We learn foreign languages

Settling an argument

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  Let's just move on, shall we?
  
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  Let's drop it.
  
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  I think we're going to have to agree to disagree.
  
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  (sarcastic) Whatever you say./If you say so.
  

Benifits of using multiple sources

During a unit of study on the early American explorers, my colleague Caleb asked his fifth-grade students to write their point of view regarding Christopher Columbus before they read, listened, to, or viewed any sources. He posed the question, "What do you think about Christopher Columbus and his explorations in the New World? What is your point of view?" Many of the students quickly realized they did not know much about this historical figure. One student, Ashlan, wrote the following in her notes:

Christopher Columbus was an explorer. He discovered America and was also very brave. I don't know much about him, but that is what I know. 

Caleb continued the lesson by reading aloud two picture books,. Each of these books reveals a clear point of view. In Follow the Dream, a nonfiction account that follows Columbus as he plans his voyage, Sis reveals Columbus' strategic thinking and determination. In Encounter, Yolen shares a fictional perspective of one Taino youth who, after an ominous dream, is alarmed by the appearance of strangers on his community's shores and warns his people not to befriend Columbus and his crew. Caleb gave the students clear purposes for listening stated as questions:

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  What is the author's point of view?
  
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  What details in the text make you think so?
  
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  How does this author's point of view influence your point of view?
  
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  After students listened to the books read aloud, they closely read short exerpts from these texts, underlined language that revealed each author's point of view, and wrote annotations. Then the teacher shared a third "text" or source—a video clip in which a narrator describes Columbus' three voyages. Included are details about how Columbus persuaded the royalty in Spain to fund his journey and how he enslaved the native peoples when he arrived after the second voyage. As they listened, the fifth-grade students took notes about the narrator's point of view. Then they engaged in student-led conversations comparing the different points of veiw in the three sources and examining how these influenced the students' points of view. When Ashlan wrote about how these sources influenced her point of view regarding Columbus, she stated:
  
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  Some people say good things about Columbus and some people say bad things about Columbus. I have a fifty-fifty point of view because I think what he did was good and bad. I think he was greedy, but I also think he was brave and adventurous. 
  
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  In the 11th century, a Japanese woman known as Murasaki Shikibu wrote “The Tale of Genji,” a 54-chapter story of courtly seduction believed to be the world’s first novel.