Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Teaching English Language Learners in the Content AreasMathematics Essay

Teaching English Language Learners in the Content AreasMathematics - Essay Example To address these challenges, there is need for teachers to employ specific strategies that can improve students learning experience and further improve performance among them (Egbert & Ernst-Slavit, 2010). To ensure that students engage meaningfully and that they benefit from each other when learning mathematics, I suggest collaborative learning to be applied in class. Under this strategy, the teacher forms groups of four or five students, with each group containing an English native speaker. It is also ensured that students work with diverse student backgrounds; a factor that allows each student to get exposed to different cultures. This strategy relies on the finding that collaborative learning among students can help break language barriers better compared to direct teacher-student interaction (Anahalt, Farias & Farias, 2009). One of the main benefits of collaborative learning is that it fosters friendship among students from diverse backgrounds. Students, therefore, learn to rely on each other in a positive way when solving mathematics problems. Collaborative learning, in this case, uses diversity as a tool for learning rather than a challenge for English language learners. Additionally, this strategy promotes socially constructed learning, where the teacher acts as a mediator. The teacher uses language to monitor interactions within social relationships that in this case are groups of students. This benefit relies on the proposition that what individuals are made up of and how they think are functions of their social relationships. This strategy equally provides a rich language, encourages thinking, and consequently yields high-level academic performance among ELLs (Anahalt, Farias & Farias, 2009). One of the technologies presented by Grandgenett, Harris and Hofer (2009), is the virtual manipulative that allows teachers and students to concretely represent abstract

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Impact of Divorce on Children | Essay

Impact of Divorce on Children | Essay The increase in the rate of divorce may be the most dramatic change in family life and divorce is being more and more common in the modern society. Demographers suggest that about 50% of first marriages would be voluntarily dissolved in recent years (Cherlin, 1992). Compared with statistics in the middle of 19th century which only 5% of first marriages ended in divorce (Preston McDonald, 1979), the number is shocking. Moreover, slightly more than half of all divorces involve children and adolescences aged below 18. More than one million children experience parental divorce every year (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998, Table 160), and Bumpass (1990) suggested that about 40% of all children will experience parental divorce before reaching adulthood. The statistics and experts opinions demonstrate the trend of increasing divorce rate, and thus there are more and more children experiencing parental divorce. In response to this, the essay is going to focus on the impact of parental divorc e in different aspects if the event happens at the time when the children are in their adolescence and young adulthood. After that, the essay will discuss the impact on them when they grow up into young adults. With the increasing rate of divorce, parental divorce happening at the time when children are in their adolescence and young adulthood is more commonplace. The parental divorce may affect the children in different aspects. The impact may also be widespread. A 25-year study of 60 post-divorce families with 131 children was conducted by psychologist Judith Wallerstein. Wallerstein (2001) finds out that the immediate effects of divorce on children may be different according to their gender, age and developmental stage. For adolescents which are one of the focuses of this essay, they will suffer depression. They will also have suicidal thoughts and express anxiety about having successful marriages. Sandford(2008) also suggests that some findings in 1990s indicated that children of divorce have lower academic achievement. They may also have some behavioral, psychological, relationship or even health problems. Researches done over the past years have consistently shown that divorce has a negative impact on the academic achievement of children of divorce. (Wallerstein, Corbin, Lewis, 1988; Popenoe, 1993). They are more likely to have low grades and score lower on academic tests. They also have lower educational aspirations and are two to three times more likely to be dropped out of school. The impact may continue to their adulthood and lower their social competence as they just achieve lower levels of education and thus lower occupational status. Thus, their income is usually less. Adolescents experiencing parental divorce may also have different psychological problems. According to Wallerstein (2001), the level of depression and anxiety is higher in children of divorce. Their self esteem is also lower and they experience more often use of psychological services. It is found that girls from divorced families are much more depressed than girls from intact families in some cases. For boys, they are more hopeless and discouraged when there are more family distresses. It should be noted that some differences in psychological well-being may due to financial disadvantages. Compared with peers from married families, children of divorce may have a lower standard of living. It is due to two reasons. Firstly, living standard of women usually decline more than mens after divorce (Ross, 1995). Secondly, most children live with their mothers after divorce (Smyth, Sheenhan and Felberg, 2001). Thus they usually live with a lower family income. They will probably move to new r esidences and to poor neighborhoods. Because of the difficult economic conditions, they would have another form of loss and become more depress. Children of divorce are also prone to different behavioral problems. They may have disorders in conduct, difficulty with authorities and behaviors that are antisocial (Hetherington and Kelly, 2002). Compared with children from intact families, they are also two to three times more probably to engage in adolescent delinquency and the conduct problems are more common among boys than in girls. Jeynes (2001) also suggests that adolescent from divorced families have alcohol more often and in larger quantities. They are also more likely to take drugs, have pre-marital sex, end up in prison and commit murder, etc. Apart from psychological and behavioral problems, relationship problems are common among children from divorced families. Sandford (2008) suggests that female adolescents that have experienced parental divorce are more likely to have earlier sexual activities and have more sexual partners than those without experience in parental divorce during their high school years. He also points out that they begin their menstruation earlier. And it seems to be some relationships between early menstruation and early sexual intercourse. It is suggested that the girls having earlier sexual activity have poor self-regulatory skills. It might be attributed to the avoidance of teaching the skills needed to gain self-control in divorced families. Moreover, it might be due to disengagement between these children and their parents at a younger age. Thus their relationship is not as good as that in intact family. Divorced childrens relationship with parents is also weaker (Sandford, 2008). According to research done by Hetherington and Kelly (2002), similar proportion of children from divorced families and from intact families feel close to their mothers (70% vs. 80%). However, only less than one-third of children report such closeness with their father while 70% of children with married parents report these feelings. The findings coincide with other researches that there are high proportion of disengaged or totally absent fathers following divorces. It is the conflicts between the ex-spouses and custody arrangements that cause fathers to feel disengaged from their children. Avoidance of child support payments is also a reason for the fathers to stay away from their children. Because of the above reasons, adolescents from divorced families view their father to be less caring. Marital instability is also another relationship faced by children from divorced families when they grow up and it wil l be discussed later in the essay. Although research found quite a lot of negative impacts on adolescents when they face parental divorce, positive consequences are also possible. A study by Arditti (1999) suggests that the children from divorced families, especially daughters, develop very close relationships with their custodial mother. It may be due to the extra care given by the custodial mothers as their fathers are disengaged from the families. The impact of divorce on children may not be short term. It is possible that divorce will affect the children in different aspects even when they grow up into young adults. Several impacts are confirmed by Amato (2000) that they are consistent with prior research. Firstly, children with divorced parents are more likely to experience psychological problems in adulthood. Secondly, they have more problems in forming and maintaining stable intimate relationships with their partners. Thirdly, they have weaker ties to their parents when they grow up into young adults.   Amato (2000) suggests that divorce is undoubtedly â€Å"a risk factor for psychological problems during childhood and into adulthood†. It is agreed that there is a tendency of adults having parental divorce experience less satisfaction with their lives, higher rates of depression and lower self-esteem. Wallerstein, Lewis and Blakeslee (2001) findings also point out that about one third of the children had serious psychological problems such as clinical depression, poor performance in school or difficulty in maintaining friendships. Moreover, their 25-year in depth study also suggests that even 25 years after the divorce, the children (now adults) â€Å"still recalled the shock, unhappiness, loneliness, bewilderment and anger†. Higher level of depression has also been found to continue in adulthood. Both men and women report comparatively worse of psychological well-being. Although Amato (2000) argues that the adults who experienced parental divorce and are suffering fro m serious psychological problems are not as many as one third of them, the effects of divorce would probably persist into adulthood. Weaker ties to their parents is another impact when children grown up into young adults. Weisberg and Appleton (2003) describe a survey carried out by a sociologist. 1500 adults who had experienced a divorce before the age of 14 and a comparison group of children from intact family were surveyed. It was found that children of divorce (now adults) felt they were outsiders in their own home. They also had frequent feelings of being alone and were less likely to seek comfort from their parents. The weak ties to their parents usually persist into their adulthood. Another research done by Hetherington and Kelly (2002) also found that less than one-third of children of divorce report close feelings to their fathers. And even when they grow up into adult, they doubt whether their fathers care or love them. It is also suggested that children with parental divorce would have more problems in forming and maintaining stable intimate relationships with their partners (Amato, 2000). According to Hetherington and Kelly (2002), children of divorce are more likely than children of intact families to have marital instability and lower marital satisfaction. They generally have more thoughts about divorce and the divorce rates among children of divorce are also a bit higher when they grow up into adults. The phenomenon may be explained by the wariness to commit to a relationship, perceiving divorce as an alternative for unhappy marriages. Moreover, a contentious family life may result in generally weaker relationship skills. Weisberg and Appleton (2003) also stated that a lot of studies have shown that parental divorce is a risk factor for other problems in adulthood. The problems include low socioeconomic attainment, poor subjective wellbeing, increased marital problems, and a greater likelihood of seeing ones own marriages end in divorce (Amato, 1999). It might be hard to understand why the problems persist into adulthood. Weisberg and Appleton (2003) suggested that parental divorce may lead to financial crisis. The original plans to attend college may be abandoned, thus resulting in lower occupational attainment and wages throughout adulthood. For children who were exposed to poor parental models of interpersonal behavior, they might have difficulty when wanting to form stable, satisfying and intimate relationship as young adults. The above considerations suggest that it may be possible that some children show improvement soon after parental divorce in terms of behavior or relationship, however, some effects might only appear when the children reach young adulthood. Although the essay focuses on the impact of parental divorce on children, it is also important to note some of the methods that the children can adopt in order to adjust to divorce and minimize the negative impacts brought. Kelly (2003) suggests that conflicts between parents should be diminished. Competent residential parenting such as warmth and emotional support and adequate monitoring to the children is also needed. The non-residential parents also have a role. They should offer stable financial support to the divorced family. Regular contacts with the children and involvement in issues related to their children should also be carried out in order to help with childrens adjustment to divorce. It is the effort made by the parents that can minimized the impacts mentioned above. As discussed above, it is shown that parental divorce is an upsetting and disruptive event in the lives of the children. Although some scholars argue that children can develop successfully in a variety of family structures and view divorce as an escape from a dysfunctional home environment, more evidences and findings suggest that having experience of parental divorce may cause different problems such as psychological, emotional, behavioral and social problems. The children in divorced families may also deal with relationships in a disturbed manner. The effect may not be short term and can extent to adulthood in some cases. There may be intergenerational transmission of divorce and the adults may have difficulties in dealing with intimate relationship. The marriages of the adults with parental divorce experience would also be affected. It is arguable that not all children from divorced families suffer from these problems. And there are a lot of factors affect the impacts of parental divorce on children or the recovery process such as access to parents or parental support. Sex difference, the family structure or the relationship with parents may also be some of the factors. Although many factors should be considered, some negative impacts are proved that they would happen more frequently among children with parental divorce. And we should understand the impacts in order to find measures that can help the children adjust to divorce.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Poe - A perfect Plan of Guilt :: essays research papers

Revenge is sweet and guilt it torture. Montresor decides to dabble between revenge and guilt and ultimately learns that revenge has consumed him. This can be seen when Montresor is aware of the suffering that Fortunato is feeling as he begins killing him. The compassion that Montresor feels is coupled with guilt from the murder he committed. These feelings make Montresor’s perfect plan of revenge lead to a lifetime of guilt. Revenge has a thin line which can easily be crossed when the revenge no longer fits the crime. Montresor speaks of this during the first paragraph when he states â€Å"I must not only punish, but punish with impunity† (Poe 141). He wants to be exempt from harm as well as from guilt. This would make the revenge sweet, or satisfying. Montresor comments on a satisfying revenge at the end of the first paragraph by saying â€Å"A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong" (141). Montresor means that revenge must be satisfying, but can not consume himself. He can not step over this line and commit a crime himself. This act will cause guilt upon the avenger and eliminate any satisfying feeling that he might have received from the revenge. Montresor begins to be overtaken by his retribution almost immediately. His fascination with deception is his weak point. Montresor plans a revenge that would satisfy him for the insults that have been committed against him. While doing so he wants to be stealthy and states â€Å"it must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will† (141) He continues to deceive Fortunato by lying to him about the pipe of Amontillado and playing on his nature of a wine connoisseurship. Montresor would say â€Å"I have my doubts† (142) knowing that Fortunato would only become more motivated to taste the Amontillado and tell of its authenticity. It is this deception that he becomes carried away with. This becomes a game for Montresor. He uses Fortunato as a pawn, and plays each move very carefully. While Montresor has become fatally involved in his plan of revenge he still has not forgotten that Fortunato is a friend. When they are ready to go to the vaults, Montresor shows concern for Fortunato’s health.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Globalization and Local cultures Essay

The present scenario represents a highly dynamic environment, where transnational advertising, globalization and local culture are found to be closely linked with each other. This essay discusses and critically evaluates some of the major issues that are involved in the relationship between transnational advertising, globalization and local culture. Issues Some of the significant issues that are linked with transnational advertising, globalization and local cultures are as follow: ? Communication: As a result of globalization, the need for transnational advertising in an effective manner has increased. Globalization has led to the proliferation of huge number of products and it is through advertising only that the consumer can be made aware of the uniqueness present in the product. Transnational advertising requires creativity along with the quality of being magnificent depending on the firm. Critical evaluation: The critical evaluation of the issue of communication depicts that advertising should be based on the proper research and well planned groundwork. Advertising should communicate a specific message to target audience in a persuasive and believable manner and also it should not hamper the cultural values of targeted audience and others (Fowles 1996). Globalization has prompted the evolution of advertising agencies, which conduct market research for the clients. Market research deals with the commercial adaptation of standard social science methods in a qualitative and quantitative manner, which should be interpreted in a realistic form. Production of advertisement should not be restricted to just as a business relation between the agency and client; rather its content and practices must be subjected to some self regulatory codes. For instance, cigarette advertising on TV and radio, magazines and newspaper is banned due to federal acts. On the other hand, lack of representation of people in the advertising of cigarette is the result of self- regulatory code (Sinclair 1991). ? Creating consumer: Advertisers usually focus on some repetitive themes such as contentment, youth, achievement, status, lavishness, fashion and attractiveness. As a result of this, Social Opposition and differences among the class get concealed and workplace conflicts are not revealed. Global campaigns propose that remedies for the human problems can be found in the individual consumption, which depicts a perfect channel for mass energies. Critical evaluation: Critical evaluation of the above paragraph states that Consumer democracy serves as a substitute for establishing political democracy. The transformation in the U. S. Pepsi ad campaign, for use in Brazil, which was ‘Join the Pepsi Revolution’ describes that numerous people are left with no other alternative for expressing their requirement for social modification. The only viable option includes changing the brands and enhancing their consumption. Globalization has caused an increase in the transnational advertising and it is one of significant reasons for the enlargement of transnational culture and collapse of traditional cultures. In French or English, the foreign lifestyles of a blond jetsetter are related with the Western products and resemble a sign of modernity. Not only this, they also believe that the elements, which are modern, are superior. On the other hand, traditional elements are absolutely unpleasant. Thus, it will not be wrong to say that transnational advertising and globalization strive towards the removal of local cultural variations. The strategy of global marketing is highly effective as it rarely requires conscious subversion. The message, which states that ‘we will sell you a culture’, has greatly accounted in the global advertising campaign that acts as a particular advertising message utilized in all the countries. The reason behind an increase in preference of worldwide advertising is that it is extremely economical and more effective despite of the fact that it may wildly clash with the local environment (Stravens 1996). Virtue of respect: This is another major issue which represents relationship between transnational advertising, globalization and local cultures. The process of globalization involves principles and motivation of people. Therefore, it is necessary to make modifications in the global strategy and specific marketing concepts must be directed towards the identified groups. Critical evaluation: Critical evaluation of the above stated paragraph reveals that the virtue of respect can be protected from the infusion of foreign culture, if the government takes effective measures to make this fact clear that although they might have an global outlook, yet traditional values will also be given due consideration. The government of Singapore has done it effectively. Here, government formulated a list depicting good and bad aspects of the Asian and western values. This list assisted in the adoption of good systems from both the Asian and western values. In Singapore, it is very essential to understand the family for understanding the consumer behavior. This is so because family has a huge influence on making the decision related to the product’s purchasing and consumption (Stravens 1996). Economic management: In order to maintain a smooth relation between transnational advertising, globalization and local cultures, it is necessary to focus on the aspect of economic management. Values can play both the positive and negative role depending on the developmental stage of a country and extent of preference given to the Asian values. Not only this, international context is also very important. Critical evaluation: From the above paragraph, it is clear that in a world where goods and services move freely across the national boundaries, Asian values can become a part of liability if they do not understand the significance of transparency and accountability. For instance, Singapore is among the developing country that maintain a right blend between the Asian and western values. On the other hand, in South Korea, grouping of traditional and military cultures has led towards extreme dependence on enterprise system. As a result to this, issues like lack of transparency and failure in rationalizing the business structure have aroused (Sung-Joo 1999). Increase in the Decision makers: Globalization and transnational advertisement has brought about a revolution in the decision making capability. Not only this, it has also increased the number of decision makers in a family (Restall 1997). Critical evaluation: Globalization has led to formulation of developed means of technologies for advertising in an effective manner. In a survey, it was found that children in Australia have greater access over the television and computer. This reflects that marketers should give due response to the kids as they also play a significant role in decision making, especially in toys, games, fruit drinks and home PCs (Winton 1998). Not only this, globalization has reappeared as a rational projection of the digitalized revolution. Globalist theories are promoting the idea that people across the world can share widespread common culture (Watson 1997). The only aspect which an advisor should keep in mind that it should not hamper the local culture and must depict any vulgarity and sex. Dignity should be maintained while portraying a male or female in an advertisement. For instance, lee jeans (1987) depict two males and one female draped across bicycle. It is necessary to justify the extent of openness in such advertisements (Wernick 1994). Conclusion From the above detailed discussion, I would conclude with the note that a close relationship exists between the transnational advertising, globalization and local cultures. In order to make the process of globalization successful, it is necessary for the leaders of the globalization to practice the virtues of esteem for religious and cultural values and also surrender their economic self-centeredness for the betterment of the people enduring poverty. This serves as a challenge in front of the world leaders to pay attention to the dimensions linked with the religious and cultural aspects. Globalization portrays a culture of global mass, which is influenced by the contemporary means of cultural production such as Internet, movies, TV, advertising etc. Developing countries are required to understand the significance of globalization. A right blending of Asian and western values is required to gain the benefit of globalization. On the other hand, globalization and transnational advertising should not hamper the local culture, which can be done by effective formulation of rules and regulations by the government. References A. Wernick â€Å"(Re-) Imaging Gender: The Case of Men†, from Promotuional Culture. London: Sage, 1994, pp. 48-66. ISBN 0803983913 B. Restall, â€Å"ABreakthrough in the study of women†, from Production of Culture/ Culture of Production, (ed) P. Du Gay, London: Sage, 1997, pp. 225-232. ISBN 0761954368 Felix Stravens, â€Å"Advertising in Singapore†, in Advertising in Asia, (ed) K. Frith, Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1996, pp. 273-291. ISBN Hang Sung-Joo, â€Å" Asian Values: An Asset or a Liability? †, in Changing Values in Asia, (ed) Han Sung-Joo, Singapore:Institute of Southeast Asia Studies, 1999, pp. 3-9. ISBN 9812300635 John Sinclair, â€Å"Advertising† in the media in Australia, 2nd edition, (ed) S. Cunningham and G. Turner. St Leonards. NSW: Allen and Unwin, 1991, pp. 267-276 ISBN 1863733434 Jib Fowles, â€Å"Deciphering Adverstisements†, from Advertising and PopularCulture, London: Sage, 1996, pp. 167-183. ISBN 0803954824 J. Watson, â€Å"Transnationalism. Localization, and Fast Foods in East Asia†, fromGolden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia, (ed) J. Watson, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997, pp. 1-38. ISBN 0804732078 K. Winton, â€Å"Pizza and tech talk but hold the veggies†, Communications update, No. 147, September 1998, pp. 10-11. Noreene Janus 2007, â€Å"Cloning the Consumer Culture†, viewed 30 April

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Miller’s portrayal of masculinity Essay

Analyse how the audience might interpret miller’s portrayal of masculinity in act one of â€Å"a view from the bridge†Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"A View from the Bridge†, is a probing psychological drama. A play script written by Arthur Miller during 1955. It is set in Red Hook Brooklyn New York. It is about an illiterate longshoreman named Eddie Carbone who has relatives come stay with him illegally from Italy who want to persue the America dream. Inspired by a true story of a Brooklyn dockworker who informed on two illegal immigrants. When Miller wrote this script it dealt with water front corruption and graft that questioned the reasonableness of U.S. immigration laws. Arthur Miller was strongly influenced after his father was ruined by depression and after reading Dostoevskys novel â€Å"the brothers karamazor† he decided to become a writer. After reading act one of â€Å"A view from the Bridge† I believe that masculinity is very important to the story because it is closely linked to the American dream and this is the reason why the cousins come to America, to pursue the American dream. Also I believe it is essential to the dramatic tension because if it weren’t for Eddie’s views on masculinity he would not hate Rodolpho, he would accept him and so there would be no tension between them and there would be no story line. This book was written during 1955 and during that time there was a stereotypical view of what masculinity was, it was seen as being strong and having power, authority and responsibility and perhaps demanding respect. It could be that a man was only a man if he had a family and took care of them or if he dressed a certain way. I have added a list on my views of what characteristics should be seen in masculinity: power, strength, authority, responsibility, respect, control, in charge and pride. In â€Å"A view from the Bridge† the protagonist Eddie Carbone shows most of these characteristics at the start but as the story progresses he looses these characteristics and so is seen as less masculine, he looses his pride, authority, leadership he looses the control of his house hold and he looses his respect. In act one of the play masculinity is shown in many different ways, a good example being Eddie carbone. He shows his masculinity in the way he acts. He cares for his family very much, he goes to work everyday or when ever there is work. He says â€Å"he took the food out of his mouth to feed his family† this shows he cares for them and shows his masculinity. Another example of his masculinity is when he drinks a beer or has a cigar this would be seen as a manly or masculine thing to do because women wouldn’t usually drink or smoke. He does this when he comes home after work he sits down and wants a cigar to relax and as a sign of his masculinity and authority, and the respect Catherine has for him she gets it because she has respect for Eddie and he has authority over her  Another reason for Eddie’s masculinity is his work, it could be that working as a longshoreman loading and unloading cargo all day is a different environment from any normal work, it is only men that work at the docks and he is surrounded by men all day so he Is masculine without realising and lifting heavy objects all day could be seen as masculine and only a real man could do this work.