Journeys End Revision Essay Sample free essay sample

OCR Drama Exam TasksStudents have to take one inquiry to reply from a pick of three. The first of the three picks will ever be extract-based. The infusion is normally one to one and a half pages in length with the inquiries concentrating straight on the infusion ( mentioning to ‘this moment’ or ‘this extract’ . or utilizing the word ‘here’ ) . These inquiries do necessitate an apprehension of the whole text. but close attending to the printed infusion is the cardinal demand for successful replies. At least one undertaking will concentrate on a broader subject than the extract-based inquiry. Questions frequently ask for a response to a character or a relationship. but non merely as a impersonal character survey where you show what you think of the character and why. but more as a weighing up of what the character adds to the impact of the drama. The Drama texts are the lone country of the specification which can offer an empathic/re- originative undertaking ask foring pupils to compose as one of the characters. We will write a custom essay sample on Journeys End Revision Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Such inquiries will non needfully be set. but they frequently appear as the 3rd pick. Empathic inquiries are a popular and successful option for many campaigners who enjoy the chance to believe and experience as a character at a peculiar minute in the drama instead than follow the more conventional essay attacks. Journey’s End Set in the trenches at Saint-Quentin. Aisne. in 1918 towards the terminal of the First World War. Journey’s End gives a glance into the experiences of the officers of a British Army foot company in World War I. The full narrative plays out in the officers’ dugout over four yearss from 18 March 1918 to 21 March 1918. Plot sum-upAct IIn the British trenches before St Quentin. Captain Hardy converses with Lieutenant Osborne. an older adult male and public school maestro. who has come to alleviate him. Hardy gags about the behavior of Captain Stanhope. who has turned to alcohol in order to get by with the emphasis which the war has caused him. While Hardy gags. Osborne defends Stanhope and describes him as â€Å"the best company commanding officer we’ve got† . Private Mason. a servant cook. is everlastingly non caring about the deficiency of ingredients and quality of nutrient he serves up. Second Lieutenant Trotter is a rotund soldier who likes his nutrient ; he can’t stand the war and counts down each hr that he serves in the front line by pulling circles onto a piece of paper and so coloring them in. Second Lieutenant Raleigh is a immature and naif officer who joins the company. Raleigh knew Stanhope from school where he was skipper at rugger and refers to him as Dennis. He a dmits that he requested to be sent to Stanhope’s company. Osborne intimations to him that Stanhope will non be the same individual he knew from school as the experiences of war have changed him ; nevertheless Raleigh does non look to understand. Stanhope is angry that Raleigh has been allowed to fall in him and depict the male child as a hero-worshipper. As Stanhope is in a relationship with Raleigh’s sister Madge. he is concerned that Raleigh will compose place and inform his sister of Stanhope’s imbibing. Stanhope tells Osborne that he will ban Raleigh’s letters so that this does non go on ; Osborne does non O.K. . Stanhope has a acute sense of responsibility and feels that he must go on to function instead than take leave to which he is entitled. He criticises another soldier. Second Lieutenant Hibbert. who he thinks is forging neuralgia so that he can be sent place alternatively of go oning contending. Osborne puts a tired and slightly intoxicated Stanhope to bed. Stanhope ( and the other officers ) refers to Osborne as ‘Uncle’ . Act II Scene 1Trotter and Mason converse about the bacon vermillion rockfishs which the company has to eat. Trotter negotiations about how the start of spring makes him experience youthful ; he besides talks about the altheas which he has planted. These conversations are a manner of get awaying the trenches and the world of the war. Osborne and Raleigh discourse how slowly clip base on ballss at the forepart. and the fact that both of them played rugger before the war and that Osborne was a headmaster before he signed up to contend ; while Raleigh appears interested. Osborne points out that it is of small usage now. Osborne describes the lunacy of war when depicting how German soldiers allowed the British to deliver a hurt soldier in No Man’s Land and the following twenty-four hours the two sides shelled each other to a great extent. He describes the war as â€Å"silly† . Stanhope announces that the barbed wire around the trenches needs to be mended. It is announced that an progress will happen on Thursday forenoon and that this information has been gathered from a captured German soldier. They province that this means the onslaught is merely two yearss off. Stanhope confiscates a missive from Raleigh take a firm standing on his right to ban it. Stanhope is in a relationship with Raleigh’s sister and is worried that. in the missive. Raleigh will uncover Stanhope’s turning alcohol addiction. Full of self-loathing. Stanhope accedes to Osborne’s offer to read the missive for him ; the missive is in fact full of congratulations for Stanhope. The scene ends with Stanhope softly excepting from Osborne’s suggestion to re-seal the envelope. Scene 2 In a meeting with the Sergeant Major it is announced that the onslaught is taking topographic point on Thursday. Stanhope and the Sergeant-Major discuss conflict programs. The Colonel relays orders that the General wants a foray to take topographic point on the German trench prior to the onslaught. â€Å"a surprise daytime raid† . all old foraies holding made under screen of dark. and that they want to be informed of the result by seven p. m. Stanhope provinces that such a program is absurd and that the General and his staff simply want this so their dinner will non be delayed. The Colonel agrees with Stanhope but says that orders are orders and that they must be obeyed. Later it is stated that in a similar foray. after the British heavy weapon barrage. the Germans had tied ruddy shred to the spreads in the barbed wire so that their soldiers knew precisely where to develop their machine guns. It is decided that Osborne and Raleigh will be the officers to travel on the foray despite the fact that Raleigh has merely late entered the war. Hibbert goes to Stanhope to kick about the neuralgy he states he has been enduring from. Stanhope states that it would be better for him to decease from the hurting. than for being shot for abandonment. Hibbert maintains that he does hold neuralgies but when Stanhope threatens to hit him if he goes. he breaks down shouting. The two soldiers admit to each other that they feel precisely the same manner. and are fighting to get by with the emphasiss that the war is seting on them. Osborne reads aloud to Trotter from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. his chosen reading and another effort to get away from the worlds of the war. The scene ends with the idealistic Raleigh. who is untouched by the war. saying that it is â€Å"frightfully exciting† that he has been picked for the foray. Act III Scene 1There is verification that the foray is still traveling in front. The Colonel states that a German soldier demands to be captured so that intelligence can be extracted from him. Osborne admits to Stanhope that he knows he’s likely non coming back and asks Stanhope to look after his most precious ownerships and direct them to his married woman if he does non come back after the foray. In the proceedingss before traveling over the top Raleigh and Osborne talk about place – the New Forest and the town of Lyndhurst. in order to go through the clip. Smoke-bombs are fired and the soldiers move towards the German trench. a immature German soldier is captured. However Stanhope finds out that Osborne has been killed although Raleigh has survived. Stanhope sardonically states: â€Å"It’ll be terribly nice the Brigadier’s pleased† when the Colonel’s first concern is whether information has been gathered. non whether all the soldiers have returned safely ; six of 10s enlisted work forces have been killed. Scene 2 Trotter. Stanhope and Hibbert drink and speak about adult females. They all appear to be basking themselves until Hibbert is annoyed when Stanhope tells him to travel to bed. and he tells Stanhope to travel to bed alternatively. so Stanhope all of a sudden becomes angry and begins to shout at him and tells him to unclutter off and acquire out. Stanhope besides becomes angry at Raleigh. who did non eat with the officers that dark but preferred to eat with work forces below his rank. Stanhope is offended by this and Raleigh finally admits that he feels he can non eat while he thinks that Osborne is dead and his organic structure is in No Man’s Land. Stanhope is angry because Raleigh had seemed to connote that he didn’t attention about Osborne’s decease because he was eating and imbibing. Stanhope yells at Raleigh that he drinks to get by with the fact that Osborne died. to bury. Stanhope asks to be left entirely and angrily Tells Raleigh to go forth. Scene 3 The German onslaught on the British trenches attacks. and the Sergeant Major Tells Stanhope they should anticipate heavy losingss. When it arrives. Hibbert is loath to acquire out of bed and into the trenches. A message is relayed to Stanhope stating him that Raleigh has been injured by a shell and that his spinal column is damaged significance that he can’t travel his legs. Stanhope orders that Raleigh be brought into his dugout. He comforts Raleigh while he lies in bed. Raleigh says that he is cold and that it is going dark ; Stanhope moves the taper to his bed and goes deeper into the dugout to bring a cover. but. by the clip he returns. Raleigh has died. The shells continue to detonate in the background. Stanhope receives a message that he is needed. He gets up to go forth and. after he has exited. a howitzer hits the dugout doing it to fall in and bury Raleigh’s cadaver. Fictional characters Discussed Captain Dennis StanhopeCaptain Dennis Stanhope. a British officer whose three old ages in the forepart lines have made him a difficult. misanthropic. and heavy-drinking adult male. Stanhope is first and foremost a soldier. nevertheless. and when his immature friend is fatally hurt. he returns instantly to his responsibilities as commanding officer. Lieutenant Osborne Lieutenant Osborne. Stanhope’s 2nd in bid. He is a middle-aged adult male who was a school teacher in civilian life. Osborne is dying to maintain peace in the company. He is killed. along with several other members of a busting party sent out to capture some captives from whom the colonel of the regiment hopes to obtain information. Lieutenant Raleigh Lieutenant Raleigh. a school friend of Stanhope and the brother of Stanhope’s fiancee. Raleigh worships Stanhope as a hero and can barely acknowledge his old friend when he meets him in the forepart lines. Raleigh is a fledgling young person. full of verve. who shortly makes friends with Osborne. He can non understand how the other work forces in the company can observe after Osborne and several others are killed in the busting party. Raleigh is fatally wounded in a German onslaught. Second Lieutenant Hibbert Second Lieutenant Hibbert. an officer in Stanhope’s company who is a skulker and a coward. Stanhope bullies Hibbert into remaining on responsibility after Hibbert tries to acquire a physician to give him a medical alibi for being relieved from responsibility. Quotation marks ‘CAPTAIN HARDY. a ruddy faced. cheerful-looking man†¦intently drying a sock over a candle fire. ’ – Sherriff chooses to get down his drama with a humourous image that causes the audience to allow down their guard. Everything seems happy and relaxed: the contrast when the existent state of affairs becomes clear is all the more effectual. The audience are made to concentrate foremost on a taper which will go important at the terminal of the drama. ‘Don’t have excessively much H2O. It’s instead strong today’ – underlines the unpleasantness of army life ( H2O tasting of germicide ) . but besides strikes a note on the first page that will be echoed at the very terminal of the drama: both Hibbert and Raleigh ask for H2O merely before their deceases. ‘and those horrid small things like Ananas comosuss – you know’ – The usage of babyish linguistic communication is frequent and helps do the war seem endurable. Compare Osborne reading Alice in Wonderland. ‘A dug-out got blown up and came down in the men’s tea. They were terribly annoyed. // Osb. There’s nil worse than soil in your tea. ’ – A batch of trench talk is ‘counter-intuitive’ temper. Cipher makes much of the fact that. seemingly. no 1 died or was earnestly injured. alternatively the focal point is on the relatively minor catastrophe of contaminated tea. ‘By the manner. you know the large German onslaught is expected any twenty-four hours now? ’ – Sherriff begins to construct up audience tenseness. This is the first indicant of what this drama is truly traveling to be approximately. Historically. the ‘big attack’ was the Kaiserschlacht. the last large German offense of the war. The prong of the onslaught at Saint-Quentin. where Journey’s End is set. was called Operation Michael. ‘There’s more conveyance than usual coming up†¦bringing up tonss and tonss of men’ – Sherriff once more increasing the tenseness. ‘†¦ my last officer. He got lumbago the first dark and went home’ – This introduces the subject of ‘going sick’ which will affect Stanhope and Hibbert. Hardy doesn’t seem to care much about losing an officer with ‘backache’ ( another hard unwellness to name. like Hibbert’s neuralgy ) . and this will contrast starkly with Stanhope’s attitude. ‘I hope we’re lucky and acquire a youngster heterosexual from school. They’re the sort that do best. ’ – so much of the drama revolves around school. specifically because Osborne was a instructor and Stanhope and Raleigh are merely out of school. This is a serious remark from Osborne: immature work forces of 18/19 seemingly tended to maintain their nervus longer than older soldiers. Although Osborne is serious. we can see Sherriff emphasizing the flooring facet of the utmost young person of those contending in 1918. ‘You maintain yourself in by hanging your weaponries and legs over the side. ’ – Army life is presented as shocking – no proper beds. no nice water†¦ ‘115 rifle grenades – I shouldn’t utilize them if I were you ; they upset Jerry and do him violative. Besides. they are rusty. in any case’ – Hardy’s attitude to the war is exceptionally easy-going. He doesn’t attention about rusty rifle-grenades. Sherriff includes this illustration of an ( older ) hapless company commanding officer to contrast with Stanhope who enters after this brief introductory scene which serves. among other things. to construct up the audience’s involvement in his character before he appears. â€Å"Because he’s stuck it till his nervousnesss have got battered to spots. he’s called a drunkard† This quotation mark shows how much Osborne cares about Stanhope and besides how much he respects him. â€Å"You’ll find the other officers call me uncle† Shows how sort and reliable Osborne can be. â€Å"Drinking like a fish as usual? † ( says Hardy ) . This quotation mark merely backs up the fact that Stanhope is an alcoholic. â€Å"You know you mustn’t anticipate to happen him rather the same† Osborne kindly warns Raleigh so he doesn’t acquire a daze when he meets Stanhope. â€Å"How terribly quiet it is† Raleigh says – this shows how unusual the ambiance must hold been in the front line. â€Å"Another small worm seeking to writhe home† Says Stanhope speaking about Hibbert whom he disrespects because he is seeking to travel place. â€Å"Yes. I’m a hero† sardonically says Stanhope as he doesn’t see himself to be the hero Raleigh believes him to be. â€Å"Without being doped with whisky – I’d go huffy with fright† Stanhope knows he has a imbibing job. â€Å"He’ll write and state her I reek of whiskey all day† Stanhope is worried that Raleigh will compose place and state his sister about him. This gives him the thought to ban Raleigh’s letters. â€Å"Dear old Uncle. insert me up† Says Stanhope to Osborne – their relationship is about father to boy at times. â€Å"You lament on gardening† Trying to speak about something else instead than war is common throughout the drama. â€Å"You don’t think i’m traveling potty? † Asks Stanhope to Osborne which once more shows how much Stanhope trusts Osborne. â€Å"D’you understand an order? Give me that missive! † Stanhope demands the missive from Raleigh as he thinks there is something about him in it. â€Å"I’m shirking with my revolver†¦going off by accident† Stanhope threatens to hit Hibbert if he deserts. â€Å"How terribly nice – if the brigadier’s pleased† sardonically after Osborne’s decease Stanhope shows small regard for those above him. â€Å"Steady. old male child. Just prevarication at that place softly for a bit† The caring side of Stanhope when Raleigh has been earnestly injured. Journey’s End EssayDuring Raleigh’s school old ages. Stanhope had been his hero. Stanhope had already won the Military Cross and had the experience of three years’ war service. one twelvemonth of which was as a company commanding officer. His repute stands high with his officers and work forces. and Raleigh hears many good remarks about Stanhope being the best company commanding officer in the battalion. Raleigh joined the company as a direct consequence of his school experience. He wanted to go on in the war the hero worship of Stanhope that he had indulged in at school. It was a natural development that the superb rugger captain and house prefect should go a glorious war hero. Osborne knew that Raleigh still saw Stanhope as a hero even though Stanhope himself could non believe or recognize it: Osborne: Small male childs at school frequently have their heroes. Stanhope: Yes. Small male childs at school do. Osborne: Often it goes on as long as-Stanhope: -as long as the hero’s a hero. Osborne: It frequently goes on all through life. After Raleigh’s reaching. Stanhope addresses merely two curt comments to him in Act One and for most of the repast Raleigh remains soundless. Therefore. there is no indicant of Raleigh’s reaction to the alteration of attitude in his former friend. Stanhope suspects what he must be experiencing and his ain desperation at cognizing that his alcoholic province will be reported Raleigh’s missive place embitters him. This is merely Stanhope’s position. nevertheless. as Osborne tells him: `You imagine things’ . The world is shown a few proceedingss subsequently when Raleigh’s missive is read out: `I’m terribly proud to believe he’s my friend’ . Osborne’s old expressed sentiment that Raleigh would travel on wishing him proved to be true: `I Journey’s End Essay 2 Journey’s End Essaybelieve Raleigh’ll travel on wishing you – and looking up to you – through everything. There’s something really deep. and instead all right. about hero-worship’ . Chumminess Hibbert’s one purpose is to acquire off from the front line every bit shortly as possible and to accomplish this he feigns illness. He prepares the land every bit shortly as he enters the dugout by declining supper. owing to `this beastly neuralgia’ . Stanhope is unimpressed and characterizes him to Osborne as `another small worm seeking to writhe home’ . The crisis is reached the undermentioned afternoon when Hibbert makes a determined attempt to describe ill before the onslaught. He emerges from his sleeping-quarters to denote his going and. despite Stanhope’s resistance. takes his battalion and stick and efforts to go forth. The confrontation between the two work forces is extremely dramatic ; Hibbert alternately shouts hysterically and pleads. and finally he strikes his commanding officer. The flood tide is reached when Stanhope threatens to hit him if he tries to go forth and Hibbert. with surprising control. faces being shot instead than traveling ba ck into the trenches. The chumminess engendered by the war is more than a mere friendly relationship ; it is a particular sort of bond partially imposed by the changeless menace of decease or mutilation: Hibbert: Do delight allow me travel Stanhope – Stanhope: If you went – and left Osborne and Trotter and Raleigh and all those work forces up at that place to make your work – could you of all time look a adult male heterosexual in the face once more – in all your life† The Horror of War Stanhope finds himself looking beyond surface world and a wont has grown on him of looking `right through things. and on and on – boulder clay I get scared and stop’ . He has esthesiss of everything traveling farther and farther off until he is the lone thing left in the existence and he finds trouble in fighting back to normalcy. The feeling had come over him merely that forenoon as he had looked across no man’s land and beyond: Journey’s End Essay 3 Journey’s End EssayStanhope: `I was looking across at the Boche trenches and right beyond – non a sound or a psyche ; merely and tremendous field. all churned up like a sea that’s got muddier boulder clay it’s so stiff that it can’t move. You could hold heard a pin bead in the quiet ; yet you new 1000s of guns were hidden at that place. all ready cleaned and oiled – 1000000s of slugs lying in pouches – 1000s of Germans. waiting and believing. Then bit by bit. the feeling came -` Trotter is to the full cognizant of their state of affairs and finds his ain manner to get by with it. Pulling one hundred and 44 circles to stand for the hours they must pass in the line and so taging them off one by one is. for him a device to command the anxiousness he portions with the others ; each circle filled in will convey the clip of alleviation nearer and nearer. We catch a glance of his deeper feelings in his conversation with Stanhope: Stanhope: `I enviousness you Trotter. Nothing disturbances you. does it? You’re ever the same. ’ Trotter: `Always the same. am I? ( He sighs ) Little you know -` He does non enlarge on this. but we are cognizant that under his carefree outside he is concealing the frights that afflict them all. Hibbert is the officer who can non take it any longer. He doesn’t want to transport on ; he wants to be out of the trenches every bit shortly as he perchance can. He owes it to `this beastly neuralgia’ . As the concluding onslaught begins. his deficiency of fiber is shown once more. He delays traveling to his station in the trenches by inquiring for some H2O and imbibing it really easy. and he is merely persuaded to go forth by the necessity to attach to Mason from the dugout. Even Hibbert will non dishonor himself in forepart of a retainer. Conflict: Stanhope and HibbertIn most dramas there is struggle: this could be a battle or battle between characters. or within an single character. It may be a physical battle. but in most instances it is a clang between characters over what they want. In Journey’s End. there is a physical struggle. in the really obvious war between the British and the Germans. Osborne is killed. off-stage. by a grenade ; and the six work forces who die with him on the foray are likely killed by machine-gun slugs. Raleigh dies onstage of a shell lesion to his dorsum. The drama ends with a shell falling on the dug-out. There is besides physical struggle when Hibbert strikes at Stanhope on page 55. Stanhope breaks the stick and prepares to hit Hibbert for striking an officer and deserting. However. there is besides struggle between characters here. Hibbert is determined to go forth the Front Line ; Stanhope is determined he stays. Conflict: Stanhope and RaleighThere is a changeless struggle between Stanhope and Raleigh. caused by Raleigh being posted to Stanhope’s company. It begins on page 18. when Stanhope considers Raleigh’s reaching to be more than a happenstance. doing him afraid of what Raleigh will believe of him and what he might compose about him to Madge. It ends movingly at the terminal of the drama when Raleigh is brought. deceasing. to Stanhope in the dug-out. One really powerful minute in this struggle starts on page 88 when Raleigh comes into the dug-out after losing the dinner on the dark of Osborne’s decease. and ends on page 91. the decision of the scene.

Free Essays on Adjustments

College life thus far has been an entirely new experience for me. From letting go of my Mom and moving away from home and finally getting settled in then realizing that your new roommate is a major drug dealer and having to move again, on top of having hard classes and not knowing your way around town, college life has defiantly been an experience. These are some of my frustrations and adjustments to college life that I have had to go through so far. Moving away from home was harder than I thought it would be. At first, I was so excited and thrilled about finally getting to move out on my own. I have always been close to my mom and now was the time to let go and be a â€Å"big girl†. When I got here I had doubts about everything. Am I going to be able to do this? Is college life for me? I started to pick apart and analyze this new situation I had been dealt, and then my mom stepped in, â€Å"Mija, you going to do great. Everything will fall into place, don’t worry.† â€Å"Okay Mom, I can handle it.†, I said. Still, moving in was hard enough besides the extra â€Å"perks† I got. When I finally got moved in and all settled, my new roommate enters the room stumbling. She said it was jet lag from the plane to explain to my mom, but I knew better. It seemed that my new roommate had a drug abuse problem. Once, I sat down with her to talk about it; it was like talking to a brick wall. She did not understand where I was coming from, that I did not appreciate her drug usage in my room, nonetheless selling it out of my room. I ended up telling the resident assistant, opening a can of worms. â€Å"It is a problem here at Chisholm Hall, and has always been overlooked†. I talked to the resident director, campus police, and I received a room change to the forth floor. I then had to move all my belongings up two more flights of stairs. I thought, after this I should capable to handle anything else thrown in my direction. Classes in college are... Free Essays on Adjustments Free Essays on Adjustments College life thus far has been an entirely new experience for me. From letting go of my Mom and moving away from home and finally getting settled in then realizing that your new roommate is a major drug dealer and having to move again, on top of having hard classes and not knowing your way around town, college life has defiantly been an experience. These are some of my frustrations and adjustments to college life that I have had to go through so far. Moving away from home was harder than I thought it would be. At first, I was so excited and thrilled about finally getting to move out on my own. I have always been close to my mom and now was the time to let go and be a â€Å"big girl†. When I got here I had doubts about everything. Am I going to be able to do this? Is college life for me? I started to pick apart and analyze this new situation I had been dealt, and then my mom stepped in, â€Å"Mija, you going to do great. Everything will fall into place, don’t worry.† â€Å"Okay Mom, I can handle it.†, I said. Still, moving in was hard enough besides the extra â€Å"perks† I got. When I finally got moved in and all settled, my new roommate enters the room stumbling. She said it was jet lag from the plane to explain to my mom, but I knew better. It seemed that my new roommate had a drug abuse problem. Once, I sat down with her to talk about it; it was like talking to a brick wall. She did not understand where I was coming from, that I did not appreciate her drug usage in my room, nonetheless selling it out of my room. I ended up telling the resident assistant, opening a can of worms. â€Å"It is a problem here at Chisholm Hall, and has always been overlooked†. I talked to the resident director, campus police, and I received a room change to the forth floor. I then had to move all my belongings up two more flights of stairs. I thought, after this I should capable to handle anything else thrown in my direction. Classes in college are...

Importance of Requiem essays

Importance of Requiem essays How important is the requiem to the play in content and mood? A requiem is a special ceremony to honour the souls of the dead. In the requiem we see Linda, Biff, Happy and Charley paying their last respect to Willy, who had died earlier on. In many ways, the play has a great significant, as it gives us the opportunity to assess the validity of what Willy said about his funeral and to an extent see the aftermath of his life. Willy believed that his funeral would be as the funeral of Dave Singleman, which was, "Hundreds of salesmen and buyers were at his funeral," which is the way Willy expects his own funeral to be, as he said, earlier in the play, "But the funeral-Ben, the funeral will be massive." In contrary to what Willy believed his funeral wasn't "massive," there were only four people who attended it, Biff, Happy, Linda and Charley, there wasn't any "strange license plates." The belief that he was respected, liked and known becomes clearly unfounded. In some ways the simple funeral can act as a justification to Willy's life, which is based on his dreams of "making it big," was simply just a phony dream and imagination. His philosophy of life of being "well liked," respected and successful, seemed to be unjustified by the absence of people who "respect" him. It also gives a sense that the dream that Willy believed in so deeply, the American dream, doesn't apply top everyone, and that most of the people are just ordinary. Willy, who believes in the greatness of the America dream, never realised that he was just ordinary, despite Biff saying, earlier on, "Will you take that phony dream, and burn it before something happens?" Willy, however remained to live in his dream world, and took Biffs love as a justification of Willy committing suicide. Biff also knew that Willy had the wrong dreams, as he says, "He had the wrong dreams. All, all wrong" Willy also never realised that what is important in life i...

Adjective Preposition Combinations

Adjective Preposition Combinations Of Use the following adjectives followed by of. Each group of adjectives has the same or related meanings. Use the verb to be with these expressions. Nice/kind/good/generous of someone (to do something): It was very nice of him to buy me a present.Mean of someone (to do something): It was very mean of Susan to say that to Tom.Stupid/silly of someone (to do something): Im afraid it was stupid of me to come.Intelligent/clever/sensible of someone (to do something): That was quite sensible of Tom.Polite of someone (to do something): It was very polite of Peter to invite my sister to the party.Impolite/rude of someone (to do something): I cant believe how rude it was of Jack to shout at his daughter in front of all those people.Unreasonable of someone (to do something): Dont be so hard on yourself! Its unreasonable of you to expect to understand everything immediately.Proud of something or someone: Im very proud of my daughters wonderful progress in school.Ashamed of someone or something: Shes ashamed of her bad grades.Jealous/envious of someone or something: Shes really envious of her sisters wealth. Aware/conscious of something: Teens are often overly conscious of skin blemishes.Capable/incapable of something: Peter is quite capable of conducting the meeting on his own.Fond of someone or something: She is so fond of her niece.Short of something: Im afraid Im short of cash tonight.Tired of something: Im tired of your complaining! On Use the following adjective followed by on. Use the verb to be with these expressions. To be keen on something: She is very keen on horses. To Use the following adjectives followed by to. Each group of adjectives has the same or related meanings. Use the verb to be with these expressions. Married/engaged to someone: Jack is engaged to Jill.Nice/kind/good/generous to someone: She was very generous to me when I was staying with her.Mean/impolite/rude/unpleasant/unfriendly/cruel to someone: How can you be so unfriendly to your neighbors?similar to something: His painting is similar to Van Gough. With Use the following adjectives followed by with. Each group of adjectives has the same or related meanings. Use the verb to be with these expressions. Angry/annoyed/furious with someone for something: Im furious with my brother for having lied to me!Delighted/pleased/satisfied with something: He is quite satisfied with his results.Disappointed with something: Shes really disappointed with her new car.Bored/fed up with something: Lets go. Im fed up with this party.Crowded with (people, tourists, etc.): Disneyland is crowded with tourists in July. Test Your Understanding Now that you have studied these adjective preposition formulas try the follow-up quiz to test your understanding.

The Ethics of Lying Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Ethics of Lying - Coursework Example m a Kantian perspective this is morally wrong, but a utilitarian perspective, where the peace of the dying person is seen as contributing to the well-being of the whole family or community, would be able to justify this as moral (Mazur, n.d.; Plante, 2011; Anscombe, n.d.; Johnson, 2008). Bullet Point 2: Kant would say, with regard to the ethics of lying, that in essence lying is wrong in all cases, and that the ethics of lying is not hinged on circumstances, but on its being always wrong regardless of the external factors. Even in the case of say, a man with a weapon asking where a person is, with the intent of killing that person, one is compelled by Kantian ethics to say where the person is. Yes the person will die in the hands of the man with the weapon, but to lie about where the person is hiding, or where he went, would be wrong according to Kant (Mazur, n.d.; Plante, 2011). Bullet Point 3: Deontological theory in essence weighs the ethics of actions based on certain rules or categories of judgment. One can say for instance that Kant’s ethical precepts rest on the application of certain rules, and falls within the realm of deontological ethics. This is in opposition to consequentialist ethics, where in essence the ethics of actions depends not on some universally applied standards but on circumstances, and the consequences of actions. This is the case for instance with utilitarian ethics (Alexander and Moore, 2011; Mazur, n.d.; Plante,

Case Study on Apple Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

On Apple - Case Study Example â€Å"Mike† Markkula, Jr. have experienced the ups and downs of the organization due to competitive pressures and changes in the external environment. With the latest generated success from non-PC products, Jobs, currently the CEO is faced with the dilemma of evaluating Apple’s current performance in view of future prospects. The question that is to be responded to is: Was Apple’s recent success just another temporary â€Å"up† in its up- and-down history, or had he finally established a sustainable strategy for the company? The case is hereby assessed by addressing the questions enumerated below. I. Current Situation A. Current Performance In the 1980’s Apple’s competitive advantages focused on the following: (1) possessed strong corporate position and image as a pioneer manufacturer and marketing of easy-to-use computer for a wide range of clientele; (2) begun to exhibit excellence in product design; and (4) launched a successful Initial Pu blic Offering of their shares. However, during this period, Apple was reported to â€Å"rely on proprietary designs that only Apply could produce† (Yoffie & Slind, 2008, p. 2) in contrast to IBM’s â€Å"open† system which enabled other computer producers to clone. The result of this on Apple’s financial performance during the 1980s was a drop in their market share by 6.2% in 1982; decreased net income from 1982 to 1984 by a significant 17%. The condition necessitated removal of Jobs as in charge of operations and eventually made him to decide leaving the position to Sculley, a previous CEO from Pepsi-Cola in 1983. The financial performance of Apple reflected an up-and-down history of financial success. The selected financial highlights presented in Exhibit 1 indicate increasing trends from 1981 to 1996 with a sharp decline in 1998. The upward trend likewise continued to be exemplified from 1998 onwards. The latest financial figures from the time Apple foc used on non-PC products in 2001 attest to the increasing pattern, ending with net sales of $24 billion in 2007 to $24.6 billion for the first to third quarters of 2008. Likewise, net income improved considerably from only $65 million in 2002 to almost double to $3.7 billion for the first three quarters of 2008 (Yoffie & Slind, 2008, p. 16). The composition of net revenues for Apple come from Macintosh products and non-PC products with majority of revenues accounted for by the non-PC products (70%). From Exhibit 1b, it can be deduced that financial success was mostly attributable to the iPod, seconded by portables. Other fast moving products were desktops and other music products. Data from Exhibit 1c provides information that supports that more than 61% of net sales in the first three quarters of 2008 came from the U.S., followed by Europe (33%) and the remaining sales coming from Japan. Exhibit 2 indicated that the share prices for Apple rose sharply, starting in 2002 and more abru ptly after 2006, consistent with the introduction of the iPhone in the market. On a global scale, however, the financial figures indicate that worldwide PC share had actually been steady at an average of 2.5% since 1997 (Exhibit 3). Apple’s gross margin has bested other competitors, particularly Hewlett-Packard and Dell (35% in 2007) (Exhibit 5). Comparing their net income to those of its competitors, Apple’s net income of $3.5 billion in 2007 was only almost similar in amount to Dell ($2.9 billion). All other competitors topped the net income according to the following positions: Microsoft ($14 billion), Hewlett-Packard ($7.3billion), and Intel ($7 billion). B. Strategic Posture During the governance of Sculley and just

Business problem analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Business problem analysis - Assignment Example An effective business plan should take factor in its calculations the costs, revenue, and flow of cash on a regular basis. This is used to calculate the business’s profitability or discover incidents of loss. Such a plan can be used to project future expenditure plans and guide managers’ decisions about such decisions. The task of understanding such accounting techniques should not be left solely to accountants as managers’ knowledge is critical. Information on the business plans can be presented on a number of models in excel such as charts, graphs, tables, and other presentational formatting. These are further divided into sub-models such as frequency distributions, cumulative frequency distributions, scatter grams and time series distributions. Such presentations provide the selling points for one’s ideas, therefore, they have to be accurate and self-explanatory and simple to understand. The mode of presentation depends on the audience and channel of presentation to be used. Business planning is a strategy that all managers need to learn. Basic accounting techniques are a requirement for all managers and they cannot afford to leave all the accounting to the accountants. Business planning is crucial for a business’s survival and sustenance as it elaborates the business’s future, making vivid aspects that have great impact on the business such as unforeseeable

Globalization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 5

Globalization - Essay Example Globalization, for that matter, is also remarked as Internationalization since the nature of the two terms is on a worldwide scale more than anything else1. However, on the part of the two terms, the one thing common however is the fact that these have identified themselves well with the changing (and growing) trends, where most of these are credited on the shoulders of the World War II, after which there has been a resurgent rat race nonetheless. The movement of commodities, people, information, money, technological developments, organizational infrastructures, legal frameworks and so on and so forth have only proved to all and sundry that globalization is a phenomenon and it is one that is here to stay for long. The world has become a global village due to globalization and it is a good omen if seen in the proper perspectives. Globalization entails within it the changing technological innovations, the improvement in structures and different infrastructures, the advancements in basic thinking mindset of man, his ability to break loose from the ordinary and reach out towards the unknown and in all essence do something which can bring about an ultimate change, for the better. Having said that, we need to understand that globalization is not just a phenomenon, it is the science of human evolution and since man has for long held fast to this belief, there can be no reason as to why he should not comprehend the basis of the phenomenon of globalization2. It is a paradigm shift or a movement as we might call it, one that brings more stability within the ranks (where it is applied) and unison in the efforts and activities of all concerned. More often than not, we have seen improvements within the present day systems owing to globalization and it is because of this very perspective of change that we see world bodie s doing their utmost to reach out to far flung areas and explore hidden markets for the

Issues in Arts Politics project prospectus Essay

Issues in Arts Politics project prospectus - Essay Example With an evaluation of the video viewers’ statistics, the study implements that the developed online videos , trailers, short films, and other digital copiesdevolved a situation of increased business value; hence, rendering art as an important aspect of developing businesses and guaranteeing income and improved lifestyles to its practitioners. In relation to Dr. James McQuivey arguments, the value accrued by an individual video developer after streaming a one-minute video clip through the available and renowned online sites is equivalent to 1.8 million words. The Forrester Research based analyst provokes an understanding that the online community or any other businessperson would be incapacitated to deliver the aspired information through writing since the ill-advised alternative will consume a range of 3,800 web pages. Therefore, the writing process will be challenging the business value of the video as the writing process will consume a period of 150 days at the least (GarciÃŒ a & YuÃŒ dice, 2001). Holding to the fact that the developed online video depicted the intended message and attracted a large population of viewers, it is evident that the streaming process devolved business value as the majority viewers acknowledged and viewed the advertisements that the parent companies to the video-hosting sites included in t he process. For instance, statistics indicate that the current measure on the use of online information in different consumer demographics equals 45.4% of the total population of consumers in the media industry. The survey is vital in evaluating the value created to the video development business process through online viewing. The analytical use of mathematical values investigated that the business would accrue profitable outcomes since the information borne therein attracted a profound population of consumer groups. For example, the

Personal Statement Essay Example for Free

Personal Statement Essay The sound of the thunderous crowd in the background seemed to fade away as I approached the stage. Droplets of sweat began to run down my face as my sympathetic nervous system kicked into gear, sherona grant stand up I began to shake and become weak but gained a lot of confidence and I walked upon the stage and held my head high and looked into the crowd and turned around and received my diploma and then on to getting accepted into universities and making my mother a proud woman has been an amazing feeling so I want to continue to place a smile on her heart and a memory on her forehead to show her that I am an success story. A dream can lay waste only if there is no kick start to reality. In the sleep state there is no conscious being but once you are awoken from the formality of death, only being that you were in darkness for nine months and light is at its standing ovation your passage way is a wide and broad path either you take the path less traveled or you take the most traveled path. I chose to uphold a different light I chose the path less traveled, amongst millions I stand out because of my kindled soul encamping the dark world bringing forward a sense of light to the wilderness. My confidence does not over power my personality, I am a very relaxed person and in the humble state you can only wait upon things to take its place and move freely in your life. In the bible it states faith without work is dead and god helps those that helps themselves. I’m attending Florida a amp; m university at this moment and I do not think this is the place for me I prefer to attend a university like point university because it has a Christian environment that I need to get closer to god along with my personal experience with god. I went to a high school that had Christian values and the school taught me patience in every way possible. From the research I did I believe Point University fits who I am as a whole in the mission, values, goals statements states that Point University is a school that educate students for Christ-centered service and leadership throughout the world. They statements begin to breakdown how and what will be done to show the teachings of Christ and how the student has grown and will learn through the teachings of the teachers and how the atmosphere will flow. Academic background comes from when I first started school in Jamaica and then when I came to America I always been a person about business and never gave up no matter how hard a subject was for me. I have volunteered at plenty of place I was a volunteer at a hospital named memorial regional hospital, I was also a water girl for my schools football team and I was an active member of my church with the youth department. I have been put down and told that because of certain things I will not make it but god was judged so who am I not to be judged I will never give up my dreams that I have because of my pride and who I am which is a strong willed person. I am a person that does not care what another person has to say about me because god created me to be who I am a strong, persistent and hard working person. Point University seems to be a place where there is no playing just strictly business and support from staff no matter if you mess up. I’m interested in attending Point University to grow spiritually and finish my education in the biological studies to become a doctor. My personal motto states no matter how long it takes you to achieve a goal as long as you get it is all that matters. A change has to be made in your life and this change of wanting to attend a Christian school will be a better one for me instead of a school with no order. My achievements in my academic career have been my main focus but god should always be my number one choice and then all other things will be added onto my life. As I reflect back over my experiences, I have come to realize that medicine is not only a career, but also a lifelong relationship and strong commitment to my future. I believe that I am equipped with qualities needed to excel as a future student and as a future doctor. Whether it be the patience learned while attending school or growing in god I will come out with something worth the wait. Also the compassion radiated while learning and helping others while I obtain my career or the stamina needed to compete and learn all material given to me I know without a doubt that I am and will be a student and a doctor.

Defining And Analysing Computer Crimes

Defining And Analysing Computer Crimes Computer crime comes in many different forms and can cause serious amounts of damage. It has been around as long as the computer has and criminals are always finding new ways to beat the system. With the constant advancements in technology, it has become easier for criminals to hide information about their crime. Evidence is now handled and collected differently than it was in the past and requires a significant amount of careful forensic investigation. What is computer crime? Computer crime is illegal activity that is committed on the internet or through networks. The department of justice has three separate categories in which computer crime can be labeled. The first category is attacking computers of others, such as spreading a virus. The second category is using the computer to commit a crime which could also be committed the physical world, such as fraud or illegal gambling. The third and last category is using the computer to store stolen or illegal information (Citizenship.org). There are several different types of computer crime committed in the world today. Of those include: fraud, identity theft, phishing scams, malware, viruses, cyber stalking, and child pornography. Computer crime has been around for nearly two centuries, with the first ever recorded occurring in the year 1820 (hubpages.com). With the continual advancements in technology, it has been made easier for criminals to hide information about their crimes. Cyber crimes are handled differently than they have in the past because of this fact. When computers are attacked, it can completely alter the system and most times it will even cause damage. Also, computers that have been attacked have the capability to spread the attack to other systems within the same network (CERT.org). Statistics on Computer crime According to Minnesotas Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) 2008 Internet Crime Report, a total of 3,578 complaints came in. There are several different categories that the complaints are separated into. To name a few of those categories, there is check fraud, hacking, credit card fraud, Nigerian letter fraud, and identity theft. Here are some statistics that were collected during the year 2008: Non Delivery of Merchandise/Payment was the top complaint and accounted for 31.9% of all internet crime called in. Auction fraud came in second accounting for 27.5% of all internet fraud 78.5% of all perpetrators were male Within the country, California is the home to the largest percentage of perpetrators accounting for 15.8% Of the world, the United States is home to 66.1% of all perpetrators This is just a small percentage of the statistics I discovered when visiting the website of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (fbi.org). According to the IC3, the rate of computer crime continues to climb as the years pass by. The group has been collecting information and statistics on internet crime for the past three years in hopes to find trends among perpetrators and crimes committed in order to better solve the crimes of the future. Hacking: What is it? The term hacking has several different meanings and it means different things to different generations. In the 1950s and 1960s, computer programmers viewed hacking as an intellectual exercise and prefer to use the term cracking instead in order to separate themselves with the negative connotation that came along with being considered a hacker. The younger generation feels that hackers of today are doing the real work of exploration which was made necessary due to the prior generation selling out (Thomas). According to the dictionary, the official definition of hacker is a computer enthusiast and a microcomputer user who attempts to gain unauthorized access to proprietary computer systems (dictionary.com). Hacking has its own meaning to different people. To some its a means of exploration and education; to others its more about playing childish, but costly, pranks on people and companies (Thomas). Hacking Then Hackers of the 1960s and 1970s were found to be university graduate students with a profound interest in computers. Hacking grew to be quite popular in the labs of well respected colleges such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cornell, and Harvard. Students would play around with computers on their college campus and solve problems that eventually led to the creation of the personal computer. It was the birth of something that would lead to a new culture of innovative technological advances. Those who were able to hack were considered to be computer geniuses or nerds, rather than hackers (Thomas). Hacking Now Hackers of today are commonly found to be in their teenage years. The reason for such age difference between the times is that fifty to sixty years ago, you could only find computers on college campuses whereas today, it is uncommon to find a household that does not own at least one computer. They are more readily available for young children not yet in college to dupe around with. Technology today is also very different than it used to be. There are now passwords and PIN numbers in order to protect the user from having any information stolen. Security is stronger now, which is good for the common users of online systems such as eBay, online banking, or any other accounts which are password protected. However, as Thomas clearly states, security today is a double-edged sword. Although people are more protected, it also protects the hackers from becoming easily identified (Thomas). Hackers are able to take advantage of this and often continue to hack into systems of major companies, or even your personal computer at home. It seems that hacking was something more positive 60 years ago. It was used to discover new technology and helped to design and create more advanced machines and programs for people to use. It was something great that only those who were quite knowledgeable were capable of doing. However, with such great accomplishments, it has been made easier for the younger generation to turn the term hacker into something negative. Thomas describes these hackers as new-school hackers and soon a new hacking culture was born. Soon, hackers of the new generation began to use their knowledge against the world. They would meet to share what they have learned and would develop new ways to attack systems (Thomas). This new generation would turn hacking into crime that so many were willing to commit. Ethical Evaluation of Hacking From what it seems, hacking can be used to do both good and bad, which may make one wonder whether or not it can be viewed as ethical. I have always assumed that hacking was a bad thing and went along with its ever common negative connotation. I feel that people hack into systems to steal information from another party; whether it be a large corporations secret files, or your next door neighbors bank account. From what Ive studied so far, hackers from the past acted on a more ethical basis than the hacker of today. They used their knowledge for the better and acted on good will to try and find new ways to improve the age of computers. In order to really dig into it, I studied the ethics of hacking using two different working ethical theories; Kantianism and the Social Contract Theory. Hacking and Kantianism Kantianism has a lot to do with good will and the desire to do the right thing. The reason for doing a certain act, in this case hacking, should cultivate the desire to what is right. There are two categorical imperatives correlated with this theory. The first states that if you act on moral rule, you must first see how it will affect the universal more laws. This means that before you commit an act, first think about what would happen if everyone were to commit this same act (Quinn). To put this into perspective, hackers basically break security barriers to obtain information which they are probably not allowed to see in the first place. If there is a rule that makes it okay for everyone to break security barriers, it would completely defeat the purpose of having a secure system set up in the first place. There would no longer be such a thing as unauthorized information. Everyone would be allowed to somehow break in to the system and read it. The company might as well just display t his information freely, for the world to see. This would not be right as the information is protected for a reason. It is for certain peoples eyes, and their eyes only and is not for anyone else to see. The second categorical imperative states that you should treat both yourself and other as ends in themselves and not as a means to an end. This basically states that it is unethical to use someone for your benefit (Quinn). When relating this to the act of hacking, it tells us that we need to respect others and their right to privacy. When a hacker breaks into a system, they are using other peoples information to their benefit. They are invading privacy to get what they want, which is personal information. The first categorical imperative seems to correspond better with the topic, but both imperatives basically state the hacking is an unethical act. It is not right to disrespect people or to treat them unfairly, and when hacking occurs, that is exactly what happens. Therefore, according to the Kantianism, hacking is deemed to be unethical Hacking and the Social Contract Theory The social contract takes place in a civilized society and is based upon two things. The first thing is that there is an establishment of moral rules to govern relations among citizens. The second thing is that there must be a government capable of enforcing such rules. The social contract theory states, Morality consists in the set of rules, governing how people are to treat one another; that rational people will agree to accept, for their mutual benefit, on the condition that others follow those rules as well. This contract suggests that no man has authority over another and that no one lives above the law. The community is supposed to determine the rules for its members, and all who is part of that community must abide by such rules. In order for this theory to work, the laws must not only be stated, but enforced as well. This will prevent anyone from trying to cheat the system (Quinn). If hacking were to ever be considered socially acceptable, it would almost defeat the purpose of having secure systems. People would have the right to invade other peoples privacy and basically steal what does not belong to them. This type of crime is not accepted in the physical world, so why should we choose to accept it in cyberspace? The answer to that is we should not. The social contract theory has much to do with respect for yourself and respect for others. It is not very respectful to be deceitful and steal information or items which do not belong to you. Therefore, according to the social contract theory, hacking is deemed to be unethical. How Does the FBI control Cyber Crime? The Federal Bureau of Investigation has a four-fold method that works to control and eliminate cyber crime. The first step in this process is to stop those behind the most serious computer invasions and the spread of malevolent code. Second, they must identify and put a stop to online sexual predators that use the internet to meet and exploit children and to produce, possess, or share child pornography. The third step is to counteract operations that target United States intellectual property, endangering our national security and competitiveness. Lastly, dismantle national and transnational organized criminal enterprises engaging in internet fraud (fbi.gov). Computer invasions are not taken lightly and it is very important that the FBI work to control such a crime. Here are some facts taken from the Federal Bureau of Investigation website on how serious these cyber crimes are taken: A Cyber Division at FBI Headquarters to address cyber crime in a coordinated and cohesive manner Specially trained cyber squads at FBI headquarters and in each of the 56 field offices, staffed with agents and analysts who protect against investigate computer intrusions, theft of intellectual property and personal information, child pornography and exploitation, and online fraud New Cyber Action Teams that travel around the world on a moments notice to assist in computer intrusion cases and that gather vital intelligence that helps us identify the cyber crimes that are most dangerous to our national security and to our economy; 93 Computer Crimes Task Forces nationwide that combine state-of-the-art technology and the resources of our federal, state, and local counterparts; A growing partnership with other federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and others-which share similar concerns and resolve in combating cyber crime. There are different levels of cyber crime, but we can never be too careful when it comes to protecting our people and our national security. There are several different ways of course in which the FBI will take action and that all depends on the type of cyber crime that is being committed. For example if it is trying to catch an online predator, a sting operation will be created and a member of the FBI will pose as a young child in hopes that someone will fall in to the trap. The FBI is full of highly trained professionals that know what they are doing and work their hardest to catch anyone who is being unlawful. How is Cyber Crime Different Than Physical Crime? Crime that takes place on in cyberspace is quite similar to physical crime. It is a person using their knowledge to break into another someone elses personal property. There are several laws against both types of crimes, and the penalties are just as harsh in the cyber crime world as they are in the physical. Also, both of them have the potential to cause a lot of harm and damage to others. The difference between the two is the way that the victims, or potential victims, feel about such cyber and physical crime. In recent surveys, it states that more people believe that their chances of being victims of cyber crime are much higher than being victims of physical crime. Many people are scared to participate in online banking or to shop online in fear of someone intercepting and hacking into their accounts. Also, it has been found that people are very cautious when it comes to documents that contain personal information on them by completely destroying them or assuring that they are safely stored (crime-research.org). According to a survey conducted by IBM, more than half of the businesses located in the United States believe that cyber crime is more costly to them than physical crime. The ways in which it costs them are through lost revenue, loss of current and prospective customers, and loss of employee productivity (allaboutroimag.org). Conclusion Cyber crime and hacking have been around for many years to date. It is something that developed as soon as the computing machine did. There have always been computer geniuses out there to use their knowledge for good, along with bad. After doing a lot of research and in my ethical evaluations, I have concluded that hacking is an unethical act. What started out as something that seemed like a good thing, quickly turned bad as soon as the personal computer became widely available. People began to use their knowledge against others and today we are faced with more cyber crime than ever. It is important for us and our government to keep it under control as it can cause a lot of damage to anyone who becomes a victim.

Asian Women in the Eyes of Americans Essay example -- Asian Studies Res

Introduction The history of Asian women has many facets. I am about to touch on two key monumental points over a sixty year span that have shaped the views of Asian women in the eyes of Americans. As a brief overview, from as early as the 1940s, Asian women were recruited to serve their soldiers during World War II as sex slaves. Forty years later, the dawning of the 1980s brought about the desire of Asian women into American households and sparked the mail order bride phenomenon. The beginning of a new century has altered the lives of Asian women, in parts of Asia as well as in the United States of America. I will give you a glimpse into their every day lives in their home country and site observations to their strides into the American workforce today. Let me unveil the lives of Asian women . . . past, present, and future. Comfort Women During World War II, hundreds of thousands of women from all parts of Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army to â€Å"serve† soldiers on the front lines. These poor young women, generally known as â€Å"comfort women†, were recruited, kidnapped, sold, enticed, and deceived with the promise of well-paying jobs to serve their soldiers. Eighty percent of the estimated 100,000 to 200,000 â€Å"comfort women† of WWII were Korean girls and women. These unfortunate victims were stationed in â€Å"comfort stations† throughout Asia and the South Pacific. Prisoners in these stations were subject to daily degrations such as physical and verbal abuse, repeated rapes, hard labor, and sometimes murder. The women drafted as â€Å"comfort women† had a regimented schedule. To much astonishment, each women had to serve twenty to forty men a day at a rate of a man every t... ...l reach the same level of respect in another sixty years. The past and present lives of Asian women have been unveiled, now I am anxious to see what the future reveals. Works Cited Kumar, Nita, ed. Women As Subjects. United States: University Press of Virginia, 1994. Lee, Rose J., and Clark, Cal, ed. Democracy and the Status of Women in East Asia. United States: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2000. Stetz, Margaret, and Oh, Bonnie B.C., ed. Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II. United States: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2001. â€Å"Tajik Forum Urges Laws on Violence Against Central Asian Women.† Global News Wire. 2003. 27 November 2003. (LexisNexis) â€Å"Why I Recommend Asian Women.† 2003. 05 December 2003. http://www.heart-of-asia.org/gen/whyasia.html â€Å"Women of Color Make Big Strides in the Workforce.† Star Tribune. 2003. 01 August 2003. (LexisNexis) Asian Women in the Eyes of Americans Essay example -- Asian Studies Res Introduction The history of Asian women has many facets. I am about to touch on two key monumental points over a sixty year span that have shaped the views of Asian women in the eyes of Americans. As a brief overview, from as early as the 1940s, Asian women were recruited to serve their soldiers during World War II as sex slaves. Forty years later, the dawning of the 1980s brought about the desire of Asian women into American households and sparked the mail order bride phenomenon. The beginning of a new century has altered the lives of Asian women, in parts of Asia as well as in the United States of America. I will give you a glimpse into their every day lives in their home country and site observations to their strides into the American workforce today. Let me unveil the lives of Asian women . . . past, present, and future. Comfort Women During World War II, hundreds of thousands of women from all parts of Asia were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army to â€Å"serve† soldiers on the front lines. These poor young women, generally known as â€Å"comfort women†, were recruited, kidnapped, sold, enticed, and deceived with the promise of well-paying jobs to serve their soldiers. Eighty percent of the estimated 100,000 to 200,000 â€Å"comfort women† of WWII were Korean girls and women. These unfortunate victims were stationed in â€Å"comfort stations† throughout Asia and the South Pacific. Prisoners in these stations were subject to daily degrations such as physical and verbal abuse, repeated rapes, hard labor, and sometimes murder. The women drafted as â€Å"comfort women† had a regimented schedule. To much astonishment, each women had to serve twenty to forty men a day at a rate of a man every t... ...l reach the same level of respect in another sixty years. The past and present lives of Asian women have been unveiled, now I am anxious to see what the future reveals. Works Cited Kumar, Nita, ed. Women As Subjects. United States: University Press of Virginia, 1994. Lee, Rose J., and Clark, Cal, ed. Democracy and the Status of Women in East Asia. United States: Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc., 2000. Stetz, Margaret, and Oh, Bonnie B.C., ed. Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II. United States: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2001. â€Å"Tajik Forum Urges Laws on Violence Against Central Asian Women.† Global News Wire. 2003. 27 November 2003. (LexisNexis) â€Å"Why I Recommend Asian Women.† 2003. 05 December 2003. http://www.heart-of-asia.org/gen/whyasia.html â€Å"Women of Color Make Big Strides in the Workforce.† Star Tribune. 2003. 01 August 2003. (LexisNexis)

Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown †Poverty in the Tale and in the Life o

â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† – the Poverty in the Tale and in the Life of the Author  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚   Henry Seidel Canby in â€Å"A Skeptic Incompatible with His Time and His Past† mentions of Hawthorne that â€Å"human failures and their causes were more interesting to him than prophecies of success, one might truly say than success itself. †¦He was not, I think, really interested in escape, except in moods of financial discouragement. . . . (57). Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† embodies traits of the modest lifestyle which the author had to subject himself to because of inadequate finances through most of his life. In addition to the monetary impoverishment there was an additional artistic impoverishment which sorely restricted the materials from which he could choose for his literary works.    Hawthorne’s financial impoverishment probably began with the untimely death of his father, and continued for most of his life. Gloria C. Erlich in â€Å"The Divided Artist and His Uncles† states that â€Å"Robert Manning made the essential decisions in the lives of the Hawthorne children and is well known as the uncle who sent Hawthorne to college† (35). After graduation from Bowdoin College, Hawthorne spent twelve years in his room at home in an intense effort to make something of himself literarily. The Norton Anthology: American Literature states:    Hawthorne’s years between 1825 and 1837 have fascinated his biographers and critics. Hawthorne himself took pains to propogate the notion that he had lived as a hermit who left his upstairs room only for nighttime walks and hardly communicated even with his mother and sisters (547).    Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty and E. Hudson Long in â€Å"The Social Criticism of a Public Man... ... Press, 1996.    Erlich, Gloria C. â€Å"The Divided Artist and His Uncles.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.    Hawthorne, Nathaniel. â€Å"Young Goodman Brown.† 1835. http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/goodman/goodmantext.html    James, Henry. Hawthorne. http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/nh/nhhj1.html    Lewis, R. W. B. â€Å"The Return into Time: Hawthorne.† In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.      Ã¢â‚¬Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne.† The Norton Anthology: American Literature, edited by Baym et al.   New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1995.    Swisher, Clarice. â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography.† In Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by Clarice Swisher. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996.      

Political Economies

Contemporary political economies are mixtures of fascism, socialism, capitalism, anarchism, etc. Most of them stress aspects of certain systems more than those of others but in each one will find a mixture. Recent largely fascist systems are those of Mussolini's Italy, Peron's Argentina, Hitler's Third Reich, Chavez' Venezuela, and several of recent Middle Eastern regimes (e. g. , Libya), Egypt, et al. So called communist regimes are also effectively fascist since they tend to be ruled by an undemocratic group of rulers†e. . , North Korea, Cuba. Welfare Statism The welfare state or, from the economic viewpoint, the mixed economy, may be understood as a combination of the principles of capitalism and socialism. Sometimes the emphasis in this system is placed not so much on economic as on certain moral considerations. Basically the welfare state consists of a legal system that aims at securing for everyone the negative right to liberty and the positive right to well being.The wel fare state, which is to say most Western countries, balances the two values that together seem to its advocates to be the bedrock of a civilized society. No one ought to have his or her sovereignty seriously compromised, nor should anyone be permitted to fall below a certain standard of living. This is difficult to maintain ecause at different times one or another of these objectives will probably take priority and in mostly democratic systems political leaders will vacillate between giving more support to one or the other.The right to strike, for example, which is the negative liberty to quit one's Job in an effort to gain respect for one's terms of employment, may conflict with the positive right to be provided with various services–e. g. , health care, mail delivery or education. It is indeed a prominent feature of the welfare state that both negative and positive rights receive their legal protection. Negative rights involve respect for a person's life, liberty and proper ty–that is, everyone is by law supposed to abstain from interfering with these.Positive rights, in turn, involve respect for a person's basic needs–that is, everyone who is unable to secure the requirements ot survival and even tlourishing is supposed to have those provided by way of the appropriate public policy (e. g. , taxation, mandated services, public education, national health care). The moral underpinnings of the welfare state can be utilitarianism, altruism or certain intuitively held moral precepts. Utilitarianism requires that all pursue the eneral welfare and whatever public policies to facilitate this were needed would be justified.Although many utilitarians believe that the general welfare is best achieved when government operates in a largely laissez-faire fashion, there is no objection to government intervention in social affairs if without those many in the society may fail to achieve a decent and prosperous form of life. Altruists, in turn, often hold that to make certain that people fulfill their primary obligation to help others, it is necessary to introduce public measures that will secure such help, given that many might wish o breach their duty to do the right thing.Finally, there is the claim that by our common intuitions it is evident that both a measure of personal liberty and social welfare must be guaranteed to all, lest the quality of life in society fall below what it should be. While people object to the welfare state from several other perspectives, it is thought by its supporters to be the most stable modern political orders. Although it is characterized by much dispute and controversy, in the long run, its supporters maintain, the system seems to be overall satisfactory and Just.

The College Board: Connecting Students to College Success

Professional DeveloPment AP Spanish Language  ® Teaching Listening Comprehension Special Focus 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 1 8/15/08 2:59:34 PM The College Board: Connecting Students to College Success The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the association is composed of more than 5,400 schools, colleges, universities, and other educational organizations.Each year, the College Board serves seven million students and their parents, 23,000 high schools, and 3,500 colleges through major programs and services in college admissions, guidance, assessment, financial aid, enrollment, and teaching and learning. Among its best-known programs are the SAT ®, the PSAT/NMSQT ®, and the Advanced Placement Program ® (AP ®). The College Board is committed to the principles of excellence and equity, and that commitment is embodied in all of its programs, services, activities, an d concerns.For further information, visit www. collegeboard. com. The College Board acknowledges all the third-party content that has been included in these materials and respects the intellectual property rights of others. If we have incorrectly attributed a source or overlooked a publisher, please contact us. Page 14, 16: â€Å"Lluvias en Costa Rica dejan 18 muertos† from Radio de las Naciones Unidas, October 19, 2007 (http://www. un. org/radio/es/detail/6528. html). Used by permission of the United Nations.  © 2008 The College Board.All rights reserved. College Board, Advanced Placement Program, AP, AP Central, AP Vertical Teams, connect to college success, and the acorn logo are registered trademarks of the College Board. PSAT/NMSQT is a registered trademark of the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation. All other products and services may be trademarks of their respective owners. Visit the College Board on the Web: www. collegeboard. com. 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 2 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Brant Hadzima 2. Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 ann mar 3. General Strategies for AP ® Spanish Listening Comprehension . . . . . . . . . 31 Brant Hadzima 4. Listening Strategies for Multiple-Choice Assessments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 maria redmon 5. Listening Strategies in Preparation to Speak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Daizha Heberling 6.Listening Strategies in Preparation to Write . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 Jill Pellettieri 7. About the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83 8. About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83 iii 08- 1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 3 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 4 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM Introduction Brant Hadzima Newfound Regional High School Bristol, New HampshireThe AP ® Spanish Language Examination is an assessment designed to determine a student’s overall level of fluency in Spanish. This summative language examination employs a variety of authentic assessments that require students to demonstrate competence and fluency in Spanish. Most recently, the examination has been revised to best assess authentic use of the language, and the spirit and intent of the new examination is based wholly upon assessing integrated language skills. The four essential skills required to communicate fluently in a language are reading, writing, speaking, and listening.These skills are interconnected, and therefore the AP Spanish Language Examination does not assess them separately. Virtually every aspect of the examination requires students to integrate all four of these ski lls in some form in order to perform a particular task. In preparing for the examination it is important that the teacher instruct, practice, and assess all of these four individual skills. Although ideally classes should be designed to integrate skills as much as possible, it is important to first ensure that all four skills are properly developed.One cannot simply assume that because a student can write fluently in a language, he or she can also speak it with the same level of competence. The skills may be intrinsically interrelated, but they certainly do not develop uniformly. In some instances it may be necessary to allocate more time and effort to master one specific area of competency than another. Therefore, the intent of this unit is to focus predominately on one of the four essential skills: listening comprehension. Instruction, practice, and assessments have been specifically designed to hone listening comprehension skills.This unit can be used as a full AP Spanish listeni ng comprehension unit, or components of the unit may be utilized for additional remediation in listening comprehension as needed. 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 1 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension The authors have made every effort to provide appropriate pedagogical research as well as practical suggestions for classroom strategies designed to develop listening comprehension skills. As the title states, this special focus unit is based upon integrating listening comprehension skills across the modes of communication.There are several modes of communication that are assessed in the AP Spanish Examination, and consequently the unit is separated into five sections to address these modes: †¢ Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Skills †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ GeneralStrategiesforAPSpanishListeningComprehension ListeningStrategiesforMultiple-ChoiceAssessments ListeningStrategiesinPreparationtoSpeak ListeningStrategiesinPreparationtoWrite Finall y, although listening comprehension prompts on the AP Spanish Language Examination will inevitably vary in style, format, and content, the authors have endeavored to address a variety of means in which listening comprehension can be assessed.It is the intent of the authors to provide not only research-based theory but also practical strategies that can be readily employed and also further adapted to address all styles of listening comprehension assessment. 2 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 2 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies ann mar Alamo Heights High School San Antonio, Texas The Challenge of AP ® Listening Comprehension Success on the AP Spanish Language Exam requires highly developed listening comprehension skills—skills that cannot be achieved in a one-year AP course.Success depends on vertical teaming—the coordinated work of all the teachers from the beginning levels through the AP course. To make the goals of equity and access to A P success a reality, we need to provide ALL students at every level the opportunity to develop strong listening skills. To start teaching with the end in mind, all teachers in the program must be familiar with the AP Exam, and in particular with the role listening comprehension plays on the test. Four separate parts of the test, totaling 60 percent of the score, rely to some extent upon the student’s ability to understand spoken Spanish.A description of those AP Spanish Language Exam tasks that include a listening component follows. Multiple-Choice Listening (20%) This section includes a series of short and long dialogues and narrations testing a student’s ability to comprehend the main idea, understand details, make inferences, make predictions, and infer social relationships. The test consists of 30 to 35 questions and lasts around 30–35 minutes. Formal Writing (Integrated Skills) (20%) One of the three sources students must incorporate in their formal essay i s an audio recording, which is played 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. ndd 3 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension only once. Students must take notes and refer to the source in their essay, synthesizing rather than merely summarizing. Informal Speaking – Simulated Conversation (10%) Students participate in a conversation, creating 5–6 responses of 20 seconds each to audio prompts. Students follow a functional script, reacting to the recorded stimulus. The task requires real-time processing for immediate response; the thread of the conversation may include unexpected twists requiring accurate listening comprehension and quick thinking.Formal Oral Presentation (Integrated Skills) (10%) One of the two sources for the formal oral presentation is an audio recording played only once. Students must take notes and refer to the source in the oral presentation, comparing rather than only summarizing. There are additional challenges. The listening passages include a broad variety of regional accents and cover a wide range of academic, social and cultural topics. The recordings may include background distractions such as music or ambient noise, and may have a rapid rate of delivery as is normal in radio news. Pre-AP StrategiesTo start preparing students for these challenges from the start, I have outlined 10 strategies that teachers of beginning and intermediate levels can use to build students’ listening skills starting at the beginning levels. The strategies, sample activities, sources, and rubrics proposed here are meant to contribute to the lively exchange of ideas and experiences among teachers. I encourage teachers to try these and other strategies and share your successes and difficulties via the AP Electronic DiscussionGroup,anddepartmentandprofessionalmeetings. Principles for Building Listening ComprehensionStrategy 1: Teach in Spanish and teach about the Spanish-speaking world. Strategy 2:Getthemostoutoftextbook liste ning materials. Strategy 3: Design listening activities that provide evidence of engagement, including note taking. Strategy 4: Use authentic materials, with scaffolding tasks. Strategy 5: Develop generic tasks for listening, and use them often. 4 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 4 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Strategy 6: Vary the evaluation of listening tasks making it appropriate to the purpose of the task. Strategy 7: Develop your skill at finding appropriate listening materials on the web.Strategy 8:Getstudentsspeaking with native speakers early on, and use technology to share their conversations with classmates. Strategy 9: Teach and practice component skills like recognizing cognates, listening for gist, etc. Strategy 10: Create a culture of listening in your classroom and program. Strategy 1: Teach in Spanish, and teach about the Spanish speaking world. From Spanish I onward, use Spanish to teach. Teach and use the words and expressions neede d for classroom routines right from the start. Classroom instructions and interaction is authentic communication, and is comprehensible, because it is â€Å"here and now. Established routines help minimize the need for English explanations. Team with your whole department to educate administrators, counselors, and parents about your approach. Praise and grant occasional random rewards for attentive students who immediately follow instructions given in Spanish. The more students know about the countries, cities, regions, physical and human geography, history, art, conflicts, challenges, and traditions, the better equipped they will be to understand authentic listening passages produced in and for the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world.Throughout the program, we need to build students’ knowledge of the Spanish-speaking world. Assign students a country, and then periodically ask them to report to the class about that country, regarding the topic at hand. For instance, in a unit on the environment, students report on the park system, endangered species, or environmental challenges of â€Å"their† country. In a unit on careers, have them research and report on two or three large employers in the country, or an aspect of the economy of the country. In a unit on food, each student can provide details of the national cuisine.This type of reporting can begin at the earliest levels, with research in English, Spanish, or both. Strategy 2: Get the most out of the textbook listening materials. Use the listening activities in your textbook, then reuse them and recycle them. Consider having â€Å"listening quizzes† or â€Å"listening tests† separate from other elements to emphasize its importance. Include easy, short passages and longer, more difficult 5 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 5 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension ones.On tests, sometimes you can use listening passages you have done previously in class, but with different questions. This will reward students for paying close attention during practice activities that are not for a grade. When the textbook provides â€Å"listen along† audio recordings of reading passages, start the activity by listening to a minute or two without looking at the written text, just to let students see how much they can â€Å"catch† without reading. Have students jot down the words they hear on a piece of paper, then share with class, writing a list on the board.Then read along, and do textbook reading activities. Then go back over the list. Praise the class on how much they could hear, and note to them how their skills improve throughout the year. The next day, listen again without looking, and see if they feel they understand more. The goal is to build students’ confidence in their ability to improve their listening skills. Strategy 3: Design listening activities that provide evidence of engagement, including note taking. Student s should DO something while listening in order to provide evidence of engagement.Ideas for types of evidence follow: †¢ notefamiliarwords †¢ writedownallnumbersyouhear (good for weather reports, sports news, economic news) †¢ checkwordsheardoffalist(prepare the list ahead of time, or have students predict words they might hear) †¢ fillinachartwithinformation †¢ fillinapartialscript(leave out cognates, familiar words, or numbers, etc. ) †¢ writedownanswerstobasicwho, what, when, where, why questions †¢ answerpreparedtrue/falseormultiple-choicequestions †¢ useâ€Å"thumbsup†orâ€Å"thumbsdown†toansweryes/noquestions Attachment A (p. 3) provides a simple chart students complete as evidence of engagement while listening to a series of interviews with native speakers found on a University of Texas Web site. Strategy 4: Create scaffolding tasks to help students to approach authentic materials from the start. Use authentic listening pas sages, full speed right from the beginning levels, but scaffold the activity by at first providing tasks that support, rather than test, students’ understanding. To make the listening more accessible to students, choose 6 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. ndd 6 8/15/08 2:59:35 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies passages on topics you are working on in your textbook. You can pair authentic listening passages with short written texts on the same topic, providing background knowledge, especially if the material or setting is unfamiliar to students. Provide students with unusual names of people, organizations, or locations mentioned in the passage, as these names are especially difficult to catch. Use a listening process, analogous to the reading process, including the following steps.A. Prelistening activity Activate prior knowledge of vocabulary or the topic; make predictions based on a headline, photograph, or theme; personalize by relating to students’ experience ; connect to studies in other classes. Tell students the topic, encourage brainstorming of known vocabulary, then offer to preteach five vocabulary words they don’t know but think they’ll need to understand the program. You could get the class to make a list of 10 words, and then you could translate the 5 words they decide they need the most. B.Have students listen with a purpose, providing concrete evidence of their comprehension. Focus student attention on specific elements, and require each student to show evidence of what was heard. Build in opportunities to hear the listening passage more than once. Provide extension tasks for those who have completed the first task on the first listening, letting others continue to focus on the basic skill. At times, provide transcripts to follow when listening, to help students recognize words they know when they see them, in the stream of speech. C. Cooperative listeningAfter students provide some evidence of what they hear the mselves, have students share their results ORALLY with a partner, noting the partner’s answers in another color, for instance, using a green pen. This will allow you to distinguish what was gathered independently from the details students got from a classmate. Be sure to require all students to note or check off what their partners heard, even if the students already wrote down what they themselves heard. On a final listening, or with a transcript, students can verify what was actually in the recording. D. Apply/connectHave students use the information gained in listening in another task such as writing a summary, making a comparison, making a prediction, 7 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 7 8/15/08 2:59:36 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension connecting to personal experience, reflecting on the learning process, writing about strategies, etc. Attachment B (p. 14) illustrates scaffolding by using the listening process in a simple â€Å"Checklist† activity. Novice-level students can successfully listen to an authentic source to develop the ability to recognize known vocabulary in the stream of authentic speech.The students simply listen to a passage and check words they hear, and skip words that are not in the passage. Then they compare lists with a classmate, listen again, and finally check their work against a script. The checklist and two colors of pens will allow the teacher to evaluate each student’s engagement in the activity, independent and cooperative listening skills, and the ability to extend or apply what was learned. The sample activity in the attachment was designed around a Radio Naciones Unidas report on torrential rains in Costa Rica. Strategy 5: Develop generic listening tasks and use them often.Many Web sources have high-interest audio news and information with accompanying written information. When the files are available to download and save on a computer, teachers can develop activities around these sound files, and keep them for future use. But it is difficult to find the time to prepare specific questions about today’s news each week, and many great Web sites have audio files that are not availablefordownloadingandthatmaynotbeavailableforreusenextyear. Generic tasks cut down preparation time and allow the listening task to become routine, which will help build confidence.Attachment C (p. 18) Pesca las palabras can be used to engage novice listeners in any authentic listening source. The sample activity in attachment C was used to listen to a BBC Mundo report on domestic workers in Latin America in a Level 2 class. Attachment D (p. 21) is a generic form to use while listening to any audio or video newscasts, and is based on the journalistic questions who, what, when, where, why, and how. For interest, vary the prelistening task and the application task according to the topic of the newscast you choose. The video news broadcasts found on the Web site Univision. om provide a we alth of short listening segments to use with this form. Strategy 6: Vary the evaluation of listening tasks, making it appropriate to the purpose of the task. WhenBUILDINGlisteningskills,useaprocess-orientedrubricsuchastheFormative Listening Comprehension Evaluation rubric (Attachment E, p. 22). This rubric evaluates four areas: 8 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 8 8/15/08 2:59:36 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Engagement Independentlistening Cooperativelistening ApplicationofinformationgainedthroughlisteningThis formative rubric recognizes the importance of attention to the whole listening process. It can be used to assess any of the listening tasks involving the listening process outlined in Strategy 4. WhenEVALUATINGlisteningskills,teachersshouldusemoreobjective measures, such as multiple-choice questions. Alternatively, students can take notes and answer open-ended questions or summarize. Then teachers can use a more product-oriente d rubric, evaluating the students’ ability to capture the main idea, understand most details, make predictions and inferences, and use linguistic cues to infer social relations.WhenINTEGRATINGskills,teachersshouldcreatetasksthatrequirestudents to listen, then use the information the students hear in writing and speaking tasks. Strategy 7: Develop your skill at finding appropriate listening materials on the Web, and share your findings with others. Work with your technology department to ensure that all teacher and student computers at school have the necessary software to view and listen to Web-based materials. With one teacher computer and speakers, all students can hear sound files on one computer. If you have the ability to project onto a large screen, you can share video clips from your computer with students.Encourage the library and computer resource center to make headphones available for students to borrow, so they can do their listening there. If you have a teacher W eb site, include links to Web sites with audio. Many Web page programs also allow you to upload audio files to your site. Some excellent Web sources for listening follow: Radio Naciones Unidas http://radio. un. org/es/ This is an excellent source, since files are not copyrighted, the archive is searchable, many programs have transcripts, and files can be downloaded to your computer. Click on Abrir archivo to view a list of recent short news items.Click on the title ofthenewsitemtoseethetranscript. RIGHTCLICKonthefilebuttonandclick on â€Å"Save Target As,† then navigate to the folder in which you want to store the 9 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 9 8/15/08 2:59:36 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension file. The actual sound file should download onto your computer’s hard drive, or to a flash memory stick if you so indicate. You can then play it off your computer, burn a CD, etc. The archive is searchable, so you can enter a term such as arte, comida, Peru, etc. , to help find material on topics you are studying. BBC Mundo http://news. bbc. co. k/hi/spanish/news/ The site contains a wealth of text, multimedia, video, and audio materials, much of it organized by topic. Studio 834 provides interviews with speakers from all over the Spanish-speaking world, and many interviews include scripts. Use this resource to familiarize students with regional variations in accent. Radio nuevos horizontes http://www. nuevoshorizontes. org This site has a searchable archive of programs on a variety of culture, traditions, health, immigration, arts, literature, and personal finance topics. Free downloads of audio only; CDs available for purchase, with transcripts.Langmedia http://langmedia. fivecolleges. edu/collection/lm_spanish. html. Students can view short videos of native speaker interaction, from a variety ofcountries. Goodfornovicestudentsforcomprehensionandodeling,andfor comparing accents from a variety of countries. Uteach proficiency exercise s http://www. laits. utexas. edu/spe/siteindex. php Here students can view short videos of native speakers doing performance tasks on a variety of topics at the novice, intermediate, and advanced levels. Language Acquisitions Resource Center at San Diego State University http://larc. dsu. edu/voces. VideotapedinterviewswithwomenfromGuatemala and Mexico present students with a variety of voices and experiences. The worksheet available at nflrc. hawaii. edu/voces provides a good example of showing evidence of engagement. Univision http://www. univision. com Enter â€Å"videos† in the â€Å"Uniclave† window and for a searchable collection of videos of one to eight minutes’ duration with news, entertainment, and more. Radio Caracol de Colombia http://www. caracol. com. co/ Has an audio archive link on the left-hand menu. 10 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 10 /15/08 2:59:36 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Strategy 8: Get students to interview and reco rd native speakers, and share their recordings with classmates. Across the country, students in more and more communities today have the opportunity to use Spanish outside the classroom. Students can consider interviewing neighbors, parents’ co-workers, school personnel, etc. Handheld cassette recorders, microcassette recorders, digital voice recorders, certain mp3 players, computers, digital cameras, some phones, and iPods and other devices can be used to record voices.If your department can invest in even five digital voice recorders, you can lend them to students to do their interviews. Have your beginning students interview a native speaker, write a transcript of the conversation, and share the audio recording withclassmates. Keeptheinterviewssimpleatfirst,focusingonthetopicofthe current chapter or unit. For example, in a chapter on foods, the class can come up with a short questionnaire, for example: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ ?Cualesunacomidatipicadetupais? ?Cuales sonlosingredientes? ?Comoseprepara? ?Cualestucomidafavorita? Reflect with classmates on accents, regional vocabulary, and other haracteristics and how they effect pronunciation. At the intermediate level, include in your planning learning the language needed to call to request the interview, set up an appointment, and write a thank-you letter in Spanish. See attachment F (p. 23) for sample materials for an interview project from a Level 2 unit about jobs. Strategy 9: Target component skills for listening. Focus your listening activities on component skills and strategies for listening. Here are some suggestions: skill Discourse type task type gain familiarity with regional variations interviews with people from various countries (BBC Mundo Estudio 834)Mark a transcript where regional differences in pronunciation, vocabulary, verb forms, etc. , are evident. news and information check list activity recognize familiar vocabulary in the context of speech intended for native speakers â⠂¬Å"Pesca las palabras† 11 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 11 8/15/08 2:59:36 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension skill Discourse type task type recognizing cognates in the stream of speech news and information texts Prepare a cloze passage by eliminating cognates; students listen and complete. The topic of health often has many cognates. Students listen and note as many cognates s they can. inferring social relationships from linguistic clues recorded interactions between native speakers such as those on the Langmedia Web site Note and discuss the linguistic clues. listening for main idea, detail news and information texts Prepare a T chart on the board, with â€Å"Main idea† and â€Å"Supporting detail. † Listen, and then ask what students understood. Have class decide where each piece of information should go. comprehending specific information news and information Complete charts, fill in blanks, write numbers heard, and answer prepared multipl e-choice or open-ended questions. dvertisements Strategy 10: Create a culture of listening in your classroom. â€Å"Tweak† your classroom oral activities so they require students to listen actively to each other. For instance, expand your â€Å"Think – Pair – Share† activities to make them â€Å"Think – Pair – Share – Compare. † Have students share what the partner said, not what the student reporting said. Then after hearing from several students, ask another student to compare. For example, on Monday morning, students think about what they did on the weekend, pair with a partner to say what they did, and report to the class what their partner did.After hearing four to six students’ activities, ask another person which two students had the most similar weekends or which two had the most different weekends, or what all the students had in common. This activity, in addition to providing evidence of listening comprehension , practices the comparison and synthesis skills so important to the formal essay and formal oral presentation tasks. Tune into the mp3 generation. Encourage students to include Spanish music on their digital music players, and seek out Spanish language podcasts.As technology allows, create your own podcasts of lessons, explanations, or poems you are studying, andencouragestudentstoputthemontheiriPods. GarageBand(forMac)and Audacity (a free download for PCs) allow you to make your own audio programs. Even ifyouhaven’tlearnedthetoolsyet,manyofyourstudentshave. Getthemtoshow you, and start listening! 12 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 12 8/15/08 2:59:36 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Attachment A: Provide evidence of engagement – Fill in a chart Listening source – University of Texas Spanish Proficiency Exercises http://www. laits. utexas. edu/spe/beg06. tml Preparacion:Conunapareja,escribeunalistadetrabajos,oficiosyprofesiones en espanol. †¢ Ahoraescuchaalasseispersonashablardeltrabajodesuspadreso parientes. Usatuboligrafoparaanotarlosqueescuchas. nombre lo que hace el padre lo que hace la madre Ejemplo simplificado Nativo hablante Beatriz Luna Torres Alejandro Ernesto Madgits Regina Ruiz Maria Angeles Fernandez Fernando Camacho Apuntes para MI presenacion oral †¢ Hablacontucompanero. UsatuboligrafoVERDEparaanandirinformacion queescuchotucompanero. †¢ Escuchaotravezparaverificartutrabajo. †¢ Aplicacion:EscribelostrabajosdedospersonasqueTUconoces.Luego describe sus trabajos oralmente (graba la descripcion para tu portafolio). 13 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 13 8/15/08 2:59:36 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension mi nombre lo que hace lo que hace Attachment B: Sample â€Å"Checklist† activity based on the Radio United Nations news piece Lluvias en Costa Rica. Transcripcion–reportedeRadioNacionesUnidas,19deoctubrede2007. http://www. un. org/radio/es/detail/6528. html Nombre Fec ha: A. Preparacion.? Quetiempohaceaquihoy? B. Escucha. UsatuboligrafoAZULymarcaconunapalomita(v)azullas palabras que escuchas. C. Lee tus palabras a tu companero.Escucha las palabras de tu companero. Marcasuspalabrasconunapalomita(v)verde. Palabra Yo escuche v mi companero escucho v en verde leimos en el texto sol calor lluvias nieve dias anos nacion aguas mas menos ayuda rios 14 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 14 8/15/08 2:59:37 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Palabra Yo escuche v mi companero escucho v en verde leimos en el texto institucion agencias comunicacion necesidades emergencia D. Anota numeros que escuchaste en el reporte. E. Anota5palabrasqueescuchastequeNOestanenlalista. F. Leelatrascripciondelprograma. Marcaenlaultimacolumnalaspalabrasque estanenelpasaje. G. APLICACIONComparaeltiempoenCostaRicaconeltiempoaqui. Engagement Independent listening Cooperative listening Application 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 15 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 15 8/15/08 2 :59:37 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Lluvias en Costa Rica Dejan 18 Muertos T ranscript for Checklist Activity – Reporte de Radio Naciones Unidas, 19 octubre de 2007. http://www. un. org/radio/es/ detail/6528. html r eal Descargar imPrimir LaslluviastorrencialesdelosultimosdiasenCosta Rica,handejado18muertosycuantiosasperdidas materiales. El Coordinador Residente del Sistema de la ONU enesanacion,JoseManuelHermidas,describiolos fectos adversos que han tenido las aguas sobre el territorio costarricense. â€Å"Hanhabidoinundacionesseverasenvariaspartesdelpais. Todoellitoraldel PacificoestaafectadoytambienenelValleCentral. Delos81cantonesenCostaRica, 65 se han visto afectados. † Los danos provocados en las cosechas y las redes viales han sido estimados de manerapreliminar,enmasde70millonesdedolares. SegunelRepresentantedel PNUD, las agencias de la ONU en Costa Rice se encuentran listas para ofrecer la ayuda que pueda requerirse. â€Å"Hemosestadoene strechacomunicacionconelentenacionalresponsablepara atenderlasemergencias,queeslaComisionNacionaldeEmergencias.Hemosidoa unareunionconellos,ademasdelascomunicacionescontinuasportelefonoy noshan dadounalistadelasnecesidadesmasurgentes. HemosinformadoaOCHAconuna solicitud, de parte del coordinador residente, para poder acceder a fondos para poder, entre otras cosas, comprar algunos de los requerimientos mas urgentes que segun la comisionnacionaldeemergenciasoncamillasymantas. † El representante de la ONU en Costa Rica, dijo que las necesidades de alimentos delosdamnificados,estansiendoresueltasporelgobiernoycompaniasprivadas. Attachment B: Teachers’ Notes ObjectiveIdentify familiar vocabulary in the stream of authentic speech. Prelistening–Askstudents? Quetiempohacehoy Lluevemuchoaqui? Discuss a bit about weather, at students’ level. Then pass out paper, and have students write about today’s weather. 16 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 16 8/15/08 2:59:3 7 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Listening Instructstudentstolistencarefully,andCHECKinBLUEorBLACKpen,any words on the list that they hear. Ask if they want to listen again, and repeat. Pair students and tell students to read the words they checked. Tell partners to useaGREENPENtocheckthewordstheirpartnerheard.DO NOT let them look at each others’ papers. This is the cooperative listening part—they listen to their partners’ answers and record. They should check all words the partner heard, even if they think the word wasn’t there. Then tell them they will listen again, and they should check to see if this time they hear words they didn’t last time. These should be circled in green pen. Post-listening Pass out the transcript so students can read and see which words in fact were there. Application Even beginning students can make a basic comparison with words like tambien, pero, mas, and menos.Students staple their paper to their par tner’s paper and pass both in. You score on the rubric in Attachment E, which includes Engagement (followed directions and completed all listening tasks), Independent listening (how accurate student was on the first listening, indicated by checks in blue or black ink), Cooperative listening (includes the green checks, which generally correspond to partner’s paper and circled words, showing the ability to recognize the words once alerted to their presence), and Application (the post-listening Reflections task). 17 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 17 /15/08 2:59:37 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Attachment C: Generic Listening Task ?Pesca la palabra! Tema: Notasdelapreparacion Yo escuche mi companero escucho Conclusiones 4. clearly meets expectations 3. meets basic expectations 2. approaching expectations 1. Does not meet expectations Engagement Independent listening Cooperative listening Application 18 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 18 8/15/08 2:59:37 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Attachment C: Pesca la Palabra – Lesson Guide Long-term goals (claims): †¢ Recognizefamiliarvocabularyinthestreamofspeech. Comprehendspeechintendedfornativespeakers. Specific objective: †¢ Recognizedfamiliarvocabularyandcognateswhenheardinthestreamof speech in authentic sources. Level: †¢ Novice(Spanish1and2) Teacher preparation Find an authentic listening passage relating to a current chapter theme or topic. Prepare the link on your computer, or download the file. Select a one- to twominute â€Å"chunk† of the program to focus on, noting the time marker in your media player for easy access. Select chunks with a good variety of words students have studied, as well as cognates. Photocopy the generic ?Pesca la Palabra! handout, filling out the theme and pre- and postlistening tasks prior to photocopying the form, if you wish. Once students are familiar with the procedure, they can create their own forms on notebook paper. Classroom procedures Prelistening: Chose an appropriate selection of prelistening strategies: †¢ Readthetheme/titleofthepresentationandaskforpredictionsaboutthe program. †¢ Showaphotoorobjectrelatedtothetopicanddescribeit. †¢ Predictcontent. †¢ Brainstormknownvocabulary. †¢ Offertopreteachfivevocabularywordstheydon’tknowbutthinkthey’ll need to understand the program.You could get the class to make a list of 10 words, then pick only 5 to translate for them. †¢ Hacerpredicciones-? Quevanaescuchar? 19 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 19 8/15/08 2:59:38 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Usetheâ€Å"Notasdelapreparacion†forstudentstoshowevidenceofengagement in the pre-listening activity. Instruct them to write a description of the picture, or list the vocabulary the class brainstormed, or write their predictions of what will be in the passage. Listening Students listen and jot down words they comprehend in column 1; they can listen twice if they wish.Pairing: Pair students. Students take turns reading words from their list. †¢ Ifyourpartnersaysawordthatisalreadyonyourlist,putacheckbyit. †¢ IfyourpartnersaysawordthatisNOTonyourlist,writeitinthesecond column. †¢ IfyourpartnersaysawordthatISonyourlist,putacheckbytheword,in the second column. Listen again If you hear a word your partner said, put a check by it in the first column. Postlistening The generic form has a place for conclusions. Depending on the difficulty of the passage and the level of the students, create a closing task. †¢ SummarizeinEnglish(orSpanish) †¢ Personalize(e. . ,Describeeltiempoennuestraciudadhoy) †¢ Reflect(Wastaskdifficultoreasy? Why? Observationsontheaccentof speaker, etc. ) Evaluation – Use the rubric in Attachment E. 20 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 20 8/15/08 2:59:38 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Attachment D GenericlisteningactivityforNewsProgram. F orexample,usewith Univision. com video segments. Noticias de la semana Antes de escuchar Fecha Fuente Pais Titular ?Quesabessobreeltema? Apuntes ?Quien? ?Que? ?Cuando? ?Donde? ?Como? Resumen/comparacion/personalizacion/opinion 21 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 21 /15/08 2:59:38 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Attachment E Formative Listening Comprehension Rubric, evaluating the listening process Have Pairs staPle PaPers togetHer anD turn in. graDe on tHe ruBric. 4 . clearly meets expectations 3. meets basic expectations 2. approaching expectations 1. not meeting expectations Written evidence and teacher observation provide evidence of full engagement throughout the listening activity. Notes and teacher observation show evidence of engagement; attention may wander, at times. Notes and teacher observation show artial evidence of engagement; off-task behavior or lack of attention detract from engagement. Notes and teacher observations show evidence of sporadic engag ement in listening activities. Independent comprehension clearly meets expectations for level. * Provides some evidence of independent comprehension; relies on classmates and total class discussion for some information. Provides little evidence of independent comprehension; relies heavily on partner work and class discussion for information. Prevents very little to no evidence of independent comprehension; may attempt to opy classmates’ work. Cooperative listening Shows clear evidence of sharing, listening, and note taking during pair interactions. Shows some evidence of sharing, listening, and note taking during pair interactions. Shows partial evidence of engagement in cooperative listening tasks. Contributes little to cooperative listening activities; may be off task and may distract classmates. Application Creatively and accurately uses information from listening in concluding tasks. Uses information from listening to complete concluding tasks. Uses minimal information fr om listening n completing concluding tasks. Provides little evidence of listening in completing concluding tasks. Engagement Independent listening *Expectations vary by task and level. 16 100 10 70 15 95 9 65 14 90 8 60 13 85 7 55 12 80 6 50 11 75 22 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 22 8/15/08 2:59:38 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Attachment F: Interview Activity As designed, this activity is appropriate at a Level 2 or higher. Goals †¢ Usesimple,familiarphrasestocommunicatewithSpanishspeakersinthe community. †¢ Toobtainspeechsamplesfromavarietyofnativespeakersforin-class listening. TolearnaboutjobsthataredonebySpanish-speakingcommunity members. †¢ Tocomprehendavarietyofnativespeakervoicestalkingaboutafamiliar topic. Procedures Preparation: †¢ Teachandpracticequestionsneededtogetinformationaboutanadult acquaintance’s job (see handout below). †¢ AssignstudentstofindaSpanish-speakingcommunitymemberto interview and record. Technology not e – Many students have digital cameras, digital video cameras, phones, microcassette players, laptops, iPods with the iTalk microphone, mp3 players with voice recording capability, or other technology for recording the conversations.Our department has purchased a limited number of Olympus digital voice recorders (at around $70 each), which are lent out to students for one night if they have no other means of recording the conversation. Students are given a week or two to get the interviews to allow for technical problems. The following Web site has information on Olympus digital voice recorders. http://www. olympusamerica. com/cpg_section/cpg_voicerecorders. asp Project: Students record their interviews and transcribe them on the ENTREVISTA handout. 23 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 23 8/15/08 2:59:38 PM Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Sharing: In class, students share their interviews. Classmates fill in the chart with details about each conversation they hear . Evaluation: Based on completion of interview, accuracy of transcript, and note taking during the in-class sharing. Thanks to Lucinda Salinas, Alamo Heights High School Spanish 2 teacher, for sharing this activity. Used with permission. CreatedtouseinconjunctionwiththeHolttextbookExpresateLevel2. 24 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 24 8/15/08 2:59:39 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies Mi entrevista con †¦ Ud. Clase, quiero presentarles a Ud:? AquesededicaUd.? o? QueclasedetrabajorealizaUd.? El o Ella: Ud.? Quetipodepreparacionsenecesitaparaestaprofesion? (Fui a – I went to) El o Ella: Ud.? Comoleayudaelespanolensutrabajoosuvida? El o Ella:: Ud.? Otra pregunta, UD. escoja. ? El o Ella: 25 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 25 8/15/08 2:59:39 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension i salinas – alamo HeigHt HigH scHool – 2007 nombre de su companero ?vecino, amigo de la familia,etc†¦? el oficio Dime algo†¦ 26 08-1442. AP. SF. Span ish. indd 26 8/15/08 2:59:39 PM Pre-AP ® Listening Comprehension StrategiesAttachment G: Lesson Guide Goal–Familiarizestudentswithregionalaccents. From level one, engage students in listening to diverse voices. 1. Preparation †¢ Copythescriptsforthreeinterviews. Suggestedsourceis BBCMundo’s Estudio 834 †¢ http://news. bbc. co. uk/hi/spanish/programmes/estudio_834/ †¢ JavierZanetti,soccerplayerfromArgentina †¢ SaraBaras,flamencodancerfromSpain †¢ WillieColon,musicianfromNewYork(PuertoRicanancestry) 2. Materials Photocopies of scripts; highlighters. 3. Procedure †¢ Prelistening. a. Provide name, profession, and country. b. Ask for predictions about what students might hear. c.Students scan transcript to check on predictions, and find words they understand. †¢ Listening. Have students listen to each sample while following on their copy of the transcript. They should highlight any words or sounds that seem â€Å"different† from w hat they are used to hearing. Compare impressions and listen again. 4. Debrief Avoid generalizations like â€Å"in Spain, they speak like this,† or â€Å"Cubans pronounce it like this. † There is a great deal of regional and personal variation within countries. Make comments and observations about the ways the students hear THIS particular speaker pronounced at this particular moment.The goal is to increase the students’ comfort with variations, not to teach the specific characteristics of specific regional accents. (That could well be a different lesson at another level). Students write one or two sentences about each speaker’s pronunciation, and how easy or difficult the speaker was to understand. 27 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 27 8/15/08 2:59:39 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension 5. Evaluation Based principally on engagement as evidenced by notes taken on prelistening, highlighting on the transcript, postlistening conclusions, and t eacher observation of participation in classroom discussion.Attachment G T ranscripts of segments from BBC Mundo Estudio 834 (4/7/06, 6/2/06, 4/21/06) Sara Baras – bailarina de flamenco HablaconBBCMundodespuesdehacerdosobrasdebaile,â€Å"MarianaPineda†y â€Å"Juanalaloca. † BBC: ? Queaprendistedespuesdecasi,segunentiendo,800representaciones entrelasdos? Sara Baras: Puessi,pasamoslasmil. Fueronmasdequinientas representacionesdecadauna,oseaqueaprendimuchisimo. Elhechodetrabajar al lado de directores tan importantes como Luis Pascual y Luis Olmos, ha sido algo que me ha llenado de cosas nuevas, de cosas de teatro, no solamente de baile.Yahoraescomosiapreciaramuchomasunquejido,ohacerdemimisma, porque el hecho de meterte en el personaje de alguien te va acostumbrando a expresarte siempre pensando en alguien. Cuando de repente no tienes nada que contar, sino simplemente bailar es algo muy diferente. El haber hecho â€Å"Mariana Pineda†yâ€Å"Juanalaloca† creoquemehaensenadomuchomasdeloqueyo pensaba,nosoloaniveldeespectaculo,sinopormibaile. BBC: Ydosmujeresexcepcionalesenesosdosespectaculos†¦? Queesparati unamujerexcepcional Cualesserianlosatributosdeunamujerque,comotu, esexcepcionalenlosuyo? Sara Baras: Muchas gracias†¦ risas) Yo creo que una mujer excepcional, por ejemplo, es mi madre. Creo que una buena persona, una persona con inquietudes,inteligente,generosa,unapersonaquedaalgomas,? no? Creoque sobre todo las madres me parecen mujeres excepcionales. El amor que puedan dar no lo comparo con nada. Willie Colonseconsiderauncreadordelasalsa. NacioenNuevaYork,nieto de puertorriquenos. Tengo entendido que el 2006 es el ano de tu retiro, que estaspensandoenguardardefinitivamentetutrombon. Queriapreguntartesi realmenteteretirasoseguirasenlastarimashastaqueelcuerpoaguante. 28 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 28 8/15/08 2:59:39 PMPre-AP ® Listening Comprehension Strategies W. C. : (Risas)†¦ No es exactamente un retiro, teng o algunos proyectos a los que quiero dedicarme y no puedo hacerlo mientras estoy de gira con la orquesta. Ahora estoy en el proceso de grabar un LP, puede ser mi ultimo y yo creo que me mantendriasiempreapegadoalamusica,laproduccionylacomposicion. Son cuarenta anos de viaje†¦ al final de este ano puede ser. BBC: Muchosdicenquelaedaddeorodelasalsanovolverayqueinclusono faltamuchoparaquedesaparezcacomogenerorentableenelnegociodela musica. Comolovestu,? lasalsaestamuriendo,seestatransformando,esta cambiandoaotrogenero?Colon: Bueno, esa es la ley natural, pero yo tengo confianza que algo viene, todoloviejoesnuevoydelonuevounosecansadespuesdeunrato. Yocreo queesunciclo,especialmentecuandolatecnologiahacambiado,quese puedegrabarunbuenLPenelsotanooenelgarajeconunacomputadora quenoestancara. Esovaapermitirquedenuevo,comoenmiepoca,surjan productores independientes porque uno de los problemas ha sido que las grandes corporacioneshanidoadquiriendotodoslossellos(discograficos)pequenos, ent oncesmatanlacompetenciaytambienlahonestidadylarazondeserdela musica, una musica que nace de la esquina del barrio.En verdad no entienden la esenciayelporquelamusicaeratanrentableyestanimportante. Javier Zanetti juega futbol profesional en Italia, pero es de Argentina. El estableciounafundacionparaayudaraninospobresenArgentina. BBC: ? QuesignificaPupi,dedondevieneesenombre? Javier Zanetti: PupiesunsobrenombrequemepusieronLopezyCaballero cuandocomenceajugarfutbolenelclubargentinoBanfield. Despueslepusimos esenombrealafundacion. Hacecuatroanosquecomenzamosysinceramente hemoshechomuchisimascosaspararecaudarfondosparaestoschicos:partidos a beneficio, calendarios, pulseritas con los colores de Argentina, etc.Todo esto para ellos, para seguir fomentando y haciendo crecer los proyectos que tenemos en mente. BBC: Segun tenemos entendido son unos cien los ninos que reciben asistencia diariaenlafundacion†¦ Javier Zanetti: Si,enestosmomentoshaymasdecienchicosdetresacinco anos — los que nos estuvieron acompanando durante estos cuatro anos, ahora 29 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 29 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension tienensiete,ocho-ademastrabajamosconloshermanosdeestoschicosycon lospadres. Queremosunpococerrarelcirculo,paraayudaratodaslafamiliaen lasdistintasproblematicasquesepuedenpresentar. BibliographyHumbach,J. ,Smith,S. ,andMadrigalVelasco,S. ,Expresate Spanish 2. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2005. 30 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 30 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM GeneralStrategiesforAP ® Spanish Listening Comprehension Brant Hadzima Newfound Regional High School Bristol, New Hampshire Introduction Teaching and assessing listening comprehension are perhaps the most challenging components of the AP curriculum, due in great part to the many variables that affect a student’s ability to comprehend spoken Spanish: the physical classroom environment and school equipment, learning styles, note-taking skills, regional dia lects, etc.Many teachers may assume that they are assessing â€Å"listening comprehension† when in fact they are assessing listening and cognitive reasoning skills. Listening may be part of the exercise, but the inevitable tasks of reasoning, critical thinking—even the kinesthetic connection to writing—are factors that can drastically affect the outcome. In essence, two of the major obstacles in solely assessing listening comprehension are first determining which factors may impede a true assessment of listening comprehension, and then making every effort to offer students the opportunity to mitigate these variables.This will help to provide a true baseline for students, and teachers will have a better understanding of whether they need to remediate listening or focus more on reasoning and critical thinking strategies. Teachers must know what students hear in order to then address how to analyze and synthesize the information presented orally. 08-1442. AP. SF. S panish. indd 31 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Eliminating Variables Although it may appear to be obvious, there are several issues that the classroom teacher must evaluate and address prior to administering a listening comprehension assessment.First and foremost, it is imperative that students are provided with the best possible equipment and physical space for listening comprehension. If no language lab is available, a classroom should be optimized for a listening environment: Students should be provided with headphones and a listening center, the room should be quiet, comfortable, and free from distractions such as PA announcements and hallway activity. (I can vividly recall an adept AP Spanish student who performed poorly on one of the practice listening comprehension assessments for no particular reason.I evaluated the listening comprehension segment, tried to determine if the regional accent was overwhelming, and even took the test myself. Exasperated, I finally asked the student why he did so poorly. His response: â€Å"I was watching the garbage truck picking up the dumpster outside the window. † By simply drawing the blinds, his scores improved remarkably. ) Once the classroom space and physical environment has been evaluated and addressed, it is important to know and understand each student’s learning style. Most people tend to rely heavily on visual references in order to supplement auditory comprehension.An example might be how teachers themselves process information at a faculty meeting. If the principal states an outline and a deadline for a project with no visual reference whatsoever, it is more probable that the staff will misinterpret and/ or forget the information stated. Although we have developed coping skills such as taking notes and asking clarifying questions, it is more likely that the request will be taken seriously and acted on in a timely fashion if it is written as well. Another exa mple is when teachers are assigning homework.If teachers state what the homework will be without writing it on the board, there will inevitably be confusion for some (if not all) students. Of course there will be some who will diligently write down the assignment and ask a question if confused. Others, however, will remain silent and may not understand or remember the assignment. Therefore, one essential preassessment that should be done early in the school year is to have students determine their learning style. There are many assessments readily available, and one particularly detailed assessment is the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) developed by Richard M.Felder and Barbara A. Soloman of North Carolina State University. The Web site address is www4. ncsu. edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/ public/ILSpage. html, and it provides a free, 44-question Web-based assessment for students to determine their learning styles. Students should use this information 32 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 32 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM GeneralStrategiesforAP ® Spanish Listening Comprehension to better understand how they learn and process information, and teachers should discuss in the classroom how to best prepare for listening comprehension with the understanding that each student learns differently.Once the teacher and students understand their learning styles, the next step is to help auditory learners further hone and process their listening skills, and to provide the more visual learners with coping skills necessary to compensate for their discomfort with being assessed for listening comprehension. A student who â€Å"doesn’t like† listening comprehension and who â€Å"performs poorly† on these assessments may struggle due to personal learning style—and not due to Spanish language aptitude. We all have students who can read and write very well in Spanish, but who are not proficient in listening comprehension and/or speaking.It must be surmised that the se students do not have a deficiency in Spanish, but rather in processing auditory information. Teaching more Spanish will not make them better listeners. On the contrary, teachers must make a conscious effort to help students develop coping skills and to help the students feel more at ease with the style of assessment. Pretesting Listening Comprehension After addressing physical space and learning style, it is important to give a comprehensive listening assessment in Spanish to obtain a baseline and to observe student test-taking strategies.It is best to utilize assessments that model what will be tested on the AP Spanish Language Examination, and AP Spanish–style listening comprehension assessments with resource kits are readily available for purchase and do quite well for student preparation. AP Central ® has audio files available and sample assessments as well for teacher use in the classroom. Regardless, teachers should pretest listening comprehension with short dialog ues and narratives, and also medium-to-long narratives and dialogues. I recommend giving students an overview of how they will be pretested, and to recommend that students take notes when necessary.During the actual pretest it is a good idea to observe student behavior. Perhaps more valuable than the data from the pretest is the observation of student test-taking skills;i. e. ,whichstudentstookthoroughnotesandwhichonesjustlistened? What didthenoteslooklike—weretherelists,graphicorganizers,andothervisualaides? Whichstudentswereeasilydistractedand/orwereunabletofocus? Didstudents simply look for words written in the multiple-choice answers that were said in the dialogue (â€Å"word recognition†), or did they first interpret the information and then use processofeliminationtoselectthebestpossibleanswer? 3 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 33 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM s Pecial focus: Teaching Listening Comprehension Most likely, the students who performed the best in the assessment were the ones who were taking notes, who were focused, and who concentrated on understanding and interpreting the information instead of just attempting to recognize words that matched the ones in the answers provided. Obviously, basic proficiency in Spanish is essential, and a student who does not have the proper skill base from prior classes will be at a complete loss.However, assuming that students have had the proper prior training (for more information, please refer to the AP Vertical Teams ® and Pre-AP publications on the AP Web site), the issue at hand will be to teach students to be better listeners. Teaching Listening Skills Once a baseline for listening comprehension has been established, the task of honing listening skills and forming coping mechanisms begins. The first step is to help students create their own system for listening.I have found it very helpful to model good test-taking skills as a way to broach the topic of how to tackle the listening component. After t he students take the initial pretest in listening comprehension, I take the test myself in front of the class. I copy the answer key onto an overhead transparency, and we play the test out loud. As the dialogues are played, I take notes on the overhead or the board, and create links and graphic organizers. I then model the answer selection on the overhead using the process of elimination, and explaining why certain answers are wrong while referring to my notes.Often students will start to discuss the thought process, and it becomes an interactive class where students generate ideas and discuss what they did for that particular dialogue or narrative. At times students will volunteer to direct the next dialogue, and I allow them to model their thought process for the class. The essential component to that particular lesson is that students see how to process information that is presented verbally, that they observe and evaluate techniques that worked (and didn’t work). At that point, they should begin to develop a routine for listening comprehension that works for them.I finish the lesson by having students tell me what they intend to do differently next time to perform better. For the next listening comprehension activity I eliminate the variable of the multiple-choice questions. This gives students the opportunity to focus directly on the dialogue or narrative and to employ their personal listening strategies. The class begins by brainstorming various note-taking techniques. Next, students are asked to listen to a 10-minute narrative and to take notes on the essential information.When the narrative ends, students are allotted 15 minutes to summarize the narrative in 34 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 34 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM GeneralStrategiesforAP ® Spanish Listening Comprehension their own words (in Spanish). We then read our summaries out loud, and by sharing we realize what may have been missed, what was truly essential, and what impeded our understand ing. Students should begin to realize that deficiencies in vocabulary, perhaps dialects, the rate and speed of the speaker, and background information may be impediments for comprehension. PracticeWhen students understand the impediments to comprehending a dialogue or narrative, the task then becomes practicing, and learning by trial and error. Unlike writing or grammar, there is a limit to skills that can be taught for simply listening. Essentially, once distractions have been eliminated, the format of the assessment is familiar, and note-taking skills have been instructed and reviewed, the only way to improve is through continual practice. Practicing listening comprehension should be frequent, varied, authentic, and routine in order to truly prepare students for the examination.In reality, there should never be an AP Spanish Language class where listening is not an integral component of the class itself. It is important to note that not all listening activities have to be assessed formally, but it is important that they be assessed in a variety of ways. Visual Versus Nonvisual Although there are many ways to present listening, it is best to separate listening comprehension activities into two categories: those with a visual aid and those without.The listening activities that allow for a visual reference may be easier for many students, as they provide a frame of reference and therefore some level of comfort. Using segments from Spanish television, a podcast, or watching a PowerPoint presentation can function as a less threatening form of integrating listening into the daily classes. It is vital to ensure that these activities be varied so that students do not get too accustomed to a particular dialect or vocabulary base.If utilizing segments of Spanish television is part of the class routine, make sure to access different programs and channels whenever possible. Have students â€Å"prelisten† by presenting the title or some background on the segment, and discuss what they could expect to hear. Most importantly, however, assess what they have heard. Assessments can range from a quick student synopsis to a formative written assessment to a class discussion. The assessment piece is essential nevertheless, and 35 08-1442. AP. SF. Spanish. indd 35 8/15/08 2:59:40 PM