Reading Log

Quote: "Positioning students as informed interpreters of their experiences with school writing and academic literary can open the door to a generative inquiry into the relationship between writing or literacy and it's social-historical and personal context." (164) Response: This is one of the many reasons why I enjoyed writing in high school. While there were more academic essays assigned, there would be the occasional one that would be dedicated to our lives. I liked these, because as this quote explains, it meant that I got to express myself however I want since it was my story I was telling. This can relate to the MVA since we had to talk about our community and we could express it however we wanted it, some wrote stories, poems, and others did videos, while others did music lyrics and images. Just by looking at the different mediums every group used to express their ideas highlights and enforces the idea that when students are in charge of their own format and creat...

Quote: "Writing a multi-voiced argument gives students a chance to experience argument as an inquire, a process that leads to exploring, testing, and discussing, rather than focus on winning a case." (3) Response:This spoke to me personally after reflecting back on our own MVA. The assignment itself was very broad, again, and it begged for imagination to be used. After seeing everyone's presentations, they were all very different and focused on different things. My group, for example, did a video focusing on the walk-though style, while other groups decided to do a powerpoint. Just by examining the manner we decided to present our project is proof of what this quote is trying to explain; students will be more creative and have to push past obstacles to can occur while trying to expand on building an argument that isn't in essay form. I really liked this idea since it gets students to use the skills to rite an essay but making them not so obvious and entertaining tha...

            Quote: “…tolerance may seem to be a favor, as if being tolerant were a courteous, thoughtful way of accepting, of tolerating , the not-quite-desired presence of one’s opposite, a civilized way of permitting a coexistence that might seem repugnant. That, however, is hypocrisy, not tolerance.” (77)             Response: A quality a teacher should have is being tolerant. Tolerance, according to Freire, should be a virtue and means to respect and live with other’s views. In a sense, the real meaning is to be respectful of our students. While they might be younger and fresh, they are still individuals with opinions and feelings. Only because we are the teachers and adult, it doesn’t mean that we can be condescending towards them. To teach is to have patience. I presume it is much like raising a child; it takes time, dedication, and perseverance to achieve an...

            Quote: “Such discussions position the teacher as the one whose ideas about the reading set the direction for what follows, with students providing cryptic answers that the teacher then incorporates into a minilecture, or perhaps as maxilecture.” (32)             Response: Teacher-led discussions are the norm in many classrooms. Even in college, where the students are though to be more independent, the professor ends up leading the direction of it. This leads to monotone conversations between the teacher and student, where the teacher asks and the student answers, then move on. Sometimes, there are themes that need to be further developed, or that has great potential, but don’t get explored when the teacher provides the answers. When we had our Memory Box activities, the group presented them and the teacher asked questions that required more than a one-s...

            Quote: “Students were engaged and motivated by the process of analyzing media texts because they are familiar to them.” (15)             Response: The basic idea is to include media when teaching English. This makes a lot of sense since the younger generation grew up with technology everywhere. Magazines, commercials, ads, and posters have been actively involved in their lives one way or another. Since it is familiar to them, they are more likely to want to actively participate and be excited about it. I’ve had to do similar activities for school before, like creating a Facebook account for a character in Romeo and Juliet . These are always fun to do and involve being extra creative, but still meeting standards in the English language. I very much like the idea of combing the two medians in order to elaborate on a basic, if not old, activity. It is our ...

            Quote: “In a society bombarded with images, photographers can offer guidance in ‘looking’ that allows us to see more or from a different perspective, angle, or vantage point.” (32)             Response: This sums up the importance of photography. It is usually seen as something mediocre, but it holds importance. It captures a moment. That moment can help capture people’s reality, and just how it explained, it can help disprove stereotypes. ­­This can also help develop a much deeper picture. If more than one image is combined, it creates a story and an even deeper meaning. I’ve had to create collages for school before, about what makes me me . While doing this, I had to use images only to represent me. This concept is also done for political cartoons to represent political issues of a certain time period. All in all, photography opens a whole new world o...