the homepage (take the quiz and read "girls, women and media," "get the facts," and "what can i do?" and discuss. You may choose to respond to some or all of the following questions:

What is the site's objective?

What is "media literacy"?

Have you observed the children in the culture club either conforming to or resisting media stereotypes and gender?

How do you think that schools can become more involved in promoting "media literacy"?

wednesday's club: dvd

hi:
just wanted to know if the dvd made it to my office or if it is with the activities directors. thanks (i'm on blockbuster's list already)

hope you're enjoying the fabulous weather

lisa

Ojo

hi again:

just wanted to make clear i can't make it tomorrow as i am teaching the ats spanish for native speakers class in the afternoon. ms. chapuis has mad hot ballroom (along with the DVD player) which should delight everyone. i would let them all tell one ghost story first --

thanks so much and please let me know how things go.

lisa

Sandra Cisneros and Storytelling

I had the best time yesterday, so good I want to propose we continue this at least into the near future . . . Is anyone interested in obtaining 3 more internship credits?

The telling of ghost stories was especially wonderful. The children would like to do this on Wednesday. So let's plan to let everyone tell a story -- and if they've written them down please keep them -- and then to show the movie. Caitlin Chapuis has the DVD player and movie.

I would show as much of the movie as you can and leave enough time for discussion of "reading" strategies, along the lines of what you've been doing.

I do owe the young woman who sits with Lorena (not Thalia) a soda, please tell her I will make good on this in two weeks when I come back.

Also, can someone bring back the DVD and leave it in my office?

Thanks!

L.

Tomorrow and Wednesday's Class

Hi:

I will meet Monday's Culture Club in the class. I am bringing copies of a chapter from Sandra Cisneros' Caramelo that deals with immigrant Latinos visiting family yearly in Mexico and a CD of Los Lobos on Latinos in L.A. Both will give us ample things to talk about regarding immigrant families in the U.S. and what "diversity" might be. Both are also great to weave in reading strategies.

For Wednesday, I am hoping you can show "Mad Hot Ballroom," which is about 5th-graders from all 5 boroughs on New York City competing in a yearly ballroom dance competition. The different schools have very different ethnic populations. It will be a nice entree into talking about immigration in cities and diversity of cultures and languages. I would let them react as they want to to the movie, much in the "reader-response" fashion dealt with in the book Reading Across Cultures. It will be interesting to see how the Culture Club views the "traditional" female-male dance routines and whether they are familiar with any of the Latin dances. You might want to talk about how dancing is learned differently in Latino and U.S. cultures.

I will check with Mary Callow about a DVD player. If there isn't one I assume you can play it on one of the computers. I will leave the DVD with her.

If there are any questions or comments, please let me know!

Lisa

Reading for 03/10/06: Reading Across Cultures, con.

Hi Culture Club:

Katie, thank you for an eloquent and insightful reading of the Reading Across Cultures chapter on reader-response criticism. I am also looking forward to seeing how the children respond to the Cisneros piece and the movie "Mad Hot Ballroom."

Because this book is so significant for what we are doing, I would like this week's reading and discussion to be of another chapter in the book if you have already done one. If you haven't, please read the introduction and at least one chapter and comment on them for the blog.

Thanks and have a lovely weekend,
Lisa