Recommend "Red Dust" a film on Truth and Reconciliation in SA

This just came out in Japan, but it seems to be a 2004 production.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388364/

First, I have to admit strong disappointment with the casting. Hillary Swanks's less than stellar acting as a South African born and raised character (working in NY) with with a pure American accent and her New York lawyer fashion strutting through the dusty poor ghettos are disappointing because this could have been a much more authentic production. Why didn't they cast a S.African actress?

The male lead, Chiwetel Ejiofor apparently is Nigerian. I thought his acting was compelling. But why not cast a S. African actor? I can't tell the difference, but I'm sure persons familiar with African variations of English could.

That put aside, this is a valuable film to watch if only for thinking about the meaning of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for certain politically motivated crimes perpetrated during Apartheid times in South Africa. In this case, a police officer is being tried for torture and murder of a black detainee, and he asks for amnesty through the commission.

Apparently, only about 800 accused persons out of over 7000 were actually granted amnesty as a result of the trials by coming clean with their confessions. The conflict between the need to forgive and forget, and the need to do justice to perpetrators must have been immense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_and_Reconciliation_Commission_(South_Africa)


I think I had heard of the commission, but to see in a film how that actually plays out makes me respect the courage of the ANC leaders such as Mandela and Archbishop Tutu. It is not easy to overturn a system of human rights abuse, and then for the victors to forgive those who abused them rather than punish. For a country to move on, that seems to be the high road.

I'd like to share the powerful quote from Tutu that comes at the end of the movie:

Having looked the beast in the eye,
having asked and received forgiveness...

Let us shut the door on the past,
not to forget it,
but to allow it not to imprison us.

Archbishop Tutu

未来の大学のあるべき姿 - End the University as we know it

From the NY Times Op-Ed
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1

現在のアメリカ・日本の大学の姿の問題点を良く捉えている記事です。しかし、このような未来の姿を実現することは果たして現実的か？

Columbia大宗教学教授のTaylor氏が書いている６つ改革段階を要約すると：
His Bio
１．カリキュラム改革：知識分野毎に「専攻」や「必修」がある割れたシステムを改め、学生の勉強と研究のために人材と施設がネットワーク状に提供される構造に変える。興味ある問題について幅広く・超分野的に学習できることが基本とする。

２．常設の「学部」を廃止し、時代のニーズによって７年毎に見直されるZones of Inquiryによって学習プログラムを考える。Mind, Body, Language, Waterなど

３．大学間の連携と相互補完をネットワークで実現する：例えば、全ての大学が発達したフランス語やギリシャ語の講座を提供する必要はない。他大学の学生がネットワーク的にVideoConferenceなどで講座に参加するのが当たり前にする。

４．コースの論文・卒論はテキストのベースではなくMultimedia的な研究成果のプレゼンテーションにする。（彼は書いていないが、卒論は社会に発信するために書くのを当然とすべきだと私は思う。そのためには電子的なフォーマット、そして誰でもその知識にアクセスし、要点が分かりやすいフォーマットにするのは当然だと考える。）

５．大学院は将来の「教授」を育てるために設置するのではなく、NGOなど様々な社会の分野で実用的な能力を発揮できる人材を育成できるプログラムに作り変える。

６．「Impose mandatory retirement and abolish tenure. Initially intended to protect academic freedom, tenure has resulted in institutions with little turnover and professors impervious to change.」　教授は６５歳で引退させ、雇用の終身保証（Tenure）を廃止する。

My Thoughts
さて、このような将来の方向性でよいのか？
全ての大学がこうあるべきなのか、それとも一部か。
少なくとも、上記の１～５は今後１０年でかなり進むと私は思う。
現在の大学を経営しているのは教授会であり、終身雇用を自分達から切ることは有り得ないので、６番はかなり難しいだろう。しかし、理事会が強引に導入するか、若い研究者や自治体が自分たちで新しい大学を起こすなら、そのような大学は出てくる気がするし、出てくるべきだと思う。

A battle of wills with my 5 year old

Michael likes to win and sometimes doesn't take losing well. Perhaps that's just the way it is with 5 year olds. I've lectured time and time again about how winning is not the point of playing games, and how big boys should know how to be good losers. He gets it, I think, but can't control himself when he is tired.

The other night I happened to win two games of "crazy eights" in a row and his reaction was to take all the cards and throw them all over the floor. He had had a long day-it was getting close to 9pm, and I guess he just wasn't in a losing mood.

I wasn't mad about his outburst; I just told him I'm sad that he acted that way, and that he needed to clean up the cards.

He refused, and I made it clear that he couldn't go to bed until he cleaned them up. He tried to force his way and get past me to go into the bedroom and I blocked the way, firmly taking him back to mess.

He cried, screamed, and threw a tantrum-almost trying to hit me, but he backed off from that (progress?). After a bit of that, I finally got him talking about it. Interestingly, his perspective on the matter was that I (Dad) should clean them up because I had made him feel bad by winning. Hmm....I don't think so. So I tried to keep explaining to him that it was his mess and he needed to clean it up, that we can't live together if we don't follow rules etc. etc.

Our stand-off continued for almost an hour! During that time I threated to put him outside, carried him back to the kitchen a few times (he's getting heavy, but I can still manage), alternated between a sweet persuasive voice and a loud harsh voice. "What's your choice going to be, to clean up and go to bed, or stay out here all night?"

Finally, after I shut the door on him and left him in the kitchen for a bit, he relented and cleaned up. It was an exhausting hour for me, but I'm happy I was able to keep to my policy of no hitting. He was really pushing the limit of my patience there. Hopefully he now knows he's not going to get away with behavior like that.

I'M 2 YEARS OLD!

The Obama Book "Dreams of My Father"

The fact that this book is worth reading has nothing to do (in my opinion) with the fact that the author is the current President of the USA.

Amazon link.

I recommend it as a person who has roots in more than one culture and has split his life living in different parts of the world, just like Barack Obama has. Particularly powerful are 1) Obama's identity search as half-white half-black returnee from Indonesia in a Hawaiian prep school, 2) his development as a political organizer in the Chicago South Side, and 3) his introspection on his relationship with his father's family in Kenya.

Whether he turns out to be a good president or not, I think it is beneficial that our president has a multicultural background, has lived in a variety of different social-economic subcultures, and possesses the ability to put his past (or at least his version of it) up for scrutiny and reflect on it in a intriguing way.

Check it out.

Michael's infatuation with Shogaku Ichinensei

Michael got his reward. He finished his first ABC workbook this weekend, passed his writing test--being able to write his whole English name basically within the lines, looking at his ABD chart still allowed, cleared his requirement to finish reading a number of short phonics reader books.

His reward?: Being able to buy any book he wants under 1000yen at a local bookstore.

His choice? A no-brainer for him. He is in love with a Japanese magazine for 6 year old kids called 小学一年生 ( shogaku ichinensei, literally "First Graders").

But after seeing 2 or 3 purchases of these magazines, I'm thinking that I may have to change my policy on what he gets as his reward.

It is actually much more than a book, all for 650yen. Here's a peak inside. You can see it is designed to drive six year old Japanese kids crazy - an electronic toy of the month (Doraemon voice recorder), lots of photos and comics using popular TV characters like Pokemon, Doraemon, and Kamen Rider, lots of paper crafts (we spent over an hour constructing the extendable robot hand made from paper and plastic rivets), board games, and just a few token pages of school like activities with math and kanji writing (which Mikey ignores, I think) hidden deeply in black/white pages in the middle. There is a DVD of course, which seemed to consist mostly of Doraemon movie re-runs and screen shots of some kind of video game with wild animals fighting and killing each other (Hmm...).

Good parts: I like the crafts a lot and the digital toys are often somewhat educational. Last month was an electronic key board that got Mikey playing songs with Do Re Mi for the first time in his life. I also think the comic strips are also OK since he does a lot of Japanese reading with those. The math and Japanese worksheets are good, of course, if the kids ever would do them.

The crap: The pictures of toys and games, just a bunch of advertisements to make the kids want more, bother me. The DVD was aweful--a total waste of time and frustrating for me because Michael insisted on watching it.

So, what are we going to do about this? I might just ban the DVD for now since he is so into these magazines, and he works hard on his English homework to get to buy them.

Ideally, he would choose some kind of English magazine or book...need to get him hooked on something. But with living in Japan, his exposure to "cool" things comes from Japanese TV and his Japanese kindergarten classmates. He only wants to rent DVDs with Pokemon, and he only wants to buy these magazines.

Any suggestions for a better incentive? Ice cream?

RW/WW Atwell Chapter 8: Responding to Readers and Reading

RW/WW Atwell Chapter 8: Responding to Readers and Reading
Summary:
Atwell uses Reading Journals to promote a dialogue about reading between the reader, the reader's peers, and herself. Students write "literary letters" to each other and to their teacher about what they are reading and thinking, at a minimum required pace of once a week to be submitted on Friday. Students respond to each other within 24 hours by returning the notebook to the owner, and Atwell does her best to write back to students's literary letters addressed to her, promoting more and more developed literary conversations, giving advice and encouragement and simply reacting as a reader to another reader. In Atwell's view, journals effectively replace book reports (and worksheets and quizzes) in the classroom--the dullest genres of writing she has ever encountered--and allow students to be true readers learning to read and react for themselves.

My reaction: This case for dialogue journals is very powerful, and I want to consider using them for my own classes. Currently, my academic reading classes use Discussion Worksheets as the main channel for me to see what students thought about the assigned reading. Basically, students fill out a sheet with a basic summary of the reading, their reactions, and the discussion questions they want to discuss with their peers and instructor when they come to class. I used to use journals, but found that I could not collect them frequently enough to ensure that most students had prepared for that day's discussion. Most students crammed their entries in just before the submission deadline. In a foreign language class moving at a high pace through difficult academic readings, pressure to prepare well for each class seems very important to me. So that is why I do not currently use dialogue journals for reading. I only do fluency writing journals, which give students a month or so to write freely about a minimum number of topics.

Admittedly, with assigned reading, the reactions are quite forced, whether it is in a journal or in a worksheet. Some students have engaged and been stimulated, while others have not. It is difficult to compete with Atwell's Reading Workshop where readers are reading what they have selected on their own (usually adolescent literature, very attractive and meaningful for US middle school students), taking responsibility for their own learning and development of literacy (with support from peers and instructor, of course).

Ideally, all of my students would have an e-portfolio where they keep their reactions to what they read, think, and learn. Their peers and I would access those blog like records, leave comments, and promote frequent dialogue in that way, just like I have with a number of friends through various blogs I have had.

My favorite quotes from Chp. 8

p. 291 In response to a student's concern about slow reading speed:
"Dear Jason...."I'll never give you a test on a novel, so you should remember that you're reading just for YOU, and you should feel free to experiment with skipping parts (etc.)...As long as you're getting meaning out of the story, however you read it up to you." Love, Ms. Atwell

p.293 "In the fall you had a panic attack at the end of each book. Oh my God! What am I going to read next? Now I look at your list of books you are dying to read, and I see a reader.

p.298 "I remember suffering through piles of junior high book reports, the dullest writing I've ever read. By contrast, the letters are a constant source of surprise, pleasure, and stimulation."

デンバーの姪っ子たち

学会のついでに三月に会ってきました。かわいいっ！

Academic Speaking 2009にて良い学びをどう提供するか？

春学期開講まで後４日。

ICU ELPのAcademic Speakingを教えるのは３回目、Coordinatorを務めるのは２回目。毎年学生には人気の高いクラスで、過去にやったことをそのまま再度やっても問題はないが、まだまだ向上させたい部分はたくさんある。

この記事はASPの概略と今年の計画である。シラバス・授業進行など、全て英語でやる授業だが、敢えて日本語で書き出すことによって違う視点が出てくることを期待する。学生に渡す英語の実際のシラバスは左記リンクのような感じである。もっとFriendlyなフォーマットを考慮中。

授業名：Academic Speaking　（通称ASP)

対象：ICUの一年生、A,Bの学生（Cは免除）
　　　　プログラムAは旧TOEFL平均４５０点、Bは平均５００点、Cは５５０点
　　　　A,Bの中でも英語で話す力は人それぞれ様々

授業数：一回７０分、週二回、春学期で全１８回
人数：　１クラス約２０人、自分はBを２クラス担当の予定

環境：
ICUの一年生は春学期はASP以外にWriting 3, Reading 2, Listening 1, Learning Strategies 1, Content Lecture 1（授業名は全て簡略）と合わせて週に10回の英語の授業がある。WritingとReadingのクラスが一番宿題などで重い。どのクラスでも英語の話し合いはあるが、英語で話すためのスキルを取り扱うのはASPだけ。ASPは一回の授業の準備時間が平均して６０分ぐらいが目処とされている。

目標：
ELPで定めたASPの目標は簡単にいうと「ICUのような大学英語環境で機能していくために必用な英語のスピーキング力を身に付ける」となる。最も強調する「機能」はDiscussion Skills。つまり、Discussionにおいて意見の説明（簡単なプレゼン）・質問・議論できること、そして会議の進行、まとめ、内容の発表ができること。それから書いた文章、発表した内容について他の学生とフィードバックが交換できること。そして講師とアポをとり、オフィスに行って相談が英語でできること。
そしてもっと根本的に
１）上手な人の交流や異文化交流の基本って何？
２）英語で交流する力ってどう身に付ける？弱みを克服する上手な持続可能な練習方法は？
おおまかな目標はこれで良いかなと思ってます。特に最後の二つは去年から私とCoordinatorを共に務める二人と話し合って追加して重要だと思っている。

規定のテキスト：Communicating on Campus　大きく、重く、学生用のCDやDVDが付いていなくてちょっと不便。でも内容はしっかりしている。著者はICU講師。来年あたりから使わない予定？
（吉田さんの「会議の技法」など、日本語でも知識をつけて欲しい）

学生：ASPに取り組む学生のやる気は強い。受験英語を主にやってきて話す能力がバランス良く鍛えられていない学生が多い。英語はたくさん勉強してきているのに、話すとなると思うように言いたいことが出てこない。でも話す力をしっかり付けて将来につなげたい。という学生が多いと思う。中には軽い日常会話、そしてスピーチ・話し合い・討論は高校で多少したことあるが、大学で扱うような課題を英語で議論した経験はない、もしくはまだその能力は自分で足りないと思っている。多くの学生は留学生と英語で話したい、ICUの英語の講義に参加したい、留学したいなどの希望をもっている。

今学期の授業計画（１８回）

1. 雰囲気作りと目標設定：アイス・ブレーキングや自己紹介で英語で話す不安を減少させる。お互いにどんなスピーキングの練習を今までしてきたか、そして将来英語を何のために使いたいか、グループ内でアンケートし、それぞれの目標設定を話し合う。
   
   
2. Interactive Strategies/Controlling a conversation:限られた英語力でどう英語の交流を上手にするか、様々な「会話コントロール」の策・技法に迫る。繰り返しを求めたり、相手に止まってもらったり、待ってもらったり、他の人に振ったり、質問したり、助けを求めたり、知らない単語を言い換えたり、例を挙げたり、話題を変えたり、策は様々。その有用フレーズをロールプレーで鍛える。「交流の技法のチェック・リスト」みたいなものも作って欲しい。様々な個人製リストや振り返りが入るReflectionノートかBlogがあると良いのかも（要検討）。
   
   
3. Leading a Discussion：良いDiscussion・会議とは？という質問に答えられるようにする。できれば講師と学生が共にチェック・リストを作成する。進行役(Facilitator)と参加者の機能を考える。短いロールプレー的な会議で進行役を一人づつ務めて練習し、グループのメンバーからフィードバックを貰う。
   
   
4. Participating in a Discussion: 参加者としての責任を考え（チェック・リスト、機能的な表現を学ぶ。意見を表現したり、問題提起したり、同意したり、補足したり、反対したり、掘り下げたり、つっこんだり、発展させたり、話題を戻したり、など。
   
   
5. Introduction to ASP Assessment No.1: この授業では翌週に行われるVideo Recordingとその自己分析・振り返りの方法を説明し、Recordingに向けたDiscussionの練習もする。この紹介のクラスも含む、Recordingには以下の通り２時間もかけているので自分が英語で人と交流する姿を記録に残して、自分で分析して、目標を定めて、向上したいところを意識して、これから一年間続くELPの授業の中で上達していくその意義を良く理解して欲しい。もう一つ重要なのは、Recordingはテストではないということ。あくまで具体的な振り返りと目標設定のプロセスを促すため。去年のAudio RecordingによるSelf-Assessmentについての実践報告はこちらから。
   
   
6. Recording Day　学生が３人一組で講師のオフィスに入り、その場で与えられたトピックに対して一人づつ１～２分Opinionを話し、更に２分程そのTopicのDiscussionをFacilitateし、それをWebCameraで録画して学生のUSBメモリーに保存する。退室後、学生はそのVideoファイルをComputer Labなどで三人で見て、Peer Reviewを行い、Discussion leader、participantとしてverbal/non-verbalな面で良くできたこと、できなかったことを話し合う。
   更に、各自個人の宿題としてopinionの１～２分の部分をTranscribeし、自分の論理的展開、表現の正確性などを分析する。最後に総合的に見て自分のVerbal improvement goals, non-verbal improvement goalsそしてそれぞれのPractice planを考え、書き出して８回目のクラスに持参する。
   
   
7. Recording Day　同上、一回に１２人までしかできないため、２日かける。その日に録画がない学生は教室で独創的な学園ドラマ的スキットを書いて演出するClassroom Taskが与えられる。
   
   
   
8. Improvement Goals / Practice Methods: この授業にVideoに基づいた自己分析の内容を持参し、クラスメートと話し合う。意識したい上達目標は何？そのための練習方法は？という感じで話し合い、アイデアをまとめて報告する。講師はそれを聞いて更に具体的な練習方法や参考資料を提案する。ここでSelf-Assessment Formの提出があり、講師が個人的なアドバイスを書いて次週に返却する。
   
   
9. Getting Help/Asking for advice/Making an appointment/Visiting a Professor: スキルとして教授・講師・クラスメートにどうやって助けを求めるか・相談をお願いするか、そのスキルの重要性を考え、表現を練習し、ロールプレイで練習。
   
   
10. Summarizing/Reporting on a Discussion:会議の最後に話し合った内容をどうまとめ、報告するかを練習。例を勉強して表現を練習した後、mini-meetingsを行って話し合った結果の報告の練習をする。
    
    
11. Presentation and Discussion Practice（通称P&D）：ELPの伝統的授業方でより本格的なDiscussionの練習。４人のグループをつくり、一人１５分の持ち時間で６０分話し合いを続ける。各自、３分自分が選んだ「教育問題」の分野のトピックに関して問題提起し、自分の意見を理論的に説明し、その後１０分ほどそのトピックに関して他のメンバー間の議論を進行役として進め、話合ったことを最後にまとめて、講師へ一分以内に報告。最後の２分はFeedbackで、メンバーから評価のコメントが出る。もらったコメント、振り返りを書いて提出。
    
    
12. P&D, no.2 上記と同じ。前回と同じトピックでOK。変えてもOK。目標を意識して再チャレンジ。
13. Strategies for improving fluency - No.2の授業に似ていますが、fluencyを「交流している相手に自然で気持ちいい会話と思わせる力」と定義し、相手のペース・文化的・個人的スタイルになるべく合わせることを考える。例えば、長い沈黙を避けるなど飽きないようにつなげる方法をなどを考え、関連するフレーズを練習。"Just a moment, let me see, I can't think of the word, what was it? Well, let me put it another way, what I wanted to say is, for example, what do you call the thing you use when you......well, I can't seem to express it well, so let me get back to it later. Let's move on...or better yet, why don't you go ahead and tell us your idea first" などのsurvival filler phrasesを練習してから、spontaneous speech topicsを与え、３－２－１のメソッドでスピーチをします。最初は言葉を捜しながらFillerをたくさん使い、時間制限３分、次２分、最後に一分の制限でなるべくfillerをカットして中身のあるスピーチ。練習方法はshadowing, 音読などを紹介する。
    
    
14. Giving Peer Feedback ー上手なFeedbackの仕方の練習。Positive comments, asking the person for self-reflection, giving suggestions with appropriate indirectnessなど。
    
    
15. Practice for Assessment No.2 - ２回目のVideo録画に向けた練習。練習した様々な要素を組み込めているかグループでお互いにチェック。
    
    
16. Recording Day、一回目と同じフォーマットの予定だが、３人で３つのトピックを５分づつ短い時間で浅く話すよりも、今度は掘り下げて議論する力を見るために一つのトピックで１５分間ぐらいのDiscussionにするかも知れない。
    
    
17. Recording Day、同上。
    
    
18. Final Discussion on Speaking Goals, Reflections, and Future Practice Methods。夏の間の練習方法も重要。練習方法やリソースのアイデアをASPのMoodleサイトにたくさん紹介したい。

コースの評価基準は今のところ：
Class participation: 30%
Phrase quizzes, skits, and other tasks：20%
Self/Peer Analysis of recorded assessments: 40% (Record, watch video, get comments from peers, self-evaluate based on criteria, set goals and practice methods, 20% for each cycle)
Teacher evaluation of recorded assessment No.2: 10%　（まだ表ができてませんが、ファシリテーターとしてやるべき機能をできたかどうかについて加点方式。本人の自己評価を確認する形で１０点満点から講師がつける予定。）

とELPで規定されているが、その具体的な内容は私が柔軟に決めることができる。例えばPhrase quizzes/skitsの代わりにReflection JournalかSpeaking e-portfolioをやりたいなと思っている。Reflection Journalは授業の終わりに何分間か書いてもらえばいいかな、と思っているが、Speakingのクラスなので、できればReflectionは「話す」方法でやって欲しい。しかし、学内には学生が宿題として自由に録音ができる部屋がまだできていない。。。（４月中にできるらしい）。それから携帯を使ってもらう手も考えたい。授業外で話し、録音か録画ができれば表現の練習や応用が主題として出せ、YouTubeのstreamingをあわせてブログにUpさせれば一種のe-portfolioとなる。果たしてできるか？ただ、パソコンが苦手な学生には苦痛の可能性がある。

以上、手探りな部分が多いですが、とりえあえずここまで書きます。アイデア・質問・コメント、何かあれば是非教えてください！


Sample: This is one student's 2nd recording from a pilot I did in 2008 ASP. Last year we did solo recordings, but in 2009, we want students to record in groups to show their interactive skills more, and also to give the teacher time to observe rather than react to the discussion.