Fabricio Crespo Universidad Yachay Tech
July, 14th 2016
Dear Portfolio Reader,
My name is Fabricio Crespo. Thank you for reading my English Language portfolio. Here, you can find my essays, my final research project and some experiences that I want to share with you. I am proud of my performance in this level and I hope that you enjoy reading my work. In English level six, I have done four essays: response essay, exploration essay, interpretation essay and argumentation essay. Each one of them had its own degree of difficulty. For the first essay, I chose to talk about Ethics in a persuasive way. Write this essay was difficult for me because I was not used to writing about serious topics. I could not get a high grade. However, my first presentation about the response essay, was good and I got 10/10. For the next essay which was exploration essay, I had to search information about education. I choose this topic because I wanted to analyze the principal reasons why students have a low learning in schools. The grade for this essay was better than the last one and for my presentation I got 9.4/10. For the third essay and presentation, it was necessary join to other classmates. We chose to analyze the poem "O Captain! My Captain!� I learned working in group and I could interchange ideas. We had success with the essay and presentation. For my last essay, I was prepared. I had to do this essay in class but it was not a problem because after three essays, I knew the correct structure of the essay and how to do it. I got a 9.5/10. In addition, for the last
presentation, I had a debate in groups. The topic was "there should be a one global language?" This debate was very thrilling. When I began English level six, I was worried about my performance in class because, I should write essays and do presentations. My principal goal was improve the speaking and listening of the language. Therefore, in this class, I achieved to improve elemental skills like transmit ideas in a clearly way, talk properly, increase vocabulary, upgrade the ability to research and use academicals information to do essays. My own ability as an English language user teaches me that, I am connected with the rest of the world because, I am able to search information from other countries. In addition, I have known the importance of English language for my studies specially, at Yachay Tech. Another important point is that, I am able to cause an effect in the audience with my essays and presentations. I believe that the audience can change their thoughts about a topic through my essays and presentations because they are supported by quality researches. Also, I would like to recognize to my professor and classmates who were an important part of my English learning process. Through the opinions of my classmates, I could improve my works for English class. Their points of view were interesting and they helped me to change mi opinions about some topics and increase my knowledge. On another hand, my professor was the principal guide for my learning process because I could improve my English with each advice, suggestions, or instruction from him. Henceforth, I will take each advice from my instructors because they have experience in the subject and they are my guides to improve the English for my future. Before English level six, I only used this language because, it was a requirement in my university but now, I understand the true importance of English. Likewise, I can
watch movies in English and I am able to keep a conversation with other English language users. One year ago, I went to the United States. I remember that I could only do basic questions like do you have this t-shirt in another size? Or, how much is it? Sometimes, I was frustrated with my level of English because I was limited to keep short conversations. Now, I would like come back to the United States to test my level of English. It will be a strong test but I hope have positive results. Sincerely,
Fabricio Crespo
FABRICIO CRESPO MATTHEW CRAING MACKEY LEVEL 6-004 RESPONSE ESSAY THE TRUE REASONS BEHIND YOU ETHICAL BEHAVIOR
The true reasons behind you ethical behavior “Ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy”. (BBC, 2014) When people talk about Ethics, in most of cases, they have a similar point of view. Imagine that you travel through the highway and suddenly you see a car accident. There is not a hospital near. What do you do? Most of people say that they may fall in a state of distress and they might help to the injured people. But, if you help other people, you reduce your stress state? Probably, the answer, is yes. We can conclude that when we help other people, we get satisfaction, so, therefore our ethical behavior is motivated mostly by self-interest. Analyzing this issue is very important because people do not know about this unconscious behavior. Nowadays, our country is facing a one of the strongest disasters in the last 40 yea0rs. An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 caused destruction and near to seven hundred people died, other twenty five thousand lost their belongings. Something that is causing admiration around the world is how the Ecuadorians are together and they are helping to the victims from each province of Ecuador. Probably, Ecuadorians have a big pain in their hearth and when they help to other people, they try to reduce their heartache. Also, they can’t support the scenes that they has seen on the T.V. We can assert that people help to other because they experience personal distress like alarm, worry or grief. People will become surprised but this can be one of the realities that most of them do not know. They should analyze their actions and the reasons behind their ethical behavior. Finally, if they understand, they can change the idea that "I help to other people because I have the biggest heart in the world".
If you still do not found the reason behind your ethical behavior, let me express another situation. You are in the center of the earthquake maybe in Pedernales or Manta and a poor and injured child comes to you asking for a bottle of water and food. You would not doubt and immediately you help her/him. But in the same time, while you look at the eyes of the injured child, you may be experiencing empathy or sympathy, compassion or tenderness with this sensitive situation for the human race. Some mothers would said “When I see a similar situation, it brokes my heart and I cannot bear it without do nothing.� Another powerful reason behind your ethical behavior is that many people get the personal gain in an obvious way when they reap public admiration or praise. The volunteers can say that they are helping when the injured people need them but some of these volunteers take selfies and then, they upload these photographs to Facebook or other social networks because they want that other people see their humanitarian activity. Maybe, the most important reward for them is that people comment their photos, get likes and they remain as heroes and also, they became famous for their heroics. In this moment, we can see a lot of cases like this that I have exposed. Open your social network and you can see a lot of people with photos near to food or clothes for the victims or photos where people are near to other injured. In the moment when you take a selfie next to poor people or food/clothes, your joint action is finished. An ethical behavior can be motivated by different self-interests because, when we have feeling of distress, alarm, worry, or grief, we try do to something to fix this situation and the better way to do it is act according the moral principles. Also, the empathy or sympathy, compassion or tenderness are other important facts to have this way to act. Finally, everybody in this world want to be commended for his heroics or solidary actions
because this feeling is part of the human nature and for these reasons, I think that hardly ever, there are a disinterested ethical behavior.
Bibliography: BBC Group. (2014) “Ethics: a general”; Retrieved April 27, 2016, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/introduction/intro_1.shtml Andre, C. & Velasquez, C. (2015) “Unmasking the Motives of the Good Samaritan”; Retrieved April 27, 2016, from https://www.scu.edu/ethics/ethics-resources/ethicaldecision-making/unmasking-the-motives-of-the-good-samaritan/
Education: Memorization and deficient learning Fabricio Crespo Yachay Tech May 20th 2016
Education: Memorization And A Deficient Learning Education is considered the base of the knowledge. Nowadays, students use different ways to get this knowledge but, how are they learning? A great percentage of them only memorize large amounts of material and then, when the final exam is done, they forget it. This is why memorization is one of the most devastating problems in the education process because it has replaced deep learning and students are not prepared to face the problems of this world because they do not has developed essential skills like thinking and reasoning and the ability to articulate ideas and communicate properly. (Towler, 2014). But, not only students are responsible for this learning problem because teachers influence in highly significant ways. When students go to school or university, the principal priority is have an effective and deep learning. This priority hardly ever fulfill because most of the students use memorization as the only skill to try to learn. They are building a short-term memory and after some time, the knowledge is gone. In an article named Deeper Learning: Moving Students Beyond Memorization, Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University said that students have been losing or squandering most of the information they acquire in school. (Towler, 2014). Memorization as a learning skill is considered a problem because students do not use the reasoning and a critic thought to understand knowledge. Also, they do not have an applied knowledge and they only have a simple recall of facts. In the future, when they become professionals, they will have inefficient performance because they are not able to think, reason, write, or speak because of gross deficiencies in their previous education.
According to Maryellen Weimer, author of the article Do Your Students Understand the Material, or Just Memorize and Forget?, a clear example of the lack of a true learning is given by Eric Mazur, professor at Harvard. “Professor Mazur always lectured to the students until he discovered a problem. His students had learned Newton’s third law of motion. He decided to test their understanding of it with a conceptual problem involving a collision between a heavy truck and a light car. To his surprise, his students couldn’t answer the problem. It seems the students were memorizing the material but not understanding it, and so Mazur decided to change his instructional approach." (2012) Memorization and low learning became a problem because students have lost the sense of the study because their principal concern or priority is to pass the level of the course and for this reason they do not find reasons to learn the subject beyond the requirements. In addition, the amount of material introduced by the professors is overwhelming and students see memorization as the only way to learn all concepts, facts, figures, etc. written in books to try to get a high grade in the next exam. (Gearon, 2014). Also, Maryellen Weimer, in her article says that teachers are responsible for this problem too. "Teachers use superficial measures (e.g. multiple-choice questions that test recall) to assess understanding. Why do students memorize isolated facts that they don’t really understand? Because, in many courses, that approach has rewarded them with good or at least decent grades". (2012) Some educational systems and teachers who have recognized this problem have done changes in their methods to introduce knowledge. For example, lectures had been changed by short questions. The class begins with shorts questions. These questions are
answered by the students in an individual way or individual ways, then a discussion is made and students discuss, explain and defend their answers with their classmates. (Weimer, 2012) Also, another solution for memorization as a method of teaching be related to the knowledge with real-world problems to solve problems, ask questions, discus concepts to get more advanced learning. Professors playing a fundamental roll in this change and they must do questions whose answers leads students to make judgments, reasoning, interpretations with derived conclusions. Memorization and deficient learning are great problems in some educational systems because students won't be prepared to facing the real problems of the life because they have an incomplete knowledge for their previous education. Teachers and students are making mistakes with the methods to get a solid knowledge. Also, is important follow better academic methods to get a deeper learning to solve this problem because students need to leave school with a much richer education. A subject of knowledge is who has essential skills like thinking and reasoning and the ability to articulate ideas and communicate properly. (Towler, 2014).
References: Gearon, C. (2014). High School Students Need to Think, Not Memorize. Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/education/high-schools/articles/2012/09/17/highschool-students-need-to-think-not-memorize[14/05/2016] Towler, L. (2014). Deeper Learning: Moving Students Beyond Memorization. Retrieved from http://neatoday.org/2014/11/25/deeper-learning-moving-students-beyondmemorization-2/ [13/05/2016] Weimer, M. (2012). Deep Learning vs. Surface Learning: Getting Students to Understand the Difference. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/deep-learning-vssurface-learning-getting-students-to-understand-the-difference/ [15/05/2016] Weimer, M. (2012). Do Your Students Understand the Material, or Just Memorize and Forget. Retrieved from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teachingprofessor-blog/do-your-students-understand-the-material-or-just-memorize-andforget/[13/05/2016]
O Captain! My Captain! Cocha Carlos, Crespo Fabricio, Velastegui Camila Yachay Tech June17, 2016
Interpretation of poem “O Captain! My Captain!” by Walt Whitman
What happens if some day you wake up and the person who you love is dying and you could not tell him how much you value his actions? Maybe the best way to express your feelings is write a poem which has a strong meaning. It is what Walt Whitman made. Through the beauty of literature, he found the best form to pay tribute to Abraham Lincoln and express the commotion of all Americans caused by the death of his president. This character is remembered for his great changes as the president of the United States in the politics and American society such as the abolition of slavery. (Thomas, 2008). Whitman wrote the poem for this reason, but this poem could have more address that Abraham Lincoln.
Walt Whitman’s poem, “O captain, my captain” express the feelings of
unexpected loss of a respected person, Whitman wants us to appreciate people before it is too late. When someone unexpected die, you have a mixture of feelings. The poem “O Captain, my Captain” tries to express the feeling of unexpected loss. The first feeling that you have when someone surprisingly die is the negation, you can’t believe it and after that, you feel all the pain. This description is present at Whitman’s poem. We can notice these feelings in many parts of it. The surprise of death is present in verse five when he said “But O heart! heart! heart!”. The repetition of word “heart” gives us the connotation that like a heart attack, this was surprisingly and someone begins to felt pain in the heart. After that verse, the poet said that her captain is “cold and dead”. Negation is present too, when in verse seven and eight at second strophe express “It is some dream that on the deck You’ve fallen cold and dead” In these phrases you understand that when you want believe that everything is only a dream, you are wrong and all is the reality. Finally, you accept
the dead of the person with great sadness. You can see this feeling in the poem on the third strophe when he accepts that his captain is dead and he has a pain inside. The short verses of each strophe enhance the feelings of acceptance and resignation by the death of Captain whom people love and admire. In the poem, the captain had led his people to good port but, unfortunately, he paid his good actions with his own life. In the first strophe, the atmosphere of joy ("the people all exulting", verse four) disappears gradually, step by step, leading to the reader to the terrible reality of the death. This fact is also evidenced with the use of metaphors on the verse seven: "the bleeding drops of red". With the use of verse seventeen that says "It is some dream you cannot really are on the bridge fallen cold and dead" and with others, the author represents the suffering, pain and impotence for not being able to do anything for the one who you love. Whitman through this poem express gratitude in different ways. But the true message behind this poem is that we should appreciate people who are around us, their actions and the value of each one of them because we do not know if this person will be there tomorrow. Nobody has purchased life and nobody knows what will happen because the future is uncertain. The message communicated by this poem is deep. It makes us think about how many times when a person die, newly his family beginning to remember every good action, every learning that this person left but is too late because this person cannot hear, feel or say something. In this poem, Whitman honors to Abraham Lincoln for his great actions for the American community, especially for the United States because in his two periods as President, he did great changes in politics and society and he fought shoulder to shoulder with his followers to get the improvements that the country needed. (Thomas, 2008) Finally, this poem gives a set of feelings that are, in turn, felt by the reader and identify with the writer. The universality of content and message of the poem make this
identification real and alive. The pain produced by the death of a friend is communicated through an expression of helplessness caused by the void left, and the good actions performed in life by the person who is died. How we saw before at the analysis, the true meaning expressed by Walt Whitman in the poem “O Captain, my Captain” is give the message that we have to value the people, because we didn’t know when they left this world and maybe, we could not said thank you for all. This poem is a great tribute for Abraham Lincoln that express very well how American country felt with the die of its president but this poem not only has this meaning. Today the poem “O Captain, my Captain” can be considerate to express mixed feelings about the unexpected departure of parent, a counselor, a friend, who is died but left life lessons and did noble actions that remain in the minds and hearts of each person that feel gratitude and has a debt with him.
References Whitman, Walt. O Captain! My Captain! San Francisco: Printed for Albert M. Bender by Cecil & James Johnson at the Windsor, 1935. Print. Thomas, B. P. (2008). Abraham Lincoln: a biography. SIU Press.
Should censorship be practiced in schools? Fabricio Crespo Yachay Tech June, 30th 2016 Should censorship be practiced in schools?
Should censorship be practiced in schools? Do you remember the books that you used in school? Was the information of these books appropriate for your age? And, what about the rules in your school? Do you think that these rules were exaggerated? Well, when analyze the issues, we are talking about censorship in school which is one of the laws of education. Censorship is necessary in schools to avoid unsuitable content for students and to select information according to the age of each one of them. Nowadays, the access to the information is easy and unnecessary content can be gotten. The purpose of censorship at school is prevent children and teens from learning information that can damage themselves. According to Ken Petress, “ censorship is only valid, ethical, and required when it appears to be the only way to avoid or to mitigate provable physical, social, emotional, or intellectual harmful for students (2005:245). It is very important to take control of the knowledge that will be given to the students in the school because the life of a person can depend in a great percent of the education that they have gotten in their first days. Another important reason for censorship in schools is that the content of education should be according the age of the students because they maybe cannot understand some facts or they can understand but in a wrong way and it can produces confuse in the thought of children or teens. For example, you cannot expect that a child of five years old can understand why Adolf Hitler and Nazis killed to one, two, or three million of Jews. Another consequence of unsuitable content according the age of students is that they can see bad actions as good actions because they do not have experience and competence to have a clear idea about the facts that are explained in the school.
Many people said that censorship is an extreme law in education because students are restricted to access to some important information but we can say that “censorship is not forever, it is transitory� (Petress, 2005:250). After that children and teens get a reasonable age, they can access to all the information in a free way because they will be prepared to understand this content. In conclusion, censorship in schools is necessary to avoid several problems related with the correct learning of the students because they need a suitable content according to their age to understand in a best way the knowledge.
References Petress, K. (2005). The Role of Censorship in School. Journal of Instructional Psychology. Vol 32: 248-282.
Education is the best investment for the future Fabricio Crespo Yachay Tech June, 7th 2016 Education is the best investment for the future
Can you imagine a world without education? What would happen with the economy of the countries if people decide do not follow education? Science and technology are important to improve the economy of a country but, Are they possible without education? All these questions explain the importance of the education for a country. Nowadays, the role of education in a country is fundamental because through it, nations can get a strongest development of their economy. In addition, science and technology have become two of the most important economy resources for a country and the only way to produce them, is take advantage of the brainpower of the citizens with a quality education. Therefore, Education should be the principal priority of a country because through education and the development of science and technologies, a nation can improve its economy and, consequently, its future. Education is the only way to get and improve the knowledge. According to the Cambridge dictionary (2016), "education is the process of teaching or learning, especially in a school or college, or the knowledge that you get from this" and the same dictionary defines knowledge as "understanding of or information about a subject that you get by experience or study, either known by one person or by people generally". (2016). With the meaning of education and knowledge, is possible analyze the relationship between both and why education is important to get knowledge. Basically, a person follow an educational program to learn about different subjects and increase his information about them, therefore, to get knowledge about a determined topic. If a person gets enough knowledge about a certain topic, he is able to get a job and improve his economy. Other people prefer develop science and technology. Clearly, a world without education cannot produce innovation and development. In addition, if a country does not have a good education, its citizens may not improve their brainpower.
Improve education in a country is only possible with a great investment. A country needs improve the performance of docents and students in each school and university. Professors are the principal responsible for the education process because they guide to the students with their knowledge, their experiences and the sufficient capacity to transmit all the information that students need. This mission is not easy and it demands professors with a quality preparation. Nowadays, docents who are masters or have a Ph.D. are required in educational systems because their great preparation is useful to improve student’s knowledges. All these teachers with a high preparation, demands high wages. This fact increases the money necessary for education in a country.
Also, the
implementation of schools, colleges and universities with the necessary equipment to facilitate the learning is required. A country needs improve infrastructures of its educative establishments to provide to the students a comfortable environment to develop their skills in the learning field. According to the Global Economic Symposium (2012), "Technology is a tremendous tool for unleashing human potential, opening new ways of communicating and sharing ideas. It accelerates understanding, deepens insight und sparks innovation. It is more than ‘closing the digital divide’ by equipping classrooms with computers and providing internet access for all students". Classrooms with technology for each institute have a high cost and demands a big investment by the government. Some nations do not have enough capital to improve education because, some governments prefer invest large quantities of money in other fields. Education should be considered the principal priority of a country to improve the economy, consequently, this field should have the biggest investment than others. Currently, the world is facing an economic crisis and governments are looking to find
solutions for this serious problem. For example, nonrenewable resources like petroleum are being depleted and the economy of many nations are falling down. It’s time to change the base of the economy by an infinite resource such as the brainpower of people. A country needs to invert now in education to have results after sometime because, investment in education is a long-term investment but it is effective. In addition, if people get knowledge through education, they are able to get a job and improve their own economy. In other cases, they can help to improve science and technology for a country. People thought education can develop their skills to improve the economy of a country. A poor country that depends of the agriculture can become more economical advanced if its citizens, follow an educational program (The Indian Express, 2014). When a person decide go to the school or university, his principal purpose is learn and get knowledge about a determined subject. For this reason, education is related with the development of people because they let a literacy state and they become in a productive part of the country. People with their job can produce their own economy and it is useful for the country because is one less problem for its economy. Therefore, a nation can eradicate poverty through education. In addition, a country can abandon the traditionalist thinking that maybe it only exports raw materials like fruits. Education can provide other useful advantages for a country like science and technology. Education leads to science and technology. The current world powers base their economy in the development of science and technology. Countries like United States or Japan have development these fields and the principal companies that produce science and technology are located in these countries. According to US news, "The U.S. spends significantly more on education than other OECD countries. In 2010, the U.S. spent 39 percent more per fulltime student for elementary and
secondary education than the average for other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development" (2015). It shows the great investment made by United States in education. The great advantages that these world powers have is that, they can sell science and technology to the rest of the world through different ways like medicine or the cure to different illnesses. Also, new discoveries to improve people’s lives like cellphones, computers, software or new artefacts are produced by these powerful nations and other countries, which do not have the possibility or capacity to produce technology and science, are obligated to buy them and import them to avoid a further delay. In this way, the incomes produced by science and technology are an important percent of the total income of a country. In addition, everybody knows that science and technology do not have limits and each day, there is a thing to invent, improve or discover. However, education is not only important for science and technology. Education can improve the life of people. People who followed an educational program have more possibilities to get a job that a person who never entered to a school. The opportunity of a person to get a job and improve his economy, increase with his educational level. A person who followed basic school, can get a job according to his preparation and his salary is less than a professional who studied in the university. One example of the importance of education to improve the economy of people is given by the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (2011). "Child poverty is less severe for families with parents who have graduated college, so the focus needs to be on increasing the number of college graduates and creating jobs for those graduates in this cohort." Yoka Brandt who was the Deputy Executive Director for External Affairs of UNICEF, said "Investing in education isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s smart economics. Education can put people on a path towards good health, empowerment and employment.
It can help to build more peaceful societies" (2015). On the other hand, some citizens do not agree with the investment in education. Some citizens thinks that invest in education is a public waste of money because the country has other priorities. In addition, these people say that they cannot see the economical results in education and for this reason, they criticize the government. If a president tries to improve the education, people protest and they ask for immediately results, but it is not possible because the process is lengthy and it needs time. However, today we need to consider the intellectual capacity as the most important priority of a nation’s economy. Thus, education should be the principal investment of a government because it is the base of knowledge. People need to change their thought and concept about education because we need to know the true importance of it for the future, for the economy developed, to reduce the poverty, etc. Moreover, education is a long-term investment but if we want to see results as soon as possible, we need to start now. Education should be considered as the better way to improve the economy of a country because it helps to develop the intellectual potential of its citizens and it lets to put brainpower as the base and a resource of the economy. In addition, education becomes in opportunities of people who want to improve their economy because, it provides the necessary knowledge that is required in any job. In this way, education lets to reduce poverty in the society and improve the life of each citizen. Moreover, education leads to innovation through the development of science and technology. With the development of these fields, a country can have a better economy. These are the reasons why governments need to support education with an increase in the investments for this area and put it as the principal priority of the country because through education and the development of science and technologies, a nation can improve its economy and, consequently, its future.
References Brandt, Y. (2016). Education: the most powerful investment in our future. Retrieved from https://blogs.unicef.org/blog/education-the-most-powerful-investment-in-ourfuture [11/0/2016] Cambridge University Press. (2016). Cambridge dictionary. Retrieved from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/index.html [04/07/2016] Council on Hemispheric Affairs. (2011). Child Poverty and Access to Education: Adding Up the Hidden Costs on the U.S.-Hispanic Community. Retrieved from http://www.coha.org/child-poverty-and-access-to-education-adding-up-thehidden-costs-on-the-u-s-hispanic-community/ [06/07/2016] Global Economic Symposium. (2016). Effective Investments in Education. Retrieved from
http://www.global-economic-symposium.org/knowledgebase/the-global-
economy/effective-investments-in-education [11/06/2016] The Indian Express. (2014). Quest: Education key to progress of any country. Retrieved from
http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/quest-education-key-to-
progress-of-any-country/ [11/06/2016] US News. (2015). U.S. Education: Still Separate and Unequal. Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/datamine/2015/01/28/useducationstillsepara teanduuseduc [29/03/2016]
Some photos from class and other learning experiences