Reflection on Freire's Third Letter to those who DARE teach

A.White

2/6/2015

Prep for TESOL Materials:

“But with responsibility, scientific preparations, and a taste for teaching, with seriousness and a testimony to the struggle of injustice, we can also contribute to the gradual transformation of learners into strong presences in the world,” Freire, p.62.

This except from Freire’s fourth letter rings very true to my experience in teaching. The classroom is an extension of home for students because students spend approx.. 30 hours each week at school. Teachers naturally develop relationships that calls for care and compassion for students, similar to parenting. Yet, we see many teachers who live modest lifestyles, and devote extra time and energy to meet student needs, despite being underpaid. I think the salary range reflects that education is undervalued, in comparison to other areas of US economic systems. We devote this time and energy to our students because I think we love our students, and want to see them succeed, and have opportunities in the world, and more than anything, to find joy in learning, and be empowered to interact, equally, in this world.

“It is obvious that the problems associated with education are not just pedagogical problems. They may also be political, ethical, and financial problems,” Freire, p. 67.

The challenge of being a teacher is baring the injustices, such as, funding, technology, and finding the time to stay up to date with education policy, politics, and legislation, that directly and indirectly affect our communities. There is so much to know, and as a teacher we are already concerned with meeting state standards, dealing with tight budgets, and developing curriculums. Writing this, I think, I do not know why I chose this career path, except this…I am truly motivated by the tiny breakthroughs and seeing that I am making a difference in a students life. I just moved to Denver, Co this past year, and I have some knowledge of the conflicts in our education system here. One reason I moved to Colorado is because I knew that this area was educationally progressive, more so than Charleston, SC. There, I was constantly stuck trying to be creative in my curriculums, but juggernauted by detached, and out-of-touch state regulations. Being involved in education ethics, and policy can be useful knowledge that will frustrate the hell out of you.

            Freire, P. (1998). Third Letter. In Teachers as cultural workers: Letters to those who dare teach (pp. 61-84). Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.

Three Discourse Lessons

Presentation Review

Group 1: Osaro & Jim

I like the music and imagery. Also, hearing Osaro speak is powerful because English is her second language. This could be motivational for students. I think it’s a shame that many schools abroad, only hire native English speakers because a lot of ELLs are fluent, and more grammatically accurate. It is cool she talks about an authentic listening experience though. Jim presents great information, and uses intonation to emphasize information, questions, and specific information he wants to share. They did a great job adding in videos into their presentation, I need to learn how to do that. They also, met the time length considering they only have two people. I like how Osara ends the presentation. I think they did an awesome using cool DML tricks for their complete presentation!

Discourse & Pragmatics

TESOL Concepts and Communication strategies, through Immigrant, ELL, Conversation Observation:

Alexandria White

Discourse and Pragmatics

MA-TESOL, USFCA

Introduction

            This paper evaluates conversations between native, English speaking students, in their one-on-one meetings with recent, one to three year, US immigrant students, who attend Newcomer school, which specialized in TESOL, specific academics. Approximately four minutes, of conversation and transcript is observed from New Immigrants Share their Story video, Youtube, 2011.  This video was chosen because the conversation emphasizes Gee’s, seven building tasks to efficient English language learning, sociocultural influences, and pragmatic deconstruction, for ELL conversation practice (Gee, 2014)

Self-Assessment:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1W-o7MzWZbn860j6JVYjyIuktVGO9ADDQT2lC6LhsCxQ/viewform

This form created through Google docs. would be a great way to assess student communicative competency levels. I would use discourse analysis in reading their responses. I created short answers, paragraph answers, and multiple choices to get an idea of where students are in their comprehension, reading, and writing skills. This would be used to introduce student, and give me an idea of areas we can improve and strengthen. My favorite question is asking "where knowing English would help the student most?" This way I can plan, and create a curriculum that fits student communicative needs. I would incorporate simulation, spontaneous speaking, and role playing activities for better discourse analysis. 

Group Presentation

Grice's Maxims

1. The maxim of quantity, where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more.
   
2. The maxim of quality, where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence.
   
3. The maxim of relation, where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion.
   
4. The maxim of manner, when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity.
   
   
   As the maxims stand, there may be an overlap, as regards the length of what one says, between the maxims of quantity and manner; this overlap can be explained (partially if not entirely) by thinking of the maxim of quantity (artificial though this approach may be) in terms of units of information. In other words, if the listener needs, let us say, five units of information from the speaker, but gets less, or more than the expected number, then the speaker is breaking the maxim of quantity. However, if the speaker gives the five required units of information, but is either too curt or long-winded in conveying them to the listener, then the maxim of manner is broken. The dividing line however, may be rather thin or unclear, and there are times when we may say that both the maxims of quantity and quality are broken by the same factors.