American old film class Cabin in the Sky and The Wizard of Oz Essay

American old film class Cabin in the Sky and The Wizard of Oz - Essay Example The sets are lavish, costumes bizarre, colours psychedelic and the music is loud and active. Two very good visual sequences are the foreboding interior of the Wizards castle and the swooping swarm of the Wicked Witchs minions resembling flying monkeys. The wicked witch threatens Dorothy. The Wizard of Oz is a true predecessor of most modern Hollywood movies, and perhaps the single most influential movie of the twentieth century. Its reputation of being a classic is well deserved. This movie was released during the Great Depression. The faith in human nature expressed in The Wizard of Oz served as an affirmation to movie going audiences in 1939. The Wizard of Oz is one of the most enduring stories in American popular culture, the themes and images from this story are a part of everyday experience and the songs "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" and "If I Only Had a Brain," are instantly recognizable. The Wizard of Oz is about the great American myth of self-actualization, the allegorical search for courage, intelligence and heart. The message of the film is that all of these things lie within one and all that is needed is to recognize them and that despite the magical and amazingly colourful world that we live in, there is no place like home and ones family. It could also be construed to be a film about the disillusionment with politics as the great and celebrated leader turns out to be a charlatan, while all that is needed to get by is the simple basic tools within held by the masses of the world. The 1943 musical "Cabin in the Sky", resembles a standard MGM musical rather than a black-music musical. "Little Joe" Jackson (Eddie" Rochester" Anderson) drifts from his devout and devoted wife Petunia (Ethel Waters), to Georgia Brown (Lena Horne). He is shot by Domino Johnson (John W. Sublett), a gambler. Little Joes soul leaves the body and Lucifer, Jr. (Rex

Using ICT-enabled feedback to improve student learning in secondary Literature review

Using ICT-enabled feedback to improve student learning in secondary schools in New Zealand - Literature review Example What is Feedback? Feedback is often described as a systematic dialogue between teachers and students. A proper feedback can help both to assess their strategies.To be more precise,for students it is a method to ascertain the effectiveness of their learning strategies. On the other hand, for teachers, it is a method to assess the problems faced by students. As a result, the teachers are able to adapt more student friendly teaching methods A carefully designed classroom lesson attracts more attention from students (Black and William, 1998, pp. 139-148). In many literatures the description coined by Ramprasad (1983, p. 4) â€Å"Feedback is information about the gap between the actual level and the reference level of a system parameter which is used to alter the gap in some way† is used to define feedback. However, many scholars are of the opinion that such definitions of feedback, makes it a complete responsibility of the teachers. On the other hand, an effective feedback require s both the teachers as well as the students to give their serious effort. (Black and William, 1998, pp. 139-148) In 2006 Boston Consultancy Group (BCG), conducted a survey in the primary school of Bellfield in Victoria, Australia. The survey clearly indicated that Feedback in school level balances positive aspects of teaching with room for future improvement. The survey also showed that feedback encourages teachers to build up their confidence. The survey further showed that constructive and properly tailored feedback help teachers to formulate new methodologies to improve learning in their class... The teachers must gain the student’s confidence. A feedback, which is very critical by nature, can make students feel incompetent. In feedback, teachers need to highlight the achievements of the students in a realistic yet positive manner. By providing students non-judgmental feedback, the teachers can become their mentor. The greatest fear that students have is the fear of being wrong, and it is the responsibility of teachers to encourage them to come out of their inhibition. (Gager and Berliner, 1991 p. 143, 349) Feedback can be categorized into two category, namely â€Å"Formative† and â€Å"Summative† assessment. Formative assessment involves regular feedback throughout the academic year. On the other hand, summative feedback is the assessment done at the end of the academic term. Formative assessment In case of formative assessment, the approach is a combination of formal and informal processes applied by students and teachers for improving the learning expe rience. Formative assessment done by teachers mainly focus on the following points (Heritage and Stigler, 2010, p. 56) The direction in which the student is heading, i.e. the strategy the student is following. The current state of the student The direction the student must take next to make further improvements The priority in formative assessment is to set the learning goals along with the success criteria for each lesson. The feedback help teachers to shape up their curriculum in such a way that the students are able to close the gap between his or her current learning ability and the goal they have set for themselves. The teachers must be aware of certain factors, when they formulate their formative assessment strategies. There are certain factors, which must be