Pokers Popularity Grows Among Teenagers :: essays research papers

In Chicago, Illinois, among many other cities across the nation, a new trend has swept teenagers like a plague. Poker, or the newly named Texas Holdem, has been the new hobby to most kids, boys in particular. Since the football season has been over, one boy even turned his dining room, a place for family time and bonding, into a full fledged poker parlor with chips, and plenty of decks of cards. Texas Holdem came about sometime in the beginning of the decade, and has become more an more popular among teenagers. Launched from TV competitions between everyday people and even celebrities, kids from even our community have become hooked. In fact, some parents condone it. They think that the game teaches strategy, critical-thinking, and math skills. One parent even compared it to smoking pot, saying he’d rather have his children play Holdem than not know where they are. It’s "safer" because unlike drugs that impair your judgments, the child is occupied with something that, if developed, can be cured by just taking it away. Josh Kohnstamm, father of Josh in Mendota Heights, Minnesota, says "it's become the perfect escape for his studious 16-year-old son, Josh, who ‘takes everything too seriously.’ Allowing him to ‘whoop’ the school's best athletes -- computer geek that he is -- and come away feeling lucky when that is a s ensation that rarely happens in his everyday life." But I could only wonder if the game was more about self-fulfillment and confidence, or critical thinking and math skills? Either way, the child is gaining, isn’t he? But then again there are also the adults who think that the game is a bad habit, and develops bad gambling habits. "It's fun. It's exciting. It's glamorized on TV and in the media in a way that other addictions are not," says Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling. "There's the impression that through skill you can beat the odds. But randomness is always going to have a bigger factor in determining the outcome than your skill." The fact is, is that gambling is an addiction and has been known to be hard to overcome. However, I don’t think that anyone can actually say that it is forbidden because I really think that no matter what, every person takes a chance which can be considered gambling. I’m not sure where I stand on this issue.

A Raisin in the Sun vs. The Glass Menagerie Essay -- Raisin Sun Glass

A Raisin in the Sun vs. The Glass Menagerie   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  America is known around the world as the land of opportunity, a place where you can follow your dreams. No matter how selfish or farfetched ones dream may be, their goal will always be available. Whether it be the pursuit of the woman of your dreams, like that of Jay Gatsby, or the hunt for something pure and real, like Holden Caulfield. A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry, and The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, exhibit the various types of American lifestyles and the aspiration that surface among each character. The dreams between the characters in the two literary works differ in selfishness, and availability.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tom is a young man bearing the responsibility of his handicapped sister, Laura, and his suffocating mother, Amanda. He works in a factory, and uses his paycheck to provide for the family. Jim, a fellow factory worker and former high school friend, knows Tom as Shakespeare, in that Tom writes poetry, sometimes to alleviate his suppressed feelings of frustration. Poetry is one of Tom’s methods of escape from the lunacy in his home. Adventure is something Tom does not experience much of, and is angst toward his less than mediocre life is expressed in many of his arguments with Amanda. â€Å"Man is by instinct a lover, a hunter, a fighter, and none of those instincts are given much play at the warehouse,† (Williams 64). Love, hunting and fighting are adventurous matters, and with Tom’s run of the...

Analysis of Beloved Essay examples -- essays papers

Analysis of Beloved Beloved is actually a quintessentially American story. Its topic slavery however may not seem to be a traditional one in American literature. The novel written by Toni Morrison is an American survivor’s tale, which depicts the collective experience of slavery defined by the identity of the black community in America for years. The topic of slavery continues to be a vital part of the American consciousness today,in addition, slavery as an institution was a part of American culture as a whole until the Civil War, and its repercussions on race relations are still being felt today. The genre of the survivor's tale is one way that contemporary authors can depict and discuss this formative American experience. ‘Beloved’ is the tale of Sethe, a survivor of slavery, and her family. Sethe is an escaped slave who made the split second decision to kill her daughter, rather than have her return to a life of enslavement. The entire novel revolves around this horrific act; the entire story is slowly unraveled through the remembrances of Sethe and others. These memories and "re-memories" do not follow chronological order. However, when they are all pieced together, the whole picture of slavery, Sethe's act, and its aftermath emerges. A universal characteristic of the survivor's tale is the subjectivity and incompleteness of the survivor's knowledge. The author works to provide a more objective view of events by including several storytellers. ...

The New Deal

Before the 1932 election, Roosevelt had promised the people of America a ‘New Deal' that would help them to recover the effects of the Great Depression. It had lasted four long years, and had caused suffering for the American people. When Roosevelt had taken office as the President Of The United States in 1933 he put the New Deal into order. The New Deal took action to bring about immediate economic relief in areas such as industry, agriculture, finance, waterpower, labour and housing. The aims that Roosevelt wanted to achieve with his New Deal was firstly to spend billions of dollars on creating jobs to be of use for the thousands unemployed in America, due to the depression. Another aim of Roosevelt's was to rebuild trade and industry in as many companies and businesses as possible to get the American Economy up and running once again. His final aim was to improve the lives of the ordinary Americans. To help them to acquire a fair and well-paid job to look after their families and to have an overall, better quality of life. In his first one hundred days of presidency, Roosevelt introduced his first New Deal, and established a host of Alphabet Agencies. They were so named, for their abbreviations. The first of his New Deal programs was the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA). This was approved on the 12th May 1933. Although the act extended federal participation in relief for more than two years, it then decided to change the nature of its funding. This was from loans to direct grants for the use of several States. FERA was also supportive of nearly five million households each month and funded thousands of work projects for the unemployed. It also provided vaccinations and literacy classes for the millions of poor and uneducated population. The aims that had been achieved by Roosevelt with the FERA was that money had been spent creating jobs, and that many lives had been improved as they had, on some cases learnt to read and write and most men had received a job due to the work projects. The Emergency Banking Act was close to one of first things that Roosevelt introduced. It was responsible for closing down weak banks and paying the strong ones to stay open and carry on with business. Trade and industry was the only aim achieved by Roosevelt with this alphabet agency. It had rebuilt that banking world which seemed to be the centre of all industries, as money is needed and stored by the bank itself. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), ran by Harry Hopkins, was introduced as an alphabet agency. This was because of previous years of extensive flooding in the many states surrounding the Tennessee River, which caused all the good and rich soil to be washed away with the river water. This was a major problem, as crops could never be grown for food in such dreadful conditions. Roosevelt solved this problem by means of hiring unemployed men to build dams and reservoirs, to prevent soil erosion and to encourage irrigation, which helped to moisten the dry and hard soil to be able to grow crops for food. The aims achieved by the TVA were that money was spent on the jobs created to build the dams and reservoirs for the unemployed, and that lives of ordinary Americans were made a lot better as floods would no longer occur, destroying their food. The Civil Works Administration (CWA) was an agency used to build structures that the public would benefit from such as a bridge, road, school, hospital or library. Roosevelt gave the unemployed the job of doing this. The aims that Roosevelt achieved with the CWA was that money was being spent on creating jobs, again because of the unemployment situation being reduced as men were building things of a public use. This is why the lives of ordinary Americans were improved due to the new buildings available for them to seek medical help or for an educational purpose. The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was completed by major industries that joined the program promising to be fair in their businesses, and not to take advantage of the staff and buyers. Things such as prices being at a reasonable amount, and wages being of a fair price as well. In exchange for this, Roosevelt allowed the industries the opportunity to display the symbol of the Blue Eagle on the manufactured goods that they produced. Also including posters and vehicles. Anything to do with the industry involved with the NRA. The Blue Eagle symbolized to the American people that they had joined forces with the president to help with the success of the New Deal and to help America achieve a better standard of life. The aims that Roosevelt had led to success were that trade and industry was rebuilt due to the public buying their products, allowing money to be made by themselves. The quality of the American life had increased as well. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was created in 1934 to serve as a federal ‘watchdog' administrative agency to protect the public and private investors from stock market fraud, deception and insider manipulation on Wall Street. The SEC is still in existence today, (its reputation was flawed a bit by the Enron collapse in 2001-02) The aims of this were to improve the lives of Americans by protecting them from things that could potentially damage their lifestyle or business. The CCC, PWA, AAA and the NYA and WPA of the second new deal grew as the agencies pumped increasing amounts of money into the economy. Roosevelt had many opponents to his New Deal programs but not even the angriest of them had much to say against the good work initiated by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). It was not only one of the first organizations to begin operation, but was also one of the most successful. Its major role was to pay the town dwellers to move to the country and help the people there. It also provided financial support and helped implement conservation projects. In its nine years of existence, it put twenty five million young men to work planting two hundred million trees, digging drainage ditches, building firebreaks, clearing campgrounds and building reservoirs. This great effort of conservation and reforestation benefited not only the nation, but also the men themselves. The average enlistment for an employee in one of these camps was ten months. The CCC had many camps in the El Paso area, including those in Fabens, Ascarate, Ysleta and Elephant Butte in New Mexico. CCC workers completed major improvements at Elephant Butte. Including the planting of four thousand, five hundred trees and building a clubhouse. Campsites, cabins and a playground. They also widened and straightened roads around the dam and built several new stretches of roads. The aims achieved by the CCC were that money up to sums of millions of dollars were being spent to get young, healthy men to work with the CCC to be involved in reforestation and conservation of the country. Also the lives of ordinary Americans were being improved by the effort in improving the countryside to make it a better, healthier and more enjoyable area to live. People would be able to use or enjoy the things that had been made or built such as the forest. The Public Works Administration (PWA) was established by the NIRA in 1933. It was intended both for industrial recovery and unemployment relief. Eventually over four billion dollars was spent on thirty four, thousand construction projects including things such as public buildings, highways, bridges or dams for water and power. The aims that Roosevelt managed to make happen with the PWA were the first one of spending money to create jobs for building, and improving the lives of ordinary Americans as they could make use of the things built. The Agricultural Adjustment Acts (AAA) was an agent whose job it was to pay farmers to produce less by not using their land. This was because of the farmers already producing too much, which was part of the overproduction of the Great Depression. Roosevelt promised to pay the farmers, in exchange for them leaving some of their own fields alone. This was so that the prices of goods would remain steady. The AAA attempted to raise prices by controlling production of major crops through cash subsidies to farmers. In 1934, the AAA paid the El Paso County Cotton Committee three point five million dollars for their cotton crops, by the AAA. This included over two hundred, thousand dollars in rental payments for land that was taken out of their production. The aim Roosevelt managed to achieve here, was that trade began to rebuild itself. Because the prices remained steady, the businesses were able to get on with their work and make steady progress each day. By 1935 Roosevelt's New Deal had ran into serious difficulties. It was decided that some of the Alphabet Agencies were unconstitutional and Trade Unions were organizing strikes to complain about low wages. Instead of giving up, Roosevelt introduced new laws to replace the ones that the Supreme Court had ruled illegal. These became known as the Second New Deal. It was aimed at improving the social welfare, such as wages and employees. Compared to the first new deal that was aimed at the local, and ordinary Americans and improving their lives, and the businesses and industries in America. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) replaced the CWA. By 1935, local residents felt the ever-increasing art collection at Springville High School, needed a larger facility for its' preservation and display. Nebo School District donated a lot, the city if Springville donated approximately twenty-nine, thousand dollars in equipment and materials, the LD's Church donated twenty, thousand dollars or more, and the federal government, through the WPA spent fifty-four, thousand dollars on the project. Work began on 23rd November 1935, where the WPA was responsible for the manufacturing of the tile for the museum. The work was complete under the direction of Virgil Hafen, a local artist. Although most of the alphabet agencies were organised for temporary solutions to relieve problems, the agencies permanently broadened federal interest and involvement. The aims achieved by the WPA were all of them. The first being money spent on creating jobs, with the same reason as the CWA, jobs were being created in reorganising and moving the art work. The trade and industry was being rebuilt, as the artwork would be in a much better condition to view and maybe sell. And the lives of Americans were improving due to the wages given so they could afford food and drink to have a better quality of life. The National Youth Administration (NYA) was created under the emergency relief act of 1935. It provided more than four point five million jobs for young people. Therefore, the aim achieved here was the first; millions of jobs were available for young people of America, which meant their life was improving due to the help that their wages could give them. The Wagner Act replaced the NRA which the Supreme Court had ruled illegal. This new law gave workers the right to join Trade Unions so that they could work together to improve working conditions and pay. Employers were now banned from stopping workers joining Trade Unions and a National Labour Relations Board was set up to make sure the employers obeyed. Unlike it was before 1935, when it was illegal to join a union. The aim achieved here was that lives were improved of Americans. It gave them the opportunity to have a say in what they are entitled to in regards to the work place, and discuss what a fair wage would be for them to earn. The Social Security Act (SSA) was responsible for allowing workers to pay into a fund to receive benefits at a later date when they were out of work. It also provided the use of a public assistance program for dependant mothers, children and the physically disabled, and an unemployment benefit. The aim achieved by the SSA was the third of Roosevelt's original aims. Improving American lives due to the benefits they were getting, especially the unemployed, and the sick. The Rural Electrification Administration lent money to farmers so they could electrify their farming equipment and farm itself. The aims fulfilled by this, were that trade was rebuilt, because of the better quality farms. This would mean better products would be made. Ordinary American lives would also have been improved like the farmers. They would be working in better conditions, and probably making more money because of it. Finally, money was spent to make jobs in the farm. There was also the Farm Security Administration (FSA). This was used to set up temporary housing for ‘Okies' and ‘Arkies' who were refugees from Oklahoma and Arkansas, who migrated to California in hope of finding work. The aim was to provide a better quality of life for these American people in giving them houses to live in. They were given the opportunity to find a job themselves whilst living a temporary but stable condition. The Fair Labours Act provided the last major piece, of the New Deal legislation in 1938. This important labour law set minimum wage (twenty five cents an hour) and a maximum standard (establishing the forty hour work week). It also severely curbed the use if child labour. Finally, the aims that Roosevelt achieved with this alphabet agency of the Second New Deal were trade and industry being rebuilt, as a standard for wages was set, leaving all businesses with a fair and economical wage for all their employees. And, lives of the Americans were improved because no one working could be cheated in their job of what wage to get. Everyone would be treated as an equal in the work place. The New Deal Illegal Immigration Differing Perspectives Paper Brittany M. Coiana Critical Thinking and Reading Linda Sheffield March 20, 2013 Should the U. S military patrol the boarders? In my opinion I think the military should patrol the boarders. There are many reasons I could think why they should, but I’m going to give you my two most important ones. My first reason why the U. S military should patrol the boarders is to stop the illegal aliens’ from crossing over and causing taxpayers to pay money they shouldn’t.Our prison system is over flowing with illegal immigrants and costing us as tax payers to much money to keep them in there. Some are in for drug charges and some are in for murders that could have been permitted if we had a handle on our border patrol. According to The Federation for American Immigration Reform, in an article entitled â€Å"Criminal Aliens† stated: â€Å"Over the past five years, an average of more than 72,000 aliens have been arrested a nnually on drug charges alone. Among the alien federal prisoners, over half (55 percent) were illegally in the United States at the time of their conviction. (www. immigration. procon. org) Another reason I feel the U. S military should patrol is because it could save lives. We have many in our prison system for the murder of our people, but what about the illegal aliens that are getting killed in car wrecks, getting killed by our border officers and being killed because they can’t make it through due to weather, starvation or even dehydration. According to NBC news, in an article entitled â€Å"Deadly crossing: Death toll rises among those desperate for the American Dream† stated: â€Å"Crossing the U. S. Mexico border illegally has always been dangerous, but this year heat and drought have made the journey particularly deadly. † (www. openchannel. nbcnews. com) I think the U. S military would be a great step towards controlling our border. Not only will this s ave on taxes but also save lives. I think Illegal aliens shouldn’t have access to social services such as health care and Medicaid because they are not Americans and they don’t pay taxes. Many Americans can’t even get on social services or qualify for Medicaid. America has a high rate of low income families and some that are just so poor.Some of these Americans can’t even qualify. Having illegal immigrants on top of all that just isn’t fair for the true blood Americans. The following results for the nation were compiled from information collected in the 2012 Current Population Survey & Annual Social and Economic Supplement: â€Å"The U. S. Census Bureau announced today that in 2011, median household income declined, the poverty rate was not statistically different from the previous year and the percentage of people without health insurance coverage decreased. Real median household income in the United States in 2011 was $50,054, a 1. percent decli ne from the 2010 median and the second consecutive annual drop. † (www. census. gov) Most of the illegal immigrants don’t even pay taxes. So we as tax payers are paying for people that shouldn’t even be here. We Americans pay our taxes to live on the land we were born on. Now we are being over taken by a race that is illegal and doesn’t even help pay for the land they now live on. â€Å"The High Cost of Cheap Labor: Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget,† wrote by Steven A. Camarota stated: â€Å"Illegal’s Create Large Net Costs†¦.When defense spending is not considered, illegal households are estimated to impose costs on the federal treasury of $6,949 a year or 58 percent of what other households received. † (www. immigration. procon. org) So I believe Turn born Americans should be the only ones to receive social services and Medicaid. This will help out our fellow Americans and give to the people that really need the help i n these areas. I really didn’t know much about sanctuary cities until I did my research. I will give both sides of the issue. Should U. S. government ban sanctuary cities?Yes they should so that many states can get money back in to their government and in to schools. Banning these cities would also slow down the crime rate in those states. According to Tina Griego, journalist for the Denver Rocky Mountain News wrote a column titled, â€Å"Mexican visitor's lament† stated: Colorado would save more than $20 million surrounded by prison costs, and the terror that those 7,300 alien criminals set upon local citizens. † (immigrationready. com) But on the other hand I also say no, if we were to take out these cities the state could lose out on a lot of income.Company’s would lose customers and end up losing or going bankrupt. So taking out these cities could put a big dent on a lot of income that state could make. According to The Washington Post, in an article e ntitled â€Å"Do immigrants help the economy? † by Spencer S. Hsu, said: â€Å"The U. S. has benefited greatly over the years from the ’brain gain’ of immigration,† said author Darrell M. West. † (www. voices. washingtonpost. com) So, as you can see they are many sides to this issue in the U. S. and for as me I’m still undecided on which side to go for.This nation could benefit from those cities and this nation could also not benefit from them. As Americans we vote for the president and hope he makes the right decisions for our country. As a result of this project I have learned that the U. S military should patrol the borders because after reading the article â€Å"Criminal Aliens† by The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), I found out how much American taxpayers pay in each year for illegal immigrants to stay in our prison system. If we could get the military over to our border it could save us taxpayers a lot of money in the long run.I also have learned that not allowing illegal immigrants the privilege to have access to our social services and Medicaid because we as Americans pay our taxes and we earn our privilege to get these offers. This will also save the American people from paying so much and getting so little. According to Steven A. Camarota, in his article â€Å"The High Cost of Cheap Labor: Illegal Immigration and the Federal Budget† I also learned about a new problem in our country, sanctuary cities. I’ve learned there are two sides of this issue and it’s hard for me to decide which side to choose.We as Americans can benefit from both sides of this issue. I think illegal immigration is a big concern for the U. S. because by stopping certain things could save this country a lot of money. Work Cited â€Å"Are Illegal Aliens Paying Their â€Å"fair Share† of Taxes? – Illegal Immigration – ProCon. org. † Are Illegal Aliens Paying Their â₠¬Å"fair Share† of Taxes? – Illegal Immigration – ProCon. org. N. p. , n. d. Web. 9 Mar. 2013. ;http://immigration. procon. org/view. answers. php? questionID=000789;. â€Å"Deadly Crossing: Death Toll Rises among Those Desperate for the American Dream. † NBC News. N. p. , n. d. Web. 9 Mar. 2013.

Flexibility of Adapting Essay

Task 5 Given:â€Å"Curriculum guides allow you the flexibility of adapting your instruction to the individual learning needs of your students. . . . You will also want to remain flexible in choosing the level of behavioral complexity of your unit and lesson outcomes. For these decisions, the information you will need to match the complexity of your objectives to the needs of your learners will come from their in-class oral responses, practice exercises, performance assessments, homework, and tests. You will want to use these often to adjust the level of your instruction to your learners† (Borich, 2004, p. 130). View the video clip appropriate to your area of emphasis (see web links below).Elementary: â€Å"Content Area Reading† Secondary: â€Å"Memory† Note: Do not respond to any prompts or questions included in the video clips. If the video stops when a question appears, press the play symbol to resume the video. Task: A. After viewing the video, write responses to the prompts (1–2 paragraphs per prompt) using the Guided Reflection Protocol Form. To access the form, follow these instructions: †¢ Click on the Add/Edit Work button. †¢ Click on the Form tab. †¢ Answer the questions in the form. If you need additional space, include a Word attachment with your response. B. Review your state standards and select a lesson or lesson plan that includes a skill or concept appropriate to your area of emphasis. Write an essay (suggested length of 2–3 pages) in which you: 1. Describe how to adjust guided and independent practice for the skill or concept you selected in part B that is appropriate for: a. students experiencing difficulty understanding the skill or concept b. students progressing at a faster rate than average 2. Include five techniques appropriate for monitoring student performance in order to adjust interactive instruction. Note: These techniques should be based on an analysis of student performance during different phases of direct instruction (e.g., daily review and prerequisite checks, presentation of new concepts, guided practice, independent practice, periodic reviews). a. Identify which phase/stage of direct instruction matches each of your chosen monitoring techniques from part B2. i. Justify each of the pairings from part B2a. 3. Describe how you might adjust instruction using information gained from two of the monitoring techniques from part B2 to reteach, remediate, and/or accelerate student performance as feedback data directs. Note: Be sure your instructional adjustments address the needs of students experiencing difficulty as well as students progressing at a faster rate than average. Task 6 Introduction:Psychologists have long known that our interpretation, assimilation, and mastery of new learning is influenced by our existing mental sets, which are formed by our past and current experiences, learning, and interests. The current brain research on memory and learning is helping us to understand exactly how the brain works and how educators can best tap into the brain’s natural learning potential. Slavin (2006) writes: The human mind is a meaning maker. From the first microsecond you see, hear, taste, or feel something, you start a process of deciding what it is, how it relates to what you alre ady know, and whether it is important to keep in your mind or should be discarded. (p. 166) We not only assimilate new learning with our former understandings, but our very perception of what we consider reality is influenced by our learning, preconceived notions, and mental integrations of the past. While the notion of prerequisite skills in learning is a recognition that prior learning and experience can affect the current learning of new skills or concepts, the effect of the past often extends beyond classroom skills and concepts into a student’s total life.Review chapter 6 of Educational Psychology: Theory Into Practice to get a better understanding of what current brain research tells us about the importance of linking instruction to prior experiences or interests. Another resource that you will find useful as you work on this task is â€Å"Connecting Brain Research with Dimensions of Learning† (see web link below). Requirements:Write a brief essay (suggested length of 2 pages) in which you do the following: A. Explain how students’ past experiences, interests, and thought processes can influence the learning of current content area concepts. 1. Illustrate the link between past experiences, student interest, and present learning. 2. Discuss each of the following key principles of brain-based learning: †¢ importance of meaningful learning †¢ knowledge background †¢ levels of processing †¢ development of neural connections †¢ relevance†¢ activating prior knowledge (schema theory) B. Explain why consideration of past experiences, learning, and student interests should be an important part of lesson planning for the teacher. 1. Include specific examples from brain-based research to support your explanation. Task 7 Introduction: In this task, you will assess the adequacy of the lessons in terms of the attributes of curricular design. View the following videos. Teachscape Directions: 1. Select the title or topic of the video to be viewed from the list of web links provided at the bottom of this task. 2. Scroll down the left side bar to find the Topic of the video specified below. Click to open the folders and locate the tab labeled video. You may need to open various folders to identify the correct video folder located on the left side bar. 3. Click the triangle to begin the video.Note: Do not respond to any prompts or questions included in the video clips. Elementary and secondary program students should access the following video clips: Topic: Pre-Algebra: Pan Balance Equations Requirements: A. Write an essay in which you evaluate the lesson in terms of the following attributes of curricular design (1–2 paragraphs per attribute): 1. The lesson has a clear purpose that is transmitted during the lesson presentation. 2. The lesson refers to background knowledge and information from previous lessons. 3. The lesson has a clear delivery method(s) (e.g., direct instruction, indirect instruction, cooperative learning, inquiry, self-directed learning). 4. The lesson addresses a variety of learning styles and intelligences. 5. The lesson provides for assessment of student understanding. Task 8 Introduction:According to Alan Hofmeister and Margaret Lubke, â€Å"Pacing has two dimensions.† They say, One dimension, curriculum pacing, is concerned with the rate at which progress is made through the curriculum. The second dimension, lesson pacing, is concerned with the pace at which a teacher conducts individual lessons. One team of researchers summed up the importance of pacing as follows:Researchers have shown that most students, including low-achieving students, learn more when their lessons are conducted at a brisk pace, because more content gets covered by students. This assumes, of course, that the lesson is at a level of difficulty that permits a high rate of student success; material that is too difficult or presented poorly cannot be learned at any instructional pace [Wyne, Stuck, White, & Coop, 1986, p. 20]. (Hofmeister & Lubke, 1999, p. 19) Requirements: If you are enrolled in the Early Childhood Education program, focus your discussion on grades 1–3. If you are pursuing a K–8 teaching certification, focus your discussion on grades 5–8. If you plan to teach science, math, or social science at the secondary level, focus your discussion on grades 9–12. Write a brief essay (suggested length of 2–3 pages) in which you do the following: A. Explain the need for lesson pacing in a classroom. B. Explain how pacing differs for a class that includes English language learner (ELL) students from a class that does not include ELL students. C. Explain how the complexity of lesson content can influence lesson pacing with a class that includes ELL students. D. When you use sources, include all in-text citations and references in APA format. Task 9 Inrtroduction:The analysis and evaluation of student work is an important component of your skills as a teacher. The development and use of tools to aid in your analysis and evaluation are tasks that should be applied in all areas of the curriculum.Find one of your state objectives that could be appropriately assessed by having students give oral and written presentations. For example, the objective â€Å"Compare cultures from different parts of the Eastern Hemisphere in terms of each of the following components: politics, society, the arts, nutrition, economics, and ethnicity† could be measured by having students give oral presentations and write reports on what they have learned about Eastern Hemisphere cultures.Requirements: A. Identify a state objective from one of the core content academic areas that can be measured through oral presentations and written reports. Note: Clearly identify the state from which the objective was taken, the grade level, and the subject. The obj ective must be focused on the core content area (i.e., science, math, social studies, history, geography, or another core content area) and not on an oral presentation or written report skill. B. Develop a rubric that could be used to assess the students’ oral presentations. Your rubric should include the following: 1. a scoring component that indicates at least three levels of performance (e.g., the student met expectations, exceeded expectations, or was below expectations) 2. a scoring component that addresses at least three aspects of the students’ presentation (e.g., length of presentation, ability to answer questions, content level) C. Develop a rubric that could be used to assess the students’ written reports. Your rubric should include the following: 1. a scoring component  that indicates at least three levels of performance (e.g., the student met expectations, exceeded expectations, or was below expectations) 2. a scoring component that addresses at least three aspects of the student’s report (e.g., grammar and mechanics, inclusion of all required components, accuracy of content, length of report) Task 10 Introduction: The sample worksheet (see attachment below) was given to students in a math class to complete independently. The rubric used to assess the responses and a sampling of student answers and scores are also included. Requirements: A. Identify which students will need to be retaught the math content. B. Describe (suggested length of 2–3 paragraphs) two mathematical strengths for each student whose response indicates the need to reteach the math content. C. Briefly describe (suggested length of 2–3 paragraphs) two mathematical weaknesses for each student whose response indicates the need to reteach the math content.

Factors that need to be taken into account

Explain the factors that need to be taken into account when assessing development BY sullRun CYPCore32 Promote child and young person development CYPCore32-1 Be able to assess the development needs of children or young people and prepare a development plan. CYPCore32-1. 1 Explain the factors that need to be taken into account when assessing development. When carrying out an assessment, there are a number of important factors that have to be taken into consideration.Before recording any information, permission should be obtained from the parents/ carers of the child and possibly even the child. This permission is normally obtained when the Policies and Permissions are signed as part of the contract of care. The information recorded should be appropriately shared with the parents/carers and other professionals who are involved with the care of the child e. g. physiotherapists, occupational therapists.Paper copies of the information should be kept secure in a ockable filing cabinet whil e digital data should be stored on a removable device that can be locked away or on a cloud based system that has appropriate security measures and can only be accessed by the childminder and possibly parents/carers. Care should be taken when observing the child and their feelings should be taken into account e. g. a child might become closed if they see a camera pointing at them or they feel that the personal space is being invaded. Ethnic, cultural and language backgrounds should be taken into account e. a family might be offended if a male is observing their child; or it might be difficult to understand a child who does not have English as their primary language. A practitioner should be aware that a child who is disabled or has special requirements might not be as developmentally advanced as other children e. g. a two year old who has suffered a stroke might have difficulty in walking or might only have full function in one arm. The information recorded should be based on accura te factual data obtained from your observations.Personal opinions should not be recorded as the data could be biased and effect future planning for the child. Children should not be compared against each other as one might be more advanced in some areas then the other and vice versa. Where two people are observing the same child at the same time, the data recorded can be more accurate. Observations should take place in a variety of locations over a period of time so as much information can be gained giving a bigger picture of the child's development.

Langston Hughes Essay

Of the major black writers who first made their appearance during the exciting period of the 1920s commonly referred to as â€Å"the Harlem Renaissance,† Langston Hughes was the most prolific and the most successful. As the Harlem Renaissance gave way to the Depression, Hughes determined to sustain his career as a poet by bringing his poetry to the people. At the suggestion of Mary McLeod Bethune, he launched his career as a public speaker by embarking on an extensive lecture tour of the South. As he wrote in his autobiography: â€Å"Propelled by the backwash of the â€Å"Harlem Renaissance† of the early twenties, I had been drifting along pleasantly on the delightful rewards of my poems which seemed to please the fancy of kindhearted New York ladies with money to help young writers. . . . There was one other dilemma–how to make a living from the kind of writing I wanted to do. . . . I wanted to write seriously and as well as I knew how about the Negro people, and make that kind of writing earn me a livin† (Hughes, 1964:31). Alain Locke, the leading exponent of â€Å"The New Negro,† announced that the black masses had found their voice: â€Å"A true people’s poet has their balladry in his veins; and to me many of these poems seem based on rhythms as seasoned as folksongs and on moods as deep-seated as folk-ballads. Dunbar is supposed to have expressed the peasant heart of the people. But Dunbar was the showman of the Negro masses; here is their spokesman (Killens ed. 1960:41). Though much of the poetry Hughes was to write in the thirties and afterward was to differ markedly in terms of social content from the poetry he was producing in the twenties, a careful examination of his early work will reveal, in germinal form, the basic themes which were to preoccupy him throughout his career. Hughes’s evolution as a poet cannot be seen apart from the circumstances of his life which thrust him into the role of poet. Indeed, it was Hughes’s awareness of what he personally regarded as a rather unique childhood which determined him in his drive to express, through poetry, the feelings of the black masses and their questions of identity. In â€Å"The Weary Blues†, Hughes presented the problem of dual consciousness quite cleverly by placing two parenthetical statements of identity as the opening and closing poems, and titling them â€Å"Proem† and â€Å"Epilogue. † Their opening lines suggest the polarities of consciousness between which the poet located his own persona: â€Å"I Am a Negro† and â€Å"I, Too, Sing America. † Within each of these poems, Hughes suggests the interrelatedness of the two identities: the line â€Å"I am a Negro† is echoed as â€Å"I am the darker brother† in the closing poem. Between the American and the Negro, a third identity is suggested: that of the poet or â€Å"singer. † It is this latter persona which Hughes had assumed for himself in his attempt to resolve the dilemma of divided consciousness. Thus, within the confines of these two poems revolving around identity, Hughes is presenting his poetry as a kind of salvation. If one looks more closely at Hughes’s organization of poems in the book, one finds that his true opening and closing poems are concerned not with identity but with patterns of cyclical time. â€Å"The Weary Blues† (the first poem) is about a black piano man who plays deep into the night until at last he falls into sleep â€Å"like a rock or a man that’s dead. † The last poem, on the other hand, suggests a rebirth, an awakening, after the long night of weary blues: â€Å"We have tomorrow/ Bright before us/Like a flame† (Hughes 1926:109). Hughes viewed the poet’s role as one of responsibility: the poet must strive to maintain his objectivity and artistic distance, while at the same time speaking with passion through the medium he has selected for himself. In a speech given before the American Society of African Culture in 1960, Hughes urged his fellow black writers to cultivate objectivity in dealing with blackness: â€Å"Advice to Negro writers: Step outside yourself, then look back – and you will see how human, yet how beautiful and black you are. How very black – even when you’re integrated† (Killens ed. 1960:44). In another part of the speech, Hughes stressed art over race: â€Å"In the great sense of the word, anytime, any place, good art transcends land, race, or nationality, and color drops away. If you are a good writer, in the end neither blackness nor whiteness makes a difference to readers† (Killens ed. 1960:47). This philosophy of artistic distance was integral to Hughes’s argument in the much earlier essay â€Å"The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,† which became a rallying call to young black writers of the twenties concerned with reconciling artistic freedom with racial expression: â€Å"It is the duty of the younger Negro artist if he accepts any duties at all from outsiders, to change through the force of his art that old whispering ‘I want to be white’ hidden in the aspirations of his people, to ‘Why should I want to be white? I am a Negro – and beautiful! ’† In this greatly thought-out manifesto, Hughes attempted to integrate the two facets of double consciousness (the American and the Negro) into a single vision-that of the poet. His poetry had reflected this idea from the beginning, when he published â€Å"The Negro Speaks of Rivers† at the age of nineteen. Arna Bontemps, in a retrospective glance at the Harlem Renaissance from the distance of almost fifty years, was referring to â€Å"The Negro Speaks of Rivers† when he commented: â€Å"And almost the first utterance of the revival struck a note that disturbed poetic tradition. † (Addison ed. 1988:83). In Hughes’s poetry, the central element of importance is the affirmation of blackness. Everything that distinguished Hughes’s poetry from the white poets of the twenties revolved around this important affirmation. Musical idioms, jazz rhythms, Hughes’s special brand of â€Å"black-white† irony, and dialect were all dependent on the priority of black selfhood: â€Å"I am a Negro/Black as the night is black/Black like the depths of my Africa† (Hughes 1926:108). Hughes wrote in his autobiography: â€Å"My best poems were all written when I felt the worst. When I was happy, I didn’t write anything† (Hughes 1991:54). When he first began writing poetry, he felt his lyrics were too personal to reveal to others: â€Å"Poems came to me now spontaneously, from somewhere inside. . . . I put the poems down quickly on anything I had a hand when they came into my head, and later I copied them into a notebook. But I began to be afraid to show my poems to anybody, because they had become very serious and very much a part of me. And I was afraid other people might not like them or understand them† (Hughes: 34). These two statements regarding his poetry suggest deep underlying emotional tensions as being the source of his creativity. And yet the personal element in Hughes’s poetry is almost entirely submerged beneath the persona of the â€Å"Negro Poet Laureate. † If, as Hughes suggested, personal unhappiness was the cornerstone of his best work, it then follows that, in order to maintain the singleness of purpose and devotion to his art, he would be required to sacrifice some degree of emotional stability. The persona of the poet was the role Hughes adopted in his very first published poem, as the Negro in â€Å"The Negro Speaks of Rivers. † It was a persona to which he would remain faithful throughout his lengthy career. The link between his personal experiences and his poetry has been always evident. References Addison Gayle, Jr. , ed. (1988). â€Å"Negro Poets, Then and Now,† in Black Expression: Essays by and About Black Americans in the Creative Arts, New York: Weybright & Talley Langston Hughes (1964). I Wonder As I Wander, New York: Hill & Wang Langston Hughes (1926). The Weary Blues, New York: Alfred A. Knopf Publishing, reprinted, 1982 Langston Hughes (1991). The Big Sea: An Autobiography. 1940. New York: Hill & Wang Killens, John O. ,ed. (1960). â€Å"Writers: Black and White†, The American Negro Writer and His Roots: Selected Papers from the First Conference of Negro Writers, March. New York: American Society of African Culture