English 312-RA for Conference Talk

Neil L. Andersen "Never Leave Him", October 2010 General Conference.

1. The argument of this speech or conference talk is that members of the Church should choose not to be offended or ashamed of the Lord, because it will help us to be able to feel of His love and approval.

2. The audience of this talk is all Latter-day Saints throughout the world who are both active in the gospel, and those who are beginning to feel ashamed or offended by the gospel.

3. The goal of this talk is to persuade Latter-day Saints to stay strong in the gospel and to never leave the gospel or stop being active in it.

4. Elder Andersen attempts to persuade his audience of his argument through several elements of rhetoric:

Ethos- Elder Anderson gives the example from the Bible of when Christ was in Capernaum and he had several followers who could not accept that He was the son of God, and so they "walked no more with him". By giving an example from the New Testament about Christ and his disciples, Elder Anderson gains authority for his argument by revealing how this problem of leaving Christ was a problem with even His closest followers. By using respectable figures such as Christ and His disciples, Elder Anderson's argument gains immediate credibility and respect.

Pathos-Elder Anderson also uses pathos to persuade his audience in behalf of his argument. He gives the statement that " If we are not watchful, our injured, childlike spirit will retreat back into the cold, dark crust of our former bloated ego, leaving behind the warm, healing light of the Savior." The imagery and word choice he uses here evokes emotions of pain, fear and loneliness if we choose to be offended or ashamed. In contrast, he evokes the emotions of warmth, happiness, and peace if we choose to follow the Lord's commandments. These emotions of pain versus happiness are very effective in persuading people to never leave the gospel.

Accurate- Elder Anderson does a good job of being accurate in his argument, and not setting up weak counterarguments. He is realistic in the counterarguments he presents, such as living the commandments of the Lord or the gospel is not easy. He addresses the concerns that members will feel different, isolated, persecuted and they will not understand everything. He understands the problems and concerns people have with keeping the commandments. However, he argues that it is still important not to become offended or ashamed because the blessings will outweigh the hardships.

Sufficient- Elder Anderson does a good job of giving sufficient evidence for his argument. He quotes several examples from the New Testament and Church History of times when members chose to fall away or not. One such example is Fredrick Williams who could have easily left the Church after committing sins; however, he chose to repent and come back to the Lord. Elder Anderson describes the many generations after him who have benefited from his decision to not become ashamed or offended.

5. Due to his use of ethos, pathos, sufficient and accurate evidence, Elder Andersen is successful in persuading his audience to not become ashamed or offended. He understands the concerns and challenges the members face, and any counterarguments they may present. However, he evokes the emotions of peace, happiness and joy with following the Lord's commandments, which is extremely effective for his audience.

Week 1- Proposal for Personal Technology Project

World Geography

These are the Utah Core Curriculum Standards that my lesson plan will follow:

UEN Standard 2: Students will understand the human and physical characteristics of places and regions.

Objective 1: Interpret place by its human and and physical characteristics.

a. Examine human characteristics, including language, religion, population, political and economic systems, and quality of life.

UEN Standard 4: Students will understand how human activities shape the earth's surface

Objective 1: Analyze the characteristics, distribution and migration of human population's on Earth's surface.

a. investigate how people adapt to their environment

-My idea is to use Google Earth to create a lesson plan for World Geography. It will also be geared towards ESL students, and the objectives of Second Language Acquisition for the teacher to understand the background and culture that the student is coming to class with.

For my lesson plan I will use Google Earth to demonstrate different parts of the world and different cultures we will be discussing: for example Latin America, Europe and Asia. We will talk about different characteristics of each region and as we do so I can show the class on Google Earth exactly what we are talking about.

For the assignment I will have students record a virtual tour on Google Earth showing where they came from and maybe their exact home in their homeland. Students will be able to show unique things about their homeland, for example unique geography, cultural sites, or national monuments. The student will talk about the culture of their homeland, for example the dominant language, religion, political system, etc. Then the student will show on Google Earth the migration pattern to their new home in the U.S., and the student can talk about why they moved, who moved with them, how they have adapted to the new culture, etc. It will be a lesson in discussing both spatial and cultural differences, as well as examining migration patterns and how people adapt.

The "artifact" I will present will be an example of a student-made video tour on Google Earth.

I am still trying to become comfortable with Google Earth because I have never used it before. Some of the tutorials have been helpful but if anyone has any suggestions of good tutorials or tips for using Google Earth that would be great! Any feedback or suggestions would also be gladly accepted :)

Internet Safety- Talking with a parent

For this part of the assignment, I spoke with my own mother about Internet Safety. My mother is the parent of four children, and she also teaches Pre-school children. I began by sharing with her some of the videos and articles I read, and what was shared in our voicethread discussion. I was surprised at how little she really knows about Internet Safety, and how she mentioned she wish she knew more because she can barely protect herself, let alone other youth. She also said she hates having to constantly ask her children how to do something on the computer because she does not know how.

I chose to share the documentary and talk with my mom a lot about what issues were brought up with the PBS video. She gave the idea of sharing examples and personal experiences from other people about things such as getting their identity stolen to help make kids aware of the serious issue it is. We also talked a lot about the issue of cyberbullying, and how devastating of a problem this is. She commented on the segment of the video where the young boy was bullied online for months, and he eventually used information from the internet and advice from a friend online to kill himself. We both discussed what a teacher or a parent can do to help prevent something like this from happening, and we both agreed it's a very difficult situation. She said that it's important not to share too much information with kids about the dangers of what is on the internet because then they can just get curious and look up things they didn't know were on there before. But, my mother also said it is important to make kids aware that this is a serious issue and if they are being bullied they need to inform a teacher or parent right away.

Overall, speaking with my mother about this issue was a very valuable experience for both of us. My mother was previously not aware of all the different dangers that can occur from the internet, but she shared very good advice about how to talk to youth about these issues. It's hard to know of all the difficulties of the internet that face students and subsequently teachers ,since we are responsible for their well-being as well. However, I think it is also important to realize all the good that can come from increased technology, and that it is a matter of figuring out how to "filter through the filth" to use the internet appropriately.

IPT 286- Internet Safety Articles and Videos

Top 5 Ways Teens are Compromising Their Identities Online

This video talked about a speaker who goes to schools to talk to teens about identity theft, because he had his identity stolen at the age of 7. I found it interesting that the video revealed how it is teens that identity thieves target because they are usually more willing to share personal information. I really liked how the video talked about that it starts with the schools educating teens in order to prevent identity theft from occurring.

I think as a teacher, rather than reprimanding students for sharing too much information, a good way to address this issue with students would be to ask them what it means to be popular. The video mentioned how it is because of a desire to be popular within a certain social group that teens share personal info. I think as a teacher it would be a good idea to address this desire to be popular, and look at the consequences of that and being unsafe on the internet.

Documentary: Growing Up Online

A lot of issues were raised in this PBS documentary that will influence my actions as both a parent and educator of youth. One of the main issues is how kids have grown up in the technological age and a lot of times are more advanced technologically than adults. As a teacher, it is important to stay educated and up to date enough that there isn't a disconnect created between myself and my students. Also, the video mentioned how teachers now have to be "entertainers" because students are so used to being stimulated by media that just lecturing is not going to cut it anymore. This shows how important it is to use technology and the internet to keep students engaged.

Meanwhile, it is also important to address the issue of cheating by using the internet. I think as a teacher it will be important to realize that there are several sources on the internet students can use to cheat on assignments, and it is important to plan and organize my lessons and tests in a way that takes that into account. It could be a good idea to have students complete some assignments in class so I know they are not getting information that aren't supposed to from the internet.

Cyberbullying: Another VERY important issue to address with students is cyberbullying. Because of the internet today, bullying doesn't end in the schoolyard. Kids can read words over and over again until it becomes real to them, and it is important to make students aware of this. It's important as a teacher to understand why this type of bullying is so destructive because teens don't know if it's their best friend or someone else who is doing it. It essentially leaves teens with no one to trust. I think as a teacher, a way to prevent this and raise awareness of the severity of the issue is 1) to show a clip from a documentary like this about how it has affected kids lives in such a negative way that it can lead to legal trouble, depression and even suicide and 2) give them tools and advice to help if they are being bullied online. I liked how the video gave the steps of "stop, block and tell". Teach kids the importance of informing others if this is happening because it is a serious issue.

I also think as a teacher it is important not just to blame the internet for everything, but to realize that this is the reality of the world we live in, so it's important to educate ourselves and our students on how to be safe in it.

"Let Our Voices Be Heard"

"Television offers history channels, discovery channels, education channels. One can still find movies and TV comedies and dramas that entertain and uplift and accurately depict the consequences of right and wrong. The Internet can be a fabulous tool of information and communication, and there is an unlimited supply of good music in the world. Thus our biggest challenge is to choose wisely what we listen to and what we watch."

I think this quote by Elder M. Russell Ballard sums up how we should present media to our students, and how we should view it as teacher. We need to teach of the good that media can produce, while still recognizing and warning of the dangers of it as well. We can be good examples to both our students and future children of what it means to responsibly use media.

Multimedia Project- Instructional Video

Here is my instructional video for my multimedia project. The UEN Standard falls under Human Geography for 9th Grade- NGS 9: Understand the characteristics human populations on Earth's surface, NGS 10: Understand the characteristics and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics.

Lesson Objective: Students should be able to: 1. Define race. 2. Explain what makes human populations different. 3. Analyze the effectiveness of "race" in categorizing human populations.

Instructional videos would be extremely useful in the classroom especially for teaching material that has more emotion involved. For example, the use of music, photos and text in this video presents the concept of "race" in a much more effective way than just lecturing would. Also, since students today are immersed in a world of technology, showing instructional videos is something they would be more familiar with and they would be able to relate to. Instructional videos would also be good for student projects. I've always been an advocate of giving options for final projects such as posters, powerpoints, book reports or an instructional video. Students could use them in a social studies setting for book reports, videos about certain wars or battles, or biographies of famous people. It would be a creative way for students to present the knowledge they have learned. Students could do mini "documentaries" as well for a history class, or for a psychology class they could video-tape themselves doing social experiments or interviewing people. I had a teacher that had a project for a psychology class where we had to break a social-norm and write about our reaction and others' reaction. It could be a good idea to tell students they could get extra credit if they made an instructional video of their project.

English 312- RA for Paper A

Paper A- "Mosque in New York City: Not the LDS Church's Problem?"

1. The argument of this paper is that the NYC mosque because it will significantly improve the future growth of the LDS Church.

2. The audience of this paper is the LDS Public Affairs Department who is not making any public statement concerning the mosque being built in NYC.

3. The goal of this paper is to persuade the LDS Public Affairs department to publicly support the building of the NYC mosque.

4. I attempt to persuade my audience of my argument through several elements of rhetoric including:

Ethos- I raise the credibility of my argument by inserting quotes from authoritative figures such as President Packer and President Hinckley, talking about the need for positive Muslim-LDS relations. By quoting this respectable individuals, I appeal to my LDS audience, and thus my argument gains more credibility.

Logos- I use logic to validate counterarguments, and yet refute them with simple logic. An example of this is when I state that the Church does like to remain politically neutral; however, in their LDS Newsroom statement it says they will make a stand on issues that affect the Church or basic morals. I give examples of previous times the Church has made a public stand on an issue, such as in the case of illegal drug use with Peyote Indians, and the Church making a stand on Proposition 8. I use logic to explain how supporting the building of the NYC mosque is an issue that could be of just as much importance because it could make the difference in the Church's growth in the Middle East. Through my use of examples and logic, I attempt to persuade my audience to achieve my goal of supporting the mosque.

Relevant- The material that I use including quotes, past examples, and logic are all extremely relevant to my audience. I really focused my argument to fit my audience, and used examples and quotes that would be relevant to them. The topic of the building of the mosque is also a hot topic right now, and one that the LDS Church would be concerned with.

Sufficient- My paper contained sufficient evidence to prove my point. I recognized several valid counterarguments such as the concern of Islamic values in a Christian society, sensitivity issues surround the location of the building site, and the Church's concern to make a public stance. I backed every one of these arguments up with evidence including quotes, past examples and even pathos to emotionally awake my audience's senses to my claim.

5. Due to my use of ethos, logos, and my relevant and sufficient evidence, I would say that my paper is successful in attempting my goal (although, I might be a little bias :) ). I feel that it is well structured, organized, and I have plenty of evidence to support my claim. However; in reality it would be hard to approach my actual audience and present this point because there are higher authorities the LDS Public Affairs Department responds to such as the First Presidency.

IPT 286- Participation

Check out this trailer for the new documentary "Waiting for Superman". It's a documentary about the public education system in the United States and I think it would be really interesting to see, especially for us current and future teachers. This trailer made me also think of technology and how a documentary about education is a way to spread an idea or opinions about education on a national and international scale. I think it's extremely important for teachers to be informed on what the public opinion on education is, and to go above and beyond the duties of their classroom to be a global citizen. Technology is a great way for this to happen, and an important way for ideas to be spread on a scale that it never could before.

Also, just a thought about podcasts from the voicethread this week. I'm not sure if anyone in this section is also a TESOL minor, but I thought podcasts would be a great way for ESL students to hear and learn English in a more effective way. I found this website for ESL students that has podcasts to help ESL students learn songs native kids know, jokes in English, and "listen and repeat" broadcasts. This would be an excellent way to incorporate ESL students into not only the English language but the culture of technology.