17^th December, 2010

Dear peers and tutors:

During the course of the semester in EAP lessons, I have been able to acquire a vast amount of knowledge and skills. In fact, I have experienced many different feelings on course work. There have been times when  I felt overwhelmed with assignments, worried that I did something incorrect, or even stressed thinking I would not finish something on time. Overall, I can now state that I have learned to adapt a better sense of organization to my learning habits. 

Throughout this semester I have had the opportunity to develop my skills in the writing process that includes drafting, individual writing consultations, generation of ideas, gathering of data and topics as well as peer papers evaluation. As Johns and Swales (1990) state “a discourse community is composed of a minimum number of expert members and a frequently larger number of apprentice members who operate on the basis of implicit  public goals” (as cited by Pintos and Crimi, 2010, p. 12). Thus it has been through peer editing that an emerging discourse community started to take form during our present course of studies. It is in this mode in which these valuable achievements have become true. That is why, I am grateful to my peer editor Marina Valek who has always shown   great predisposition to share her principles and knowledge with me giving way to a valuable friendship built in spite of long distances. Besides, I have had the satisfaction of having been asked by another colleague, Claudia Hernández, to be her peer editor. I would also like to thank her for having trusted in me.

In this portfolio all those pieces of academic writing I have done throughout the present semester have been included, namely, all my integrative assignments, mid-term test as well as blog entries. 

Yours sincerely,

                                        Maria Fernanda Walter

References

                                                               

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 1: Building up a Community of Teachers and Prospective Researchers. Retrieved  December 2010, from  http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=6856

Cuyano Alborotador book review

In the book Cuyano Alborotador García Hamilton (1999) portrays Domigo Sarmiento with the humanity that history had denied him. Through a truthful and exciting narration, he accounts for unknown details of Sarmiento’s biography, namely the resented child subject to the difficulties in having access to education as well as the young soldier. He depicts the teacher who becomes father in Los Andes as well as the gifted journalist who falls in love with a married woman. 

It is also possible to get to know the personality traits of a man who was hard but at the same time emotional. In fact, García Hamilton (1999) describes Sarmiento’s aggressiveness and irascibility and turns him into an attractive personage who is most often seen as a true romantic. Besides, the author succeeds in depicting a vehement politician who believed in eliminating caudillos or the largest landholdings to establish agricultural colonies and civilize the Argentinian society making it equal to that of the United States. The educator, the statesman, the writer as well as the president of Argentina, all are included in this remarkable work.

His relationship with the English speaking world is one of the most outstanding aspects of Sarmiento’s life which is colorfully described in this book. In fact, García Hamilton (1999) shows Sarmiento ’s contemporaneity with Dickens (1836) and  states “there came a succession of rainy days so they (Ida and Sarmiento, teacher and pupil) gathered in the living room to read the Pickwick Papers,” (as cited by García Hamilton, 1999, p. 281).  Thus the author has provided the biography of a national figure in such a way that he has turned the historic data into a novel with renewed success. This new kind of novel undertakes historical events and national outstanding men from the point of view of the common men and turns them into human beings far from the monuments erected in their honor.

García Hamilton (1999) relies on adequate sources which are mostly primary ones. Cuyano Alborotador is a well-written book, accessible not only to specialists but also to intelligent readers. It includes many quotations from Sarmiento’s literary works, letters he exchanged with other contemporary figures and quotations from newspapers in which he was either bitterly criticized or greatly admired. All of them add to the vividness of the narration as well as aid understanding. Indeed, when making reference to the publication of   Samiento’s critical book Facundo: Civilización o Barbarie, García Hamilton asserts “El Mercurio de Valparaíso and other Chilean newspapers praised the book but this fact did not mitigate the attacks launched by the men from El Siglo” (p. 129). Therefore, by means of highly detailed descriptions the author also leads readers to feel they are part of the setting so that  they can picture the book background just by closing their eyes.

All in all, the author succeeds in depicting Doming Sarmiento as a man who took the challenge of changing the Argentinian culture with courage and through education. Hence he narrates a story that deeply moves readers from the beginning to the end. If this well-documented biography had not been written, both specialists and intelligent readers would not have had the possibility of getting to know an author’s style which is excellently suited to biographies and memoirs studies. García Hamilton (1999) once stated “I wanted to show Sarmiento as a human being with his own personal dramas, miseries and vehemence in struggling for progress and civilization.”

References

Dickens, C. (1836). The Pickwick Papers. London: Chapman and Hall.

García Hamilton, I. (1999). Cuyano Alborotador. Barcelona: Editorial Sudamericana.

Critical Incidents

            Kennedy and Wyrick (1990) define a critical incident as a method of reflective practices.  In education, as Pintos and Crimi (2010) state “the phrase critical incident is used in a positive way: to help teachers reflect upon their current practices.”

 Teacher development is a collaborative process, shared by people who aim at an educating   purpose as Fernández González, Elórtegui Escartín and Medina Pérez (2003) state. Besides, these scholars consider there is a tendency to regard a change of skills, attitudes and values to establish a co-responsibility between the mentor and the mentoree  a means of advancement in current teacher development.

             Applying  critical incidents, which are situations or events of particular professional significance, involve encouraging daily reflections. In fact, they include reflections on the low and high points of teaching practice. Fernández González et al. (2003) regard critical incidents a useful strategy that must be included in all teacher development programmes. These scholars consider that:

Critical incidents are described as a pre-service and in-service teacher education strategy. The idea is to integrate theory and practice. The diversity of teachers and the possibility for the reflexive analysis of classroom events, often solved in a spontaneous way, are the basis of this powerful strategy. (p. 101)

 In order to deal with critical incidents at educational programmes and organize group work,   Fernández González et al. (2003) also provide a sequence of activities range from simply making comments on the structure of critical incidents to evaluating the conclusions at which the group arrive.

References

Fernandez González, J., Elórtegui Escartín, N., & Medina Pérez, M. (2003). Los incidentes críticos en la formación y perfeccionamiento del profesorado de secundaria de ciencias de la naturaleza. Revista universitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17- 001. Zaragoza, España: Universidad de Zaragoza. Retrieved September 2010, from http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/src/inicio/ArtPdfRed.jsp?iCve=27417107
Kennedy, R. L., Wyrick, A. M. (1995). Teaching as reflective practice. Tennessee: The University of Tennessee.

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 2: Personal narratives in teaching. Retrieved September 2010, from http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=7214

Discourse Communities

According to Johns and Swales (1990) a discourse community is “composed of a minimum number of expert members and a frequently larger number of apprentice members who operate on the basis of implicit and explicit public goals.” They also add   that “their members develop and use systems of speech and writing that are sometimes quite specific to a particular community’s needs and goals” (as cited in Pintos, & Crimi, 2010, p.12).

Hoffman-Keep, Artiles and Lopez-Torres (2003), Kelly-Kleese (2001) and Wenzlaff and Wieseman (2004) refer to a discourse community as a group of scholars who use the same type of words, share their pronunciation as well as the topics they deal with. That is to say, they form a professional community.

Wenzlaf (2004) suggests teacher learning in a cohort based master’s degree program in curriculum and pedagogy is an example of a discourse community.   He considers   that being immersed in collaborative culture lead teachers to feel a high degree of commitment and establish a rapport with each other both personally and professionally.  Therefore, he establishes a connection between cohort structure and one of the characteristics Johns and  Swales (1990) state for  discourse communities to be considered as such: “develop and use systems of speech and writing that are sometimes quite specific” (p. 135).

            According to the researchers above mentioned, it is essential to redefine as well as to delineate the limits on discourse communities,  since their boundaries are flexible. Communicative competence is crucial as far as the nature of discourse communities is concerned. In all of these types of communities language has been given a particular meaning and it is the use of a distinct kind of language that characterizes them.

References

Hoffman-Kipp, P., Artiles, A. J., & Lopez Torres, L. (2003). Beyond reflection: teacher learning as praxis. Theory into Practice. Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_42/ai_108442653

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2001). Editor’s Choice: An Open Memo to Community College Faculty and Administrators. Community College Review. Retrieved October 2007, from

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_29/ai_77481463

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2004). UCLA community college review: community college scholarship and discourse. Community College Review. Retrieved October 2007, from

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_32/ai_n6361541

Pintos, V., & Crimi, Y. (2010). Unit 2: Personal narratives in teaching. Retrieved September 2010, retrieved from http://caece.campusuniversidad.com.ar/mod/resource/view.php?id=7214

Wenzlaff, T. L., & Wieseman, K. C. (2004). Teachers Need Teachers To Grow. Teacher Education Quarterly. Retrieved October 2007, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3960/is_200404/ai_n9349405

Obeying rules

This report will outline a critical incident which occurred a month ago during a test that my students in 6^th year B at high school were doing. The main topic of the test was passive voice. It included the use and form of the passive in all tenses and modal verbs.

These students’ work in class had been irregular. One of them, John, had had disruptive behavior during 4^th year and had to repeat the course the following year. At present  he has caused some problems but not that much as the ones he had before.

Some trouble with this student arouse when he decided to talk to a fellow-student as if they were comfortably sitting in a bar while doing the test. Some minutes before, two other students had also asked some questions about the vocabulary on the test in a loud voice. And I had warned them that the next time any of them talked during the test again, I would take their tests away and give them the lowest mark without correcting it. Only a minute had passed after my warning when John started asking Alex, a vey able student, the meaning of a word on the test. Alex answered his question ignoring what I had explained with respect to these attitudes before.  

So I asked them to hand their tests in but both refused. I told them their mark would be registered all the same. As they had had such a arrogant attitude, I decided not to confront them so I let them finish their tests. But I gave him the lowest mark all the same.

Ten minutes after these students had handed in their tests and left, they came back and asked me to talk about the incident. I agreed with them but only after letting them know that I had already made my views clear and that I would not change my mind with respect to their marks. I did this quite emphatically in such a way they could perceive I was really upset. At that moment, John took a step forward and looked at me in the eyes. I decided to remain silent and managed to show confidence although the angry look in his eyes had made me feel tense. But I think it must have been confidence what made him turn round and go out. All the same, while closing the door, he warned me his mother would come to school to talk to me about this incident.

The following week, his mother came so we had a long talk. She was very respectful and her words seemed quite reasonable. She told me about the problems John had had before and asked me to change my mind with respect to his mark on the test. I explained everything that I had told her son before: passive voice is not the problem, disregarding rules is what really matters. She did not question my judgement and accepted my point of view.  

             I offered John the chance to give a lesson and compensate for his mark on the test but he has not taken it yet. However, these days he has been working hard in class trying to engage in all the activities with a good disposition. It seems he has understood that in order to be respected, we must respect others as well.

Critical incidents as teacher training strategies

            It is sometimes assumed that mastering a discipline is enough for one to be able to teach it. However, reflecting on teaching practices and decision making on class management have started to be considered a means for teachers to be able to face classroom problems.

According to Fernández González, Elórtegui Escartín and  Medina Pérez (2003) teacher development is a collaborative process, shared by professionals  who aim at an educating purpose. What is more, they claim there is a tendency to consider a change of skills, attitudes and values to establish a co-responsibility between the teacher and the student a crucial advancement in current teacher development

Fernández González et. al.(2003) refers to the importance of tutors ability to reflect and analyze their strategies. In fact, Monereo also emphasizes the importance of reflection and analysis, “en este sentido desde la formación inicial y continuada se tendrá que ofrecer a los profesores instrumentos de interpretación y análisis de la situación en que se desarrolla su actividad” (as cited in Fernández González et. al. 2003, p. 103).

            It is useful for tutors to keep a journal because their own teaching can be reflected critically and analytically on. Subsequently, there is a possibility to see what has been learnt from it and how these concepts could be used to inform future planning. Above all, it is also possible to contribute to teachers continuing professional development.

Fernández González et al. (2003) consider critical incidents an important strategy to be included in teachers development  programmes. In fact, they have suggested the extensive treatment of this kind of incidents become part of  students’ meaningful learning. They also provide a sequence of activities in order to organize group work when dealing with critical incidents at school.  Those activities range from simply making comments on the structure of critical incidents to evaluating the conclusions at which the group arrives after reflecting on critical incidents.

             In teachers development there is a need of critical conversation as a political culture of openness to different ideologies since it must be acknowledged that each human being has something valuable to say regardless of status and rank. So there must be some kind of scenarios for teacher mentors and mentorees to reflect on. Critical incidents provide such scenes. Then as a result, they contribute to education research because they have turned to be useful strategies for incorporating teaching practices into the core of the teaching instruction programmes.

References

Fernandez González, J., Elórtegui Escartín, N. and  Medina Pérez, M. (2003). Los incidentes críticos en la formación y perfeccionamiento del profesorado de secundaria de ciencias de la naturaleza. Revista universitaria de Formación de Profesorado, 17- 001. Zaragoza, España: Universidad de Zaragoza. Retrieved September 2010 from http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/src/inicio/ArtPdfRed.jsp?iCve=27417107

                                           Some notions of discourse communities

Many researchers support the criteria Swales (1990) establishes to define a discourse community. In fact, Hoffman Kipp , Artiles and Lopez Torres (2003),  Kelly Kleese (2001, 2004) and Wenzlaff and  Wiesemen (2004) talk about a discourse community as a group of scholars who use the same kind of words. They share their pronunciation, the topics they deal with. They form professional communities.

     Kelly Kleese (2001) refers to the reconceptualization of community college teaching  as scholarship. Mohr (1996) also emphasizes  the future of teacher research:

      teacher research will contribute to the knowledge base of the

      profession …… and teacher researchers will participate as equal

      partners in the discourse of the profession. (as cited by Kelly Kleese, 2004,

      p. 5)

 Besides, when referring to the need of redefining scholarship in the community college, Kelly Kleese (2004) states university professors’ need for communication as well as collaboration between discourse communities. She also emphasizes the fact that college faculty members and administrators must have the chance to share their perspectives and experiences. All these concepts imply a need of common objectives and participatory mechanisms that Swales (1990) includes as one of the characteristics of a discourse community.

Wenzlaf and Wieseman (2004) accounts for the nature of teacher learning in a cohort based master’s degree program in curriculum and pedagogy. He concludes that being immersed in collaborative culture as well as interacting in a discourse community lead teachers to feel comfortable and establish a rapport with each other both personally and professionally. This also contributes to a better appreciation of their own beliefs and is closely connected to one of the characteristics Swales (1990) states for a discourse community, “their members develop and use systems of speech and writing that are sometimes quite specific” (p. 135). What these scholars mean is that the highest awareness of peers’ perspectives contributes to the most specific vocabulary shared by the members of that discourse community. 

Kelly Kleese (2004) also gives emphasis to the importance of shared discourse and provides a definition of discourse communities as “a group of people who share certain language-using practices (that) can be seen as conventionalized” (Kelly Kleese, 2004, p. 1). She adds that a discourse community is primarily bound by its uses of language although there are some other kinds of ties to consider in this aspect such as the geographical, ethnic and socioeconomic ones.

The boundaries of discourse communities are flexible. However, it is essential to redefine as well as to delineate the limits on discourse communities. For all of the scholars above mentioned, communicative competence is crucial as far as the nature of discourse communities is concerned. In all of these types of communities language has been given particular meaning and it is the use of a distinct kind of language that characterizes them. Therefore, Hopmann Kipp et al. (2003), Kelly Kleese (2001, 2004) and Wenzlaff and Wieseman (2004) provide clear evidence of some of the characteristics of a discourse community in accordance with Swales (1990) views.

 

References

Hoffman-Kipp, P., Artiles, A. J., & Lopez Torres, L. (2003). Beyond reflection: teacher learning as praxis. Theory into Practice. Retrieved from  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NQM/is_3_42/ai_108442653

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2001). Editor’s Choice: An Open Memo to Community College Faculty and Administrators. Community College Review. Retrieved from 

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_29/ai_77481463

Kelly-Kleese, C. (2004). UCLA community college review: community college scholarship and discourse. Community College Review. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0HCZ/is_1_32/ai_n6361541

Wenzlaff, T. L., & Wieseman, K. C. (2004). Teachers Need Teachers To Grow. Teacher Education Quarterly. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3960/is_200404/ai_n9349405