Is American Education Failing or Innovative?

From the reading we did in class, I would like you to write a response to the ideas in the text and from class discussion.

This should be one to two paragraphs in length and should show the same qualities of focus, coherence and development we've discussed all quarter.


Address the following in your blog post and publish it by Aug. 1.

1. Paraphrase the main idea from the reading. 
2. Paraphrase another provocative idea from the reading -- this can be something that is interesting to you, confusing or overall just something that caught your attention. Explain why it was provocative!
3. What did at least one of your classmates say about the question of America being innovative?
4. Finally, what is your response to the text and your classmate(s)? Do you agree, disagree, something inbetween?

QR Code Scramble: Using Smartphones for Good

Left to Right: Ali, Khalid and Mazi unscrambling a text, 21st century style

Everyday we have to tell our students to put their phones away. ARG! After all they distract them from learning!

Despite our best pleas and threats, our good-cop and bad-cop discussions, we can't win this struggle.

Technology is obviously omnipresent, and, in fact, it is so embedded in students' lives that they think about, learn about and understand their word through those pesky little devices that can drive us insane.

So why NOT use them instead of forbid them? Furthermore, while we obviously have to make sure they don't abuse the power they have in their palms, there are ways to incorporate them into our instruction while engaging our students. ...

Links and Resources for Increasing English Language Proficiency

Speaking/Pronunciation

Manythings.org provides pronunciation of commonly mispronounced words. Students work in pairs and quiz each other on their proficiency.

http://www.manythings.org/pp/

This Web site is a guide to help students pronounce English vowels and consonants. This site provides audio clips, video clips and descriptions of how to make proper English sounds.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html

Merriam Webster provides this helpful resource that provides explanations and handy quizzes to help students with pronunciation and vowel and word stresses.

http://www.learners-dictionary.com/pronex/pronex.htm

More Resources after the jump!

Word Doc version
Research Tips sheet