Sunday, June 29, 2014


ELL 113: American Culture

Summer 2014
Collegetown USA: Concordia Language Villages

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Class time: Monday-Friday, 2-5pm (Room: 337)

Instructor: Hope Wojcik

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:

  1. Understand and appreciate cultural diversity through participation in local community events.  
  2. Develop confidence and cultural sensitivity using the English language by interacting in cultural simulations. 
  3. Respond creatively and critically to issues that transcend national boundaries through panel discussions with international students in America.
  4. 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.
  5. Promote a worldview of peace, justice, and sustainability for all by serving in local community based projects servicing the poor and the homeless.
  6. Establish a lasting pen pal relationship with the elderly in a local nursing home.
  7. 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.
  8. Dialogue with local community activists based on issues of racism and diversity.
  9. 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:

  1. Illustrate mastery of the objectives listed above with at least 75% accuracy and complete the final project.  
  2. Be on time for class. Tardiness will be considered missed class time.
  3. 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.
  4. Actively participate in all class discussions and activities.
  5. Show improvement in writing and use of writing strategies with use of a blog.
  6. 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. 
  7. 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

·         Hjemkomst Center: mini lesson before the museum based on heritage and history/international panel: http://www.hcscconline.org/current-exhibits/hjemkomst-viking-ship.


·         *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
·         IDAY: International Day:http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/internationalday


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.
http://grammar.about.com/od/classicessays/a/saltlakecityjwj.htm

      Habitat for Humanity/visiting the center: taking part in a project: http://www.fargomonthly.com/habitat-humanity

·         International Student panel


 Nursing home: show video/visit: http://gawker.com/brazilian-kids-learn-english-by-talking-to-lonely-chica 1573138921?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

·        Organic farm

*Native American Indian reservation: speaker/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/photos/south-dakota-native-american-reservation-nations-poorest-14692959/image
Article: Blankets for the Dead. US and THEM: A History of Intolerance in America. P.14.
Ghost Dance at Wounded Knee. 1890: The Governments campaign to subdue Native American Indians. US and Them: Intolerance in America. P. 58.

·         *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
·         Blog time/update/ speaker: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_Integrity_Act_of_1924

·       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 cafĂ©. 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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