Social Justice Research Projects

"One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being," wrote memoirist May Sarton

Next week, the 9th grade writing teacher Zac and I will work together for an end of semester project. The corresponding ppt is more detailed and I will use this as their introduction.

302/303: The 302 and 303 class will research a biography of a Social Justice hero or heroine, fill out a Facebook profile page and then choose a final project: interview this person, write an imaginary diary entry of this person, or create a comic book/book of their life.

PROJECT DUE DATE: FRIDAY JUNE 18 4PM (MY OFFICE)

Here are some useful links for biographies:
Asian Americans and Moments in People’s History
Ducksters

301:The 301 class with their higher level English will focus on using the computer lab to research about local NGOs in Taiwan and will  create a local NGO. Their grading rubric for the research and FB page is here.

Ideally if wehad time, their final project would be either to chose to interview someone from a local NGO or write a project proposal for a local NGO.  Here are some sample project proposals.

I realized from their computer lab research during our class debate, they have very little exposure on how to research, so I found some helpful links.

Here are some useful links:
http://www.taiwanngo.tw/bin/ho
me.php?Lang=en
Taiwan Women's Web
Environmental and Conservation Associations in Taiwan
TEIA (Taiwan Environmental Information Center)

A-Z
Asia Pacific Public Affairs Forum
Asia-Pacific Society of Travel Medecine (ASTM)
Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre (AVRDC)
Asian-Pacific Meeting of Religious (AMOR)
Awakening Foundation Focus: Women's rights.
Beautiful Life Television
Begonia Foundation
Bureau of International Exchange of Publications
Center for the Third Sector
Chi Mai Culture Foundation
Child In Action foundation
Child Welfare League Foundation, R.O.C.
Chinag Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange-CCK Foundation
Democracy Foundation
Eden Social Welfare Foundation
End Child Prostitution Association, Taiwan (ECPAT) Focus: International trafficking and prostitution of teen girls.
Garden of Hope Foundation Focus: Child prostitution and sexual abuse.
Girl Scouts of Taiwan
Good Shepherd Sisters of Taiwan
Good Shepherd Welfare Services I-Lan Good shepherd Center (Yilan City)
Institute for National Development
Institute of International Relations, Taipei (IIR)
International Cultural Foundation 
Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace - R.O.C.
Li Tien-Lu Puppet Foundation
Make-A-Wish Taiwan
MRWalker
Noordhoff Craniofacial Foundation
Suan-Lien Elderly Center 
Taiwan Foundation for Democracy
Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF)
Taiwan Grassroots Women Worker's Centre Focus: Female workers' working rights and health problem. 
Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps
Taiwan Women Development Association
Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation Focus: The rights of abused teen girls. 
Taiwan Zen Buddhist Association
The Big Bear Association
The Dharma Drum College of Humanitics and Social Sciences
The Field Relief Agency Of Taiwan
The Premature Baby Foundation of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
The Society of Wilderness
Tien Cultural Foundation
Tien Educational Center Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation Service Center
Tzu-Hsin,CHI
Vietnamese Migrant Workers & Brides Office
Women Entrepreneurs Association of Taiwan
Women's Federation of World Peace
World Leadership Education Foundation
Youth Pure Love Alliance of R.O.C.


This should fill up the final weeks of their semester which ends June 17.

Social Justice Research Project by KathyBenavides

How to watch a documentary: Learning to See

My 301 class will be involved with a special project after their racism unit. They along with a university class taught by filmmaker Jocelyn Ford in China will watch 2 documentaries about minorities in Taiwan and China followed by a joint discussion using WIGGIO.

The first film they will watch is Ford’s No Where to Call Home (2014) and the second one is my friend Tony Coolidge’s Voices in the Clouds (2010). I will remind the class about themes we have discussed in the past around issues of Colonialism, Otherness and Identity. 

A good article about Tsai Ingwen using aboriginals to make her case of Taiwanese separation from the mainland is NPR's June 11 report. Here are two timelines of Chinese-Tibetan relations one from the BBC, the other from Free Tibet.

I. Preview Lesson

Before they watch the films (with their homeroom teacher) I want to do an introduction on documentary films. As they watch the films they can fill out this viewing guide worksheet.

I.             Introduction

A.    Vocabulary

B.    Since the 1930s, documentaries have included:

• Educational films (made primarily for classroom use)
• Newsreel depictions of events
• Nature films
• Biographies
• Autobiographies
• Films designed to raise awareness about social issues and inspire people to action

One of the distinguishing characteristics of many documentary films is that they are not only informational but also artistic. Film Historian Tim Dirks describes them as “factual works of art.”

B. Techniques:

1.  Exposition:  In a documentary, the exposition occurs at the beginning and introduces the important themes of the film. It is important because it creates the viewer's first impression and introduces the viewer to the content.

Dramatic segments of the documentary are specially chosen in order to catch the viewer’s attention. These shots are specifically positioned, such that the montage positions us to believe a certain theme presented by the documentary.

2.    Re-enactments and live action (vérité) footage

3.    Stock or historical footage (Archival footage) and images shot by the filmmaker (Actuality)

4.    Voice Over

5.    Interviews

6.    Montage- visual representation of character’s thoughts

C. Film-making ethics:

1. When filmmakers tell someone else’s story rather than their own, what responsibilities do they have to their film’s subjects?

2. What are the ethics that should govern putting someone else on film?

3. Should the subjects of the film be shown the footage?

4. Should the subjects have a right to decide what is or is not included in the film?

D. EXTRA PROJECT: 

Allow them 10-20 minutes to plan their film and discreetly give each group a specific angle to take when thinking about their plans:

Group 1 – How does the student body feel about the school cafeteria? What do the students like? What do they think can be improved?

Group 2 – What kind of food is being served? What is the nutritional value? How does the quality of food compare to that of neighboring schools’ cafeterias?

Group 3 – Profile the head chef in the cafeteria.

Have each group present the elements of their plan without revealing their assigned focus. After all three groups have presented, ask for observations about the similarities and differences between plans. Ask them to guess what accounted for the differences. Then, reveal the three different angles and discuss how three films, all looking at the cafeteria, could turn out to be so different. Be sure that by the end of the discussion students understand the link between content and perspective. Advanced students might also discuss how content might have differed if they had the same assignment, but wanted to convey different points of view (e.g., they were all looking at the nutritional quality of the food, but one group wanted to highlight improvements in recent years, another group hoped to raise additional funding by highlighting improvements that still needed to be made, and the third group opposed the changes and wanted a return to foods that a greater number of kids liked, such as pizza, burgers, chicken fingers, and fries.

Discuss why a television series and website that showcases independent documentary films would choose the name “POV.”

Sources:

http://www.pbs.org/pov/behindthelens/lesson-plan-1/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film_techniques

Top Ten Controversial Documentaries

Magic

I.            ROOT “PORT”  Carry

1.     Import 進口 / Export出口；輸出

What does Taiwan export?

What does Taiwan import?

2.    Portable輕便的，便攜的；手提的

List some portable devices:

II. Idioms

1.     The magic touch魔力

2.    What’s the magic word 該怎麼說呢？

3.    Works like magic/ works like a charm 立竿見影；非常奏效

Reading1: Magic

Vocabulary

1.     Maldives 馬爾地夫

2.    Suspicions懷疑，猜想

3.    Arabic阿拉伯語

4.    Black magic 巫術；黑魔法

5.    Religious篤信宗教的；虔誠的

6.    Ill= sick

7.    National國家的，國民的

8.    Election選舉

9.    Koran（伊斯蘭教的）《古蘭經》

10. Verse（宗教聖書的）節

Listen and fill in the blanks:

Watch the How to Do Magic Videos and take some notes:

1.     Floating Cup:

2.    Put a Pencil in your head

3.    Coin in Plastic Bottle

4.    Bend a Spoon

5.     Floating Pencil

6.    Banana in Half

7.    Coin Trick

Practice doing one of these tricks and show the class.

Listen to the song Abracadabra and fill in the blanks:

Grammar: There/their/they're  and who/whom/whose
Writing: Finish the story. Remember the parts of a story.

The Magic Hat

I was bored one Saturday afternoon, so I started looking around the basement.  That’s when I found a strange hat with many colors on it.  Without thinking, I put it on my head; what happened next was unbelievable. . . .

Extra:  Epic Magic Trick (Britain's Got Talent)
"Black Magic" song by girl band Little Mix

RESOURCES:

http://www.eslgold.com/tricks_magic.html

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1309/130909-coconuts-1.html

http://www.esldiscussions.com/m/magic.html

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=45172