Mary's ENGL 486 Blog

I'm Not a Plastic Bag  - Rachel Hope Allison 1.      Please include a detailed description of the text. Take into consideration that your colleagues might not be familiar with the text that you have chosen. A detailed description will include everything necessary for your classmates to gain an understanding of the text without reading it. Your job is to introduce the text in a complete way so that it is possible for others to decide when, where, and how this text might be appropriate. This graphic novel touches on “humankind’s connection to the planet” (Google Reviews).  I’m Not a Plastic Bag  includes a series of pictures illustrating plastic pollution is a variety of environments. Specifically, this book highlights The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and its effects on animals and the ocean. 2.       Please explain why you chose this text. What was your rationale? How does your understanding of this text in...

I always found classroom discussions to be a beneficial way for me and other students to learn and have their voices heard. However, in my early classroom discussion experiences, there weren't any designated listening/response strategies that would have been beneficial for a discussion. In our reading, I thought there were some beneficial strategies to create a stimulating conversation. For example, it is essential to ask questions that are "open-ended inquiries" rather than "simple clarifying questions" (132). By asking more complex questions, you can receive more complex answers, therefore sparking more discussion material as the conversation moves forward. While I was in high school, classroom discussions occasionally lacked stimulation because students, including myself, didn't know how to ask proper follow-up questions. I feel that if strategies for open-ended questions were presented early-on in my high school experience, classroom discussions would ha...

I've always liked having classes that used discussion as a way of teaching. For instance, I personally enjoy hearing other people's perspectives on varying subjects. By hearing different perspectives, I'm able to learn something new while also being more open-minded to different viewpoints, regardless if I agree with them. I feel that using discussion as a way of teaching can be really helpful in teaching how to speak effectively to a group of peers. However, using discussion as a way of teaching can have its shortcomings. I've been in situations where someone may monopolize the conversation, and students may feel that they are unable to share their perspectives. Moreover, some people may not understand how to respectfully disagree and making someone feel ashamed for their opinion. After reading Discussion as a Way of Teaching , I learned that there are many other ways for a discussion or be successful, but also fail. I agree that one of the more apparent reasons a dis...

Dr. Margaret Lieb's article,  Culture Distance and Cultural Dimensions in Diverse ELT Environments: A Quantitative Investigation , had a lot of really insightful findings. In particular, Dr. Lieb discusses the growth of diverse learning environments and how this has an influence on learning and teaching styles. What I thought was most interesting while reading about diverse learning environments and their effects on learning and teaching styles, is the positive and negative results. For instance, Dr. Lieb analyzes "cultural-moral difference" and how this may become an issue if one cultural group's morals were to displease another (3). Reading about "cultural-moral difference," was something that had never previously occurred to me. I just assumed that most of the teaching styles I've learned about so far would be acceptable for most students. Now I know, that if you were to teach a class that was initially student-oriented, for example, and switched it t...