Unusual Words

and their meanings around the world…
http://www.visualnews.com/2015/08/13/14-untranslatable-words-and-their-meanings-beautifully-illustrated/?utm_source=VisualNews&utm_campaign=02647b805e-RSS_EMAIL&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1756fd36de-02647b805e-281927425

What’s in a word? Well… a lot, and especially in these highly unusual examples from around the world. While the English language has something like 1.25 million words, there are plenty from other languages for which we simply don’t have a match. The Portuguese word “Cafuné” is one example: it means “the act of tenderly running fingers through someone’s hair.” See… these are words we need.

The A.B.C. of Self Efficacy and Effective Feedback

In a course, Strategies to Close the Achievement Gap, that my colleagues, Elli Stern/Jennifer Wolfrum, and I teach, we ask participants (teachers, counselors, administrators, tutors, nurses, etc.) to get into a group and "become the expert" on an article that we have assigned for homework.  To this end, we then ask the group to construct a graphic organizer, mnemonic, or other visual aid to help "teach" the other groups about the article.  

Adapted from the work of Susan Brookhart, John Hattie, Katie Rapp, and Grant Wiggins  

“Whether or not feedback is effective depends on what students need to hear, not what you need to say,”

~ Susan Brookhart

Appeal to the mind (cognition) and the heart (motivation).

Once students feel they understand what to do and why, they are more likely to develop a feeling that they have control over their own learning.

Be explicit and clarify the goal

Expectations and goals need to be described. It is important to give students, a clear picture of end-of-unit achievement standards and how mastery will be assessed.

Create a climate of trust

Students must understand that errors and misunderstandings are part of learning and not be afraid of negative reactions from peers – or the teacher – if they make mistakes. They need to “trust” that you care about them and want them to achieve.

Describe, not judge

Feedback needs to be actionable information describing what the student did in relation to goals, empowering intelligent adjustments. The best feedback compares work to specific criteria or exemplars.

Encourage

If a teacher cannot find something positive to say, then feedback is not what needs to come next. Additional teaching needs to come next.   Also, publically encouraging some students and not all students, discourages many.

Focus on students’ work and work processes, not on them personally

It’s not helpful to talk about how smart or lazy a student is. Talk about the work. When students generate their own feedback, set their own learning goals, and lead conferences with their teachers, they become more empowered learners.

Give feedback in small chunks

Focus on a few bite-size chunks rather than trying to give feedback on everything. Struggling students need to focus on one or two small steps they can take to improve, with simple, clear vocabulary to help them out. Hold a 2-3-minute mini-conference with each student once a week, giving concentrated bursts of usable feedback.

Hold high expectations

Hold high expectations for your student and with reminders that you are there to help them meet those expectations to do the work.

Identify one or more strengths and at least one next step

Sometimes students aren’t aware of their strengths and need them reinforced. They often need next steps pointed out. A teacher might say to a struggling student, “I see you skipped this line. It might help to keep your place with your finger.”

Join with students in the process

Students should generate their own feedback and set their own learning goals. Rather than telling the student all the things you notice about his or her work, start by helping them ask good questions and notice areas for improvement, ”How does this sound when I read it aloud?”  What do I notice about my sentences?“ When students lead conferences with their teachers, they become more empowered learners.

Keep a progress chart

Teachers, who show a completed example and explain the steps needed for a successful product, can help students break down a project and chart their progress with incremental deadlines.

Link feedback to criteria

The learning target and the performance of understanding should match. The criteria should be clear so that students receive the feedback as information for improvement and not an evaluation.  Formative assessments tell students where they are on the continuum of proficiency.

Make sure feedback is positive, clear, and specific

Specific praise is better than “Great job!” – for example, “This is a great paper. I especially appreciated the way you made a chart to summarize your information and then discussed results point by point. That made it really clear.”

Feedback should not be overly technical or more than the recipient can handle. With peer editing, students need to also practice giving effective feedback to each other.

Notice and comment on improvement

Teachers should tell students one important thing they noticed that, if changed, will likely lead to improvement.

Opportunities for practice are essential

Feedback should be followed by the opportunity to digest, understand, and use it .The follow-up work should happen before grades are given, ideally in the classroom where supervision and time for questions is available.

Provide opportunities to demonstrate improvement

What makes any assessment in education formative is not merely that it precedes summative assessments, but that the student has opportunities, if results are less than optimal, to reshape the performance to better achieve the goal.

Quick responses are important

The quicker the better, so students get feedback while they still remember the assignment and why they were doing it... Feedback can arrive more quickly when teachers use technology or peer reviewers.

Refer to goals

The information you give should tell the student whether he/she is on track or needs to change course, A teacher might say, “The point of this writing task is to make readers laugh. So, when rereading your draft or getting feedback from peers, ask yourself:  How funny is this? Where might it be funnier?”

Seek feedback from students

Ask students, “How can I help you?” Teachers who listen to students can adapt lessons, clarify work demands, and provide missing information, all of which helps students do better. It also helps student analyze their own work/thinking, become reflective, and practice advocating for themselves.

Tailor feedback to students

Novice students benefit most from task feedback, somewhat more proficient students from process feedback, and highly competent students thrive on feedback aimed at self-regulation or conceptual understanding.

• Task feedback – This feedback shows students how well they are doing on a particular task and how to improve it.
• Process feedback – This feedback might be suggested strategies to learn from errors, cues to seek information, or ways to relate different ideas.
• Self-regulation feedback – This feedback helps students monitor, direct, and regulate their own actions as they work toward the learning goal – and helps build a belief that effort, more than raw ability, is what produces successful learning.

Understanding should be checked

“Do you understand?” is not enough. Better to ask, “In your own words, tell me the steps you need to take next.”  “What is the most important thing you heard me say?” or “What is the very next thing you’re going to do on this paper?”

View all students as a potential Martin Luther King, Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Louise Erdrich, and/or Cesar Chavez.

You cannot know what future potential is in your classroom, nor where your influence will end.  A teacher is a tree, the seeds of which will populate the world.

Words should convey your confidence

The tone of feedback, whether written or oral, should convey your confidence in the student as a learner.

eXamine your own biases.

Students notice who you help, praise, call on, etc. more or less than others.

You, the teacher, have the power to encourage or discourage.

Choose your words carefully.  Be aware of your actions.

Zoom in on appropriate behavior.

Notice when positive things are happening and use them to model in front of others.

Definition Cycle to Show Relationships Between Prejudice, Stereotypes, and Discrimination

1. Have kids go around to chart paper and write the assumptions they know (or have heard) about for different groups.
2. Write the word “stereotype” on the board to the right/East. You are going to move in a clockwise direction like moving around on the points of a compass/digital clock. 
3. Ask students what they think “stereotype” means (remind them that they just wrote out assumptions on the chart paper - so what is a "stereotype").  Write down a few reasonable responses (single story, overgeneralizations based on misinformation) that you know do not fall into one of the other categories (prejudice, discrimination, -ism) and make sure you emphasize that “stereotypes” are “assumptions” about individuals and/or groups of people and “in your head,” but then people act upon them which puts them into another category that we are going to talk about. 
4. Write the word “prejudice” on the board in the South, connecting to previous word with an arrow. 
5. Ask students what they think “prejudice” means. Write down a few reasonable responses (making decisions before you know all the facts, jumping to conclusion) that you know do not fall into one of the other categories (stereotype, discrimination, -ism) and make sure you emphasize that a “prejudice” has “judgment” added to an assumption/stereotype. The judgment can be “good” or “bad” but is usually “bad” because it puts down a group, ranks them lower/less than, etc. Again, these are “in your head,” but then people act upon them, which puts them into another category that we are going to talk about. 
6. Write the word “discrimination” on the board in the West, connecting to previous word with an arrow. 
7. Ask students what they think “discrimination” means. Write down a few reasonable responses (being mean, making decisions to include/exclude, even “bullying” could fit here) that you know do not fall into one of the other categories (stereotype, prejudice, -ism) and make sure you emphasize that a “discrimination” has an action attached to it. We can now see the behaviors/actions that someone has based on the stereotypes and prejudices they have in their mind. Up to this point, any/every individual can be part of this cycle that we are creating - stereotyping, acting in a prejudicial way, and discriminating against someone. How can this be? 
8. Write “-ism” on the board in the North, connecting to previous word with an arrow. 
9. Tell students that -ism (like racism, sexism, ageism, heterosexism, etc.) keep the cycle going and that makes them bigger than an individual person’s idea only in their own head - Where do -isms come from? Who has the power to pass on a stereotypes and prejudices? What INSTITUTIONS would that be? Try to get the students to come up with institutional/systemic places (like places of worship, schools, novels, magazines, news, television, media, textbooks, etc.). 
10. Then draw a bulls-eye with “PERSONAL” in the middle, “SOCIETAL” in the next circle around that, and “INSTITUTIONAL” in the outer most circle. “Personal” is those individual acts of meanness we are all capable of. “Societal” means the social norms and cultural practices of the society around you. “Institutional” is the institutions that have the power to perpetuate the stereotypes, which lead to prejudice, and discrimination by individuals. It’s the “smog” around us. We can’t help but “breathe” it in because there are so many places we see it. In order to reach the -ism category all three of the things in this bulls-eye are working as a “system” to perpetuate misinformation and the cycle. 
11. This circle (stereotype to prejudice, to discrimination to -ism) is also known of the “Cycle of Oppression” because it can keeps stereotypes going. 
12. What do you think it is called when you get “off” the “Cycle”? Draw out answers like active bystander, ally, activist, and change agent. 
13. How would you get off the “Cycle”? Draw out answers like standing up for others, educating others, educating yourself, paying attention to when other people say it’s a stereotype/problem, etc.

This is what it looks like when I create it on a chart as I talk it through.

This is it cleaned up.

Here is the first part, (#1) "getting out" stereotypes/assumptions kids have about others.

Transforming Curriculum Philosophy

We must transform our minds before we can transform our curriculum.  My coaching is about helping teachers become more familiar with multicultural concepts, the language we use without even knowing it, and some specific vocabulary needed in order to have conversations around racism and privilege, in order to look at one's own work with new eyes.

~ Claudia A. Fox Tree

We are charged with educating for the next seven generations.  Infusing an anti-bias orientation into thinking - one that effectively nurtures a curiosity about, and a respect for, differences - is critical.

The “sandwich” approach to planning lessons is essential.  Planning should have 3 parts (not necessarily in this order, but certainly present in some way, with "good stuff" surrounding the "oppressive stuff") as much as possible.

Part 1

• Understanding the concepts (vocabulary) in order to have informed conversations, such as: Stereotypes, Prejudice, Discrimination.
• Raising awareness of the contributions of under-represented (marginalized) groups, particularly BEFORE they were oppressed (civilizations, inventions, "discoveries," achievements, etc.)

Part 2

• Problems/Issues/Oppression - What is "lingering" to modern times?
• Raising awareness of the issues faced by under-represented (marginalized) groups throughout history. - How did groups resist and fight against their oppression?

Part 3

• Role Models/Action plans/Proactive Activity. - We still exist in the contemporary world!
• Understanding and practicing ally behavior (i.e.: active bystander, advocate, etc.). 
• Power/Privilege (Institutionalized Stereotypes, and Prejudice, Discrimination), and Ally.  - How can you use the areas where you have advantage and control to help others?

Male Privilege

Male Privilege: http://michaelurbina.com/101-everyday-ways-for-men-to-be-allies-to-women/
Click the link wot see the expanded examples of these 10 ways to be an ally.

1. Recognize your privileges, especially your male privilege (and white privilege if applicable).
2. Make a daily effort to acknowledge and then challenge your male privilege.
3. Recognize that your male privilege (among other privileges) may in fact blind you to others’ experiences.
4. Wall posters and iPhone wallpapers of semi-nude girls…Really? Take em down if you got em.
5. Stop catcalling.
6. Be conscious of where your eyes wander as a woman walks by. Change that behavior.
7. Stop assuming that random girls like you just because they smile at you and make eye contact.
8. Be aware of how you flirt with a woman.
9. Walk on the other side of the street when a woman is walking towards you at night.
10. If you’re going to be chivalrous (on dates) or in everyday life, do it for everyone out of kindness, not just for women or people you think aren’t capable of doing things themselves.
11. Treat women at your workplace with genuine respect, especially in male-dominated professions.
12. Enjoy popular culture with many grains of salt.
13. Be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
14. Listen.
15. Monitor your use of words.
16. Never force your opinions on other people.
17. Be conscious of your words and the effects it could have on others.
18. Be pro-choice.
19. Let yourself cry and be emotional.
20. Ask for consent, always.
21. Read websites like Feministing, Colorlines, Jezebel, etc. for your news sources.
22. Take a Women’s Studies class.
23. Acknowledge the lived experiences of women and LGBT-identified people.
24. Support same-sex marriage. Given.
25. Pick up a feminist book from your local bookstore to start off.
26. Get involved with school programs and events.
27. Support non-profit organizations and pro-feminist groups.
28. Journal daily and reflect on your behaviors, thoughts, ideas, etc.
29. Challenge everyday sexism in your life.
30. Don’t just talk the talk. Walk your talk.
31. Stop telling her you’re “different than other guys.” Don’t speak. Do.
32. Call out your friends on oppressive behaviors, jokes, or comments.
33. Challenge other men to do the same.
34. Reflect on how you were raised as a boy.
35. Strengthen your relationships with other men.
36. Take paternity leave if you’re a father.
37. Support musicians and artists that do not degrade women in their music and lyrics.
38. Put yourself in situations for self-growth through activism.
39. Redefine your masculinity in a pro-feminist way.
40. Never seek recognition or affirmation.
41. Recognize that you contribute to women’s oppression by NOT acting.
42. Claim the feminist label.
43. Blogs. Online Communities. Find spaces to dialogue with other like-minded feminist men.
44. Don’t be the hero, savior, or knight in shining armor.
45. Attend a women’s rights protest.
46. Strengthen the relationships with the women in your life.
47. Work with your partner or spouse on how to mutually share responsibilities.
48. Men aren’t the only ones who have orgasms. Remember that!!!
49. Don’t judge women by their choice of clothing.
50. Watch Miss Representation and Tough Guise.
51. Make time out of your day to call your mother and catch up with her.
52. Learn about your own familial roots and culture.
53. Treat all women equally. Race, class, or any other identity category should never dictate your treatment.
54. Catch yourself whenever you slip.
55. Seek out online blogs and magazines that talk about current events and race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc.
56. Think about issues and your own life from an intersectional lens.
57. Don’t dwell on the past, but don’t forget where you came from.
58. Support other people who advocate for gender equality.
59. Respect “her” culture.
60. Don’t assume she will take your last name if you both agree to marry.
61. Respect confidentiality.
62. Be willing to listen and know when to refer people to other resources.
63. Defy traditional male stereotypes.
64. Use your male privilege to advance feminist discussions in male-dominated spaces.
65. Recognize that we don’t define what being an ally entails. Women have that job.
66. Never give up.
67. Combat rape culture in your social circle, workplaces, or school.
68. Hold other men accountable.
69. Be an active bystander. If you witness harassment, do something about it.
70. Learn and use appropriate vocabulary.
71. Advocate for more inclusive policies, rules, or procedures in your school or workplace.
72. Speak as if a woman is always listening.
73. Be aware of your heterosexual privilege.
74. Celebrate milestones and victories with women and the LGBT communities.
75. Be proud to be an ally.
76. Seek out children’s books for your kids that challenge traditional gender roles.
77. Be able to laugh at yourself.
78. Challenge entitlement. 79. Recognize that this movement is much larger than yourself.
80. Make your space feminist!
81. Make a Twitter account.
82. Familiarize yourself with this book. You’ll thank me later.
83. This might go without saying, but be conscious of other social problems and issues! All oppression is connected. 84. Cook with your girlfriend, partner, or spouse.
85. Support and vote for political candidates who advocate policies beneficial to women, LGBT people, and other marginalized groups of people.
86. Join the Feminist Network Project and stay connected to thousands of feminists worldwide.
87. Support feminist media. 88. Embrace the haters. You can learn a lot from them.
89. Don’t fall for websites or causes that claim men are oppressed (by feminism). One example is A Voice For Men.
90. Travel to unfamiliar places.
91. Ask questions (but not too many)!
92. Start a blog!
93. Buy your books at local, independent bookstores.
94. Showcase your feminist pride! (If you’re comfortable)
 95. Seek out role models and pick their brains.
96. Respect women’s spaces for dialogue.
97. Appearances should never matter. Promote self-love and healthy body images!
98. Turn magazines that promote sexism and unhealthy body image backwards at your local supermarkets and newsstands.
99. Be careful not to burn out. 100. Develop your own methods of self-care.
101. Please suggest further additions and edits to this list.

Has ‘Caucasian’ Lost Its Meaning?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/sunday-review/has-caucasian-lost-its-meaning.html?_r=0

The Supreme Court, which can be more colloquial, has used the term in only 64 cases, including a pair from the 1920s that reveal its limitations. In one, the court ruled that a Japanese man could not become a citizen because, although he may have been light-skinned, he was not Caucasian. In the other, an Indian was told that he could not become a citizen because, although he may have been technically Caucasian, he was certainly not white. (A similar debate erupted more recently when the Tsarnaev brothers, believed to be responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing, were revealed to be Muslims from the Caucasus.) 

The use of Caucasian to mean white was popularized in the late 18th century by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, a German anthropologist, who decreed that it encompassed Europeans and the inhabitants of a region reaching from the Obi River in Russia to the Ganges to the Caspian Sea, plus northern Africans. He chose it because the Caucasus was home to “the most beautiful race of men, I mean the Georgians,” and because among his collection of 245 human skulls, the Georgian one was his favorite wrote Nell Irvin Painter, a historian who explored the term’s origins in her book “The History of White People.” 

  

In 1889, the editors of the original Oxford English Dictionary noted that the term Caucasian had been “practically discarded.” But they spoke too soon. Blumenbach’s authority had given the word a pseudoscientific sheen that preserved its appeal. Even now, the word gives discussions of race a weird technocratic gravitas, as when the police insist that you step out of your “vehicle” instead of your car.

Susan Glisson, who as the executive director of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation in Oxford, Miss., regularly witnesses Southerners sorting through their racial vocabulary, said she rarely hears “Caucasian.” “Most of the folks who work in this field know that it’s a completely ridiculous term to assign to whites,” she said. “I think it’s a term of last resort for people who are really uncomfortable talking about race. They use the term that’s going to make them be as distant from it as possible.” 

There is another reason to use it, said Jennifer L. Hochschild, a professor of government and African-American studies at Harvard. “The court, or some clever clerk, doesn’t really want to use the word white in part because roughly half of Hispanics consider themselves white.” She added, “White turns out to be a much more ambiguous term now than we used to think it was.” 

There are a number of terms that refer to various degrees of blackness, both current and out of favor: African-American, mulatto, Negro, colored, octaroon. There are not a lot of options for whites. In Texas, they say Anglo. And there is the pejorative we were so pithily reminded of when a witness in the racially charged George Zimmerman trial said the victim, Trayvon Martin, had called Mr. Zimmerman a “creepy-ass cracker.” 

IN the South, I was often asked about my ethnic origins, and I had a ready answer. “My father is from India,” I would recite, phrasing it in such a way as to avoid being mistaken for an American Indian. “And my mom is white.” Almost invariably, if I was speaking to black people, they would nod with understanding. If I was speaking to white people, I would get a puzzled look. “What kind of white?” they would ask. Only when I explained the Norwegian, Scottish and German mix of my ancestry would I get the nod. 

Such racial boundaries have increasingly been called into question in the debate over affirmative action, once regarded as a form of restitution to descendants of slaves, but now complicated by all sorts of questions about who, exactly, is being helped. “What if some of them aren’t poor, what if some of them don’t have American parentage, what if some of them are really stupid?” Ms. Painter, the historian, asked. “There’s all kinds of characteristics that we stuff into race without looking, and then they pop out and we think, ‘I can’t deal with that.’ ” 

Doubtless, this society will continue to classify people by race for some time to come. And as we lumber toward justice, some of those classifications remain useful, even separate from other factors like economic class. Caucasian, though? Not so much.

Shaila Dewan is an economics reporter for The New York Times.