Reading project by Oficina Leitura Textos Acadêmicos

2018-09-15 21:28:29 UTC

A L I E N S by Coldplay

2018-09-15 21:36:32 UTC

We were just about to lose our home
Diamonds ate the radio
Moving in the dead of night
We took photographs just some just so
History someone to know
We were moving at the speed of flight

Kids cry
If you want to
That's alright
If you want to
Hold me
Hold me tight

Just an alien

We were hovering without a home
Millions are UFO
Hovering in hope some scope tonight
Sees the light and says

Fly if you want to
That's alright
But if you want to
Call me
Call this line
Just an alien
Just an alien
Oh, we just want to get home again

Tell your leader
Sir or ma'am
We come in peace
We mean no harm
Somewhere out there
In the unknown
All the E.T.'s are phoning home
Watching my life
On the skyline
Crossing your eyes
All a lifetime

Just an alien (moving target)
Target movement
Oh, we just want to get home again
Of the space time
Turning forward
Turning pages
Over Asia
Crossing ages
Just an alien
Oh, we just want to get home again

2018-09-15 21:39:25 UTC

Last year we got to know a local NGO that works with refugees and vulnerable immigrants. We could attend some of their meetings and get to know more about it, but still there is much to be learned about the issue. It still being a very relevant topic, according to the United Nations there are more than 68.5 million individuals that have been forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations. We as teachers of the English language want to give our students access to this kind of information and equip them to critically respond to this. We believe that we can’t close our eyes to this matter, we should rather be ready to give our best to wisely face it.
So all the texts that we chose for this reading project are related to immigrants and refugees’ issues, therefore each one approaches this topic in distinct, but coherent and sometimes connected ways.

Alia's story

2018-09-15 22:05:33 UTC

“The last thing I remember of Syria, before we left, was when my mother was taking me from our place to our grandparents. The roads were full of dead corpses. I saw dead people with no heads or no hands or legs. I was so shocked I couldn’t stop crying. To calm me down, my grandfather told me they were mean people, but I still prayed for them, because even if some considered them mean, they were still dead human beings. Back at home, I left a friend in Syria, her name was Rou’a. I miss her a lot and I miss going to school with her. I used to play with her with my Atari, but I couldn’t bring it with me. I also used to have pigeons, one of them had eggs, I would feed them and care for them. I’m worried about them, I really pray someone is still caring for them. But here I have a small kitten that I really love! I miss my home a lot. I hope one day we’ll be back and things will be just like before.”

f_lucas_m — 2018-09-15 22:22:16 UTC

f_lucas_m — 2018-09-15 22:24:32 UTC

adrianafgandre — 2018-09-18 13:05:25 UTC

Heritage language anxiety and majority language anxiety among Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands

f_lucas_m — 2018-09-18 20:29:45 UTC

by Yeşim Sevinç and Jean-Marc Dewaele Birkbeck

Adriana's comment

adrianafgandre — 2018-09-18 22:19:46 UTC

In my opinion, poetry makes us more sensitive to the world and people, and particularly in this poem by Nikita Gill, the author can express and take us inside the text and reflect on the difficulties faced by the refugees. I think we need to be sensitive to the "other" and as teachers we can, through poetry, convey this sensitivity to the students. I would start the class with a talk about what the students know about poetry: genres, authors, titles and books, to know what the students know about poetry, explain what poetry is and its characteristics, then present the theme ( Refugees), explaining who they are, reporting on news stories seen on TV, and asking students what they know about refugees, this would make them aware of the issue. And then, along with them, I would read poetry, aiming to increase vocabulary and understanding of reality. It is interesting to ask them after reading about what they felt, asking them to write down everything they felt throughout the reading and then share every feeling and emotion. The central idea is to work on text interpretation, vocabulary about feelings (sadness, compassion, empathy, etc.), oral and written language, leading them to think and reflect.

Refugee by Nikita Gill

f_lucas_m — 2018-09-18 22:23:28 UTC

Nikita's caption

f_lucas_m — 2018-09-18 22:32:52 UTC

This is what Nikita says about the poem Refugee, in her Instagram account, where she posted it.

Reference

f_lucas_m — 2018-09-18 22:37:17 UTC

Here's the link to Nikita Gill's original post on her Instagram account on June 20th, 2018.

Reference

f_lucas_m — 2018-09-18 22:53:34 UTC

Alia fled her home in Aleppo, Syria and is currently living in Damour, Lebanon. She shared her story through Gruppo Aleimar, an Italian NGO which provides free, nutritious meals to refugees in the Damour area. Alia is 7 years old.

Lucas's coment

f_lucas_m — 2018-09-18 23:18:17 UTC

Nikita Gill’s writing is a nice example of contemporary poetry and this specific composition caught my attention due to many aspects. First of them is the relevance of the topic; that is clearly stated by the title of the poem. Something that I also find interesting is the language chosen, which is fairly simple but yet used in a profound manner. I like how the poem is divided in ten stanzas and the first half refers to the memory of what life used to be, whereas the other one is about what it has become for someone in that situation. So as I read it I can feel this transition, like if I was mentally going through the path a refugee sees when looking back on his or her experience. Therefore I believe it also would be a great poem to be used in a lesson. Since it is a topic widely talked about I think that activating students schemata wouldn’t be a problem. I thought about that depending on the class it is even possible to ask the students to access the writer’s Instagram account and maybe do a skim reading of her feed before going into the text. Another possibility for the pre-reading activity can be reading the caption that the author provides, so the students can go straight to the point and get some of the context of the poem. And as while-reading activities it is possible to point out the usages of “there” or of the wh words “where”, “when”, “how”; it is also possible to focus on the verb tenses used in the poem. And a post-reading activity can be any production (in form of poetry or not), in which the students have to try to put themselves in a refugee shoes and write about it; or the class can be divided in two groups and each will be assigned to illustrate a part of the poem.

f_lucas_m — 2018-09-18 23:41:57 UTC

emeli_luz — 2018-09-21 00:59:51 UTC

I even got emotional!!! Excelent and creative idea for a project!!!

Feedback

emeli_luz — 2018-09-21 01:07:33 UTC

Guys, I loved your idea about talking about such a controversial topic, not only abroad but here in Brazil as well. Coincidently I was watching some news about Venezuelan people just now.
Adriana, can you think about this excerpt and notice what is missing " is important to think..."
Lucas, your description is detailed and very impressive. You also explored different ideas for activities with you students. Well done!
Great job guys!!!

Adriana's comment

adrianafgandre — 2018-10-09 12:22:42 UTC

I think the lyrics of this song is an alert to worldwide, because remind us the fate of refugees forced to flee the war and relates as they are living. Teach through of music in classroom makes class "lighter" and more fun, mainly when it is necessary to approach a serious matter. LISTENING, READING, WRITING and SPEAKING are options of activities to work with music in the classroom. In LISTENING activitie, I would put the video-audio of the music and request the attention of everyone and I would ask the students the possible theme of the song, what it is about, how the students came to that conclusion, if they know any words about the song and its meaning.
And in READING activitie, I would deliver the lyrics of the music to students and would work the pronunciation of the words.
In WRITING activitie, I would suggest that students use the dictionary to work the translation of words of song and would explain about grammatical aspects using the text itself (Verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc...). Then each one of students could SPEAK each new word that they learned.

Adriana's comment

adrianafgandre — 2018-10-09 13:20:41 UTC

Specially, I thought that these cartoons are controversial and serve as protest in favor of refugees. So, for that a cartoon to be understood, requires a interpretation about the context on which the author was based to create the image. Cartoons as activity in classroom develops reflection, creativity and critical sense in the students. So, as activitie in classroom I would read the cartoon together with the students and would discuss the social values that cartoons carry, analyzing the opinion expressed in it and would teach about figure of language, verbal and non-verbal languages, from the texts that are in the cartoons.

Lucas's comment

f_lucas_m — 2018-10-10 02:09:10 UTC

This comic caught my attention mainly because it is a very good example of the genre "comics". Since it brings a well-known scene from pop culture (the arrival of the extraterrestrial that will become earth's defender: Superman), but with a small difference that changes the whole story, makes this comic easy to relate as the same time that provokes profound thoughts about migration issues. It is concise and ambiguous what I think that makes it perfect to work with in the classroom.
At a lesson I would first elicit from the students things that they know about superheroes and specifically focus on the one's that are not humans to get to Superman. After I would show the comic for the class to read and talk about which episode of the life of Superman is shown in the comic and ask the students to work in groups to list what is similar and what is different from the original story. At this point we may have to look up the meaning of "darn tooting". After asking them to present the similarities and differences, I would ask what would happen if the Kents were like that (positive or negative outcomes?). At this point I would ask what's the relation of the comic and migration issues and explore the meanings of "Alien" (extraterrestrial and foreigner) and question what image the author of the comic wanted to convey about the Kents. And question if this is a critic, and who is being criticized. To finish this activity I would relate the Kents' aversion to Kal-El to the sentiment present in many people how are not happy to receive migrants (who is missig in this situation?)

Lucas's comment

f_lucas_m — 2018-10-10 02:56:02 UTC

"We were hovering without a home
Millions are UFO
Hovering in hope some scope tonight"

This Coldplay song just like the comic also explores the double meaning of the word alien. And while they use words and expressions that we usually find in sci-fi stories like "UFO", "hovering", "speed of light", "tell your leader", "E.T.'s"; they tell a very real story. Throughout the history, in every century and in every place of earth there were people moving from one place to another, that's the global diaspora, an event that in my opinion shows two characteristics of us humans, the survival instinct and the pursuit of better living conditions. And something that I really like in this song is at the end, when in only two words (Over Asia) they situate the context of song.

To work with this song at the classroom I would first show the lyrics to the students and ask them what kind of text it is. Once they get to the correct answer I would ask how they got the that answer and elicit from them what are the distinct characteristics of this kind of text. I would explore the subjectivity of this genre and talk about that many possible interpretations that a song (like every kind of art) can have. So my main concern here would be foster in the students the ability of seeing a text not as a lonely object but actually as something situated in a context (intertextuality). One exercise that I'd do would be to give the printed lyrics (in a big paper) to small groups and ask them to write the connections that they could do with the verses of the song. After that each group would go and see the connections created by their colleagues and discuss about the similarities and differences present in each one.

Feedback

emeli_luz — 2018-10-11 18:05:31 UTC

Adriana
- think about the words
1)polemic
2) controversial
Which one is the best for your text?
Also think about:
*work cartoon in classroom
* as activity in classroom
Your comments are quite interesting. I really enjoyed the cartoon because people relate to it. Not only everybody knows Superman´s story but people are familiar with the topic of immigration and its issues. I consider it a very nice way to discuss about it.

Lucas, what about this sentence, can you reorder it?
"This comic caught my attention first.
The second cartoon complements the first. I loved the way you would explore the materials in your classroom. If you haven´t done it, do it!!!
Congrats to you both!

Feedback

emeli_luz — 2018-10-11 18:17:06 UTC

* a alert
* talk about
* working music
* when is necessary
*take a note

Adriana, you have come up with activities that work with listening, reading and writing and that is fantastic. In my opinion, what is missing it the fact that you did not propose a final activity, maybe speaking that would discuss the subject.
Great activity!!!

Lucas's comment

f_lucas_m — 2018-11-15 15:07:53 UTC

The importance of this research lies in its contribution to migrants and their families. As the article presents tangible evidences of struggles faced by them, it helps to raise awareness towards the complex condition of a migrant. People that have left their countries of origin and even further generations live a very different experience if compared to the so-called natives. This experience is effectively displayed in the linguistic tensions that happen among members of these communities. That's why I believe that would be beneficial to students of English. I also think that students can relate themselves to the content of the text when it mentions Foreign Language Anxiety. Besides that, I this text is a good and clear example of academic text.
o work with it in a reading class I would first of all elicit from the students the structure of this kind of writing. This can also be done in pairs or small groups. After this moment I would check what they came up with and then give the description of each part of the academic paper, so they would have to put them in order and name each one. For instance, in one of the descriptions it is written: "... is a beginning section which states the purpose and goals of the following writing." and they have to recognize that it is talking about the Introduction. Following this activity I would propose, in small groups or individually (depending if all have access to the text), an skimming activity so they can have an general idea of the structure and content of the text. After the skimming activity we would talk about their impressions and together read the abstract to see if it checks out with they thought about text. I would also point out that in this genre there are some key words that present the main ideas to be developed. Linking with this idea of key words, I would talk about key concepts that are crucial to understand the writing. And since they are so important, if they are repeated many times in the text, the writer usually chooses a kind of code (acronyms). So having this in mind students would now have to identify some acronyms that might represent key concepts within the text (scanning). And also write what they stand for "word-wise" and "meaning-wise". Helping, in this way, the full reading of the text, that would be followed by critical questions wrapping up the class.
Other aspects, like reading tables and numbers could also be explored using this text.

Lucas's comment

f_lucas_m — 2018-11-16 15:53:32 UTC

This is a simple text, but with a profound message. I believe that this report can be used for classes with any age range. It is important to be aware that the description provided by the child can be shocking. And since it is easy to understand, the meaning should be well explored by the teacher.
If I would use it in my classroom I would introduce the class talking about diaries. And ask questions like, in which verb tense it is written and focus on the simple past. It is also possible to correlate to academic reports (that is also written in the past tense and describe facts). Since this genre is really personal and uses memory to create the text, I would introduce the reading questioning about bid life changes, happy memories and sad memories. After this moment I would do the reading aloud and ask the students to follow (depending on the level, students can also participate on the reading). After the reading I would ask if the students had any trouble understanding the text and then project questions for discussion in pairs. Following we would have an open discussion and then I would propose a simple writing activity. The writing activity would be to write a short response (letter/email) to Alia saying what they think about this issue and whatever they would like to say to her. So they would have to read the report again in order to write a coherent response.

Lucas's comment

f_lucas_m — 2018-11-16 16:24:25 UTC

This text it is very informative, so I think that it would enrich the class about refugees.
The text is divided by questions. So I would first talk about how this genre is written (answering questions, Wh's). And then I would show the questions that appear on the news and ask the students to try answering it. After I would divide the students into 6 groups and each would have to go through the text to find the information they need to answer their question. To conclude, each group would have to present the questions and answers to the whole class.

Adriana's comment

adrianafgandre — 2018-11-19 11:13:54 UTC

The history of the refugees isn't easy consist of racism, war, escape, leave the family, being an outsider, courage, new idiom, tragedy and fear. These are subjects that show the suffering those people. Understanding about migration, refugees is very important for the people to be aware of this subject.
Refugees in our country is a reality and is necessary to know how we can help their. This academic text is a study about some situations face for the imigrants with the foreign language and anxiety language when their come to another country. My propose for a class is to teach about COMPREHENSION, READING and WRITING of a text. For this, I would explain the importance of comprehend when we are reading, because there isn't how read and write anything without the comprehension of a subject. Firstly I would propose to the students a skimming reading of the text and I would ask to them what them understood trough the reading it. I would ask to them explain with their own words, I think this activitie will help them to understand about the refugees' lives and their sufferings in other country. It would be a way that I would know if they had a compreension of the text or not. After that, I will ask to the students to write one text about the subject refugees and migration in our country. All of the students must read aloud, for the goal of improve their reading and in addition increase the knowledge their about the subject.

Adriana's comment

adrianafgandre — 2018-11-19 13:21:12 UTC

Many news about refugees has been spread for worldwide. What effect does the news have? What news are true? My suggestion for this class is talk about Fake News. I would explain the importance of verify if the news are true or not before to share in social nets and that is a way of "Bullying" as well. For this, I would create a debate and would bring issues for discuss the theme that would take them to reflect about it.

Adriana's comment

adrianafgandre — 2018-11-19 13:22:53 UTC

This text is about a story lived for one child when she was fleeing of war in her country. My propose for a class is to teach about textual genres. From reports taken from newspapers, i would show to the students the genre and the language used in the texts of the reports and I would teach how they can indentify and use each kind of genre ( narrative, letter, article, essays, fable and others) in their own texts. Besides that, I will have the opportunity to discuss controversial topics that are present in the reports.

Feedback

emeli_luz — 2018-11-27 19:06:49 UTC

Hi guys, the topic is really important to be discussed nowadays. The genre is also important if you aim academic students so I liked the way you proposed to work with the text.
Regarding the structure and grammar of your comments, they could be improved if you consider Normative English, but I chose not to pay attention at the details because your text is very good and understandable. If you wish to review the things I have spoted, that could be improved, let me know and we can discuss it face-to-face. xx

Feedback

emeli_luz — 2018-11-27 19:12:24 UTC

Nice activities but I missed a more complete analysis of the texts (the news and the report).