#citizenship test

[187days]

Day Thirty-Three

And we're back after a long weekend! It took me two tries to get to work because I left a folder I needed on my counter at home, but I pulled myself together after that. mostly.

I did make one rookie mistake of handing back graded essays to my first section of Global Studies students right away, which then distracted them from the actual lesson. They sometimes don't get the idea that revising work or completing late work is meant to be done on their own time; there's still classwork to do in class. So I had to redirect a few before giving instructions for today's assignment, which was to conduct a bit of research to find out how the cultural groups they wrote their essays about are working to address major world issues (callback to previous classes, our study of the UN's SDGs etc...). We discussed their findings after about twenty minutes. I made my point that all cultures are important. and everyone can work to make the world better. Then we discussed tomorrow's unit-ending content quiz, and I gave some pointers about preparation.

Having learned my lesson with the first section of students, I waited till the end of the block to hand back essays in the other two, so everything went more smoothly with them.

In APGOV, we started by catching up on political news (the shutdown, the national guard deployments, etc, etc...). Then I taught about congressional elections- with many tangents, some more useful than others- and had students read a Brennan Center article about gerrymandering. More on that tomorrow.

It wasn't a particularly difficult day- it went pretty well, actually- but I was tired by the end of it, and my throat was a bit sore. That's what comes from getting three whole days off, I guess. And I couldn't just go home because it's a PLC meeting afternoon, but that was fine. Dean 1 came and talked to us about setting dates to proctor the USCIS test, we discussed changes to next year's course offerings to comply with new state minimum standards, and that was that.

Tomorrow will be a bit of an odd day because of PSAT testing, we'll see how it all goes!

[lifewithaview]

Kayvan Novak in What We Do in the Shadows (2019) Citizenship

S1E8

Nadja trains Jenna on how to take her first victim, and Nandor applies for American citizenship.

*It is revealed that Nandor was the ruler of a country which is currently part of modern day Iran. Kayvan Novak, who portrays Nandor is like his character of Persian descent, whilst born and raised in the UK.

[high-quality-tiktoks]

y’all please pray she passes her test tomorrow😭she thinks Bruno Mars wrote the constitution😭

[eeattherich]

if people born in America had to take the civics test half of us would lose our citizenship

[shakespearenews]

What happened when a historian took the ‘Life in the UK’ test for British citizenship?

Lesson 1: History is important because it helps us understand that the sciences are important.  

British history is also largely made up of a single dynastic house. The Tudors are the subject of 16 questions in all, 20 if you include the four questions on Shakespeare, such as a true or false about whether ‘he was a great English playwright?’ (he is ‘regarded by many as the greatest playwright of all time’). Of a remarkable seven questions on Henry VIII, four are on why he broke with Rome (the ‘divorce’, of course). There are six questions about Elizabeth I, three of which make it clear the British trounced the Spanish Armada in 1588.

[andalus88]

Another truth bomb

[cassiebones]

Hey ya'll. Wish my dad luck; he's taking his citizenship test tomorrow.

[rainbowcolouredbroccoli]

Tony Burke says the Government's proposed new citizenship test will demand the same level of English required for university admission. Is that accurate?

(Spoiler: the answer is “correct”.)

I’ve seen my stepmother struggling to pass the English tests for university admission, and they’re really a struggle for a non-native English speaker. And her English is absolutely fine for day to day communication. I mean, there was a point where her English was good enough for her to be succeeding in studying coursework in English, but those tests were still a huge issue. Her English was absolutely fine for day to day communication, but not for those tests.

And that was for someone who was married to my bilingual dad, and who had a stepdaughter who only really speaks English. We spoke English at home, and she spoke English at work. Basically, she had opportunities to practice her English, and absolutely took up those opportunities. I can’t imagine how much harder it would be for someone who didn’t have those sorts of close personal relationships with fluent English speakers.

Basically, what I’m saying is that the standard that they’re looking at for the citizenship test is high, well beyond what’s necessary for ordinary communication, and unrealistic for a lot of non-English-speaking immigrants. With this government, I find it hard not to see that as an attempt to restrict immigration by non-Anglos and especially by people of colour. They haven’t earned the benefit of doubt when it comes to their motives.