ELL 113: American Culture
Summer 2014
Collegetown USA: Concordia Language Villages
___________________________________________________________________________
Class time:
Monday-Friday, 2-5pm (Room: 337)
Office: Lounge in
the Park Region
Office Hours: by
appointment
Course
Description:
America Culture prepares students to immerse students in the
English language through real world experiential learning using genuine
pedagogy. With use of grand simulations, community-based learning, and
activity-based environmental learning the class focuses on the process of
integrating the theme of College town 2014, “with one heart.”
Required
Materials:
Carnes, Jim. US and THEM: A
History of Intolerance in America. Teaching Tolerance.
A Place at the Table: Struggles for Equality in America. Teaching Tolerance.
Charles and Pamela Laruel. (2000). Newcomers and the Environment: Advanced
Level ESL textbook.
National Geographic Learning DVD: Pathways
Vincent
DePaul: Charity saint
Objectives:
By the end of this term, a successful student will be able
to do the following:
- Understand and appreciate
cultural diversity through participation in local community events.
- Develop confidence and
cultural sensitivity using the English language by interacting in cultural
simulations.
- Respond creatively and
critically to issues that transcend national boundaries through panel
discussions with international students in America.
- Create a personal blog
that will be a personal sustainable tool that will be a reflection based
of comprehension of the activities throughout the course, and a take home
tool that can be used when returning home to their home country.
- Promote a worldview of
peace, justice, and sustainability for all by serving in local community
based projects servicing the poor and the homeless.
- Establish a lasting pen
pal relationship with the elderly in a local nursing home.
- Create a final project based
on excursions, simulations and interactions with local community members:
sharing their experience through the local TV station, newspapers, or
radio stations in the area.
- Dialogue with local
community activists based on issues of racism and diversity.
- Research and take part in
an outside lab immersed in the outdoors, learning about the environment
and agriculture. (Week 4/5)
Requirements: To successfully complete this class you must:
- Illustrate
mastery of the objectives listed above with at least 75% accuracy and complete
the final project.
- Be on
time for class. Tardiness will be considered missed class time.
- Be
prepared for class with writing assignments. If you are absent, it is your
responsibility to find out what you missed and to do the homework. If you
miss a quiz, you must make arrangements to make it up before the next
class meeting.
- Actively
participate in all class discussions and activities.
- Show
improvement in writing and use of writing strategies with use of a blog.
- Do
your own work. Plagiarism is using another person’s work, ideas, or
words without giving proper
credit (such as quotation marks or stating to whom the work belongs).
Using another student’s homework or test answers is unacceptable. Allowing someone to copy from you is
equally unacceptable. It is
cheating and a very serious offense.
- Please
turn off your cell phone before each class. Please use the restroom
during breaks so that you do not
need to leave the classroom during class.
Evaluation
Simulations/excursions: 60%
Class participation and homework: 15%
Final presentation: 25%
Schedule: This
schedule is tentative and may change during the term depending on the
Weather and availability of excursions.
*Theme of first session: Race and Diversity
Week 1 (6/30-7/04)
·
Monday: Intro to class; diagnostic testing.
·
Library visit: introducing the topic of a
personal blog and preparing questions for the panel
·
*Open mike night: review concept before we go. Raven
Espresso Parlor. 7-9. (Students will have a mini open mike night of their own)
-Saul Williams
-Ted Talks: Chimamanda Ngozi
Week 2 (7/07-7/11)
· Food bank: Dorothy Day food pantry
Article: In The City of Brotherly Love in US and Them: 1844: A Philadelphia school controversy brings Protestant nativists and Catholic immigrants to blows. Found in A History of Intolerance in America. p.40.
Habitat for Humanity/visiting the center: taking
part in a project: http://www.fargomonthly.com/habitat-humanity
· International Student panel
·
*Saturday: Service project with the Portuguese
village: Project to be determined.
Week 3 (7/14- 7/18)
·
Rourke Museum: Perception’s of racism. http://www.therourke.org/
·
Guest speaker: Fireman/policeman
· Thanksgiving/Native Americans/museum
·
Sound of
Music/pre lesson on racism within the play/movie.
Article: Home was
a Horse Stall (1942): A young Japanese
American woman ponders the meaning of freedom behind barbed wire.
Homework: Article: A Rumbling in the Mines: 1885: Chinese borders face deadly racial hatred in Wyoming. P. 48
Article: The
Ballad of Leo Frank. 1913:
A Northern Jew
becomes a scapegoat for Southerners’ fears. P. 66.
Week 4 (7/21- 7/25)
·
Churches
United: Homeless shelter: http://www.churches-united.org/
·
Create a final project based on excursions,
simulations and interactions with local community members: sharing their
experience through the local TV station, newspapers, or radio stations in the
area.
***Simulation: Underground Railroad: key figures.
·
Blog time/update
Homework: Article of religious freedom: Apostles of Liberty
(1768) Virginia Baptists Challenge the State in the name of religious Freedom.
·
Thrift store/bringing clothes: St. Vincent Depaul
thrift store.
St Vincent De Paul Society 1425
1st Ave S Fargo, ND 58103 (701) 235- 5944
Week 5 (7/28-8/1) Theme: Agriculture
Researching
the local environment
·
Visiting a local farm where people are picking
vegetable and fruits: mini lesson on Cesar Chavez:
http://chavez.cde.ca.gov/ModelCurriculum/Public/Newspaper.aspx
·
Out door lab and research/boat: Concordia
Property
·
Guest speaker: Professor from NDSU (Flooding/stilts/land
of Fargo/Moorhead area) Donald P Schwert: 701-231-5924. Donald.schwert@ndsu.edu
·
Local co op: scavenger hunt
·
Library tour/research introduction/introduction
of final project/Introduction to blog.
Homework: Article: A Place at the Table: Struggles for equality in America. The
Strike for Three Loaves. Immigrant
laborers in a Massachusetts mill town join forces to demand fair pay for a days
work. p.54.
Week 6 (8/04-8/8)
·
Farmers market: By the river/picnic.
·
Buffalo River state park: Chapter 9: Using State Parks in Newcomers and the
Environment. p. 81. Activity with DNR.
·
Speaker: Agricultural activist.
·
Library and research time based on their topic
·
Homework:
Article: Farming and the safe use of
Chemicals in Newcomers and the Environment , Chapter 6 (p. 51).
Week 7 (8/11-8/15)
·
Keep
America Beautiful: Recycling center/presentation/speaker:
http://www.kab.org/site/PageServer?pagename=recycling_facts_and_stats
·
Tour of the café. Blogging/research time
·
Speaker: parks and rec in the area: Beautification project: http://www.cityofmoorhead.com/departments/parks-and-recreation/volunteering
·
Homework: Article: Chapter 2: Recycling in Newcomers and the
Environment (p. 11).
Week 8 (8/18-8/23)
·
Concordia eco house.
·
Research time in the library
·
Final panel with community rec and
environmentalists in the local area.
All students MUST present a final project on what they
learned throughout the semester based on what they learned that ties into the
theme with one heart based
Agriculture/environment.
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