Homework 5 (Story Telling---Past Tense)

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This is my homework 5 produced with movemaker. I used the video clip of "The Simpsons" (The Devil and Homer Simpson) and the theme song of "The Simpsons." This clip is the story of "Treehouse of Horror IV," the fifth episode of The Simpsons' fifth season and the fourth episode in the Treehouse of Horror series of Halloween specials. It describes that Homer Simpson liked eating donuts so much that he would like to sell his soul to the devil (Ned Flanders)for one donut. But before Homer finished the donut given to him, he realized that the Devil would not be able to take his soul if he did not eat the last piece. So he decided to keep the last bite in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, while half-asleep and looking for a midnight snack, he ate the final piece, and the Devil immediately reappeared to take his soul. In the hell, Homer was punished to eat all the dounts in the world, but it seemed to be no problem for him. Instead, he wanted to eat more, which surprised the devil.


This movie is designed for ESL or EFL students to practice using past tense and practice telling a story in English. I divide the video clip of "The Simpsons" into three parts and students have to watch each part for two times. The first time they watch the video without sound (mute)and are asked to figure out what happened to Homer and the devil according to the animation. Then they discuss with their partners or neighbors and share their ideas with the whole class. In the pair work or class discussion, they are reminded to use past tense. For the second time they watch the video with sound to see if they get the right answer. After that, they describe the plot to their partners by using past tense. In this way, they continue finishing the three parts of video clip to learn grammar and stort telling. In the end, they are required to create an interesting ending for this movie by writing or discussing orally.

Diverse Classroom & Peer-feedback Activity (Chapter 8)

As what I talked about in the response of chapter 6, diverse classroom is a big challenge for teachers in the United States. According to many researches on sociolinguistics, what causes the difficulties for minority students is mostly their different preschool education or variable cultural backgrounds. Therefore they have different ways to approach literacy, structure the world, and make meanings out of symbols. For example, African American children tend to use topic-associated style while white children prefer topic-centered style. Then these differences result in their difficulties with studies since the current curriculum is designed mainly for white children. However, many teachers do not recognize this factor and still hold bias toward these students of lower socioeconomic status or culturally minority groups. They have lower expectations and choose the teaching methods of drilling and practice even with computers.

So in my opinion, it is very important for teachers to first understand each student’s cultural background and how it influences his or her learning patterns. Also it is teachers’ responsibility to let students learn to respect others and value diverse cultures. In collaborative communities, teachers should provide more opportunities for minority students to show their expertise and teach dominant ones. Moreover, virtual community is another good way. With the internet and cyberspace, students can meet people all around the world and contribute their knowledge to finish a share project, which creates a sense of belonging. In this way, teachers open doors for students and introduce the world to them, which broadens their horizon. Students will understand the beauty of diversity and gradually discard their prejudice under teachers’ guidance.

As for the peer feedback activities proposed by Harries, I have heard about a similar teaching experience. A senior high school teacher set up a blog for writing practice. She found a girls’ class in another school and a boys’ class in her school and divided all of them into several groups. The teacher assigned an opening of a story and the members of each group took turns finishing the story. After that, students could give feedbacks to all the postings so that each group discussed how they could revise the story based on the comments. Finally, the teachers arranged a real meeting for the two classes to present their final stories and vote for the winner. This writing community helped students to compare each other’s performance and have chances to reflect on theirs. Also they cooperated together to achieve the same goal and contributed to the success of the team.