Analysis of I dont kiss strangers :: essays research papers

The analysis of I Don’t Kiss Strangers In the short story, I Don’t Kiss Strangers there is a man versus man conflict regarding a couple who may never see each other again. In the beginning of the story there is little indication of foreshadowing of what will happen in the end. Therefore the reader is completely unaware of the outcome of the story. Written in the first person, the story takes place at a loud party with many intoxicated adults. A boyfriend has been drafted into the army and the love struck couple faces the chance of him not coming back.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The author of the story, Shirley Jackson sets the mood with a sense of disbelief and shock as the story progresses and gets more in depth. The story gives clues of foreshadowing when someone tells him he cannot just go up to a girl and blatantly say â€Å"come on outside into the air, we gotta say goodbye somehow.† That statement kind of gives the reader clues that he wants to go somewhere else and spend his last night with her. Throughout the story, the protagonist tries to persuade his girlfriend to go to a different place other than a party to say Good-bye. However, she acts stubbornly and refuses to leave the party in fear that the liquor would be too far away. Using the liquor as a comfort zone so she does not have to face reality. In my opinion, she is trying to make it easier on her self by trying to avoid the fact that he is leaving and all she will have is memories. She talks about how long of a time it will be by saying that she want even know how the next guy will sound to her or that the next time she runs out of cigarettes she want have him to go get them. In my opinion, she says he will be different because over the year both of them will mature and the war will change him. The antagonist feels sorry for her self and goes on to say that if he does come back that neither he nor she will ever be the same again.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The climax occurs when the couple is located in the bathroom discussing their dilemma. This is where the hints of foreshadowing in the beginning of the story start to really stand out. She really puts things blatant about not wanting to go somewhere else to talk.

A Review of Potential Teacher Development Opportunities

TABLE OF CONTENT Topics Page Numbers 1 A Review of Potential Teacher Development Opportunities in Improving Literacy Skills of EAL Pupils Introduction This evaluative essay focuses on reviewing teacher professional development strategies in using assessment for learning (AfL) to improve English as an additional language (EAL) for primary pupils in England.Teaching is a difficult job. Improvement and constant development are therefore necessary to ease the burden of hardworking teachers. As a result, teacher professional development is a mandatory requirement in many jurisdictions (Wiliam, 2011). Shimahara (1998) stated that teacher professional development is a typical concern in industrialized countries because it is the key to improving teaching. However, William (2011) mentioned that teachers feel inundated as they are continuously ‘bombarded’ with innovative strategies to increase their working efficiency.Keeping teacher professional development in mind, the focus he re also relates to the teaching and learning of English as an additional language. Globalisation plays a major role in stressing equal opportunities and social equity for all learners. Due to the long tradition of migration trends across the globe, the international concerns also encompass of contextualise social justice for multi-lingual learners (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). To highlight this matter, a statistic from the Department for Education in 2011 shows an increased in the number of ethnic minority pupils in English state funded primary schools (DfE, 2011).This reflects the circumstance of England primary schools where pupils whose first language is other than English has increased in number. The urgency of this matter is supported by Ofsted (2012) by stating that English has a momentous position in the school curriculum. Thus, teachers’ 2 strategies to tackle this situation become the centre of attention. Where the English language has served as a lingua franca for ethni c minority pupils in England, literacy skills play an important role in their academic and everyday routines as well.By putting forward the two important aspects of this essay; teacher professional development and EAL in primary schools, it is only necessary to mention the relevance of combining both of these aspects in a topic for discussion. With all due respect to other core subjects in the curriculum, the reality of teaching as a difficult job and a statement made by National Association for Language Development in Curriculum (NALDIC, 2009:1) on EAL that it is a ‘very complex phenomenon’, seem to have formidable implications for teacher professional development.Educational reforms such as curriculum reform, does not guarantee necessary changes in classroom practices. It is well known that how a subject is taught wins over what is taught, hence ‘pedagogy trumps curriculum’ (Wiliam, 2011:13). Therefore, when curriculum frameworks only work as far as guidi ng teachers in dealing with EAL, thus assessment for learning (AfL) is then best integrated in pedagogy to further develop the practice of serving teachers and raise pupils’ achievements. 3English as an Additional Language Classrooms in England According to a brief description by NALDIC (2011), there are over a million bilingual pupils participating in teaching and learning contexts in United Kingdom. According to statistics from Department for Education and Skills (DfES, 2006a:8), there has been an increased of ethnic minority pupils in primary schools from 18. 3% in 2004 to 19. 3% in 2005 and then reaching 20. 6% in 2006. Each of these pupils enters school communities with minority language that is not English as their mother tongue language.It is stated by Hughes (2002) that teachers need to consider pupils’ diverse culture to establish learning environments that are meaningful. It is important that teachers attend to their learning needs in order to achieve teachin g goals. The diversity in culture that may cause challenges in pupils’ learning according to Hughes (2002) includes the kind of spoken language use by them outside of school context such as at home. English as an Additional Language (EAL) according to Davison (2007) refers to ethnic minority pupils who are perceived as to needing support with their English development.These pupils possess language other than English (LOTE) as their mother tongue language. The terminology of English as a Second Language (ESL) is also commonly used by many researchers and teachers to identify these LOTE pupils. However, there has been a rise of issues about the usage of ESL as a term in pedagogy hence, the term EAL is said to be a more appropriate term to be used as it suits the context where the English language abilities of bilingual or multi-lingual pupils are multi-leveled (Davison, 2007).These issues revolve around the fact that LOTE pupils should not all be assumed to take English languag e as their second language. These pupils can be 4 fluent in speaking and writing in their mother tongue language but not in English language, or it can be vice versa (NALDIC, 2009). On the other hand, these pupils can be more fluent and able to socialise with their schoolmates in English language informally, but not be able to engage in academic writing and meet the requirement of the national standards.Cummins’ (1979) distinction between Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive and Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) as cited in DfES training toolkit programme (DfES, 2006b) shows that communicative or conversational skills (BICS) of pupils usually develop first in verbal exchanges context before they develop their cognitive (thinking and learning skills) and academic languages (CALP). In general, it takes two to three years for upils to be fluent in English as an additional language and an average of five to seven and even ten years for bilingual pupils to be competent in cognitive and academic domains. Essentially, EAL teachers need to know that only by pupils achieving development in both of their cognitive and academic language can they contribute to their academic success (DfES, 2006b). In an actual fact, how successful is the teaching and learning of English language subject in England primary schools?According to inspections done by Ofsted from April 2008 until March 2011 in over 133 primary schools, the report highlights the finding that primary schools have less improvements in English attainments in comparison to secondary schools (Ofsted, 2012). The problems listed are encompassed of having fewer pupils achieving national expectations in reading, and quality in teaching writing is varied such that less efforts were given in spelling and handwriting. Slower improvements in primary schools are then linked to the fact that there is a lack of specialists present in the teaching and learning context.Although, due to 5 inspect ions done by Ofsted consist of individuals, there might be biased element involve in the evaluation. Nonetheless, Therefore, I do believe there should be more researches focusing on the competences of teachers through teacher training programmes and continuing professional development. Relevance of Formative Assessment in EAL â€Å"Sensitive formative assessment of pupils’ classroom performance demands a high level of teacher awareness of pupil needs†¦teachers need to take account†¦the even more complex and less ‘visible’ aspects of language use. (NALDIC, 2003: 1) I can relate to the above quoted statement by NALDIC (2003) where teachers are required to carefully plan formative assessment for pupils’ learning by considering the complexity of language education especially EAL. According to Wiliam (2011), there has been a lack of researches done for teacher professional development. Learning styles, educational neuroscience and content area knowle dge are the common areas included in teacher professional development. Thus, why focus on formative assessment in this context?Getting into the basic details of understanding assessment, Green and Johnson (2010:14) define assessment as more than just tests and quizzes for the purpose of grading. Furthermore, assessment is viewed as a mix of methods to implement before, during and after lessons by taking advantage and making good use of pupils’ former or current knowledge to enhance learning. From the definition itself, they feasibly elaborated three main purposes of assessment 6 based on occurrence of the instructions.Diagnostic assessment happens before teaching, formative assessment (assessment for learning) happen during teaching and summative assessment (assessment of learning) happens after teaching (Green and Johnson, 2010). Thus, the terms diagnostic, formative and summative can be seen as defining the functions or purposes of the wide range of assessments. Black, Harr ison, Lee, Marshall and Wiliam (2003:31) mentioned that there are four ways of assessing pupils; questioning or classroom dialogue, feedback or feed-forward, self and peer-assessment, and formative use of summative tests.The relevance of focusing on formative assessment is due to its compatibility alongside many other aspects that contribute to pupils’ achievements (such as age, abilities and multileveled language). NALDIC (2003) agrees on the insufficiency of only using National Curriculum English and thus resulted in Assessment for learning (AfL) which is synonymous to formative assessment, to be used on a daily instructional basis (NALDIC, 2009). According to Stiggins (2005) as cited in Wiliam (2011), Assessment for learning exists throughout the process of pupils’ learning.AfL provides pupils with information of their learning progress through feedback as evidence and at the same time, assist pupils on how to improve and meet achievement standards. NALDIC Formative descriptors consist of assessment framework to assist teachers on day-to-day methods or provide stages for diagnosing pupils’ progress, and also to help teachers plan and integrate AfL into EAL teaching approaches (NALDIC, 2009). Issues in Assessing English as an Additional Language 7 We have only looked at the complexity of language in terms of its terminology.Davison (2007) mentioned that knowing what to be taught and learnt in classrooms must precede the action of assessing EAL pupils’ development. Other than that, teachers must also take notes on pupils’ knowledge prior to lessons to provide them with better learning opportunities. Shepard (2000) talked about two different problems in relation to teacher practices and pupils’ prior knowledge to learning. She stated that quite a number of teachers only documented results from pre-test and post-test assessment tasks however failed to subsume pupils’ pre-test results for enhancing pupils’ learning.In another case, a sizeable amount of teachers involved in reading and language subject had the tendency of using activities that acknowledge pupils’ background knowledge but failed to comprehensively integrate them with assessment. In practice, EAL pupils would have more predicaments in learning English as their additional language in comparison to native speakers of English pupils learning English. Hence, teachers are required to be more sensitive towards the cultural background and prior knowledge of these EAL pupils to help fulfill their learning needs.Language as a second language contains facets such as grammatical, socio-cultural and strategic abilities taken from models that can be referred for assessing. However, Widdowson (2001) as cited by Davison and Leung (2009) stated that the complexity of language is mainly due to the absence of comprehensive views and researches on the relations of these components, thus resulting in theoretical issues arising such a s on the ‘validity’ and ‘reliability’ on assessing criteria of language.For an example, in assessing writing, there may be a question on the validity of perhaps teachers putting more emphasise on grammar proficiency in comparison to creative writing. 8 Thus, theoretically, with the nature of language being multifaceted and the different abilities of LOTE speaking pupils in mind, one has to wonder how teachers deal with and monitor their development and progress. Of course there are NALDIC Formative descriptors which provide framework and guidance to teachers; however, there is the persistent question of whether or not this is enough.An experiment was done by Davison in 1998 (Davison, 2007) involving ten Hong Kong immigrant students in Australian secondary schools. The result of the research indicates that teachers of these immigrant students had the tendency of creating a ‘community of dialogic exchanges’ (Davison, 2007:542). Referring to forma tive assessment, classroom dialogue is one of the areas used to assess students to enhance learning, nonetheless, it is the way that teachers use this method that really determines the outcomes to be positive or negative for their learning.Here, the teachers seemed to acknowledge the background of the EAL students but omitted their learning needs. The teachers developed negative judgments towards these students such as perceiving them as depending too much on their mother-tongue language and having no motivation to learn and speak in English. Thus, this poor discernment by teachers as assessors should be a major professional concern. Furthermore, in reflection to Davison’s research, I would like to include some issues raised by Cumming (2009) in the Forum section of TESOL Quarterly.Briefly, Cumming put forward problems that relate teachers and assessment. Firstly, the problem is on teachers’ lack of knowledge on assessment, and also questioning their professional abili ties since there are still a lack of studies done to help answer how language teachers build up their competences 9 throughout their career. Secondly, teachers having a hard time in choosing assessment approaches that would work better in helping pupils meet the curriculum standards. Lastly, there are issues involved to how teachers relate assessment with pupils’ development and learning needs.As a result, the judgment skills, knowledge and abilities of teachers as assessors, are some of the many factors that should be considered in improving within teacher professional development. Teacher Professional Development: Novice to Expert? The demands put on teachers’ shoulders can be quite a jargon to others who are not involved directly in the related profession. There is even a saying that I was once told and here it is; the works of a teacher to others as they see it is only a tip of an iceberg.Throughout my teaching experiences, I slowly grasped the meaning of it as the reality of the profession manifested itself through the extra hours of marking, lesson planning and researching. During my earlier periods in the teaching diploma programmes, I believed teachers with years of school experience ought to master the techniques of teaching. It was my assumption that veteran teachers should outperform novice teachers. Nonetheless, with the passing of time, I have learned to believe that experience would only give positive impacts on pupils’ outcomes when the serving teachers bring with them developments in their practices.Of course the time factor contributes to teacher professional development, such as to give ample opportunities to teachers to experience and develop their skills. However, for judging on how good a teacher is, it does not entirely matter on the length of time the teacher has taught, but what the teacher does within this time that is really a concern. 10 Such as, how teachers develop teaching approaches on bringing in greater lea rning experience for pupils in EAL classrooms or setting.Referring to my old belief, a trite assumption that I’d probably make would be that teachers should just be left in schools for a period of time to eventually learn to teach better. Surprisingly, this assumption is proven to have a little bit of truth. Wiliam (2011) has put forward research done by Leigh (2010) on 90,000 Australian elementary school students. The research shows a small gap of differences on the impacts of students’ progress as a result from the teaching between veteran and novice teachers (see Appendix A).Hence, a couple of years advance by veteran teachers in the career put them at a slightly better teaching result, yet Leigh stated the majority agree that the case is not always the same. The attention of even on the tiniest bit of truth on the assumption that veteran teachers teach better than novices, is better turned to how they teach and develop their practices. That is, by improving their i nner developments; wisdom, knowledge, experience and polishing their critical judgment skills (Dadds, 2001).On the other hand, it is vital to realise that the whole process of developing teacher practices does not evolve entirely on teachers simply catching up with the latest educational trends (Wiliam, 2011). Metaphorically, it is not as easy as reading ingredients off a recipe book and lacking of involvement in the process of cooking itself. Putnam and Borko (1997) as cited in Shepard (2000) agreed that constant experimentation and reflection on pedagogical models in real classrooms context by teachers precede beneficial changes to their teaching practices, beliefs and attitudes. 1 Teacher Professional Development Strategies in EAL Looking from an international view, Shimahara (1998) stated that teacher professional development in every countries differ from one another in terms of its strategies. In Japan, the strategies of professional development encourage peer-development, mea nwhile in America; the strategies are focused on following paradigms for self-development. Higgins and Leat (2001) talked about effective teacher development by linking its models in a mapping diagram (see Appendix B).They attempted on linking models such as those that seek on transitional stages of novice to expert teachers, teachers’ professional reflection, pedagogical knowledge, subject knowledge, socialisation and personal explanatory. This goes back to relate on the previous research on 90,000 elementary students in Australia on the differences of performance between novice and veteran teachers (Wiliam 2011). It would not be enough to prepare individual teachers with only a specific skill in teaching development such as on pedagogical approaches alone.This is because teacher professional development is multi-faceted and the components are interrelated. Although there are imperfections on trying to map out the complex relationships of models within teacher development du e to many different meanings of the concepts in literature, however, they agreed on stressing the importance of teachers in having explicit work purposes (Higgins and Leat, 2001). Due to the major focus on mainstreamed classrooms in English schools, Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) therefore aims in providing all pre-service teachers 12 ith the experiences of EAL integration across all curriculum subjects (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). In my home country, the curriculum has a vast of English Language medium subjects listed for the majority local and non-native English speaking pupils. Thus, in the previous years, preservice and post-service teachers in Brunei had the opportunity to choose upon entering the teaching training programmes such as to specialise in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL).However, it is acknowledged by Cajkler and Hall (2009) that despite the urgency to meet the demand of increasing EAL pupils in England, the inclusion of EAL specialisatio n in pre-service teachers training programmes is out of the question due to the already ‘very crowded programme’ (Cajkler and Hall, 2009:154). In the initial training, the confidence level of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) was low especially in the fields of assessing English and teaching of literacy.The study also noted that the training provided pre-service teachers with less involvement with the national guidelines for assessment of EAL pupils; Language in Common. As a result, 45% from one hundred and fifteen respondents prioritised teaching skills for EAL as the most essential further training category for continuing professional development (Cajkler and Hall, 2009). Thus, assessment and language developments are suggested to be centralised in the teacher training programmes.Therefore, in 2006, the introduction of training toolkit for EAL Excellence and enjoyment: teaching and learning for bilingual pupils in the primary years (DfES, 2006b) to schools aims to raise understanding on EAL pedagogy and provide guidance on teaching approaches for bilingual learners. Then, White et al (2006) in their evaluation of the pilot programme of the DfES toolkit (DfES, 2006b) mentioned that there has been a positive improvement in teachers’ confidence and better comprehensive view of EAL pedagogy by teachers. 3 If I insisted on my previous assumption on letting novice teachers evolve to experts, Higgins and Leat (2001) pointed out that there are again stages involve in the transition to increase expertise. These transitional stages are not shown in the mapping diagram (see Appendix B). Nonetheless, it triggers such questions as to what extend do we measure achievements of teachers to confirm their expertise in teaching, hence, what makes one a teaching expert?Does defining one’s expertise help others to improve, such as through demonstrations of teaching to pre-service and post-service teachers? Changes can only occur and produce results when teachers are willing to first, change from within. Perhaps I can look at it from this point of view where education reformers provide new teaching models to schools, but instead, all these innovative strategies are making teachers feel inundated by them and as a result, changes intended never take place in classrooms (Wiliam, 2011).Let’s also reflect on the situation of the ten Hong Kong students where teachers assess them through classroom dialogue activity but misinterpreted in using that assessment to make judgments that did not contribute in helping them to learn better. As a result, Dadds (2001:51) emphasise teachers to cultivate their inner ‘voice’ and judgment or the ‘expert’ within them before accepting and using instructions from the ‘expert’ outside. Teachers are learners themselves. They need to learn on how to look at their rooted values on the profession first before thinking on improving and catering the learning needs of p upils.Suggestions to Overcome Issues in EAL 14 Other than participating actively in the schools or the nation’s teacher professional development programmes, there are also many other individualistic ways for serving teachers to successfully implement AfL in EAL pedagogical approaches. In the context of teacher professional development, it really depends on teachers to improve their knowledge and professional abilities; to trust their instincts, experience and wisdom in order to help pupils attain better in their learning.Also, it is essential for teachers to be explicit on the learning intentions before assessing pupils for learning. For lesson preparations, teachers in England are opened to a wide range of resources for EAL and assessment tasks such as from EAL publications, DfES toolkit (2006b) and NALDIC official website which provide great research platforms for teachers and tutors. Teachers can use information on pupils’ background and prior knowledge to adapt sui table assessment tasks in classrooms.According to Shepard (2000), teachers may even evaluate their own practices through classroom assessments by becoming liberal and open into discussing matters related to improving instructions with pupils. Another way of helping teachers to develop their assessment practices is by using video or audio recorder while assessing pupils as media to allow teachers to reflect and improve their approaches, as well as, to enable teachers to better understand the learning needs of their pupils.For peer-development, EAL teachers may make informal meetings with their EAL teaching colleagues to discuss and make amendments on certain assessments criteria (Davison, 2007; Davison and Leung, 2009). In addition to the issue of assessment ‘validity and reliability’, the matter can be partially put at ease if the assessing of pupils is done by teachers who know them very well. In addition, 15 teachers should be given great autonomy to plan and help the learning of their own pupils (Davison and Leung, 2009).However, if the case of ‘validity and reliability’ is over-emphasised, therefore, I believe that the status of teachers as assessors may be perceived as weak and the whole focus of AfL would be none other than a replacement of standardised traditional ways of assessing. As cited by Shepard (2000), Assessment Reform Group (1999) which consists of researchers from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, put forward their discourse to the government policies on three important aspects. Firstly, to amend inspectorate policies to help guarantee teachers as qualified assessors for pupils’ learning.Secondly, increase the funding on professional development opportunities for teachers. Finally, relieve teachers from the apprehensive pressure of standard examinations when planning instructions for pupils’ learning. Conclusion The impetus of this essay derived from the fact whereby is supported by NALDIC (2009) that English as an Additional Language (EAL) development is a rather difficult situation that gives impact to teachers’ professional experience. There has been a great emphasise on EAL in England due to its long tradition of migration and mainstream classrooms in primary schools.In relation to the urgency, teacher professional development in England becomes the foreground in dealing with the increasing number of language other than the English (LOTE) speaking pupils in state funded schools (DfE, 2011). On the other hand, the integration of AfL in the teaching of EAL is seen to be the best way to assist teachers in increasing pupils’ literacy competences. NALDIC Formative descriptors, established in 2009, serve as assessment framework that provides teachers with 16 approaches to diagnose the progress of pupils in EAL and provide them with feedback evidence to improve learning (NALDIC, 2003).Language education is very complex. The nature of language involves stage s of competencies and encompasses of many interrelated components (Davison and Leung, 2009). Thus, trying to figure out the abilities of bilingual or multilingual pupils in English language and which aspect or components of the language to use to judge their competences, is quite the phenomenon. Therefore, there are issues involving teachers’ critical judgments and wisdom whilst assessing EAL pupils that highlights the necessity of teacher professional development.According to Higgings and Leat (2001) by referring to Teacher Training Agency (1997), primary teacher training in United Kingdom provided a course where pre-service teachers are to obtain all the needs of professional learning by attending ample of lectures on subject knowledge, teaching approaches and a number of demonstrations on teaching. However, from a study done by Cajkler and Hall (2009), the result shows that there is inconsistency in the focus of EAL in the teacher training programme provided by TDA in Engl and.Time is an essential element in development but it is also relevant to look at teachers as individuals with different abilities. From my experience, some teachers could be talented and creative than the others, and some teachers could be more motivated. Therefore, arguing on which aspect contributes more in improving teacher practices is impossible due to the fact that it is beyond my capability for discussion and the limitation of this essay. In a nutshell, I agree that that teacher professional development is complex.Education reformers should not merely focus on one area of teaching practices but also to acknowledge other teaching related factors. 17 Nonetheless, Wiliam (2011) paraphrased Doug Lenov (2010) and stated that teachers have no maximum limitation of success and should think that striving for continuous development throughout their career is necessary. After all, teachers are not just essentially required to help develop EAL pupils into becoming capable learners in their classrooms but, they also help them to become capable members of the schools and cultural societies (Davison, 2007).Therefore, teachers’ skeptical attitude towards innovative strategies that would help improve their teaching has to be countered with other strategies that would prepare them with the changes they need from within. Iteratively, professional development for teachers needs to be guided with intentions that are relevant and supportive to their continuous professional development in order to face the continuous challenges of the evolving society nowadays. 18 REFERENCES Black, P. , Harrison, C. , Lee, C. , Marshall, B. and Wiliam, D. 2003) Assessment for Learning: Putting It into Practice. England: Open University Press. Cumming, A. (2009) What Needs to Be Developed to Facilitate Classroom-Based Assessment? In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 43(3), 515 – 519. Dadds, M. (2001) Continuing Professional Development: Nurturing the Expert Within. In Burgess, H. , Craft, A. and Soler, J. (Eds) Teacher Development: Exploring Our Own Practice, 50 – 56. London: The Open University. Davison, C. (2007) Different Definitions of Language and Language Learning: Implications for Assessment. In Cummin, H. nd Davison C. (Eds) International Handbook of English Language Teaching, Vol. 1, 533 – 548. Norwell, MA: Springer. Davison, C. and Leung, C. (2009) Current Issues in English Language Teacher-Based Assessment. In TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 43(3), 393 – 416. DfE (2011) DfE: Schools, Pupils and Their Characteristics – January 2011. http://www. education. gov. uk/researchandstatistics/datasets/a00196810/schools-pupils-and-theircharacteristics-january-2, accessed November 20, 2012. 19 DfES (2006a) Ethnicity and Education: The Evidence on Minority Ethnic Pupils Aged 5 – 16.London: DfES. DfES (2006b) Excellence and Enjoyment: Learning and Teaching for Bilingual Children in the Primary Years, Unit 1, Planning and Assessment for Languag e and Learning. London: DfES. Green, S. K. and Johnson, R. L. (2010) Assessment is Essential. New York: McGraw-Hill. Higgins, S. and Leat, D. (2001) Horses for Courses or Courses for Horses: What is Effective Teacher Development? In Burgess, H. , Craft, A. and Soler, J. (Eds) Teacher Development: Exploring Our Own Practice, 57 – 58. London: The Open University. Hughes, P. 2002) Principles of Primary Education Study Guide: 2nd Edition. London: David Fulton Publishers Ltd. NALDIC (2003) NALDIC Position Statement on Assessment of English as an Additional Language. http://www. naldic. org. uk/eal-advocacy/naldic-reports-and-responses/naldic-briefingsand-letters, accessed November 21, 2012. NALDIC (2009) EAL Assessment Frameworks, Models and Useful Documents for Classroom Teacher. http://www. naldic. org. uk/eal-teaching-and-learning/eal-resources/eal-assessment, accessed November 21, 2012. NALDIC (2011) Bilingual and Dual Language Resources. ttp://www. naldic. org. uk/ealteaching -and-learning/eal-resources/bilingual, accessed November 20, 2012. 20 Ofsted (2012) Moving English Forward: Action to Raise Standards in English. http://www. ofsted. gov. uk/resources/moving-english-forward, accessed November 27, 2012. Shepard, L. A. (2000) The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture. In Educational Researcher, Vol. 29(7), 4 – 14. USA: American Educational Research Association. Shimahara, N. K. (1998) The Japanese Model of Professional Development: Teaching as Craft.In Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 14(5), 451 – 462. Great Britain: Elsevier Science Ltd. White, K. , Lewis, K. , and Fletcher-Campbell, F. (2006) Raising the Achievement of Bilingual Learners in Primary Schools: Evaluation of the Pilot/Programme, Research Report RR758 (National Foundation for Educational Research). London: DfES. Wiliam, D. (2011) Embedded Formative Assessment. USA: Solution Tree Press. 21 APPENDIX A A graph that shows the rate of teacher productivity in relation to t heir years of working experience (Leigh, 2010) cited in Wiliam (2011:28)

Future of Nursing Essay

Nursing career is one of the few fastest growing fields in the health care industry, not only in the United States, but also in the world. Nurse practice has drastically changed in the last decade and as a result the need for changes in nursing practice is becoming more and more important. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) will place many demands on health professionals and offer them many opportunities to create a system that is more patient centered. The legislation has begun the long process of shifting the focus of the U.S. health care system away from acute and specialty care. Nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through an improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression. The education system should provide nurses with the tools needed to evaluate and improve standards of patient care, and the quality and safety of care while preserving fundamental elements of nursing education, such as ethics and integrity and holistic, compass ionate approaches to care. The system should ensure nurses’ ability to adapt and be flexible in response to changes in science, technology, and population demographics that shape the delivery of care. An improved education system is necessary to ensure that the current and future generations of nurses can deliver safe, quality, patient-centered care across all settings, especially in such areas as primary care and community and public health. Enactment of the ACA offers a myriad of opportunities for the nursing profession to facilitate improvements to the health care system and the mechanisms by which care is delivered across various settings. System-wide changes are needed that capture the full economic value of nurses and take into account the growing body of evidence that links nursing practice to improvements in the safety and quality of care. The Joint Commission, the leading independent accrediting body for health care organizations, believes that â€Å"the future state of nursing is inextricably linked to the strides in patient care quality and safety that are critical to the success of America’s health care system, today and tomorrow†. Given the crucial role of nurses with respect to the quality, accessibility, and value of care, the nursing profession itself must undergo a fundamental transformation if the committee’s vision for health care is to be realized. The committee formulated four key messages for transforming the nursing profession: Nurses should practice to the full extent of their education and training. Nurses should achieve higher levels of education and training through an improved education system that promotes seamless academic progression. Nurses should be full partners, with physicians and other health professionals, in redesigning health care in the United States. Effective workforce planning and policy making require better data collection and an improved information infrastructure. A transformed system will need nurses with the adaptive capacity to take on reconceptualized roles in new settings, educating and reeducating themselves along the way- which are indispensible characteristics of effective leadership. Whether on the front lines, in education, or in administrative positions and health policy roles, nurses have the well-grounded knowledge base, experience, and perspective needed to serve as full partners in health care redesign. Nurses’ unique perspectives are derived from their experiences in providing direct, hands-on patient care; communicating with patients and their families about health status, medications, and care plans; and ensuring the linkage between a prescribed course of treatment and the desired outcome. In care environments, being a full partner involves taking responsibility for identifying problems and areas of waste, devising and implementing a plan for improvement, tracking improvement over time, and making necessary adjustments to realize established goals. The transformation of nursing practice that results from the IOM’s Future of Nursing report recommendations will have a profound, long-term effect on the profession of nursing. Nursing informatics professionals are uniquely positioned to aide in this transformation, as the management of individual and organizational change is core to its practice. By removing the barriers in the scope of education, implementing nurse residency programs, and building an infrastructure for the collection and analysis of interprofessional healthcare workforce data. . Technology will continue to be a fundamental enabler of future care delivery models and nursing informatics leaders will be essential to transforming nursing practice through technology. The following are the HIMSS recommendations for Nursing Informatics: Partner with nurse executives to lead technology changes that advance health and the delivery of healthcare. Support the development of informatics departments. Foster the evolution of the Chief Nursing Informatics Officer role. Transform nursing education to include informatics competencies and demonstrable behaviors at all levels of academic preparation. Promote the continuing education at all levels of nursing, particularly in the areas of EHRs and health IT. ïÆ'ËœEnsure that data, information, knowledge and wisdom form the basis of 21st century nursing practice by incorporating informatics competencies into practice standards in all healthcare settings. Facilitate the collection and analysis of interprofessional healthcare workforce data by ensuring data can be collected from existing heath IT systems. The transformation of nursing practice that results from the IOM’s Future of Nursing report recommendations will have a profound, long-term effect on the profession of nursing.

We All Fall Down Essays

We All Fall Down Essays We All Fall Down Paper We All Fall Down Paper After the trashing of the Jerome household and the attack of their daughter Karen, the Jerome family knew their lives were never going to be the same. The purpose of composing a novel is to engage and entertain the responder through the use of a wide variety of forms, conventions and techniques allowing them to be drawn into completely different worlds. The novel We all fall down written by Robert Cormier and the song lyrics Cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin both present themes of redemption and fatherhood. Both composers use techniques such as effective punctuation, effective language and narrative perspectives to engage the reader. Throughout the novel We all fall down the theme of redemption is displayed through the narration of Buddy’s character. His continuous search for redemption becomes one of major concern. As one of the perpetrators in the trashing, he is always carrying a guilty conscience and the guilt of the trashing also undermines his relationship with Jane. Cormier constantly emphasises the trashing when Buddy and Jane are together causing Buddy to become evasive. â€Å"The first time Jane mentioned the word trashing, Buddy flinched; then turned away in self defence, his thoughts racing wildly as he anticipated what her next words would be. Buddy is continuously searching for redemption and asking for forgiveness, especially after Jane finds out about the invasion of her home. The use of similes and hyperbole reinforce the effect on Buddy when Jane told him she knew what he had done. â€Å"The impact of her knowledge struck him, like a giant mallet hitting a gong inside him, the vibration s echoing throughout his body. † This clearly and effectively illustrates the force of the consequences of his irresponsible act of violence in the beginning of the novel and the deception he has practised to cover up his guilt. Cormier has displayed a wide variety of conventions and features. Similarly, in Cats in the cradle, Chapin portrays the theme of redemption through the use of irony. At the beginning of the song, the son sees his dad as a role model and something he wants to become in the future. â€Å"I’m gonna be just like you dad† and by the end of the song, the father realises his son became just like him but unfortunately it’s not something to be proud of. â€Å"I said I’d like to see you if you don’t mind. He said I’d love to dad, if I can find the time. This is suggesting that the father is trying to make up for lost time but it’s too late as the tables have turned and that the son likely won’t have time for him. The novel presents a very dim view of fathers. Mr. Jerome fails to be a source of strength to his family after the trashing occurred. The invasion of his home defeats him and the result of that leaves him turning his anger in hi s daughter Jane. Mr. Jerome accused his daughter Jane of being the cause off the trashing as Harry Flowers stated that Jane gave him the key to the house. â€Å"For the first time since he arrived home, Jane’s father looked at her. Looked directly into her eyes, his own eyes flashing with-what? -anger? More than anger. She groped for the word and, to her horror, found it. Accusation. That’s what she saw in his eyes. † Cormier uses effective punctuation to show that Jane is looking for an answer. The use of one word sentences lets the reader know that she has found the answer. She feels shattered, anxious and the responder can empathise with Jane. Another example of an unsupportive father is Harry Flowers’ father. Harry doesn’t take responsibility for his own actions and relies on his father to pay his way out of his problems. His parents paid off the damages off the trashing and while doing so also paid off his son’s way out of responsibility. â€Å"When my father agreed to restitution, everybody went along, the judge and the cops The judge placed me on probation and my father paid up † Similarly, in Cats in the cradle, time changes and reverses the situation. Time has changed the attitude of the father towards his son. The first sentence of every verse shows that more time has passed therefore showing that the father isn’t on the receiving end of his son’s affection. My child arrived just the other day†, â€Å"My son turned ten just the other day†, â€Å"He came home from college just the other day†, â€Å"I’ve long since retired my son moved away†. This informs the responder that the father wasn’t there for his son overtime and when he was growing up. The emphasis on the line â€Å"When you comin home dad? † conveys the dangers of no communication and putting too much emphasis on work and money and not on spending quality time with the family. The structure of We all fall down is different from many novels. It doesn’t use chapters, but instead uses narrative perspectives and effective language to get across the themes and characters. This technique arouses curiosity and maintains the readers’ attention as it keeps them engaged and focused on what they are reading. There is a part 1 and part 2 which is a separation of some events that had happened. Part 2 is making right of what happened in part 1. The novel is told through the viewpoint of the three main characters Jane, Buddy and The Avenger. Each of them have a different perspective of the trashing and eventually these all come together. Throughout the novel Buddy’s language is colloquial slang and changes dramatically when talking about the effect alcohol has on him. His language becomes more educated and sophisticated. â€Å"Buddy discovered the marvellous methods of booze, the way it soothed and stroked, made hazy the harshness of things, made him – almost – happy. Languid, and feeling what the hell. † The use of commas engages the responder as it is a list telling the readers how happy alcohol makes him and they way it makes him feel. Cormier has used a broad range of different techniques and a unique structure to portray his themes and characters. Similarly, in Cats in the cradle, Chapin uses double narrative perspectives to present different points of view. It presents the words of the father and the words of the son who becomes just like the father, maybe worse as shown in the line â€Å"if I can find the time. † Through the texts We all fall down and Cats in the cradle both Cormier and Chapin use a wide variety of forms, conventions and ideas to draw the responder into the world of the texts. Through the use of techniques it is more evident how the themes of redemption and fatherhood apply in the texts and enables the responder to be drawn into distinctive worlds.

Listening and Perception Essays

Listening and Perception Essays Listening and Perception Essay Listening and Perception Essay Listening and Perception 2 We humans are different and unique. We can see these differences in everything we do and create. Interestedly we have a variety of views and concepts in very little or insignificant aspects of our daily living. Members of the same family can have a personal interpretation of what they considered best for society. For this reason we had to find ways to resolve conflict and manage situations, in order to live a more productive life with the less conflict possible. For my assignment I contacted five persons three of them were of Hispanic background. One of them was a white person and the other one an African American. I showed them the picture and all were kind to accept to help me with the assignment. They all had similar descriptions and also very different words to qualify the work to be done. They all agreed that the picture portrait a male, of middle age from African American background. The first traits that came to people’s perception were those that had to do with the physical appearance of the male in the photograph. Those traits that describe best the person were those who define the individual with his color of skin, his age, his complexity, his gender; then they describe, what was the perception they had; due to what the individual was doing on the ground. And finally they tried to guess what he was doing in that position. What they saw was determinant to make a description of the man in the picture. When we gather some information about a person; or a situation whatsoever, one can formulate a Listening and Perception 3 ight or wrong comment or decision of the individual or situation we encounter. A lot of people have a tendency of talking too quick to make a statement without analyzing the situation; and at this point the process of communication becomes unclear or lead to misunderstandings. We need to be careful when we are exercising our judgment. We need to analyze all situations before making a statement. Once the words have come out is Impossible to take them back. Most of interpersonal relations get affected for what we say or what we see. We must be prudent before stating our views. What it was particularly interesting is how different perceptions people have in trying to interpret a situation: in the picture when looking at the man sitting on the ground; some people describe him as relax, waiting for somebody or the bus, while others picture him as being homeless without hope disconnected from reality. I can say that they made this choices because they saw somebody in jeans and t-shirt and sneakers the way he dress; plus the attitude of being alone looking to the side make people think he had no home no food, and was moving his head around randomly with no hurry. We can all of us be wrong at least we know for sure what and why he was doing at that precise moment. Certainly the only one who can really depict his situation without fault is the individual himself. In my view gender was the reason why my observers made their choice, I noticed that the women were looking differently the picture; than the men. Women looked more at the traits of this person while the men looked more at what he was doing. Women found the man Listening and Perception 4 trong and athletic while the men found him more like a construction guy, a homeless, skinny individual. The women observers look at this man age and complexity, while the men found him more like without future or lost. I am glad of the outcome of this exercise because by choosing two women and three men I found the similarities and differences in the two genders. But the one trait that it was common to most of them was relax, and observing, this could be to the fact that the picture shows him seated, an d looking at something or somebody. The different perceptions I found in this process by my friends could alter the reality of who is really this person, and what is he doing at this particular moment when the shot was taken. How after analyzing this picture can we come out with an accurate description of this person that could be anyone of us trying to get a little warm on a beautiful spring day? Situations like this one arise every day in our society, with our friend and with our family. I remember the case of a teenager being shot by a police officer because the police thought the teen had a gun. There are many cases of mistaken identity where innocent people had to pay for somebody else mistake. We can also recall the jealous husband who killed his wife because she was talking to a stranger. It is imperative that we use a fair assessment of any circumstance before we can come out with a conclusion. To me is good that we come out with different ideas about somebody or a situation; why? Because if I am wrong I could see what is the real truth. It is sane to know that we can be wrong about something or someone. We need to give the benefit of the doubt to anybody regardless of what we think. Most people today don’t want Listening and Perception 5 to exercise this way of thinking; because they don’t really care about somebody else feelings. The less we learn from people or circumstances the more we make mistakes or false judgments to others. To excel in communication we need to understand all process of good Communication skills and improve all theories of the art of Communication. References: Communication in a Changing World 2nd Edition Walden University Comm_1001_photo . jpg www. Sylvan. live. college. com

Battles Of The Civil War Essay Research

Battles Of The Civil War Essay, Research Paper John Brown one time said, Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should give up my life for the promotion of the terminals of justness, and mix my blood further with the blood of my kids and with the blood of 1000000s in this slave state whose leotardss are disregarded by wicked, barbarous, and unfair passages, # 8211 ; I submit ; so allow it be done! He believed that the lone manner to free bondage from the United States was through bloodshed. He was right in stating this because on April 12, 1861, the American Civil War began. It was the most destructive war of all time fought in the Western Hemisphere. In footings of human life it was besides one of the most dearly-won wars. There were many different grounds for the Civil War, bondage being the prevailing ground. The immediate ground for the Civil War was the battle between the North and South over Fort Sumter. Lincoln had given South Carolina the pick of either allowing the garrison to keep out or unfastened fire with its shore batteries. In answer, the Southerners commenced fire. The onslaught on Fort Sumter and its gaining control angered many Northerners and began a loyal battle to salvage the brotherhood. One of the first major conflicts of the Civil War was the Battle of Bull Run. Federal military personnels, amounting to 30,000 marched from Washington, D.C. , to assail the Confederate forces positioned near Bull Run Creek at Manassas Junction, Virginia. The Union forces were close to triumph until Confederate supports sent Union military personnels into a retreat back to Washington. This conflict boosted moral of the South and lowered the North s. The North s hope for a short war was shattered. The B attle of Antietam illustrates how bloody the Civil War really was. Lee led his ground forces across the Potomac into enemy district. He hoped that a major Confederate triumph in the North would convert Britain to back up the Confederacy. McClellan, commanding officer of the Union ground forces had intercepted Lee s program and the invading Confederates at Antietam Creek. This was the bloodiest twenty-four hours of all conflicts that went on during the Civil War. Entire casualties for both sides amounted up to over 26,000 work forces, either being killed, wounded, captured or losing. The Battle of Gettysburg was besides one of the bloodiest conflicts. On July 1,1863 Lee and the Confederate ground forces surprised the Federal soldiers at Gettysburg. Through the yearss of conflict much of the Confederate ground forces was destroyed because of Lee s finding to win the war. Much of the Confederates were left for dead and the few that remained alive retreated to Virginia. This conflict was one of the most important conflicts of the war and besides one of the bloodiest. The figure of casualties was the greatest for this conflict, adding up to over 50,000 work forces killed, wounded, losing or captured. A month before Lee surrendered his ground forces President Lincoln was assassinated. His blackwash shocked and horrified many. This was the concluding act of ferociousness during the clip period of the Civil war. John Brown was right in stating that the lone manner to free the United States of bondage is through bondage. The combat between the North and South over slavery provinces and slavery free-states had to stop. Through the loss of lives, the devastation of land and places, and the blackwash of the president the Americans rid themselves of bondage

Competency to Stand Trial Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Competency to Stand Trial - Research Paper Example With the rise of felony arrest rates reported everywhere, the rate at which competency tests are sort for has increased as well. This scholarly paper will present an overview of competency laws and look at the need to have experts carrying out competency tests for the judicial systems. In the English common law, it was allowed lawfully for the arraignment, judgment, or execution of a person (capital offender) to be delayed (stayed) if the offender was or became completely insane (Hale, 1736, cited in Silten & Tulis, 1977, p. 1053). The law that is applied in the U.S was established during the case of Dusky v. United States in 1960. In the case of Dusky vs. the United States (1960), the Supreme Court ruled that it is not enough for the district judge to find that the defendant is oriented to time and place and has some recollection of events, but that the test must be whether he has sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding -- and whether he has a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him.†(Steadman & Hartstone, 1983 p.402). The problem that is found in assessing and defining competency has led to a great number of interpretations of the Dusky case. Because the courts and legislatures have placed, the weight of doing this on mental health professional it is not a surprise that mental status issues have been played a major role in court proceedings. Research has shown that the presence of psychosis is not enough by itself to determine competency (Roesch & Golding, 1980). The background on competence has been extensively researched with some researchers and scholars arguing that competence has to be considered within the circumstance that it is to be used. This has been written extensively in a journal written by Golding and Roesch in 1988 where they write. â€Å"Mere presence of severe disturbance (a