Here’s another free cultural event you can attend for class credit. This would be fun for you to take your children too!
via art predator
Here’s another free cultural event you can attend for class credit. This would be fun for you to take your children too!
via art predator
Two great learning opportunities for students! Service learning credit or event credit for participating in the coastal cleanup if you write about it for your portfolio. Attend the concert and write about it for event credit. Both activities are really wonderful!
via art predator
Yesterday was our second day of three days of presentations when students share the story of why they have the name they do, bring in a cultural artifact, and share a food with the rest of the class.
What a feast! We had food from around the world–lumpia, chicken mole, hot chicken wings and more which we ate while we watched the film Food Inc.
I’ve done variations of this activity since I began teaching 20 years ago. The current version builds from an assignment I read about online. My students and enjoy really enjoy it: we become closer and we learn about other cultures in a really fun way. It also helps the students work together in groups and have discussions when they know each other’s names and a little about them.
The activity ties in with essays we’ve read by Eric Liu, Brent Staples, Bharati Mukherjee, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mike Rose, Sherman Alexie, Gloria Anzaldua, James Baldwin, Bernard Cooper, Nancy Mairs, and more. On the midterm, I ask a question about what they learned from it.
CULTURAL ARTIFACT ASSIGNMENT
A Self-Awareness Activity * Presentations of artifact and food by arrangement
Education is all a matter of building bridges. –Ralph Ellison
Insight, I believe, refers to the depth of understanding that comes by setting experiences, yours and mine, familiar and exotic, new and old, side by side, learning by letting them speak to one another. –Mary Catherine Bateson.
Real education should consist of drawing the goodness and the best out of our own students. What better books can there be than the book of humanity? –Cesar Chavez
The more deeply you understand other people, the more you will appreciate them, the more reverent you will feel about them. To touch the soul of another human being is to walk on holy ground.–StephenCovey
PURPOSE:
*To facilitate personal and cultural self-awareness.
*To help you become better acquainted with classmates.
*To give you tools to look beyond stereotypes.
HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT:
ARTIFACT. Select an artifact that tells a story about your cultural background that you can share with the class. This artifact can be a picture, a coat of arms, or an object (a piece of clothing, jewelry, a tool etc.). You will probably want to select something that is easy to transport to class. If possible, choose an item that illustrates something about your cultural background that is not obvious. We want to learn something about your background that is not readily apparent. If you cannot find a “hidden” part of your background, teach us about what we may not have known about your culture.
NAME. As part of your presentation, prepare to tell us about your name. How does it reflect your cultural heritage?
FOOD. Each person will also bring a family food item to share during class by arrangement.
Turn to your family members to learn more about your background. If that is not possible, do research so that you have something significant to share with the rest of the class about your cultural heritage. If you do not have an object to bring from home, copy an appropriate picture from a magazine or book, download an image from the Internet, etc. Remember, the visual component of this exercise is important.
Be prepared to do a 3 minute presentation using written notes to tell the origin of your name, describe your artifact, explain why you selected it, answer any questions, and talk about your food item (when you share it). These notes will be a part of your portfolio. You can write a thought paper on this, but don’t read your TP for your presentation.
When we are finished, we will do an in-class writing activity about what you learned about your background, yourself, and our class from this exercise so you will want to take notes during each presentation. Questions to consider include: *What was the purpose of this activity? *How did this activity help you learn about or increase your awareness of yourself? Of others? *How does the difference between how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you affect you as a student? *What have you learned about culture? Can you draw connections between this activity and some of the readings?
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Writing and revising and rewriting is a lot easier if you have feedback from a reader. But how do you find readers? How do you get constructive criticism? In this blog post, I discuss a process I used to get a very important piece of writing done.
via The Write Alley
Believe it or not, it can be harder and take longer to write 80 words than 800 words…
via The Write Alley
By Enid Osborn
He wanders long and long
the whole long train,
chaste and astonished by their faces, their losses,
and lost in the rhythmic, now arhythmic beat and clack
of the rails, rough and missing
like a faulty heart
The locomotive’s sad herald cry barely reaches him
from another realm, another train
Not this one he prays over,
not this long night,
not this long train he wanders aching through
He is far away from the world,
from the miles of ramshackle track
where fallen spikes lie rusting in the rocks,
reaching for their lost beds,
and the oily, split tyes
yawn in tortured speech
to bear the terrible heat and fire spark
of countless train tons laboring through the night…
Every Tuesday you can find an open mic and every other Tuesday a featured reader or two at the Artists Union Gallery. It’s free–but they often take donations to give to the poet.
To find more poetry, take a ride on the Monday Poetry Train!
There’s been a lot of animosity today it seems–lots of arguing about burning the Koran and whether it is ok or not to build a mosque 2.5 city blocks away from where the World Trade Centers stood. In Michael Moore’s article “If the ‘Mosque’ Isn’t Built, This Is No Longer America,” he argues:
Why? Because I believe in an America that protects those who are the victims of hate and prejudice. I believe in an America that says you have the right to worship whatever God you have, wherever you want to worship. And I believe in an America that says to the world that we are a loving and a generous people.
I wrote the following sonnet for September 11 on Sept 13, 2001; a broadside of it (as illustrated) was published in ArtLife Limited Editions October 1, 2001.
via art predator
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