CHALLENGE 1 TO 3ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP

Overall Block Objectives

Every day, students come face to face with the controversial issues of our time through the media and modern communications technology. They should be encouraged to explore, develop and express their own values and opinions while taking into consideration other people’s points of view. In this block students will develop a critical view about complex global issues and will use their participatory skills to inquire about these issues or respond to a community problem. 

They will elaborate creative and critical discourse and will use their own voice in English to express issues that require active citizenship to make change possible. Students will also develop an academic language repertoire that will allow them to explain concepts and ideas in an organized manner using examples or details; formulate and organize information, and present it in a logical and coherent way, as well as plan, organize and deliver a poster presentation.

The block project, an informed position paper, will require students to develop three types of participatory skills: interacting, monitoring, and influencing. Interacting pertains to skills of communication and cooperation about issues that affect their community. It implies students asking questions, defining a problem and examining evidence. Monitoring involves skills needed to track the work done so far about the issues. Here students learn to analyze assumptions and biases, avoid oversimplification, and consider other interpretations. Influencing refers to skills used to help their immediate community to take action. Students need to produce a persuasive and structured discourse both orally and in writing to let others know about the issues and to suggest possible ways to solve them.

Both the position paper as well as the poster presentation will help them use the language with real communicative purposes. In doing so, their language will become more sophisticated in terms of accuracy and fluency, both in writing and speaking. They will also sharpen their learning strategies regarding the search, organization, processing and conveyance of information (critical thinking). In terms of group work, they will impact their partners’ processes and together with them will impact their immediate community.

BOOK PROJECT; An Informed Position Paper

Throughout the three courses students will develop an informed position paper on an issue of their choice. The project will imply students identifying a significant public issue or problem, conduct research to become informed about it, examine alternative

responses other groups have proposed to resolve the issue or problem, select an alternative response to the issue and be able to defend it against interrogators and opponents. This research and position formulation will become the first steps to influence other members of their immediate community to seek for a practical resolution of the issue or problem. Participants learn skills and dispositions that enable them to become more active citizens.

This implies gathering, processing and organizing all the necessary evidence to support their thoughts. This project allows students to use elements and structures of the language appropriately, to construct and understand coherent texts, to use language with the appropriate social meaning for the communicative situation and to recognize and repair communication breakdowns.

The position paper might consist of an introduction, background information, the analysis of the issue or problem to be addressed, a discussion on the issue including the writer’s position and some references. In order to develop a system to organize and use the information they need for the paper, students will also be asked to use a journal as a tool to record, organize and retrieve all the information they gather, decisions made by groups, feedback given by others and the like.

All these activities (cooperative work and journal keeping) should also help students establish clear routines for class and group work, promote cooperative and autonomous behaviors, provide opportunities for balanced student interaction, enhance students’ opportunities to hear and read authentic discourse, and afford useful resources for teachers and students to make classes interesting and challenging.

Teachers will create an online community in Ning for students to post the different tasks and provide each other with feedback. Position papers will be advertised in this community and the ideas of each position paper will be divulged through a poster presentation. Students’ sharing their position on a selected issue will hopefully generate an impact on their immediate community and will serve as the first step towards active citizenship.

ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP

Challenge Block Exit Profile 1-3All students must accomplish this profile in order to move on to Challenge 4.

Learning

Students who finish the first part of the Challenge block are aware of many of the aspects that are involved in being a good learner such as learning styles, attitude, motivation, personality, and learning habits; and have started to put into practice some of the helpful strategies given in class to be a good learner. Thus, students usually set short and long term goals, plan their next lesson, spend regularly scheduled time with their study materials to review what they have learned in class.

Students have identified their own strengths and weaknesses as language learners, and are able to device an action plan to cope with them. They have also learned to be cooperative and not only self-correct but also correct peers' mistakes. Students are really motivated to continue learning the language because they can see their progress and have a clear objective in mind. Students are willing to take risks and show a good degree of commitment. Students study after class, and often use another source of input and learning such as Internet learning English web pages.

Language

At this level students can comprehend standard speech delivered in most settings with some repetition and rewording. They can understand the main ideas and relevant details of long conversations on different topics. They rely on familiar structures and utterances. They are able to use spoken English for daily activities within and beyond the classroom setting. They can engage in conversations for personal expression and enjoyment. They use repetition, gestures, and other non-verbal cues to sustain conversation. They usually communicate with appropriate pronunciation, intonation, and stress. They can present information and ideas to an audience of listeners on a variety of subjects.

GrammarThey have mastered structures such as simple present, present continuous, simple past, present perfect, past continuous, zero and first conditionals, etc. They are also aware of other challenging verb constructions but they can not always produce them in spontaneous speaking.

Students appropriately use conditionals, passive voice; verb tenses concordance, adjective and noun clauses, and connectors to conclude. They are aware of the different sentence patterns and are able to use them accurately in writing, but are not likely to use them in spontaneous interactions unless context is provided.

Pronunciation

Students’ speech is characterized by an appropriate use of intonation and stress patterns in their spontaneous interaction. Students can implement strategies to cope with the pronunciation of new vocabulary. They have started to imitate native patterns of intonation and there is a tendency to use contractions such as dazi, dasi, gonna, wanna, gotta, should've, musnt've, etc. They are conscious about some differences among vowel sounds and consonant sounds and the importance of their correct pronunciation to avoid problems with communication (ship vs. sheep, cat vs. cut, sink vs. think, etc).

Writing

Students can create clear, detailed texts on a wide range of subjects related to their interests. They are able to summarize and give their opinions about stories, articles, speeches, debates, interviews or documentaries. They can write a well-organized position paper, passing on information and giving arguments in favor or against a particular point of view. To do so, students are also trained to write other type of texts, such as reports, summaries and reflections. Students are aware of the need to abide by the steps of the writing process to achieve an acceptable product. They are able to use parallel structure to avoid redundancy or omissions that may affect meaning and can use connectors of comparison and contrast. Students exhibit a relatively high control of grammar knowledge in their writings and are capable of using punctuation patterns accurately.

Vocabulary

Students can express themselves clearly and without much sign of restriction towards what they want to say. They have activated the passive lexical items and conversational chunks they have interacted with in their learning process. They have a sufficient range of language to describe unpredictable situations, explain the main points in an idea or problem with reasonable precision, give clear descriptions, express viewpoints and develop arguments without conspicuous searching for words.

Students are also confident users of social language chunks used in a number of situational contexts like it’s a pain in the neck ,or I just can’t get over It and more formal ones like ‘I hope you don’t mind’ or ‘I find it a bit steep’ . They are able to paraphrase and use vocabulary related to personality and can use expressions and idioms related to financial matters and shopping habits.

Reading Students can read articles and reports concerned with contemporary problems in which the writers adopt particular stances or viewpoints and react to them critically. They can understand texts which belong to different register and grasp the gist of written pieces of discourse, including professional discourse. They are able to discern the authors’ implicit goal in texts such as news articles, interviews, position papers, and the like.

Students are able to hold discussions, expand and search information related to the topic presented in the reading. They can get the meaning from the context, though they still sometimes need to conform to the dictionary.

Listening

Students can understand various spoken pieces of discourse and are trained on note-taking techniques to later paraphrase them. They can understand extended speech and lectures and follow even complex lines of argument provided that the topic is reasonably familiar.Students can cope with the listening of more realistic texts such as TV shows, news, radio shows, etc. that are in standard English. Students can use a variety of strategies to make the most of listening exercises. They can listen for key words or discourse markers to focus attention on more specific information. They can recognize supporting ideas in order to report on the arguments heard.

Speaking

Students can hold discussions about news, values, dilemmas, regrets, pet peeves social behavior, and the like using sophisticated language that they have appropriated from conversation models. They self-monitor mistakes, and consciously use more complex structures and expressions in spontaneous situations. They are able to comment on what they read and see in magazines, books, internet out of class. They can produce and present clear, detailed descriptions on a wide range of subjects related to different registers, in brief, they can communicate spontaneously with good grammar control, adopting the level of formality appropriate to the circumstances.

COMMUNICATION

Students handle more demanding interactions with adequate confidence and competence. They show some hesitation and fewer lapses in fluency and accuracy, but these don’t interfere with communication. Students display a reasonably spontaneous use of the lexical items and conversational ‘chunks’ they have covered. They are aware of the contextual relevance and appropriateness of language as key elements to become socially competent, and as a result have started to use different registers. Students have also started to see accuracy as one of their main objectives when communicating an idea. They still make mistakes but self-correct on a general basis. They use confidently a variety of strategies to repair communication breakdowns. Students use language clearly and relatively naturally to elaborate concepts freely and make ideas easily understandable to interlocutors. Errors occur in low-frequency and highly complex structures.

COURSE ONE: My community matters

Overall Course Objective

Students will explore the concept of global citizenship and reflect about their role in society to become active citizens. They will also identify the type of mechanisms that they have at hand to be constructively engaged in changing social issues. Students will also analyze their immediate community needs to identify the issues they want to address and will take the first steps to writing a position paper as a mechanism to create awareness on different kinds of issues, or to promote action from the communities’ part.

Course Project: What’s affecting my community?

Students will first choose the issues that they would like to take an active part and create groups with similar interests. They will also find out community needs through information search. They will also explore possible arguments describing the issues’ reasons, causes, and consequences.

First Day Guidelines:

You should present the program: philosophy, objectives, structure, this last feature can be done referring students to the information from the steps leaflet.  Take students through the steps emphasizing the exit profile.  

1. Talk about the different resources at the center: Multimedia lab, Library, Cultural activities, Educational Advising Center, Tutoring, English club, Audiovisual lab (for new students)

2. You should work with the information provided in the Summit book (Summit unit walk-through).  Refer to the teachers guide pages TIV to TXIX. Help learners get acquainted with the structure of the units and lessons.

 Present the evaluation system of our program (qualitative assessment, observation of students’ performance, learning strategies, constant feedback, task and projects, tutoring). Explain what the project will be:   

Courses 1-3: Active Citizenship

Project: An Informed Position Paper

Challenge 1My Community MattersProject: What’s affecting my community?

Challenge 2 Impacting my communityProject: How can I help my community?

Challenge 3

Project: How can I convince my community?

Unit 1 : Identifying Critical Issues

Unit 2:  Relevance of Raising the Issue

Unit  3: Planning the Position Paper

Unit 4:

Unit 5:

Unit 6:

Unit 7:

Unit 8: 

Unit 9:

Unit 10:

 

Justify the project.

Recommendations 

Journal (refer to “a word on journal entries”). Suggest your students to get a big notebook (different to the one for taking notes in class) or a notepad.

Monolingual Dictionary training should be worked on according to tasks needs. Tell them to get (at least) an intermediate one. (Cambridge, Longman, McMillan, Oxford or the like are advisable)

Teachers should ask students to register at the different support units to get familiar with the center facilities (new students).

  Material

Guide students with color conventions and strategies. Follow track of students’ knowledge of the IPA Use strategy building booklet provided with the course material

 

ADULT ENGLISH PROGRAMCHALLENGE ONE- Final Evaluation

Student_____________________________ Teacher________________________

Course______________________________ C ycle___________________________

CRITERIA EXCELLENT GOOD BELOW

PROJECT

The student effectively accomplished the objectives proposed for the project. S/he efficiently explored, focused and defined his/her paper topic. The student made use of appropriate background information and used other sources like internet to improve the topic definition. S/he fulfilled all the tasks proposed for the course successfully:

The student accomplished most of the objectives proposed for the project. S/he made an effort to explore, focus and define his/her paper topic. However, S/he still has to try to use background information and other sources like internet more effectively. S/he fulfilled most of the tasks proposed for the course properly:

The student did not achieve most of the objectives of the tasks. The student did not explore, focus and define his/her paper topic adequately. S/he did not get actively involved in the process nor did s/he show enough commitment or interest. S/he did not fulfill the tasks proposed for the course rightly:

COMMUNICATION

Student communicates confidently and easily interacts with peers. S/he uses appropriate communication strategies to overcome lack of vocabulary. S/he never resorts to Spanish to clarify meaning. Always expands conversations and enriches discussions with elaborated opinions. S/he always tries to use a wide range of words and expressions that go beyond the ones learned in the book and uses them naturally during conversations to talk about life changing experiences, personality types, musical tastes, creative personalities, money and financial goals.

The student interacts with peers and often participates in class and group discussions. Whenever s/he struggles with vocabulary, s/he makes an effort to use strategies and avoid the use of Spanish. During pair or group work, s/he holds conversations. The student tries to volunteer and participate and is always willing to share his/her opinions. S/he uses appropriate vocabulary for topics about life changing experiences, personality types, musical tastes, creative personalities, money and financial goals. Though it takes him/her sometime to use it more often and spontaneously.

The student exhibits problems when trying to communicate ideas. Although s/he tries to get the message through and most of the times s/he can, his/her speech reflects gaps from previous courses. S/he often switches to Spanish and S/he has to be pushed most of the times to share opinions during activities.S/he does not volunteer to speak as often as s/he should and seems very uneasy when asked to participate

LANGUAGE

Student’s pronunciation is accurate and takes into account aspects like intonation and rhythm to communicate ideas more meaningfully. When speaking and writing the student reflects understanding of grammar topics seen in class plus s/he shows internalization of those learned in previous courses. When reading, the student is able to get the meaning of new words and expressions from the context and can easily identify author’s point of view. S/he can relate to background knowledge and personal opinions and experiences to support his/her ideas during discussions. s/he carries out listening exercises using strategies and is able to accurately report on what is heard

The students is able to get his/her ideas through and tries to self-correct when he/makes mistakes. His/her pronunciation is good. Nevertheless, he/she has to practice more reading and listening to make it better. When reading, the student is able to carry out comprehension question exercises and he makes an effort to apply the strategies proposed. (for vocabulary, critical thinking, etc)S/he tries to communicate accurately, however it takes him/her some time to start using the grammar proposed. When writing, the student uses the strategies proposed though /she still needs to support his/her opinions with more elaborated ideas. The student carries out listening exercises with out major problems most of the times.

S/he still has to work hard to improve pronunciation and intonation. The student is able to carry out reading exercises; however, s/he uses strategies to overcome vocabulary problems /he does not have a wide vocabulary and survives conversations with basic expressions. The student is able to carry out reading exercises but s/he does not expand and share his/her opinions. When listening, s/he comprehends only the general idea and struggles to complete exercises that require deeper comprehension. His/her writings do not reflect understanding of the strategies proposed for the course. S/he has problems to express ideas in a more elaborated way and does not make an effort to support his/her opinions.

LEARNING

S/he is able to use most of the strategies thought in class for vocabulary such as: using graphic organizers, making associations, creating and keeping a personal glossary. He also uses strategies for listening like: listening for discourse markers, key words and phrases; and also, s/he uses strategies for reading like: preparing the topic of the reading and holding conversations based on critical thinking questions. The student uses a monolingual dictionary in class.

S/he often uses the strategies learned in previous courses and tries to apply the ones thought in the course to carry out reading, speaking, writing and listening exercises. The student uses most of the time a monolingual dictionary to check on meaning and pronunciation. However, s/he has not taken full advantage of tools like the CD-ROM. The student shows commitment and responsibility towards class assignments.

S/he does not use strategies as often as s/he should and still depends on classmates or teacher to clarify the meaning of words and to correct pronunciation. The student does not evidence planning and organization for the class and has not used yet the CD-ROM for further practice. The students is not able to apply different strategies to overcome problems during exercises

S/he shared ideas related to The student has shown interest The student has not been

CULTURE AND

ATTITUDE

the project. Also, he listened and respected others´ opinions regarding the project. S/he got actively involved and played and active role during group work and cooperated with peers.S/he accepted criticism and used peers´ suggestions as a tool to improve the ideas for the position paper. S/he showed a positive attitude most of the time.S/he always shows appositive attitude during class exercises, is punctual and committed to class assignments.

and commitment towards the class and the project. S/he has gotten involved in discussions and during activities. S/he cooperates with ideas that enrich the position paper. S/he cooperated with information most of the times and has also used background information to improve the position paper.S/he has shown a positive attitude towards class and has been punctual and committed to most of the tasks.

very involved in the project, and has not shown full commitment towards the class. S/he still has not understood the purpose of the position paper and has not cooperated with ideas or information.

COMMENTS___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

FINAL GRADE

TEACHER´S SIGNATURE

Unit One: New Perspectives

Overall Objective:

Students will get acquainted with the concept of global citizenship and will recognize the rights and responsibilities they have as citizens of the world. They will identify an issue that is related to their own life experience and will start the search for information to define this issue’s causes and consequences. Students will join an online community to start sharing the information found on the issue of their choice.

Task: Identifying Critical Issues

Students will write a paragraph describing what an active citizen should be like. They will choose an issue and describe a life changing experience that has confronted them with the issue of their choice.

Task Organization Task Evaluation Checklist

Preview Present unit task and connect to goals.

Pair Work: Instead of the suggested activity, Ss individually answer the following questions:What does it mean to be a citizen? What rights and responsibilities do you have?What does it mean to become an active citizen of the world?

Hwk: (T has previously opened a class community in Ning and invited students.)Ss accept their invitations to join Ning and watch the powerpoint presentation about other worlds, http://www.soton.ac.uk/citizened/activities/global_citizenship/interviews/images.swf. Ss reflect about the responsibilities of an active global citizen.

Did Ss understand the nature of the project?

Did Ss answer the questions?

Did Ss share their answers?

Did Ss understand the homework?

Lesson 1 Before Grammar Snapshot: Ss discuss the responsibilities of a global citizen.

Did Ss discuss responsibilities of a global citizen?

Lesson 2 Writing: Ss follow the guidelines on p. 12 to write a paragraph describing what an active citizen should be like.

Did Ss write a paragraph describing what a citizen should be like?

Did they follow the guidelines on p. 12?

Lesson 3 Discussion builder: Brainstorm issues that Ss may be inclined to research about and take position (from the book or their own interests) in order to write their position paper. Ss reflect about the issue of their choice based on the following questions:Is it a real issue with genuine controversy and uncertainty?

Can you distinctly identify two positions?Are you personally interested in advocating one of these positions?

Is the issue narrow enough to be manageable?

Hwk: Ss think of an experience they had

Did Ss come up with different issues for their position paper?

Did Ss choose an issue of their interest?

Did they base their choice on the questions given?

Did they answer the questions?

Did Ss understand the homework?

that confronted them with the issue of their choice.

Lesson 4 Discussion Builder: Ss use Hwk. to describe a life changing experience.

Suggested Journal entry: Life changing experience.

Did Ss do homework?Were they able to describe the life changing experience? Was it related to the issue of their choice?

Comments:

If you don’t feel comfortable opening the community in Ning , you can just have the usual paper correction in class.  For Lesson 1, If you cannot show the suggested powerpoint, bring posters or magazines that depict world issues. This is just to raise awareness and set a point for discussion.

This syllabus suggests entry journals almost per day; however, it should not be understood that it is the responsibility of the teacher to correct what is written by the student. On the contrary, the purpose of keeping the journal is for students to develop the autonomy the program aims at. Teachers are expected to remind students of the information to record in the journal. These will help students who are new in the program to acquire and develop information management strategies. Students who come from previous courses will recycle and reinforce these strategies.

Strategies

Communication-Ask a question to buy time.-Use actually to soften a negative response.-Ask follow up questions to show interest.-Use I wonder to elicit an opinion politely.-Use You know to indicate that you are going to offer advice or suggestion.

Learning Conversation models-Getting the meaning of expressions from the context.-Supporting opinions with information from the conversation.-Using the context to share personal opinions and experiences.-Using stress and intonation patterns to emphasize information.

Listening-Inferring information based on descriptions.-Listening for key words and phrases.-Understanding the meaning from the context. (Inferring). Writing down supporting sentences ( See teachers’ guide)

Vocabulary-Paraphrasing the meaning of words and expressions. -Understanding if shades in meaning of adjectives to refer to personality in regards to their connotation (positive negative).- Creating a personal glossary. (It’s also the beginning of their personal monolingual dictionary).

Grammar-Understanding meaning changes in the use of gerunds and infinitives.

Pronunciation-Stressing function and content words.

Reading-Comparing information in an article to your own life style. - Analyzing author’s point of view and taking positions towards it.-Support personal opinions towards the topic.

Writing- Reviewing writing stages.-Reviewing the concept of paragraph, topic sentence, supporting sentences and concluding sentences.-Brainstorming supporting sentences-Reviewing correction symbols.-Answering self-check questions to edit students own paragraphs.

Competences developed and evaluatedKnowledge of the world Students will learn about global citizenship. They will reflect

upon an issue and will establish their own position.

Sociocultural knowledge Students will identify what life issues perspectives are important.

Intercultural awareness Students will identify similarities and differences between their own perspectives on life issues and those from other cultures and their partners’.

Technical (know-how)Practical Students will describe a life changing experience that has

confronted them with a social issue.

Intercultural Students will identify the similarities and differences among the members of the group to define their own personal interests for their position papers.

ExistentialBeliefs Students will have the chance to exhibit and vindicate values

(v.g. moral, religious, ideological, philosophical) they come with.

Cognitive styles Students will work on convergent learning styles (i.e. different styles will define actions to take or tasks to do.

Personality Students will determine whether the personality type affect the choice of issues to be researched about.

Ability to LearnCommunicative awareness Students will reflect on the use of language as a tool to express

their views about issues.

Study skills Students will identify how the new class material is structured and will use it (book, workbook, strategies supplement, CD).

Heuristic skills Students will use journals as a tool to reflect about world issues and to collect important data for their papers.

LinguisticLexical Students can learn expressions (words, phrasal verbs and idioms)

to refer to perspectives on life personality and life changing experiences.

Grammatical Students can use verb patterns which imply changes in meaning

(e.g. remember to call vs. remember calling)

Semantic Students will show understanding of change of meaning with the use of verb patterns for verbs like remember, remind and stop.

Phonological Students can stress function and content words appropriately based on their role in the sentence.

Orthographic Students will appropriately use punctuation marks in paragraph constructions.

Orthoepic Students will use their previous knowledge or tools like a dictionary to figure out the pronunciation of new words they see in written form. They will be able to explain why they would pronounce a word in the way they propose.

SociolinguisticSocial relationshipsPoliteness conventions Students will review the use of well (not me), frankly and

actually to introduce comments that might contradict what one’s interlocutor say. Well, you know and actually will be reviewed as expressions to clarify what one says.

Expressions of folk wisdom Students will learn the expression there’s no place like home and discuss its use in the context of intercultural contact.

Dialect/Accent Students will be exposed to Korean, Spanish, US African American and Southern, Russian, English accents. They will notice some differences in accent, pronunciation, word choice, grammar constructions and the like.

PragmaticDiscourse Students will understand a description of a person’s personality

and how people react to such description in a conversation model. Students will review the organizing principles of a paragraph.

Functional Students will appropriate a conversation model and use it to describe a life changing experience and will refer to the principles for paragraph organization to write this description.

Unit Two: Musical Moods

Overall Objective:

Students will see the relevance of a position paper as a tool to express their opinions. Students will understand that the stages of a position paper allow them to organize their ideas and opinions to make them valid and worth listening to. They will start developing their own position papers by describing an issue and getting informed about it. They will understand that facts, that is, verifiable information related to the issue give relevance to it.

Task: Relevance of Raising the Issue

Students will recognize what a position paper is and will identify its structure. They will start developing their own position papers by writing a description of their issue and collecting facts that make it relevant. They will write a paragraph about the relevance of raising the issue.

LESSON TASK ORGANIZATION TASK EVALUATION CHECKLIST

Preview Present task and connect to objectives. Introduce what a position paper is and its structure. (See Basic Concepts and Formats).

Hwk. Ss look for some quotes made by famous people about the issue of their choice.

Did Ss understand the objectives and nature of the task?

Did Ss understand what a position paper is?

Did Ss understand the structure of a position paper?

Did Ss understand the homework?

Lesson 1 After Conversation Starter: Ss write a description of their issue. Why is it important?How often does it come up?

Journal Entry: Description of the issue.

Did Ss write a description of their issue?

Did they take into account the questions to write their description?

Lesson 2 Grammar Exchange: Ss do this exercise using the quotations found about their issue.

Hwk: Ss read about the issue of their choice and take notes on the relevance and the impact of solving this problem and create an idea cluster (see guidelines page 24.) Ss describe facts about the issue by including information that can be verified and agreed upon by almost everyone.

Did Ss bring homework assigned in Preview?

Did they do the exercise using the quotes?

Did Ss understand the homework?

Lesson 3 Pair Work: After doing the exercise suggested in the book, Ss share the facts they found about their issue. Ss provide each other feedback on their paragraphs.

Did Ss share in pairs the facts they found about their issue?

Lesson 4 Discussion Builder: Ss brainstorm and share the potential benefits of addressing the issue of their choice.

Hwk: (T posts samples of postion papers in Ning) Ss visit Ning read

Did Ss brainstorm and share the potential benefits of addressing the issue of their choice?

Did they write their ideas

examples of position papers.Journal Entry: Paragraph about the relevance of raising the issue.

in the journal?

Did Ss understand homework?

Comments:Tell Ss that they might use the information they researched to start gathering arguments for their position papers.

BASIC CONCEPTS AND FORMATS

WRITING A POSITION PAPER

Seven stages of writing assignments: 1. Develop your topic 2. Identify your audience 3. Research 4. Organize and prewrite 5. Draft/write 6. Revise 7. Proofread

...it is doctrine that moves the world.He who takes no position will not sway the human intellect.

William Thayer Shedd, 1820-I894 American

Writing a Position Paper

http://homepages.uhwo.hawaii.edu/~writing/position.htm

A position paper presents an arguable opinion about an issue. The goal of a position paper is to convince the audience that your opinion is valid and worth listening to. Ideas that you are considering need to be carefully examined in choosing a topic, developing your argument, and organizing your paper. It is very important to ensure that you are addressing all sides of the issue and presenting it in a manner that is easy for your audience to understand. Your job is to take one side of the argument and persuade your audience that you have well-founded knowledge of the topic being presented. It is important to support your argument with evidence to ensure the validity of your claims, as well as to address the counterclaims to show that you are well informed about both sides.

Issue Criteria

To take a side on a subject, you should first establish the arguability of a topic that interests you. Ask yourself the following questions to ensure that you will be able to present a strong argument:

Is it a real issue, with genuine controversy and uncertainty? Can you distinctly identify two positions?

Are you personally interested in advocating one of these positions?

Is the issue narrow enough to be manageable?

Analyzing an Issue and Developing an Argument

Once your topic is selected, you should do some research on the subject matter. While you may already have an opinion on your topic and an idea about which side of the argument you want to take, you need to ensure that your position is well supported. Listing out the pro and con sides of the topic will help you examine your ability to support your counterclaims, along with a list of supporting evidence for both sides. Supporting evidence includes the following:

Factual Knowledge - Information that is verifiable and agreed upon by almost everyone.

Statistical Inferences - Interpretation and examples of an accumulation of facts.

Informed Opinion - Opinion developed through research and/or expertise of the claim.

Personal Testimony - Personal experience related by a knowledgeable party.

In considering the audience, ask yourself the following questions:

Who is your audience? What do they believe?

Where do they stand on the issue?

How are their interests involved?

What evidence is likely to be effective with them?

In determining your viewpoint, ask yourself the following:

Is your topic interesting? Can you manage the material within the specifications set by the instructor?

Does your topic assert something specific and propose a plan of action?

Do you have enough material to support your opinion?

Organization

Your introduction should lead up to a thesis that organizes the rest of your paper. There are three advantages to leading with the thesis:

1. The audience knows where you stand.

2. The thesis is located in the two strongest places, first and last.

3. It is the most common form of academic argument used.

Below is a generic sample outline for a position paper:

I. Introduction

___A. Introduce the topic

___B. Provide background on the topic

___C. Assert the thesis (your view of the issue)

II. Counter Argument

___A. Summarize the counterclaims

___B. Provide supporting information for counterclaims

___C. Refute the counterclaims

___D. Give evidence for argument

III. Your Argument

___A. Assert point #1 of your claims

_____1. Give your opinion

_____2. Provide support

___B. Assert point #2 of your claims

_____1. Give your opinion

_____2. Provide support

___C. Assert point #3 of your claims

_____1. Give your opinion

_____2. Provide support

 

IV. Conclusion

 ___A. Restate your argument

 ___B. Provide a plan of action

 

StrategiesCommunication -Use So to indicate desire to begin a conversation.

-Confirm information with Right?-Use You know to introduce information and be less abrupt.-Begin answers with Well to introduce an opinion.

Learning Conversation models-Using the context to explain the meaning of expressions.-Personalizing and expanding a discussion using the expressions presented (page 15). Listening-Listening for discourse markers to focus attention on specific information (page 22).

Vocabulary -Using descriptions and context to associate adjectives and expand vocabulary.-Identifying correct use of participial adjectives. Grammar -Introducing noun clauses with questions._Expressing finished and unfinished actions with present perfect and present perfect continuous.Pronunciation -Distinguishing between intonation patterns for statements, commands and intonation questions and yes /no questions and requests.Reading -Expressing your opinion and taste based on what you read.-Activating background knowledge and key vocabulary.- Reading for details and answering critical thinking questions (refer to Extra reading comprehension activities for page 20)Writing -Identifying mistakes about parallel structure.-Clustering ideas as a pre-writing exercise

Competences developed and evaluatedKnowledge of the world Students will learn about the structure and use of a position

paper.

Sociocultural knowledge Students will learn about each other’s issues and will empathize with some.

Intercultural awareness Students will identify the impact of their issue in different cultures.

Technical (know-how)Practical Students will learn to support decisions by means of a systematic

collection and organization of information.

ExistentialAttitudes Students will understand the responsibility they have as global

citizens and will find the way to make their point valid.

Cognitive styles Data collection and organization will benefit convergent and analytic learning styles.

Ability to LearnCommunicative awareness Students will express the relevance of raising the issue of their

choice in a well structured paragraph.

Study skills Students will determine the structure of a position paper and will start organizing information in idea clusters to develop their ideas.

Heuristic skills Students will use journals to systematically record and organize the information collected. They will learn to organized data with given (or set by them) criteria.

LinguisticLexical Students can use expressions (words, phrasal verbs and idioms)

to refer to music issues.

Grammatical Students can use verb present perfect and present perfect continuous to refer to finished and unfinished actions.

Semantic Students will demonstrate understanding in how meanings change with the use continuous or simple perfect tenses in the expression of the aspect (perfective vs. non perfective).

Phonological Students will understand the nature use of intonation patterns (rising, falling, hybrid) and will use them in their interactions.

Orthographic They will review the use of commas in parallel structures. SociolinguisticSocial relationships Students choose appropriate choice of expressions to interact and

help each other improve their paragraphsPoliteness conventions Students will learn and use gambits to politely express (dis)likes

or preferences (I’m really into, gets on my nerves, I think I’ve had enough of, etc) They will also learn expressions to show interest to what other like (Ever heard of…? I’ll give it a listen)

Dialect/Accent Students will be exposed to German, Chinese, US Southern American, French, accents. They will notice some differences in accent, pronunciation, word choice, grammar constructions and the like.

PragmaticDiscourse Students will understand how information is organized and

displayed in a position paper. Students will review the correct use of parallel structures in a paragraph.

Functional Students will appropriate a conversation model and use it to describe their musical preferences. Students will refer to the principles for parallel structures to create a description of facts about the issue of their choice.

Unit 3: Money Matters

Overall Objective:

Students will see the importance of planning and organizing the work to be done in order to complete their position papers. They will learn the importance of considering different points of view, arguments in favor or against the issue of their choice, in order to be able to influence others’ perspectives and defend their own position.

Task: Planning the position paper

In this unit students will state short and long term goals to write their position paper. They will do a position paper analysis that will help them plan and organize their own. They will also state some pros and cons regarding the issue.

Task Organization Task Evaluation Checklist

Preview Present the task and connect to goal 1.

Ss do a position paper analysis based on the example they read for Hwk. (See basic concepts and formats).

Suggested journal entry Student format 1 completed.

Did Ss understand the nature of the task?

Did Ss do the analysis of the position paper based on the example they read for homework?

Did Ss complete the format?

Lesson 1 Grammar: Ss use the perfect form of an infinitive to express actions that will take place before a specified time in the future if nothing is done about the issue. Ss use their notes to write their sentences. (See Basic Concepts and Formats).

Grammar Exchange: instead of the suggested exercise, Ss are referred to p. 36 Writing Step 1. Ss define short and long term goals for writing their position papers (collecting information, defining arguments, presenting statistical information, etc). Ss report on their goals using the target grammar.

Suggested Journal entry: Position paper: Goals

Hwk: Ss explore arguments in favor or against the issue of their choice. They cite the sources where information was found.

Did Ss write sentences about their issue using the perfect form?

Did Ss define short and long term goals for their position paper?

Did Ss write their goals in their journal?

Did Ss understand homework?

Lesson 2 Vocabulary: Ss state some arguments people usually have to support the issue. Start the glossary of terminology related to the issue.

Did Ss start their glossary of terminology related to the issue?

Ex. It is so hard to see animals extinct

Lesson 3 Discussion Builder Step 2: Group work. Students brainstorm arguments in favor or against the issue chosen using a diagram similar to the one suggested in the teachers’ suggestions in the bookSuggested Journal Entry: Arguments in favor or against their issue to be used in their position papers.

Did Ss complete the diagram with some pros and cons for their issue description?

Were they able to find in their journals arguments to include in their position papers?

Lesson 4 Ss explore their journal entries and look for arguments to help them define the focus of their position papers (See examples in Basic Concepts and Formats)

Suggested Journal entry: statement of purpose for position paper.

Hwk. Have students research about statistics related to their issue and take notes in the journal

Were they able to create more arguments to include in their position papers?

Did they recycle previous ones and modify them?

Did students define a specific statement of purpose for their position papers?

Did Ss understand homework?

Comments:

Tell your students that the statement should be as specific as possible and should reflect the search they did. It might be possible that some statements of purpose do not need refinement. If that happens to be the case, tell these students to look for arguments that they can connect to the specific statement of purpose they have defined in their journals. Invite them to use a highlighter.

BASIC CONCEPTS AND FORMATS

Position Paper Analysis

PAPER TITLE _________________________________________________

Author’s objective __________________________________________________________________________________________________

Author’s intended audience _________________________________________________

Is the author’s position clearly stated?

Yes No

What is the tone of the paper? (serious?, aggressive?, meek? Etc. Explain

_________________________________________________

What kinds of arguments are used?Argument 1 _________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

Argument 2 __________________________________________________________________________________________________

Argument 3 __________________________________________________________________________________________________

Argument 4 __________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do all arguments relate to the thesis statement?

Yes No

Did the author include a conclusion which matches the thesis statement claim?

Yes No

Examples of statement of purpose for the position papers

I intend to write a position paper to…- promote responsible e-shopping among middle- class Colombian Citizens.- protect street dogs in Bogotá.

Strategies

Communication-Use Hey indicate enthusiasm-Use To tell you the truth to introduce an unexpected assertion-Ask What do you mean? To clarify.-Provide an example to back up a statement or opinion.

LearningListening-Inferring information by listening to recently learned expressions. (Page 30).-Listening in steps. First, to decide on true and false information, then listening for more specific information. (page 32)

Vocabulary

- Finding other word forms: Using a monolingual dictionary to find related words.- Using descriptions to associate the meaning of words (vocabulary building strategies for page 34)Grammar-Using finished future actions to talk about future plans.-Using the inverted form of past unreal conditionals. Pronunciation-Deciding how to break groups of ideas in a sentence by stressing correctly thought groups (pronunciation booster)Reading-Scan interview responses to complete a chart (graphic organizer,page 28)- Answering comprehension and critical thinking questions: Relate your own information to the information presented in the interviews (page 28).-Activate background knowledge and key vocabulary (Extra reading comprehension activities for page 34)

Writing-Using time order words to sequence events.-Listing ideas as a pre-writing exercise.

Competences developed and evaluatedKnowledge of the world Students will learn about arguments in favor or against the

issue of their choice.

Sociocultural knowledge Students will learn about their partners’ money management habits.

Intercultural awareness Students will learn to appreciate pros and cons of causes they want to defend in order to try to persuade others of their own position.

Technical (know-how)Practical Students will learn to set goals and establish a chronogram to

achieve them.

ExistentialAttitudes Students will honestly analyze pros and cons of their issue

Values Students will consider the value of honesty when analyzing information found.

Cognitive styles Students will develop strategic planning skills to achieve goals. They will discriminate and categorize information.

Ability to LearnCommunicative awareness Language will be seen as an organizational tool. The creation of

chronograms, in which the integration of words and visual elements is key, will prove this.

Phonetic awareness

Study skills Students will work on and learn the effectiveness of setting chronograms and planning a budget.

LinguisticLexical Students can use phrasal verbs and idioms to refer to money

management.

Grammatical Students can use future tenses to express plans and finished future actions, and the unreal past conditional to express remorse about purchases.

Semantic Students will demonstrate understanding in how meanings change with the use of different future tenses.

Phonological Students will use the principles of sentence rhythm. They will be able to discover, express and start to use their role in communication

Orthographic They will use of commas with sequencing-events connectors

(first, firstly, second, etc).

SociolinguisticSocial relationships Students will notice the linguistic markers of social

relationships (constant use of imperatives and firm tone of voice) in a radio call-in show between a caller and a financial expert.

Politeness conventions Students will learn, review and use gambits to surprise and interest towards other purchases (hey, What did you do--- strike it rich, really, lucky you!, etc)

Register differences Students will notice register change as heard in a radio call-in show led by a financial expert.

Dialect/Accent Students will be exposed to a New Yorker’s (radio call-in host/financial expert) accent.

PragmaticDiscourse Students will express their attitudes towards purchases they

made and will react to such description in a conversation model. Students will learn how

Functional Students will refer to the principles to sequence events chronologically in texts to create an action plan for their position papers.