Period 8 - Kenneth De Leon

[CALIS]

Thank you for participating in TIRP service-learning outreach!

Your reports are the basis for academic credit.  Whether or not you are seeking a credit option, reports are required as a university record of service-learning efforts and impact in local schools.

Required Format:
Session 1 materials: [The first line of your report is the session number and full title of the database item(s).]
Focus Q: [On a new line, list your focus question from your TAP form. If you changed the question then add the new version after the TAP version.]
*** For the minimum of 3 student specifics, do not refer to students by name; instead call them Student A, B or C.
*** For the minimum of 500 words, guiding questions are here: https://www.forums.usc-calis.net/showthread.php?tid=297

Use clear paragraph structure. If you include too much focus on the step-by-step process of the lesson rather than substance, you may be asked to revise your report.
*** The webboard is public. If you include names, commentary or observations, you will need to revise your post.

To Post:
1. For each report, select Post Reply.  (Do not select New Topic)
2. Copy/paste from your Word file and save a copy until after the semester is over.
3. Before pasting, confirm that you have met the minimum of at least 500 words.
4. Each report must be submitted by midnight within 3 calendar days after each session.

A CALIS staff member will review your report each week and post a message below of the scoring for your performance evaluation.
We welcome any questions or concerns you have about scoring.
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Session #1 report
On time: 0/3
Substantive: 6/6
Student specifics: 2/6
Total: 8/15
Comments: Thank you for your report. While the report is late, it is substantive with the implementation of the material. You did mention some student's response but it is not in the format of "student A... student B... student C...". -- OL 11/13

Session #2 report
On time: 0/3
Substantive: 6/6
Student specifics: 5/6
Total: 11/15
Comments: Thank you for your report. The report is substantive with your usage of the NPR case and you did include 3 student specific response, it is just not in the format of "student A...student B...student C..." Otherwise, great report! -- OL 11/13

Session #3 report
On time: 0/3
Substantive: 6/6
Student specifics: 4/6
Total: 10/15
Comments: Thank you for your report. Great description of the tools you used in class (eg popcorn reading) and you did include some student specific response (i.e. student A...) and some general students' response. It would have been better if you include two more student specific examples (student B...student C..). -- OL 11/13

[Kenny De Leon]

Session 1: This Is Your Life, NPR: Out of a Nigerian Slum, A Poet is Born, Nation Building
What are key elements of a capitalist economy?
New: What are some examples of government failures? How do these contribute to conflicts?


We started off the session by listening to the NPR: Out of a Nigerian Slum case study while the students read the transcript. Once the podcast had finished playing, the students were then given time to answer a few of the first questions with the people around them. While they were discussing the questions, I tried to walk around and stimulate conversation by asking them questions and explaining my thought process. This seemed to work well as they started talking a bit more after spending some time discussing the questions with them individually.  We then reconvened and discussed the questions that they had spent time answering. They cited the lines in which they found the answers and we encouraged them to share their thoughts about the reading as a whole. In this discussion one student brought up the importance of infrastructure and how the NPR podcast highlighted the fact that Nigeria’s lack of infrastructure led to higher levels of poverty throughout the country. Next, we handed out the Nation Building handout and went over the three functions of government. Marissa, Anika, and I, explained how the three functions of government help a nation succeed and why a lack of any of the three functions of government could be detrimental to a nation. We made sure to connect this handout to the NPR podcast in order to further drive home the points made in the podcast. After the students understood the three functions of government and how they connected to Nigeria and the NPR podcast, we asked the students if they thought that the United States excelled in all three categories of the functions of government. One student brought up the fact that there are examples of unpunished police brutality which calls into question the rule of law and its credibility and application in the US. Afterwards, we talked about legislation and how legislation can be affected by the three functions of government. Connecting this back to the three functions of government, we explained that a law truly means nothing if it is not enforced. After wrapping up the discussion we moved onto the four worlds exercise. The students were split up into four groups each getting a small index card which assigned them to be one of the following four: social leader, cultural leader, political leader, and economic leader. With each of the four groups sticking together, we directed them to rank their respective group factors by importance  with respect to their group. They worked together and discussed each of the factors. Marissa, Anika, and I, all worked together by walking around to foster and stimulate conversation either by explaining what we personally thought or asking them to explain why they felt a certain way or ranked the factors a certain way. Afterwards, we reformed new groups with each group having one of each of the leaders. Then we again had them discuss and rank the factors, but this time considering all four worlds rather than only one. This helped the students understand how many factors must be considered when making policy. After completing their rankings, I reconvened the class and had one person from each group come up to write the rankings that they as a group came up with. This was meant to show that there was no right or wrong answer, but also the fact that there are some factors that repeatedly come up which shows their importance.

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Session 2: NPR: U.S. economy is slowing as fewer immigrant workers come to fill jobs
How do the interests of the market and government support/oppose each other?
New: How do different actors within a country derive their power and express their priorities?


In this session, we started off by handing out transcripts of the NPR: US economy is slowing as fewer immigrant workers come to fill jobs, and then quickly playing the audio for the podcast. While the students read along with the transcripts, we asked them to highlight, underline, and/or annotate anything that they felt stood out to them. Afterwards, we let the students work in pairs to answer the first four questions. Marissa, Anika, and I walked around and made sure that the students were staying on task while trying to spark conversation related to the topic. We did this by asking the students questions about the topic and asking them how they felt about the NPR podcast. Understanding that this topic could be potentially politically sensitive to some of the students, we stayed calm about how we approached the topic and did not let any influence of politics affect the conversation. Since this was our second session, they seemed to be more comfortable around us, and seemed to be more responsive to our questions. After they discussed the questions in pairs, we brought the class together again to discuss the questions as a class. We discussed more than just the questions as we talked about how immigration as a whole can affect the economy. One student recognized the fact that immigrants can boost the economy by taking jobs that may not otherwise be filled. Another student mentioned the idea that immigrants take and fill some jobs that would otherwise be available to native-born citizens. A third student recognized the idea that there are examples of immigrants working for a wage that is less than what a native-born citizen would be willing to work for. They explained that this would mean that an employer would pay less for labor from an immigrant than from a native-born citizen. They then explained that it was significant because this means that the final price of a product made by immigrant workers would be cheaper than the final price of a product made by natural born citizens simply due to the fact that an immigrant may be willing to work for less than a natural born citizen. Marissa, Anika, and I quickly acknowledged and made clear to the class that this is a complicated issue that has many facets that may not be being fully considered in the NPR podcast and that a conversation could last for hours. After wrapping up the class discussion, we divided the class into four groups similar to the first session and asked them to identify some of the power that their respective “world” would have. We had them lobby for their respective world so that they could understand how each “world” has power and influence over policy making, and to understand how different policy affects groups very differently. We then walked around monitoring and listening to conversations. We reconvened, discussed the four worlds and focused on how priorities amongst different groups can clash and create conflict even if talking about the same policy.

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Session 3: NPR: An island crusader takes on the big brands behind plastic waste
How does a capitalistic market affect the environment?
New: How do individual, national, and global attitudes influence policies?


In this session, we started the session with a technical issue as we could not find the audio for the NPR podcast on the internet. Instead of spending a lot of time on the issue, Marissa, Anika, and I, quickly decided to do popcorn reading. We each read a paragraph off the transcript of the podcast and then had the students read a paragraph and pass it on to another student. This helped maintain the students’ focus and attention on the transcript as many of them were highlighting and annotating the transcript. As per usual, we asked the students to answer the first few questions by themselves or with the student next to them, before reconvening. We continued to check-in with the students as we walked around and asked questions about their thought process and making sure to keep them on the right track. After the students finished answering the first few questions, we discussed the questions and asked them to cite the specific lines in which they found their answers. After quickly glossing over the comprehension questions, we discussed positive and negative incentives. We reviewed some examples of incentives and asked students to identify whether the incentives given were a punishment incentive or a reward incentive. After correctly categorizing the incentives, we asked the students to identify some punishment and reward incentives within American society today. Student A gave the example of “money mentality” and how American culture puts a lot of emphasis on getting money which is something that other cultures may not put as strong of an emphasis on. I personally found this interesting because I totally agreed with the student, but had never realized that this was a sentiment that I agreed with. We also discussed which type of incentive the students thought was a stronger incentive between punishment and reward based. Most students argued the sentiments of Student A saying that a reward based incentive is stronger than a punishment incentive. Afterwards we talked about consumerism in general and how some very well known brands such as Nestle or Starbucks could be participating in political activities that may not be very well known. We also talked about the environmental effects that some big name brands may have on the environment. Marissa gave specific examples of name brands and gave the example of the “There is no Planet B” slogan. We talked about the power that a brand can have over a consumer as the consumer can not get what they want without the brand. We then talked about the power that a consumer has over the brand as the brand can not succeed without the consumer. We talked about how consumers as a whole have the power to boycott buying from a brand. We also discussed how powerful of a tool this is because if a large enough number of consumers boycott a brand, the brand could suffer a substantial amount of losses. At the very end, with time winding down we spent a few minutes answering some questions about our experience at USC and throughout college in general.