Task and Assignment RationaleAssignment 2 is designed to help you link your ongoing understandings to the field of Educationmore generally, and to teaching more specifically. When it comes to...

Task and Assignment RationaleAssignment 2 is designed to help you link your ongoing understandings to the field of Educationmore generally, and to teaching more specifically. When it comes to teaching, it’s not just abouthaving knowledge but how you enact that knowledge in practice. What kinds of values, morals,dispositions are you transferring and trying to develop in your students? What kinds ofpeople/citizens do you want them to become? Considering the lives of many others in yourclassrooms – lives that you have never experienced, all the politics of a language called ‘English’and the politics of a profession called ‘teaching’, how do you go about communicating what is bestfor the group of learners who are crossing your paths? How do you justify/rationalize yourapproach/pedagogy? What do you do in the (English) language classroom to show students yourunderlying message (your values, morals, philosophy, perspectives, position)? How do you enactyour beliefs through your day-to-day materials, activities, and discourses in the classroom? Itdoesn't matter whether you are teaching English or not; English is a language connected to almostevery facet of our lives today and works in close relationship with other languages as I have shownyou through this subject, so these questions/concerns should apply to everyone, both privileged ormarginalized. This is an essay where you need to link the macro (big socio-cultural/-economic/-historical, and personal politics) to the micro (a particular classroom somewhere in the world to aparticular group of people working within a particular ideological world).Argue for a position/perspective on English, Education, and pedagogy, and provide as manyexamples as you can fit within the word count, of the kinds of day-to-day things you would do inthe classroom in a particular teaching scenario of your choice. You need to:• Think about your perspective. Go back to your first assignment to think about theargument you made in relation to thinking about English from your personal experience –do you still hold that view you argued for in this essay where you need to think morebroadly about other people’s lives? Or has it moved on/developed since then? What is theview you would like to put forward here in relation to Education? Why is your view a‘legitimate’ view? Why should we care or listen to you? What are the consequences/dangers if such views are not enacted? Find literature to back up your position.• Think about your teaching context. Describe the teaching context clearly. Think about aparticular educational context (a secondary school in China, an International school inMalaysia, a heritage language school in Australia, an immersion school in Canada etc.),what are the discourses about English that circulate the space? What is English languageeducation/language education more generally for in that space? What’s the aim of theeducation the students are enrolled in, what kinds of beliefs does the institution enact,how do the students operate, what do they want or think and why can’t they get what theywant; what are some common behaviors/discourses that flow in theclassroom/institutional spaces? Look for literature in academic journals to see ifresearchers have done some work in that area.• Think about your pedagogical decisions. State some examples of how you would enactyour stance towards (English) language education in that particular scenario. This is whereyou should consult literature on pedagogical ideas to help enact the position you want toenact. By pedagogical ideas, I mean you can talk about the kinds of materials you might use,activities you might do (if you are taking second language teaching methodology andgrammar for language teachers, you can draw on the content in those subjects to talk moreabout the kinds of approaches you see as being appropriate). It’s not a good idea to hitstudents over the head with your personal philosophy. Think about what is appropriate inthe kind of politics you are involved in, in the time frame you have to work within and thekinds of approaches you feel you can justify to others confidently using the literature in thefield. (Tip: I always try to imagine talking to a parent or selling an idea to a principal when Ithink about pedagogical decisions I need to make – these two groups of people are verypowerful and often end up making the big epistemic changes in language education.)The main aimThe main aim of this assignment is to show your ability to link the macro to the micro, theliterature, ideas, - the theories to practice. I am not looking for detailed lesson plans. I only want toget a general sense of how you would ‘enact’ what you ‘preach’ (I know a lot of passionateteachers who hold social justice mindsets, but what teachers say and what they do in theclassroom are often more contradictory than congruous – and there are many understandablereasons for this!). Use the literature carefully to argue your points, make careful links betweenyour understanding of English, Education and Pedagogy, and bring out some insightful ideas forwhat you can do in your classrooms. If you’re feeling very confident about the position you’retaking, I’d ask you to give yourself another opportunity to think otherwise. Think about what analternative argument might be. It’s a good idea to show your developing awareness – that you aredeveloping an eye for what can’t be often seen in classrooms.Again, as in Assignment 1, some tips in writing this essay:1. Please use the questions I have outlined here as a guide to start writing. Don’t limit yourselfjust to these questions and again, if you have certain ways you want to structure your essayor want to argue for a different structure, please come and talk to me. I’m more than happyto negotiate but be prepared to give convincing reasons as to why you feel your ideaproduces meaning in more meaningful ways.2. I read loads of teaching ideas by students and teachers from three other subjects as well asfrom planning lessons with teachers in schools. It’s fine to talk about everyday techniquesthat are commonly used by teachers but a. don't call them ‘innovative’ or ‘unique’ (and youreally need to qualify these terms if you are going to use them) and b. try to use thisopportunity to really push yourself to think about who you are, the kind of teaching youcan do that other teachers can’t and try experimenting with some ideas that you don'tnormally have the time to do. Although there is a grade involved here, I think it’s importantfor teacher-students not to lose sight of the fact that you need to take risks and find spaceswhere you can experiment. Otherwise, you never get a chance to try something new out.You run out of ideas and continue to do the same thing over and over again. Teaching andlearning no longer becomes fun for you nor for your students to sit through, and you losethe opportunity to constantly learn to become a better teacher.3. Make sure the links between your ideas on English, your view of the goal of languageeducation, and the teaching pedagogies you are proposing are in sync. Make this linkexplicit to me. Don't hide around the bushes and make me do the hard work of trying tofind the paragraphs where you said x, y, z so that I have to make the links myself (see mysuggestion for signposting).4. Again, find a balance so that you have a good, even balance on each of these requirements.It’s probably a good idea to add an Appendix or insert some textboxes and include picturesor things like that when you are talking about teaching ideas into the body of the essay.Make sure it is all neat and tidy and save it as a PDF file so that nothing moves aroundwhen I download it from Turnitin.5. Please use a header: insert your full name, student number, and the title of your work6. Please use a footer: insert page numbers (I tend to print all the assignments so pages canget lost sometimes.)7. Please use your sources with care.8. And please look at the criteria as you are writing. Don't make up your own criteria!This Particular Assignment CriteriaThe assignment will be marked according to the following criteria.Criteria N:UnsatisfactoryP:SatisfactoryH3:GoodH2B:Very goodH2A:ExcellentH1:OutstandingClarity andargumentDifficult tofollow, poorlywritten, hardto understandMany flaws ofwriting,argument andclarity but canbeunderstoodReasonablyclear interms of itsorganizationwriting andargumentWellorganized butwriting couldbe sharpenedto strengthenthe argumentWell organizedand thewriting is easyto followVery clearand wellorganized.The writing issophisticatedand highqualityCoverage andevidenceThere is littleunderstandingof the topicand weakreferencesReferencesare minimaland a basicunderstandingof the topic isshownClearlylocates thetopic incontext andusesreferenceswellShowsreasonableunderstandingand goes theextra mile inmaking someimportantlinksShows strongunderstandingof the topicand widereadingEvidence ofextensivereading and avery stronggrasp of thekey issuesAppropriatenessof pedagogy inchosen contextNo evidenceof the abilityto implementpedagogyappropriatelyin the chosencontextMinimalability todeveloppedagogyappropriatelyin the chosencontextClear abilitytoimplementpedagogyappropriatelyin the chosencontextShows signsof not onlyimplementingappropriatepedagogiesbut alsobacking themup withliteratureStrongcapacity toimplementpedagogyinsightfullyconsideringmultiplepolitics in thechosencontextThepedagogicalideas arecreative,criticallyinformed bythe literatureand has thepotential to