Author: Litzy (Page 2 of 5)

Interesting Quote: “… his voice would rise in paranoid accusations, and occasionally he would lose control and shake or smack us. I hadn’t been there two months when one of his brisk, face-turning slaps had my glasses sliding down the aisle.”

This quote spoke out the most to me because it all depends on the educational system that schools use and the teachers. Yes, a teacher has a big influence when it comes to learning, it all depends on the skills that they use. In the beginning of Rose’s text, he states how there would be some teacher who would physically hit their students and of course that affected the student’s mindset of wanting to learn. If we were in Rose’s shoes, I believe that we wouldn’t have gone back either, we wouldn’t want to deal with that every single day. We want a teacher who cares for our wellbeing, understands what every student goes through, comforts, and supports them.

• Consider what the 2 texts have in common with each other. What are some important ideas from each text, and what do you think about them? How does each author illustrate their main points?

Both texts show that wherever you go, whether it’s a new school, job, apartment, there will always be something or someone that goes against your beliefs. For example, in Mike Rose’s text, he goes in depth about the experiences in a student’s everyday life. Rose gives an overview of what he went through in school from being in the vocational track to switching to College Prep. With his father dying, anyone would’ve given up, but he fought through all that emotional pain to reach the minimum goal of being average.  Of course, Rose did cross paths with Jack MacFarland, which was a turning point for him. MacFarland’s lectures were a way to establish connections with the real world. It was because of MacFarland that led Rose to make him do things in the world. He states, “it allowed me to act as though I were living beyond the limiting boundaries of South Vermont.” On the other hand, Jamila Lyiscott described herself as someone who is articulate. She states that she decides to treat her three languages equally, because she is articulate. Every language has their own principles. You can’t judge someone based on the way they talk and say that they are “uneducated”. We all can agree upon the fact that we have different ways of speaking to our families, friends, strangers, teachers, and kids. We are all articulate.

Something that both texts have in common are that both, Jose Olivarez, and Stephon Hobson, struggled with challenges of their own. Jose states that he always felt that he didn’t belong anywhere, either in the US and Mexico. On the other hand, Stephon states how he was always influenced by gangs which led him to be incarcerated for 3 years. Both Jose and Stephon illustrated their main points by explaining what led them to their choices. For example, Jose faced with his inner demons and decided to do something about it. Jose needed a way to express himself and that was with his writing, it was the way that helped him shift his relationship with education and power. He ultimately started mentoring writers where they would help, learn, and criticize each other in a safe environment. Jose wrote poems that saved him throughout his childhood with the idea to also make someone else feel comfort. While Stephon struggled with reading at a young age, he avoided participating in any class. Throughout time, he began to utilize what he’d learned in school. Those skills helped him find characteristics in books which then he stared applying for himself. Because Stephon was influenced by gangs, he needed to adjust to violence and the burden of being away from his family, although he adjusted those changes with negative behavior. As a result, Stephon decided he wanted to steer to a new direction, he began to expand and apply his education to find for a career that will help fulfill his capacity. He started off as an EMT Paramedic and eventually had a passion for nursing. If it weren’t for his life experiences in the past, he wouldn’t be where he is now.

Important Quote: “I wanted to write poems that confronted the questions I felt as a teen. I wanted to write poems in a way that might give a young person in similar circumstances some comfort.”

Sometimes we need to be able to find the things that will help us overcome our inner demons. In this case, Jose states how wrote poems to help him have a better understanding of the questions he had as a teen. He wants to be able to connect with his audience and make them feel like they’re not alone and there are other people who’ve gone through the same thing.

.Share any response you have to the student comments. Can you relate to something a fellow City Tech student articulated?

I feel like I can relate to the fact some students pointed out that because you’re from a different race, in America they associate you with the country you’re from but when you go back to home country they associate you as an American. Almost everyone was born here but their parents weren’t. People believe that you can’t do certain things but that’s not true, we tend to work extremely hard to have the life that we want, and we deserve. Olivarez really made others be able to connect and relate to his book and it’s crazy to think about because it’s something that everyone tends to hold back and to have a book that states what it was like to not fit in, was extremely comforting.

3 important ideas of each article into my own words:

Mike Bunn, “How to Read Like a Writer” (2011)

1. Us, as readers, need to be able to understand where the author is coming from. What makes them use certain words or phrases? Writers have a unique way with words that help them write paragraphs into books.
2. When you read like a writer, we are willing to be able to see the choices that certain writers take to have a better understanding in our own writing.
3. When are able to read like a writer, it can help us recognize how the writing process is like making choices, it can help us see the actions that we’ll have to face and the methods that we may want to use.

Toni Morrison, “The Reader as Artist” (2006)

1. Of course, it will take time for us to become good writers, it takes a lot of practice and patience, but with time, we’ll be able to get there.
2. Toni Morrison states how when her family members would tell stories, she would have to rely on her imagination to be able to bring the story to life, for example, the colors, features, climate, the characters space, physical features, and their speech.
3. The experience of reading and writing comes with beauty, profound, enraging, and contemptible, because you never know what comes next.

Quote I found interesting: “Reading Like a Writer asks for something very different.”

I found this quote the most interesting because in the article in Mike Bunn’s “How to Read Like a Writer”, he states that there are two ways to read, which is crazy to me. Throughout my educational career, my teachers never stated that, they would just read out loud to class with no emotion or have students read and correct them when they pronounce a word incorrectly. But I do have to agree with Bunn, instructors are so focused on teaching us how to write “proper” essays and forget how to show their students how to read.