When I was a teenager in China, English learning was an extremely tedious and painful experience. I clearly remember that for every English class I had to carry a heavy Oxford Chinese-to-English dictionary so that I could look up all the new words I encountered in readings. More importantly, as my English teacher suggested, we should have at least two more dictionaries other than the basic one, like English-to-English and Word Roots Dictionary. It was so frustrated when I tried to read a news article on Newsweek or New York Times because I might be stumbled by more than 50 words in one article and then spent two more hours to look them up in my thick and heavy paper dictionary. Even Continue reading E-dictionary Speeds up Foreign Language Learning
Monthly Archives: October 2016
Do we need to Game-ify School?
Short answer? No. Long answer? We already have.
Meeting Needs
“The best thing to come out of the project was that my kids began to realize that they were part of Lawrence’s history.” (Marinell, pg. 538)
What most captured my attention in “Voices Inside Schools” was how Mary, the teacher being studied, was able to use a photojournalism project to engage students in a thought provoking way to demonstrate their literacy. Continue reading Meeting Needs
Netflix in the classroom: Developing a critical lens
One of our ground rules for this course states: “Acknowledge that one of the mechanisms of oppression (racism, classism, sexism, etc.) is that we have been systematically taught misinformation about our own groups and especially members of devalued/subordinate groups.” I strongly believe this acknowledgement should be fostered in adolescent classrooms during crucial developmental years. One media modality that has become part of adolescent life today that can be used to build the realization of this acknowledgement is Netflix, and even TV shows and movies in general. By helping students gain a critical lens with which to analyze the TV shows and movies they consume, we can help them process the misinformation they may be receiving about themselves and their communities as they continue to develop their identities.
Continue reading Netflix in the classroom: Developing a critical lens
New realms in the classroom
Growing up in the country, I spent countless hours playing alone in the woods. Unbelievable worlds full of pirates, bandits, explorers and cowboys were constructed from the most basic of found materials. I was alone with my imagination in the production of a virtual world contained in the trees, rocks, gulleys and hideouts that the woods afforded me. Although my siblings might join in playing in close proximity to my own forts, they were often far removed in other parts of the wilderness where they were constructing their own lands for me to visit (or attack) later in the day. These experiences afforded me a rich imagination and access to natural materials as raw invitations to play and creativity. They were spaces of play which, by definition does not have a defined outcome. I wonder if the play of Minecraft Realms may be comparable?