The IP....check.

There's no better feeling than putting a satisfying check mark next to an item on a to do list. I enjoy this simple action so much, I often rewrite things I've already done on the list, just so I can enthusiastically cross them off. Well class, The biggest monster, our Issue Papers, can officially be crossed off our writing 150 to do lists. Op. Ed: check. Rhetorical Analysis: check. Issues Paper: check. IP: check. Paper with Issues: check. The paper of Issues: check. check. and CHECK!

I actually thoroughly enjoyed this paper. It was a beast to research and write, but I was interested in my topic and could have read article after article about it! I learned so much and gained a valuable opinion I will carry with me through out the rest of my life. My least favorite part was the Annotated Bibliography. However, I found that even that was moderately useful.  Congratulation classmates, We're one step closer to summer!

Outline attempt!

I decided to outline this article from the Desert News. It is a column titled, Reasons To Run, by a teammate of mine in her fifth year.

Cecily Lew, starts out with a personal experience from a couple weekends back when the National Track and Field Competitions were being run. She tells of the difficulty she and her husband had trying to locate the races online and the poor quality with which they were broadcast. She compares the experience to the ease of locating and watching a basketball game from home.

After her personal experience she states that she recognizes the limitations of having an entire channel dedicated to running; however, she mentions changes that can be made such as national races being broadcast live with a clear image.

Next Lew, transitions to expressing her frustration to the lack of exposure the running world currently gets. She gives several posed anecdotes and conversations of non-runner/ runner encounters, and common questions asked. In this part of the the article she uses satire, irony, and sarcasm giving the article a comical and casual feel.

She intercedes one of her posed conversations toward the end with a "truth of the matter" statement. She informs her audience of the punchline of her arguments by reiterating that track runs year round and there is a vast running world out there with thousands of exciting/ inspirational stories.

She closes by picking up the posed conversation and ends with a satirical comment displaying apparent frustration at non-runners lack of understanding regarding the running world.
http:www.deseretnews.com

5 Sources

1) The pros and cons of English as a medium of instruction in African schools
-by W D Adkins
http://www.helium.com/items/1014686-the-pros-and-cons-of-english-as-a-medium-of-instruction-in-african-schoolsWebsite Title

: African & Middle Eastern Culture

2) The pros and cons of English as a medium of instruction in African schools

by- Joshua Kloppers

http://www.helium.com/items/2106483-medium-of-instruction-in-south-africa

3) Researchers, Beware of Your Assumptions! The Unique Case of South African Education

by- Zanelle Buthlezi

http://www.readingonline.org/international/inter_index.asp?HREF=/international/edinburgh/buthelezi/

4) Language of Instruction in Tanzania and South Africa – Highlights from a Project

by-Birgit Brock-Utne, Zubeida Desai, Martha A.S. Qorro and Allan Pitman (Eds.)

https://www.sensepublishers.com/files/9789460912221PR.pdf

5)The Language of Instruction Conundrum in Africa

by-Kwesi Kwaa Prah

http://www.sprakforsvaret.se/sf/fileadmin/PDF/Conundrum.pdf

Issues Thesis say whaaaa?

As our World becomes increasingly more connected, the popularity of using English as the primary learning language in African Schools has become all but standardized. This results in an often hindered progression of those children who are forced to reconcile their mother tongue in pursuit of a globalized education before they've mastered basic concepts requisite for success. 

It's very rough, and definitely needs some refining and more particulars, buuuut having not done much research yet, I'll have to fill those in after the fact when my argument has matured more. 

This is really what it's like. Don't let the "Nice" uniforms fool you though.

Issues Paper Topics

What to write on? What to write on? With this being such a big paper and worth so many points, I really want to find a topic that I'm going to be interested in and enjoy. So far I'm considering how Globalization has impacted the language of schooling across the world. I had the opportunity to live in Africa for 5 weeks last summer where I worked in an orphange/school, teaching subjects I was less than qualified to teach. The reason I was able to teach was because in Tanzania all secondary schools (elementary-junior high equivalent) are mandatorily taught in English. This restriction made me, an 18 year old girl, more qualified than at least 5 of the 8 teachers at the school. It was incredibly difficult to teach the children concepts such as geography, math, science, and religion in their second language. For example, teaching kids about pollution, when they don't know what that word means, was almost impossible. Those subjects are hard enough for American's to learn in their first language. Can you imagine being taught them in Spanish, French, or German?

No swahili is allowed to be spoken at the schools there, except for a short fifty minute class, where they learn it each day. This means they can't even ask clarification questions in their other classes. This throws the kids into a sink or swim scenario, where unfortunately 50-70 percent, or more, fail miserably. It is heartbreaking to see how hard the kids work, and their struggles based solely on a language barrier.

R.A. Reflection

I definitely liked writing this essay. I haven't done a Rhetorical Analysis since the AP English test my junior year of High School; it was fun getting back into the swing of how they are done. I liked my topic and I was grateful we had the opportunity to choose, for ourselves, which article we wanted to analyze. I feel like the time table has been perfect. I never felt rushed or like I was wasting time. Every step of the editing process was worth while. I feel like a little more instruction on specific strategies would've been beneficial earlier on. We went over lots on a friday class, but that was after we were supposed to have written most of our essays. I think that might have saved students some time and stress.