Reflective students through a simple resource

As teachers we are always trying to take advantages of any resource we meet. But do we know how to use them? “Modern Times” is a pretty valuable film which shows how people tried their best effort to achieve a better life style. It gives a comprehensive view about Victorian times. Any language teacher must have a clear understanding of England history and the most relevant events because in that way learners will know the context where the language and the culture were developed. But also, educators can make their students reflect about England society and how it has been become in what it is today. I strongly believe that a simple film like “Modern times” can make students reflect about the England society in the past and comprehend the main consequences it had in this country and around the world. To reach a reflective teaching through this film, teachers have to be aware of its disadvantage and advantages. To be clear, I will expose why this film might be considered as a pedagogical tool in order to get a reflective point of view from pupils about the past and present society but not ignoring its disadvantages as well.

As mentioned above, we can take advantages from this film in order to get a comprehensive view about the England past society and make students able to give answers to their questions related to this nation but also to their own country. Questions such as: The industrial revolution brought more disadvantages or advantages to England and in what contexts? What sorts of consequences England industrialization brought to Latin America, especially in Chile? and so on. As English teachers we can invite our students to think a little bit about how meaningful industrialization in England society was and in other countries. For example, nowadays Chile is considered an undeveloped country (in economical terms) in comparison to England; this film might help us to find answers about it. I think it is totally required to look back to the past if we want to make our students comprehend the present. Modern Times shows how industrialization encouraged the economical progress in England. This example of “economical progress” can make our learners understand what sorts of reason move a country to make decisions, for example. What I am trying to say is that, a simple film can become a kind of window where through children can analyze how past influenced the present. If teachers achieve this reflective approach, they would make students get an ample view about the economical England progress and see how it affected their own country which is in this case Chile.

In relation to some disadvantages about the film I would consider as an obstacle the age when it was developed. I am refereeing to the fact of time because Modern times reflect a reality which belongs to a specific moment. If we still bearing in mind our reflective approach as a goal, we have to be conscious that eras are completely different. England industrialization was developed in a particular context with few similarities with England nowadays and students’ country as well. So, how meaningful and reflective can be try to understand the present based on the past if every event happened in different periods? As a consequence of the progress that England government wanted to achieve England people were involved with miserable conditions, with diverse issues, political and economical problems and so on. What was mentioned before, support the idea that context is our barrier at the time of compare two different periods of time. Understand the present based on the past ignoring their different contexts will hamper our hoped reflective approach. The importance of context makes us reflect that educators cannot be completely objective in the comparison of events, for instance: England period was developed in an entirely different context in comparison to Chile. Industrial revolution grew up differently because of the context where countries were involved. As a matter of fact, teachers cannot ignore the cultural, social or economical differences where events were developed. Context must be part of any teacher’s reflective approach.

To conclude, Modern times can be considered as a pedagogical tool because through it teachers can achieve students’ reflection about the main England events and which were the relevant consequences that this process had in this nation and students’ country. However the disadvantages cannot be ignored. Clearly from past events, we can learn and comprehend our today. Nevertheless, the idea of getting a clear understanding about the present based on the past, have to be based on the context where the events were involved; otherwise students will not comprehend why facts developed differently. My position is that this film might become an excellent resource but based on context. Teachers through this valuable film can achieve a successful reflective activity.

First of all, I would like to mention the importance that modern times had in our times. Have you ever asked about it? Nowadays we have a life style which was clearly influenced by our past. Besides, we cannot ignore that as an American Latin country, Europe influenced us strongly.

One of the most important key word about this time was the progress. We have to analyze that the elite replace the man by machine. In this context, people were supposed to be employed and get some money. In that way they were going to get a better life. However It did not happen!

This encouraging of achieving a better life pushed people to look for new horizons. Nevertheless, they met a disheartening reality. The social movement made that industries took advantages of the people’s needs do not give them working rights. This working exploitation made people suffer a lot, being hungry even begging for money in the street.

In conclusion, what we have to see here is how process from the high class made a negative influence over the lower class. How many times we have to face this important situation? High class even the Government (because it was formed by elite) did not care about poor people. So, what was the cost of the progress? And even worst, how different is nowadays?

Elizabeth

She declared herself as the Virgin Queen because she said that has married with England. Besides, she wore a mantle like a virgin.

I started saying why she was called The Virgin Queen because it represents her commitment with England.

The importance of the Elizabeth’s reign in the British History was the changes that her presence achieved in many aspects. For instance, she made an influence on cultural, political and religious aspects.

As we already discuss England had a way of understanding the world as well itself before Elizabeth. Before, the world focused its attention on England (as a place to discover and take advantages) but now people from England look forward. What I am trying to explain is that England started to see the world with ambition and progress. This view change was made mainly in Elizabeth’s times.

Another important fact was in terms of the church. As we know the principal religion was Catholicism. If you were not Christian you were not allow to live. Bout this issue, Elizabeth showed that there was not just a single faith. She encouraged the freedom of the faith.

Finally in economical terms, England had an economical impact because of what I mentioned before, the view change. Now England wanted to earn money and expand their territory. In these aspects, Globalization and Capitalization are key words.

As everyone knows when different kinds of people meet there are several factors that influence each other.

This time, I am going to write a bout immigrant and natives. How important they are in the construction of culture and of course civilization.

When there is a civilization formed by natives there is something very important to consider when immigrant arrive to a place. What I am reffering to is to the fact of diversity.

This important fact is very relevant to the construction of civilization, because natives and immigrants had to live together to build the new civilization.But were they consious about it? did they work together because they wanted to ?

Even if natives had not liked the idea of sharing tarritory (for instance) they did not have options. Natives had to accept to let aside their customs, habit, traditions and so on. This time there were new people living with them. It cannot be ignored by anyone.

I consider that a new civilization and of course a new culture has its advantages and disadvantages. Imigrant helped natives to know different culture and learn from them. However native's culture was influenced by immigrant's one which can be considered negative or positive.

Questionnarie

First of all I would like to say that I really enjoy asking unknown people about our culture. This experience helped me to realize how is our culture and what we really know about it. While I was asking, I tryed to see poeple's faces, their expressions / gestures gave me more information. For instance, a couple reacted in a odd way. When I asked Can you define culture?

Their gestures were like: what are you talking about? in fact one of them told me that nobody have asked him that question before. Some of them, reacted like: why are asking me that silly question? like: who is the president? oviously M.Bachellet ! (they answered)but they hesitated. In general, I could analize how influenced by different factors people are! When I asked history questions they made their best to remember what his/her teacher said in high school, because they did not want to look stupid... After all, I learned a lot from them and from me. Some of their answers were the same if someone would have asked me .............. So, let´s reflect

Culture and civilization

First of all we have to be aware of that these two words are related each other. As everyone knows Culture is a big word, because it has different meanings for different persons. In my point of view, I see culture as a way of living. Every little group has a culture. Hoever there is something that almost everyone ignores is that every culture has its own sub culture. In that way, every country has a culture, where there are regions where there are other cultures, even in any family ther is a unique culture. So, any group of people has ots own culture which involves a way of thinking and seeing with different habits. But how can we conect this with civilization?

Civilization is the organization that a group of people achieve to organize their way of living in citizenship. This oranization is very difficult to achieve, for that reason there are some people in charge of this important issue. Goverment has to do with this. If we do not have this organization would be so difficult to live together.

These two key words are essential to this course. Inside this civilization (organization) there are many cultures and subcultures so they are related each other. What it is important here is that cultures are crusial to this democratic organization, otherwise it will fail...

What do I expect about this course?

Firstly, I would like to point out that as any course I hope to learn something valuable to my career. I consider when we acquire new knowledge we get a new way of viewing the world and as a student and of course, a future teacher is essential to know more things every day.

Bear in mind the importance of knowledge; I personally believe that in this course I am going to learn about the English culture which is significant to comprehend the context and the most significant facts, as well as the importance of getting different point of view from different authors which are important to support ideas related to the English history.

Finally, I hope to make my best effort to contribute and learn from my classmates and my teacher, furthermore to develop and improve my reading skill, in terms of, academic language. In other words, learn new vocabulary and know the English culture in a deeper way.