- RATIONALE/OBJECTIVES OF THE MODULE
- The developmental English classes I teach at Paradise Valley Community College are comprised of students from very diverse backgrounds, religions, and ages. This semester, for instance, I have students from China, Iran, Croatia, Mexico, and Japan. In addition, Native American, Afro-American, and Hispanic students all join with he traditional American students to form one class doing battle with English grammar and punctuation. These classes provide me with a tremendous opportunity to build a classroom atmosphere of mutual acceptance, respect, and understanding.
- CONTENT
- Reading
- Alice Walker, "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self"
- Shanlon Wu, "In Search of Bruce Lee's Grave"
- Judith Ortiz Cofer, "One More Lesson"
- Richard Rodriguez, "Hunger of Memory"
- Martin Luther King, Jr., "Three Types of Resistance to Oppression"
- Responses
- Students read the selections listed above. I have chosen these essays because they articulate diverse viewpoints, ideas, and difficulties from authors who represent a variety of cultural and racial backgrounds. We then discuss the essay in class. Often, students in the developmental classes need classroom discussion in order to understand the basic themes of the work.
- Language and Grammar (Since we are studying language, vocabulary, and grammar in this class, several assignments and exercises are designed to increase appreciation of other languages.)
- We make lists of words, which we use, that come from other languages. (See example A).
- When I discuss "case" in class, students who speak foreign languages explain how "case" is indicated in their languages. American students soon realize that English is not as difficult to master as many other languages are.
- METHODOLOGY
- Before the discussion of each essay, I write a quote on the blackboard, which focuses our comments onto one particular aspect of the essay. While discussing Alice Walker's personal narrative, for instance, I write a quote from Plato: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Then we begin our discussion by listing the battles Alice Walker is fighting during the course of her narrative.
- Students immediately identify her personal battle. Blind in one eye, Walker is traumatized by the scar and her subsequent loss of beauty more than she is concerned by her limited eyesight. All students empathize with her need to be attractive.
- Next we talk about her family's battle with poverty. Again, this is an issue most of the students can easily understand.
- Finally, we discuss Walker's inevitable battle with prejudice.
- Each of the essays we read in this class helps to expand student empathy and understanding.
- Following our classroom discussions, we create a virtual classroom by using the electronic forum. Using pen names so that they can write anonymously, students respond to my questions and to the questions posed by their classmates. Anonymity affords students an opportunity to explain their perceptions and to ask questions about other cultures that they would, perhaps, be reticent to ask in a classroom setting. Many of the students born in the United States have only a vague knowledge of other countries and other cultures. The electronic forum allows students to appreciate these cultures and appreciate their customs.
- I ask additional questions on the electronic forum that are not related to the reading. These questions afford foreign students with an opportunity to describe aspects of their culture of which they are particularly proud.
- "If you could learn another language today, what would it be? Why?"
- "Does your family celebrate any cultural tradition that has helped shape your own identity?"
- EVALUATION
- Students are evaluated in several ways:
- Classroom discussion
- Written responses to the reading
- The number of words they contribute to the electronic forum
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