Who owns your beautiful idea? Who should? - African Insight

  After teaching a class in which we talked about plagiarism and how to avoid it one week in Expository Writing, the next week I was struck by the below paragraph about music and musicians within African society. This paragraph suggests, of course, one of the major problems that is associated with the concept of plagiarism... who can possibly own an idea? are ideas ever really developed in isolation from the community?

Musicians are respected, but only in the context that the music itself belongs to the community - not to the person who is playing an instrument or singing a song. Those instruments have been developed over many years, while the songs themselves are inspired by the people as a whole rather than by any individual.

~ "The Art of Africa: The 50 best African artists" (emphasis added)

  This topic has a multitude of roots and branches to explore, but it deserves much more nuanced consideration than the average person gives it when they encounter it, often in high school or some related educational setting. Often, the word "plagiarism" seems to be a collect-all term for shared community wisdom, re-used clear expression, laziness, concept-theft, inability to paraphrase, flattery (imitation), and more. Fantastic differences lie concealed within this offensive word.     

another less-explored refuge of quiet in Istanbul

  About an hour by ferry ride from Istanbul (though technically still within the city limits) lies the chain of islands known as the Princess Islands. I have previously posted about the largest one, Büyük Ada and one of the smaller, rarely-visited ones, Sedef Adası. This year, after many times of passing by them, I have visited two of the other main islands in the group, Burgazada and Heybeliada.

Burgazada, from as seen from Heybeliada

 Like Buyuk Ada, these two also have old Greek Orthodox churches or monasteries on them. On Heybeliada, there are supposed to be many old unexamined manuscripts of Christian writings and Scriptures in the library. Anyways, on the recommendation of a friend, I visited Burgazada on a day early in the summer when I needed a chance for quiet. I wandered through the wooded areas, finding my way to the top using paths instead of the main road. You can see my approximation of the path I followed in the picture below.

Burgazada

on Burgazada

Through the open window, looking into the chapel on top of Burgazada

Heybeliada

  Now as a family, we have visited Heybeliada and thoroughly enjoyed exploring it, its lovely national forest, and the quiet streets. 

with the little buddy, watching the boats and the water

Istanbul, in the distance - panoramic from Heybeliada

  In the Orthodox cemetery on Burgazada, there were a variety of interesting headstones: names that seemed to be a mix of German and Turkish (Ingrid Stiedl Ülker), headstones with German, Greek and possibly English on them; and some weren't even really accessible.

Christina K Koymake ??? 2 March 1890
Aomnika D Maypake ??? 6 October1881

from 1946 

Add caption

Ingrid Ulker (1949-1990)

Rene Glaser (1927-1947)

Franz Muhlbauer 1928-1992

  With my interest in family history, hidden cemeteries and their possible histories always interest me.

Elbow's "Illiteracy" - on education, excellence, resistance and compliance

  As I prepare to write my MA thesis in the field of EFL writing and as I am teaching a new class on Expository Writing, I am doing substantial reading on the topic. One of the most insightful writers about writing that I've read is Peter Elbow; below are selections from his article "Illiteracy at Oxford and Harvard: Reflections on the Inability to Write. (A version of the article is here.)

If you can’t write, you can’t be a student. But the inability to write doesn’t get in the way of teaching at all.

...falling in love with teachers is such an efficient way to learn because it solves all motivation problems.

Learning wasn’t enough for them; I had to be made to unlearn and then be built up from scratch.

These commentators emphasize not only how learning leads inevitably to resistance, but also that we can’t learn well without resistance. It seems clear that an important goal for teachers is to help students find fruitful or healthy ways to resist.

That is, in the very act of writing itself—at least if we want to be understood—we have to give in to the code or the conventions. The conventions. To write is to be conventional.

True excellence is rare because it consists of something paradoxical and hard to explain: the ability to be extremely assertive or even resistant while at the same time managing to comply very well with the requirements of conventions, teachers, assignments, and readers.

Elbow, Peter. Everyone Can Write: Essays toward a Hopeful Theory of Writing and Teaching Writing (pp. 8, 16, 17-18, 20-21). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition. (Emphasis mine)

research on Motivation and Education (both Teaching and Learning)

 Besides teaching English, I also at times proofread academic articles as one step in the publication process; this naturally gives me the chance to learn academic things that I would not normally get to learn. Sometimes it is in my field; sometimes it is not. Anyways, through this process, I have come across the quotations below about education, each of which I felt were well worth sharing. 

First and foremost, a commitment to lifelong learning requires an ethical responsibility to remain competent in their work as educators. 

- Tanju Deveci, Job Adverts

*****

The needs learners target does [sic] not have to be their own; they should also be mindful of the needs of others in their surroundings. Should they realize that they can contribute to the wellness of others, they will likely develop a sense of civic responsibility (21). 

This indicates that a learner’s receptivity to others’ contributions to his/her learning is as important as his/her enthusiasm for supporting their learning. (23)

Another interpersonal communication domain identified as important for lifelong learning is ‘engagement with instructors’, indicating that the type of interaction students establish with their instructor during their studies has a determining influence on the effectiveness of learning experiences in later years. (23)

 - Tanju Deveci, "Life-long Learning Skills" in The Skill Approach in Education: From Theory to Practice by Yusuf Söylemez & Firdevs Güneş

quotations from my reading and learning in education and EFL

As a classroom community, our capacity to generate excitement is deeply effected by our interest in one another, in hearing one another's voices, in recognizing one another's presence. 

- belle hooks, Teaching to Transgress 

The worst thing for student security is teacher insecurity.

- Marti Anderson 

We can formulate a rule of thumb: the more context, the less grammar.

Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Grammar, 4

 As mentioned, UBL posits that grammar is not an "out there" system but an emergent property of human communication and, furthermore, that actual language experience shapes language over the full life span.

(

Multilingual Turn, page 40; 

Bybee, 2010) 

...monolingual bias become unsustainable for the field of SLA...

Lourdes Ortega, "Ways Forward for a Bi/Multilingual Turn in SLA", The Multilingual Turn

(The question of bias is expanded on insightfully in Kachru's and Sridhar's articles in the Winter 1994 TESOL Quarterly.)

Regarding reading audience problems: 

Each writer has its own audience (intended readers) that might be part of a discourse community in which there is a degree of shared understandings and knowledge. Your class (the actual readers) may not be part of that discourse community and so they will make very different meaning and will need scaffolding if they want to read it as part of a particular community of readers. This is something to consider as you teach—what is your role as a teacher in this dilemma? 

- Leslie Turpin (4 Skills class) 

The magic of teaching happens when we can get the students off the page, out of the book and into the classroom community sharing the language together. 

Is serving a privilege? (Luke 1:73-75)

  Over the last week or two, I have been pondering these verses which come from Zechariah's prophecy following the naming of his son John the Baptizer - Luke 1:73-75. I read them in the HCSB translation of the Bible. The translation itself aligns extremely closely with all the other translations I checked, but this one is particularly beautiful.

  

  The context includes God's promises to Abraham and David, as well as John's role in bringing about those promises for the Lord's people. There is so much depth here; each phrase is worth pondering individually.

Dancing on the three tips of the Teaching Iceberg

Hawkin's model of the I, Thou, It Triangle which is meant to provide a balanced classroom. Sometimes a circle surrounds the triangle to signify the context or environment in which the class unfolds.

Get ready to dance on the 3 tips of this Triangle / Iceberg Source

In some recent feedback, my professor Elka Todeva used the expression, "the dance between the three tips of the triangle." We know the three tips of the triangle as Hawkin's "I," "Thou," and "It." The beauty of Elka's metaphor, though, is in the subtle reference to icebergs and the suggestion that each of the three tips of the teaching triangle have uncalculated depths beneath them.

So much we don't see Source

The metaphor also highlights the fact that we may be focusing on one tip at any given instant, but we are constantly in motion among the three, in a dance. This implies the emotions of teaching: we may associate dancing most easily with joy, but the other emotions of the classroom may also find expression here.

The 3 Tips of the Triangle, ready for dancing Source

"I need to learn that the pain I sometimes experience in teaching is as much a sign that my selfhood is alive and well as the joy I feel when the dance is in full swing." 

- Parker Palmer,  The Courage to Teach, 75. 

Predictability and Innovation - Where is the sweet spot of teaching?

 Van Lier's model of "Predictability and Innovation in the Classroom" probably resonates and represents every teacher's experience at various times. Something to ponder...

from the article, "Action-based Teaching, Autonomy and Identity (pg 53)"

a summary of material on Teaching English Modals

Function	Presentation ideas	Practice ideas
Requests	- Prep a scene with 1 person constantly borrowing stuff from another (2 students /friends?) “Could I borrow a pen?”, “Could I have a piece of paper?”, etc.	- Give pairs picture cards that suggest requests (tea cup, closed window, heavy box.) Pairs make and respond to requests. - Sts in a café. A is an annoying customer with constant requests. B is the waitress/waiter.
Offers	- Using classroom materials, demonstrate possible offers you can make: “Can I bring you a dictionary?” or “Can I open the door for you?” Each idea can be sketched on the board.	- Sts in a café. A is a customer who just wants coffee and quiet. B is an annoying waitress/waiter who keeps making new offers. - Card game with problems and solutions; A says problem; B must offer a polite solution.
Permission	- Convey that you are a thirsty student. How can you ask to get water? OR, get permission to answer an urgent call, etc.	- In pairs, at a border crossing. A is the customs officer; B is a traveler. A stops B to ask many polite questions.
Ability	- Prep a survey about abilities, 10 questions - Mime different abilities. Elicit or give the question and answer forms.  - Students write a report about a classmate’s ability	- Medical check-up: prepare a set of questions for students to ask each other as part of their visit to the doctor. Then they can add more questions. (This can be adapted for future and past uses.) - Describe an animal’s ability (give pics?)
Obligation / Compulsion / Advice	Draw or project common road signs. Elicit their meaning, helping to correct their forms.	- Have sts create a new sign for their study or living area. - Ask sts to write ideas of ways they can solve their life problems (debt, being unfit, oversleeping).
Possibility / Certainty	- Show a picture of a street with imminent events; ask “What might happen in the next 2 minutes?” - Use a video still to have sts predict what will happen next; then play the video.	- bring a box with unusual, interesting, and/or noisy items in it; ask what it might be used for; whom it might be used by; when… - show a pic of a business meeting with an empty chair; why is the chairwoman late? - guess the jobs of a series of people in pictures - Show the 7 Ancient Wonders; what must have been true about these places and their builders?
Regret		•Think of a trip that you took in the past. What are some things that you wish you did/didn’t do? –Tried local food, visited historical sites, enjoyed the night life, learned the official language,   –I could have gone zip lining when I visited Las Vegas.  I shouldn’t have bought KFC when I was in Nigeria (link)

*Most of these ideas from Scrivener, along with Celce-Murcia.

Other Key Points to Teach:
· “[V]irtually all the modals can express both logical probability and social interaction.” (Celce-Murcia, 141)
o The historical past is a way of softening requests that will help learners practically. (145)
· Both Celce-Murcia and Scrivener implicitly suggest in their formats that an overview of all of the modals may be helpful to students eventually.
· The presentation of functions might include a line that indicates the strength of the various modals in both positive and negative forms.

Three Sources for Teaching Modals
Celce-Murcia, Marianne and Diane Larsen-Freeman. The Grammar Book. 2nd ed. Heinle and Heinle, 1999.
Scrivener, Jim. Teaching English Grammar. Macmillan, 2010
Seven, Rüstem and Özge Seven. Türkçe ve İngilizce Açıklamalı English Grammar. n.d.

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Modals of Probability, positive and negative forms

In their chapter on modals, Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman talk about teaching both the functions of the positive and negative forms. They also show how different modals often work within a single function. The content below is taken from their work, The Grammar Book, but it is displayed in a fresh way. This idea should be expandable to the other modal functions, and it could be expanded to show additional aspects of modality, like adverbials or vocab like "dare."

a Collection of general ideas for the ESL classroom

- Reverse Charades (acupuncture, party, wrestling, bank unicorn, pyramid) - no talking, just group acting and one guesser
- What's Yours Like? - all but one person know what the thing is, everyone gives an answer except the guesser(s)
- place yourselves on a map on the floor across the room
- Human Computer (Pronunciation)
- Conversation Circle
    + Skim, Convo Circle, then Detail reading
- matching of L1 and L2 new sentences
- Creation Computer
- introduce emotional language early (Interjections!)
- have an empty chair in the center, students may join and leave at will, always leaving one empty chair for conversation
- use the experiential learning cycle
- use realiia
- put on a small TED talk as a class
- have students research and present an issue within their society
- school/classroom newspaper
- Just use the words "it is isn't it not as" and see what sentences you can make
- draw a picture of using L1 vs. L2
- Community blackboard to get initial students input
- Jeopardy on the board with index cards
- Use page 108-109 from bell hook's Teaching to Transgress for a class activity: Whose excitement and responsibility should we find in the classroom?

an Overview of the English Question asking system

Here is my handout with a summary of the English Question System.

NOTES:

1. What is important for students to notice with regard to the form dimension
 of the Form/Meaning/Use framework? 

  - Uninverted questions can have a variety of functions.
     o One of these, for Wh- questions, is to ‘echo’ the question in order to be sure that one heard what was said by the original speaker.
  - Negative questions assume the form of the answer will be positive.
     o The word ‘not’ can either be contracted and added to the auxiliary verb before the subject, or left uncontracted and placed after the subject. (e.g. Isn’t he coming? vs. Is he not coming?)
     o Note for students: In these negative sentences, “amn’t I” is incorrect; “aren’t I” should be used. (Apparently "ain't" is related to this non-form.)
  - Inversion is the major challenge for students. It should be emphasized with new learners, but the other forms should be dealt with in detail with more advanced learners.

2. What should students know with regard to the way questions are used and how people answer YES/NO questions and tag questions in particular? 

- Learners need to know that there are short answers to yes / no questions and how to form them in different circumstances. (Larsen-Freeman and Celce-Marie, The Grammar Book, 212)

*The information in the black box is partially incorrect; tag questions and alternative questions are actually asking a question though the degree of uncertainty seems lower.

An Overview of the English Tense-Aspect System and Its Problem Areas

 Here is a Prezi that works through the differences among the various tenses and aspects of the English grammar system. it includes a summary of major problem areas as well. Below I have extracted a couple of the key thoughts from it. Quotations refer to the second edition of The Grammar Book.

 Bull's Framework makes a valuable contribution to this discussion because it clarifies that errors will typically occur along one of the axises of the appropriate tense. So, while we may often hear present simple and the past simple confused, it would be quite unlikely to find the present simple confused with the past perfect. To speak in The Grammar Book's terms, these are 'boundary problems'; we need clarity at the edges where things get murkiest.

 Related to the chart shown above, Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman note that the bulk of the 'traffic' of our tense usage is located in the upper left corner. To the extent that this is true, we can expect to find the greater number of our boundary problems occurring there. We may assume, however, that similar errors lurk in the other less-trafficked, and thus less-practiced borderlands.