terça-feira, 29 de maio de 2012

Using Student Writing to Teach Global Issues

http://www.oneworldeducation.org/

  One World Education is a nonprofit group based in Washington. The group has a program in which teachers develop curriculum based on student writing. The students are in middle and high school and write essays about culture and global issues.


Students are invited to write about an issue they find important. Then professionally developed learning materials based on chosen essays are used in schools to teach other students.

Eric Goldstein is the executive director of One World Education.

ERIC GOLDSTEIN:  "Over the last four years, we have worked with over fifteen hundred student writers and we have worked with  almost three hundred twenty-five teachers accessing the One World curriculum."

He says the essays can serve as a writing and learning guide for thousands of students.

ERIC GOLDSTEIN: "It is truly the only online academic arena for young people to share and publish their writings in a way [that] it serves as a teaching tool for other students."

Mr. Goldstein is himself a former classroom teacher. He and another teacher, Emily Chiariello, began forming plans for One World Education in two thousand six.

The group publishes a study unit each month from August through May. Each unit of curriculum starts with a chosen essay, called a "One World Reflection." The subjects have ranged from single parenthood to protecting rainforests to exploring Arab cultures, says Mr. Goldstein.

ERIC GOLDSTEIN: "We have had students writing One World Reflections on women in the Muslim world, on Islamic media, on Arab media, on Arab identity. One student [wrote] about being Muslim and how she is perceived in her neighborhood."

Laila Kunaish of Washington wrote about her feeling that the media in the United States are often unfair to Muslims. A learning activity based on her reflection called for students to collect examples of media stories and discuss whether or not that was true.

Laila was chosen as a One World Student Ambassador last year. Twelve are chosen each year. Their reflections are published on the group's website, along with learning activities linked to common reading and writing standards used for testing.

Isabel Nampakwa Kapotwe of Lusaka, Zambia, was also chosen as a student ambassador. She wrote about Zambia's cultural traditions, its languages, religions and tourist attractions. But she also wrote about poverty and disease, and how, after her parents died, her grandmother made a home for the remaining family. One activity based on her reflection called for research into the care given by grandparents as heads of households in today's society.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Go to voaspecialenglish.com to find a link to the One World Education website, where you can read some of the student reflections. I'm Jim Tedder.

segunda-feira, 26 de março de 2012

Should the school-leaving age be raised to 18?

 
David Blanchflower said raising the school leaving age was 'an economic and social no-brainer'
 
The school leaving age should be raised to 18 to combat rising youth unemployment, a former economic adviser to the Bank of England has demanded.

David Blanchflower also suggests that firms in depressed regions such as Northern Ireland and the north-east of England should be allowed to hire young people without paying national insurance.
The economist will tell an international conference on young people in Belfast on Monday that youth unemployment is "the single biggest issue facing this government".

He will also warn that rising youth unemployment could be socially destabilising and create a reservoir of discontent that republican dissidents could exploit.

Prior to his speech at the Children in Conflict conference at the Europa hotel, Blanchflower said that while the coalition has a monetary policy, "they seem to have no regional policy".

The one-time member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee says he is "extremely concerned that all the good work and great achievements in Northern Ireland could be put at risk by youth unemployment".

In last week's budget George Osborne announced that Northern Ireland would be designated as a special enterprise zone. Raising the school leaving age to 18 is "an economic and social no-brainer", he says. "This doesn't mean necessarily that everyone up to 18 years of age has to study for A-levels. In a place like Derry, which suffers badly from youth unemployment, it might mean most kids staying on at school, learning to up-skill with practical training.

"It's better to have youngsters in school than on the street. Anyone aged 16 or 17 should be in some sort of training. In the United States they would be considered dropouts."

The economist, who is now based at Dartmouth College in the US, says: "This government has no plan other than trying to fiddle with the figures and pretend there is no problem."

Blanchflower points out that the ratio of young to older people on the dole is very high.
He says: "Overall unemployment is running at 8.4% but among the under-25s it is 23%."

One of the main reasons he agreed to attend the Belfast conference was, he said, because he was concerned about how high youth unemployment in Northern Ireland might impact on peace and power sharing.

The three-day conference will hear from a number of speakers on how poverty and unemployment impacts on children in conflict zones. Among those attending will be the Chief Constable of the PSNI, Matt Baggott.

A department for education spokesman last night said that the school leaving age in England is due to rise to 18. It is first due to rise to 17 in 2013 and then 18 in 2015.

quarta-feira, 30 de novembro de 2011

"I hereby" -  "venho por meio desta"

http://denilsodelima.blogspot.com/2009/07/itens-lexicais-chunks-of-language-parte.htmlitens lexicais - dica de leitura!!