We are all different types of learners, but are not always aware of our strengths and weaknesses as learners. Please read âFirst Dayâ by Edward Jones (Open Lab) , and take notes as you read in order to develop a cohesive summary. Next, watch and listen again to Edward Jones (Open Lab) as he reads the story âFirst Day,â and take notes. Next, compare your notes and determine which process (listening or reading) is better for you. Write a brief comparison describing the difference in your experience as a listener and a reader. Please submit the comparison by February 23rd.Â
Professor Joshua Belknap | Co Req ML | Spring 2022
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The article, âThe First Dayâ by Edward P. Jones begins with the narrator getting ready for her first day of school. Her mother dresses her in new clothes, does her hair, and puts perfume behind her ears.
The narratorâs mother wants her to attend Seaton Elementary School, which is across the street from Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, where she goes every Sunday. However, as the narrator and her mother do not live in the area served by Seaton, they get turned away. The narratorâs mother tries to argue that she wants to send her daughter to Seaton, but she is unsuccessful.
The narratorâs mother then takes the narrator to Walker-Jones school, which is larger and more crowded. She needs to ask another parentâs help to fill in the required form because she cannot read or write. The little girl whose mother she asks for help stares at her, and the narrator stares back. The narratorâs mother shows all the documents she believes might be needed and provides all the required information. After the form is filled in, she gives the woman 50 cents, which the woman accepts.
A teacher arrives to take the narrator to her classroom. The mother says goodbye to the narrator, instructing her to wait for her after classes are finished, and to listen to every word the teacher says. The narrator notices her motherâs darned socks for the first time. As her mother leaves, the narrator hears her loud retreating footsteps, even over the singing and talking of the other children.
Edward Jones in his short narrative describes a first day of school in the perspective of a 5 year old little girl. The text is very reach in details so the readers can imagine exactly what the main character was feeling during the important day.
In my personal opinion reading has much bigger impact on the reader than listening to the story. Reading is an act of engagement. While I was listening to Edward Jones reading the story I was not able to engage in the story very much. It was because my thoughts were drifted away or distracted by something else. When I was reading the text I was more focused on the text and my notes were more precise. It was much easier for me to summarize the narrative after the reading that it was after the listening. Reading allows us to see the story, word by word, sentence by sentence. We choose how quick we want to make the progress on the text. While listening the story moves forward if we want it or not. If you get distracted even for a second you loose the story and need to rewind to find the last spot of the story you remember. When we read it happens too, but for me it is much easier to flip the page to remind myself where I have lost the plot rather than trying to do this on the video.
Summary:
In this reading, Edward P. Jones, states a girlâs experience of her first day of kindergarten. The girl was being prepared to assist her first day of school, including the way she was dressed, wearing a checkered like blue- and-green cotton dress, and scattered about these colors are bits of yellow and white and brown, materials she had packed, etc. Her mother, behind the girlâs ears, sprayed the last perfume present given by her father before he passed away. The little girl couldnât smell it but she knew by word when it was there. At Seaton Elementary School, the girl and her mother were welcomed but were informed that they were at the wrong school, that they should be at Walker-Jones . On Sundays, when they were heading to Mt. Carmen, the girlâs mom used to point across I Street to Seaton. âYou gonna go there and learn about the whole world.â Her mother held her hand and left the building heading to Walker Jones, she said to the girl: âOne monkey donât stop no showâ. At Walker-Jones the school is packed with a crowded auditorium, metal chairs occupied by a child or an adult. The girlâs mom seeks help to fill out the documents. Once the woman helping started to ask questions, the girlâs mom pull out: birth certificate, baptismal record, a doctorâs letter concerning my bout with chicken pox, rent receipts, records of immunization, a letter about our public assistance payments, even her marriage license to complete her daughter’s process. The girlâs mother has stated that money is the beginning and end of everything. She handed fifty-cents to the woman who helped her fill out the forms and she accepted it. When the girl is ready to enter her classroom, she has seen where her mother had darned one of her socks the night before. Her mom’s shoes make loud sounds in the hall when she’s walking away. When the girlâs mom walked away, the girl could still hear her momâs footsteps, over the singing and voices of the children.
Response: The girlâs mom despite all the inconvenience with the dream school she never stopped the process because of that problem. Moreover, just because her mom didnât know how to read or write in order to fill out the forms, it wasnât a reason for her to quit. She sought help, and she stayed consistent until the end of the process. Just like her mother stated, âOne monkey donât stop one showâ. The message it carries in this particular case is that just because you didnât get what you expected in your first attempt, doesnât mean youâll get the same results everywhere.
Comparison: I find reading the article is better for me. By looking at the article Iâm intently paying attention to every sentence and word to get the point of it. However, while I was listening/watching the video I got distracted by the sounds next to me and wasnât focused on the reading.
The article “The First Day” by Edward P. Jones begins with the narrator getting ready for her first day of school .She is given an unusually heartly breakfast and dressed in new clothing.Her hair is fussed over and styled nicely. Then her mother takes her to a particular school that has an established reputation. The School is near the girls mothers church .The officials at the school explain that the distract doesnot have open admission and the family lives beyond the boundaries .The mother and daughter are directed to another school .At the new school she enlists the assistance of another child mother, explain that she is uneducated, and has the other women fill out the form for admissins .The girl enter the public school.
In my point of view reading article is better than listening it . Though i did both part reading and listening of article ” First Day ” . I understand more better by reading beause I was involve in it . I feel every moment and it was easy to be part of article. When I was listening the article I cannot relate me more with it . I didnot understand much I was faceing problem of clearity of voice for me So reading is better for me .
âThe First Dayâ by Edward P. Jones is a short story written in 1992. The short story is about an African American mother taking her young daughter to school for the first time. The daughter becomes ashamed of her mother because she sees where her education level is at. The mother is also ashamed of herself because she didnât get education throughout her life. Throughout the short story I learned that the mother did not get an education, for example: the mother says âI canât read it. I donât know how to read and etc.,”The mother wants her daughter to have a successful life and wants her to go to that really good school named Seaton. She wants to create a good future for her daughter because she doesnât want her daughter to grow up and be ashamed of herself like her mother is ashamed of herself.
I believe that reading is faster than listening. While listening to the article, It’s hard for me to get the main point or authors purpose and many other details. However, when I read the article, I get more details and points and it makes me write an essay or article faster. But I also think that Audiobooks can help improve our comprehension and vocabulary. I also read that “Psychologists have demonstrated that when adults read news stories or transcripts of fiction, they remember more of the content than if they listen to identical pieces. Researchers found similar results with university students reading an article versus listening to a podcast of the text” and I totaly agree with this quote because I am 100% related to it.
Summary
After reading âThe First Dayâ I think narratorâs mother is another important character in the story. The narratorâs perception of her mother changes over the course of the story, as she recognizes that other people see her mother as different. An important trait which characterizes the narratorâs mother is her determination to give her daughter a good education. The relationship between the narrator and her mother changes by the end of the story, as the narrator enters a world to which her mother does not have access.
The short story is about an African American mother taking her young daughter to school for the first time. The daughter becomes ashamed of her mother because she sees where her education level is at.
I think that this story is a good example to understand and know how to read and take examples as the story gives examples and details. In my opinion this is a good story to practice on how to write an essay since it gives details and the author is using a little child ad an example which can be related to his childhood as we read we could use the ideas and strategies he uses.
The article, âThe First Dayâ by Edward P. Jones begins when the narrator was getting ready for her first day of school. Her mother dresses her in new clothes, does her hair. The story is about African American mother taking her young daughter to school for the first time. The daughter becomes ashamed of her mother because she sees where her education level is at. The mother is also ashamed of herself because she didnât get education throughout her life.
I find reading has a big impact on us than listening to a story. By looking at the page I can pay more attention to the details of the story. Reading helps me focus and understand better than listening to the story.
The article, âThe First Dayâ by Edward P. Jones started with the narrator getting ready for her first day of school. She explained how her mother really took care of her before she went to school. Her mother really took time to do her hair and got her maybe the nicest dress. Because the narratorâs mother didnât educate enough as her young age, she had a lot of trouble to properly addressed with people. As a result, the narratorâs mother had a terrible experience by trying to enroll her daughter in her first day of school. Her mother eventually made it through when they got helped by a woman at the school. The woman helped them to fill out the important forms and even presented the narrator to her new teacher. The narrator felt disappointed about her mother because of the way she acted in public, however the narrator got enrolled and even met her classmates during her first day, which was the mostly the goal!
By reading and listening, I found myself better as a reader. Since I read the entire article I have the possibility to see some vocabulary words that were difficult to listen to. By listening it gets a little tricky sometimes with the new vocabulary words , which can be confused me as a listener.
The story “First Day” by Edward P. Jones is about the first day school of a 5-year old girl. She describes how her mom with care got her ready for school. Her mother takes her to the school where she asks for her to register her daughter. The 5-year old realized her mother can’t read nor write and see the looks of others people towards her mother when she asked for help. At the end her mother says goodbye and left her in her first day in her new school.
-Her mother was dedicated to her daughters education -she dressed her, made sure she had breakfast, and let her carry the supplies even though she didn’t really think were necessary.
– In the school her mother even asks for help to fill out the forms so her daughter could enroll to school, knowing that meant she saying she was illiterate. She gave her daughter a “brand new” look as the five-year old says, perhaps a look of disappointment that her daughter now knows her mother can’t read or write.
The process or reading is best for me because if I get lost I can come back right away and read as many times as necessary to understand what a word or sentence means. However, when listening I go along the voice’s speed which means I can’t go back if I missed something. Plus when reading it’s easier to take notes because again, I go along my own pace and can go back and forth the writing.
âThe First Dayâ by Edward P. Jones tells the story of a mother and daughter on the daughterâs first day of school. In the beginning of the story, the mother goes to great lengths to prepare her daughter for this important occasion. After the preparation is over, she takes her daughter to a particular school before being told that she is in the wrong school district. They are directed to the correct school and that is where the daughter is registered to attend. However, the mother is not able to fill out the registration form because she cannot read or write.
(Jones) Also, as her mother turns away and leaves her in the care of the teacher, the first thing she states is that she can see where her mother has âdarned one of her socks the night before.â (Jones) Instead of providing any commentary on her ascension to independency from her mother, the first thing she notes is the condition of her motherâs sock, showing her embarrassment toward her.
Although the daughterâs shame in her mother is evident, she is also prideful of her as well. The strong love that the mother and daughter share is pervasive throughout the story. The story is being told by the daughter after she is all grown up. The fact that Jones uses such vivid detail on the motherâs preparation for her daughters first day of school shows that the daughter loved her mom and all that she did for her.