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Article by Willsimith

NCTE is seeking a new editor of Language Arts. In July 2011, the term of the present editors (Patricia Enciso, Laurie Katz, Barbara Z. Kiefer, Detra Price-Dennis, and Melissa Wilson) will end. Interested persons should send a letter of application to be received no later than August 7, 2009. Letters should include the applicant’s vision for the journal and be accompanied by the applicant’s vita, one sample of published writing, and two letters of general support from appropriate administrators at the applicant’s institution. Do not send books, monographs, or other materials that cannot be easily copied for the Search Committee. Classroom teachers are both eligible and encouraged to apply. The applicant Replica Breitling appointed by the NCTE Executive Committee will effect a transition, preparing for his or her first issue in September 2011. The appointment is for five years. Applications should be addressed to Kurt Austin, Language Arts Search Committee, NCTE, 1111 W Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096. Questions regarding any aspect of the editorship should be directed to Kurt Austin, Publications Division Director: kaustin@ncte.org; (800) 369-6283, extension 3619.

From the Editor(1)

There’s a lot of talk about “the real world” in this issue. Sometimes the idea of a real world is used as a club to beat teachers over the head. I’ll bet most of us have heard “Yeah, but you don’t work in the real world” more than once in our careers. (In my case, it tends to come from relatives.) I won’t respond to the charge here; please see the excellent responses in this issue’s “Teacher to Teacher.”There are aspects of the “real world” that teachers should take more seriously than we are required to. For example, if students lament that our teaching doesn’t seem relative to their lives and goals, we should listen. Effective teachers make sure students understand why they should take the trouble to learn what they’re teaching, and when the students don’t understand, these teachers make efforts to change that. For some students and for some English language arts material, this is a challenge, to put it mildly. But when students value what they are learning in class, they learn better.

One of the prime obstacles to teaching for the real world, as everyone reading this editorial knows, is the standardized exam. Such exams focus on basic skills of reading comprehension, recall and restatement of facts and formulas, and the ability to identify the assumptions of test-makers. If the relationship between standardized exams and real reading is distant, standardized exams and real writing don’t even speak to each other!

In a typical standardized exam situation, students write on topics that are rarely and only serendipitously of any interest to them, and they write to an audience that, by definition, knows more about the topic than they do. Worse, exam readers read primarily for mistakes (could there possibly be a more hostile reader than one who is looking for problems?), and they read the essays as quickly as possible be-cause (1) they are probably as bored by the topic as the students, especially after reading dozens of essays; and (2) they may be paid in a manner that encourages speed reading. Further still, the student writers have no choice about when they do their writing, and they are forced to write in a testing Breitling Replica Watches environment, which appears designed to make writers uncomfortable and denies them access to research and feedback to which any effective writer in the real world has almost unfettered access. Finally, the real-world purpose of a standardized exam is to determine a number (a test score) that will have real-world ramifications for the student. The relation of the score to the content of the exam can vary widely, and the increasing numbers of test-taking courses–in which students learn tips and tricks for succeeding on tests–prove that relation can be distant indeed.

Question by youjustlostthegame: Critical Thinking and Language Essay?
I need help with an essay that I don’t completely understand. There are two parts. The first part I have completed, which tells me to take any aspect of my life and describe it using at least five metaphors (175-300 words). The second part says to address the follwoing questions, each of them I do not understand completely. They are

What role does language and language diversity play in the critical thinking process?

How does language empower or limit the expression of our thoughts?

What is the role of critical thinking in persuasion?

I need to use 700 to 1,050 words to answer each of these questions. All I need is a simple explanation of each question and how I could probably answer it.

Best answer:

Answer by g o
When we consider language, especially in America, we do so from a rather enthnocentric or Amerocentric view. Other languages have words that have no equivilant in English. Natives in Alaska have 13 words for snow, because as they experience it, there are 13 types of snow. For you or I, seeing this white stuff falling from the sky, we might say that snow is falling. To them it is not just snow it has more definable traits, such as size and moisture content (I’ve been there the snow can be very dry). So when we think, we think in the terms of our language which can be limiting as well as empowering. For a child without language there is only the self, the provider, and desire. As their ability to use language grows, so does their ability to interpret their experience. I hope this gives you a little heads up on the subject. If you need further reading check out cutural anthropology+language or linguistics. Good luck

Give your answer to this question below!

The Internet is rapidly becoming the place for companies to market their business. In fact, it has become so hot that Google Adsense and Affiliate Marketing links are present on almost any website. Most website owners, however, realize that in order to drive traffic to their website, they must first be familiar with Search Engine Optimization. Gladly, one does not have to pay to learn SEO since there are a multitude of free Search Engine Optimization learning tools on the Internet.

Keywords are an integral part of SEO, and having the right keywords can make your website appear on the first page of a Google search. The website, www.123promotion.co.uk, details the popularity of each keyword or keyword combination. By using 123promotion and understanding the popularity of a keyword or a keyword combination, you can understand what people are searching for online. With such information, you can set up your keywords in such a way that would optimize its rankings on a Google search. Keyword popularity metrics is a valuable and free search engine optimization tool that more webmasters, bloggers, and companies are using to promote their websites.

A backlink is a link to your website from another website, such as another person’s blog, a social networking site, a web forum, another website, etc. Building backlinks helps drive traffic to your website or blog in two ways. The first way is that since it links to your site, people on backlined sites will see your site, which will give you greater visibility. If that particular site is a popular site, such as a hot discussion forum, this will create immense traffic to your site. The other way that it creates traffic is that pages with more backlinks tend to rank higher on Google. The websites, www.webuildpages.com and www.webconfs.com, are two free search engine optimization tools that specialize in backlink checks.

Besides keyword and backlink checkers, there are a host of other free search search engine optimization tools online. There are websites, such as Alexa.com, that allow you to check the popularity of another website. Such information is useful if you are planning to promote your website through another website. Many web browsers, such as Firefox, have a search engine optimization tool that can be downloaded separately online. As more companies realize the value of SEO, it’s expected that more free search engine optimization tools will be available to website builders.

Question by susn: Where can I apply for a grant to create learning tools for children who have learning disabilities?
I develop software and I have been researching different grant sites, I cannot find grants for small companies that want to help create learning tools for dyslexic, and other learning disabled persons.

Best answer:

Answer by imisidro
This is the type of project where you may be able to get grants from private foundations, not government. However, even private foundations may want you to be a 501C3 organization (non profit)

The best resource for this is Foundation Center http://www.fdncenter.org . They have a very good database covering all organizations giving grants and you can find foundations that are interested in supporting your type of cause. However, it’s a subscription based website ($ 19.95 per month I think is the cheapest subscription price). But it certainly is worth the fee. You can subscribe one month, and make sure you get all the info you need and then stop the subscription.

If you want to try federal sources, you can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov – these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants.

Even private corporations that give out grants require that you be a 501C3. Big corporations mostly have corporate giving programs, but they are designed for the “greater good” and not for individual’s enrichment purposes such as starting businesses. Like the federal government, private foundations including corporations hardly give grant to those who wish to start a business.

Here are some of the big companies’ corporate giving programs and their objectives:

Dell Foundation http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/foundation/en/index?c=us&l=en&s=corp
Recipients are 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and objective is to address the health and human services, the education, and the technology access for youth. Specifically says that they do NOT provide grants for individuals

What do you think? Answer below!