Homework Due Wed. Sept. 22nd
- Read âLearning to Readâ by Malcolm X and respond to the questions below. PLEASE try to reply to AT LEAST ONE classmate in the comments!Â
- What did you think of this text? Explain!Â
- What is it mostly about? Write a 2-4 sentence summary. Be specific. Refer to the text itself. Use quotes even!Â
- What is the genre of the text? What is the tone?
- What motivated Malcolm X to learn to read?
- Why do you think Malcolm X wrote this article? Who do you think is his intended audience?
- How is Malcolm Xâs literacy narrative similar to or different from those of Tan and Vargas?
- ***Draft of Project 1 Due Mon. Sept. 27th***Â
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1) I found it interesting how China’s desperate government destroyed twenty thousand chest of opium.
2)It is mostly about to acquire some kind of a homemade education. It is also about China.
3)The genre of the text is nonfiction.
4)Malcom X became motivated to read by reading a dictionary and found so many words existed.
5)He wanted to inform how Malcom X became motivated to read.
6)It is different that Malcom X uses historical information.
I agree, the fact that China destroyed thousands of chest full with opium was interesting.
Interesting focus! I am glad you found the interesting and that you liked reading it. I would love to see you use evidence from the text to support your thinking.
Warmly,
Prof. C
1. This text got interesting after I was able to understand it better. I had to read it twice to truly understand the text.
2. This article is mostly about how Malcom X’s life changed after being in prison and having the opportunity to learn how to read and write by using books and dictionaries that the prison provided him with. He stated “Prison enabled me to study far more intensively than I would have if my life had gone differently and I had attended some college.” Malcom X’s life changed after going to prison and studying the books he had; he was even able to attend some college.
3. The genre of this text is a narrative. The tone of this text is formal writing.
4. What inspired Malcom to learn to read was not being able to read entirely and understand a book since he did not know every word. He also envied a prison inmate who had more knowledge than him. In the text it says “Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversation he was in, and I had tried to emulate him. But every book I picked up had few sentences which didn’t contain anywhere from one to nearly all of the words that might as well been in Chinese.” Not being able to fully understand and read a book properly gave the motivation to Malcom to start reading books and gaining more knowledge.
5. The author wrote this article to inform people on the story of Malcolm X and his impact on history. It was written to show how he learned how to read while in prison. I think his intended audience are African American people who are suppressed by society and are in need of some motivation to fight for equal opportunity.
6. Malcom X’s literacy is similar to Tan’s and Vargas’s because they write to a similar audience who needs motivation to fight the struggles that they have experienced because of their background and race. Their literacy is different because they learned how to read and write differently in their own way.
I agree, because at first the text was difficult for me to read but understood it the more I read it.
Excellent job. I would love to see you use very specific examples from the text (maybe quotes or summaries) to support your thinking! Great job!
I think the text is very inspiring because Malcolm X learned to read and write in prison without anyone teaching him. The text is about how Malcolm X wanted to learn how to read and write so he took the initiative to learn from his life time experiences accomplishing this goal in prison. In the text Malcolm explains “when Bimbi first made me feel envy of Knowledge” he felt “depressed” by his lack of knowledge. This doesn’t change who Malcolm X is as he explains “This gentleness is part of the reason that I’m not sorry to be cripple” knowing that their is others like him that he wants to inspire. The genre of the text is a autobiography/personal essay and the tone is inspirational. Bimbi inspired Malcolm X to learn to read as he talks about how “Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversation he was in, and I had tried to emulate him” influenced by how Bimbi speaks English. I think Malcom X wrote this article to inspire young black men like himself. Malcolm X, Amy Tan, and Vargas articles are similar because they are all articulate speaking English in different ways.
Yes i agree that it was inspiring as well. It inspires me to read more books and make my English better.
Great job! Love how you include quotes. I would like to see you add more of an explanation to support your thinking. I think this because… and then this quote shows…. Great job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
The text âLearning to Readâ gives the reader insight on Malcolm Xâs journey with literature. From being a bit insecure in his writing and not being able to understand most words in a book, to reading countless books and being able to express himself the way he wanted to. Pertaining to before he taught himself to read and write, Malcolm X says âI became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr. Elijah Muhammad. In the street, I had been the most articulate hustler out there. I had commanded attention when I said something. But now, trying to write simple English, I not only wasnât articulate, I wasnât even functional.â. Many people can relate to that frustration of not having the words to express how you truly feel in a moment, whether itâs as a child or when speaking a different language. But, once Malcolm X grew as a reader and writer he described it as a ânew world that openedâ for him. His desire to write his ideas and opinions down as articulately as others heard them while also learning so much more about the world, were his motivation to advance his reading and writing. Which, I believe, is also why he decided to write this piece. To inspire others like him to expand their education, as it is a way to open new worlds for people. The reader can feel the honesty and passion of Malcolm X in this personal essay. When he writes â I woke up the next morning, thinking about those wordsâimmensely proud to realize that not only had I written so much at one time, but Iâd written words that I never knew were in the world.â, there is vulnerable honesty about the intense pride he felt although it may seem like a small feat to others.
Malcolm Xâs narrative is different from those of Amy Tan and Jose Antonio Vargas, because this is a story about an American man teaching himself in order to make his opinions and ideas come off better.. While Tan and Vargas used literature to âproveâ themselves and their positions in American society as immigrants, Malcolm X used it to further educate himself on underlying racism in history and so that heâd be able to prove that he knew what he was talking about when discussing treatment of “the black man in America”.
Dear Kiana,
Excellent job. This is a fantastic response. I love how you provide supporting evidence and explain your thinking!
Great job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
I think the excerpt ‘learning to read’ is the most intriguing reading we as a class have read so far. This is because i feel like every reader can feel inspired by what Malcom went through and discovered throughout the excerpt. learning to read is about Malcom x time in prison, and how he decided to pick up a dictionary and start reading books during his time. this will go on to change his life as this will unravel many discoveries about history about how non whites were mistreated at almost every country which changed his life.
the writing genre of the text is narritive writing because its technically Malcom x telling us his fascination with books and what he discovered through them. The tone of the text was shock, and frustration because of what Malcom discovered throughout reading more and more historical books.
As stated in the text one of the things that motivated Malcolm to read was him not believing college was not a good option for him , he also stated that his frustration of not being able to convey words motivated him. another factor was a man mentioned throughout the text which was Elijah Muhammed, a religious leader who seemed to have captured Malcolm’s eye and inspired to do what we know for today.
Malcom X wrote this text to get across by not only his love for books but to show the bigger picture which was non whites being mistreated and taken advantage throughout our history. This leads me to believe that the intended audience were non whites.
Malcom’s narrative is similar to tan and especially Vargas because they all wrote about the struggles of understanding/learning/writing the english language but also talk about problems they have experience themselves with America as a country and how bad it can actually be to live here.
Dear Jamal,
Excellent job. I would love to see you add quotes or examples from the texts to support your thinking. Good job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
Malcom X’s article “Learning to Read” is a has some political jargon, not to discredit his work as a political activist. Though I am just not particular fond of discussing trivial subjects like politics. Overlooking this though he really goes in depth into the subject of reading, and the importance of doing so. Little people often recognize the gift that is being able to indulge in reading and writing. He had been incapable of reading before his prison sentence, slowly he began to grasp reading. From studying encyclopedias to further his reading skills to writing quite eloquently himself. This autobiography really goes to show how much a good book can change someone’s life, often steering them into the right path of literacy.
Dear Justin,
Great job! I want to see you provide specific examples (quotes, evidence, etc) from the text to support your answers. What is an example of the political jargon he uses? Why do you think he uses this jargon? Does it help him advance his message or detract from his message? Think about it in the context of who his audience is! Great job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
I think that this text is really interesting and informative because it shows how the author tells us about how books changed his life and how it made his life really easy especially when he was in jail.
The text is mostly about the author telling us that how reading books changed his life. It also is about the author telling us about how the white people mistreated the nonwhite people. “Over 115 million African blacks – close to the 1930s population of the United States – were murdered or enslaved during the slave trade.”
The genre of the text is a personal essay and the tone of the text is informative.
The reason that Malcolm X started reading books was that his English was really bad, he used to struggle to speak clear English so that motivated him to learn English. Another reason why he started reading books was so that he could pass his time in prison. ” and my reading of books, months passed without my thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, i never had been so truly free in my life”
Malcolm X wrote this article to show that how reading books have brought a huge change in his life and how it has made him “truly free in my life” even though he was imprisoned. His intended audience is people who are immigrants and the people who are imprisoned. He showing how reading books can impact their lives too.
All of these authors think that all humans deserve equal rights and should be treated equally.
Dear Ahmed,
Good job! I am glad that you found the reading informative and inspiring. I would love for you to include specific examples from the text to support your thinking. Maybe quotes or summaries of sections. Good job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
1. I thought that the text was not interesting to me and found it hard to read because it didn’t catch my attention.
2. The text “Malcolm X” is about Malcom’s journey in “Charlestown Prison” where his prison studies began. At first, when reading books Malcom did not understand much when reading a book until he was able to get a hold of a dictionary which turned out to be useful to him. For example, “I also learned of people and places and events from history. Actually the dictionary is like a minia-ture encyclopedia”. This dictionary helped Malcom learn more about everything that had led to events at his time in prison.
3. The genre of the text is a narrative. The tone of the text is curious and formal.
4.I think what motivated Malcom to want to learn to read was his letters. In the text Malcom says, “It was because of my letters that I happened to stumble upon starting to acquire some kind of a homemade education. I also feel that it was because he had envy Bimbi. In the text he says, “It had really begun back in the Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge”. This made Malcom want to read and improve.
5.I think Malcom wrote this article to talk about his experience of not having any knowledge of English reading and writing. The article is for people who also were in a similar situation that are not that great at reading and writing.
6.Malcom X’s literacy narrative is similar to Tan and Vargas because both had mention about the English not being their or their family member’s first language. All articles made me feel like they wrote for the same audience and wanting to share their experience about learning English.
Dear Jasmin,
Thank you for your honest response. I know you did not find it interesting, but wrote a good response that explores a lot of the key ideas. I would love you to dig deeper into the differences between Tan, Vargas and X. How might their audiences be similar or different?
Good job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
1)What I thought about the text is that at first it felt very boring and slow, it didnât get my attention but when I continued reading the text, It got really interesting and I wanted to finish the text and find out what else Malcolm was going to say.
2)What the text is mostly about is how Malcolm used his time being incarcerated to better educate himself and to learn how to read by reading a dictionary to learn what words meant and also by reading many books even at night to better educate himself on history about slavery and what people went through in those times. âI saw that the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary —- to study, to learn some words.â(Page 258). âI read more in my room than in the library itselfâ(Page 260). Malcolm talks about how he used his time being incarcerated to better himself by learning how to read and to learn about different topics in history.
3)The genre of the text is an informative memoir because Macolm talks about what he did during his time being incarcerated and then talks about what he learned during his time reading and tries to inform the reader what he has read. The tone of the text is serious and genuine because Malcolm doesnât try to make a joke or anything throughout the text. The tone is genuine because Malcolm stands by what he says in the text and doesnât say it just to say it.
4)What motivated Malcolm X to learn to read is his lack of ability to communicate what he wanted to say in letters to people. âI became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr. Elijah Muhammad.â (Page 257). Malcolm really wanted to learn how to read and how to write so he could communicate with Muhammad easily. This is what motivated him to learn how to read.
5)Malcolm X wrote this article because he wanted to share what he did in his time and what he learned from reading books. He also wanted to share what his views were about the past about slavery and how the white-man came to different cultures and used them and treated them so negatively. I think Malcolmâs intended audience is anyone that wants to fight for human rights for everyone and that might be sick of injustice in the world.
6)Malcolm Xâs literacy narrative is similar to those of Tan and Vargas because they all talk about the experiences that caused them to become the writers that they are. They all talk about what led up to them becoming the person that they are when writing their texts.
Dear Christian,
Thank you for your honest feedback about the piece. I loved how you used quotes from the text to support your thinking. I would like to see you really explain the quotes and why the examples support your thinking. Great job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
1. This text was very interesting especially how Malcolm X had learned in prison how to read and write while incarcerated without anyoneâs help
2. This article explains how Malcolm Xâs life changed while being incarcerated. By using books and dictionaries that the prison provided Malcolm he was able to read and write. He stated, âPrison enabled me to study far more intensively than I would have if my lifeâ
3. The genre of this text is non-fiction as itâs a true story about Malcolm Xâs life. The tone of this text is formal.
4. What inspired Malcolm to learn to read was when he tried to write to Mr.Elijah Muhammad, he was embarrassed to write in his slang as he was a hustler however not being able to read entirely and understand a book since he did not know every word. He also envied a prison inmate who had more knowledge than him. Not being able to fully understand and read a book properly gave the motivation to Malcolm to become the person he has
5. Malcolm wrote this article to inform people about himself and his impact but as well as motivation to some audiences as nothing is impossible if you really try. It was written to show how he learned how to read while in prison.
6. Malcolm Xâs literacy is similar to Tanâs and Vargasâs because they write to a similar audience who needs the motivation to fight the hardships that come upon themselves which in this case was English not being their first language as well as what they have experienced because of their background and race. Their literacy is different because they learned how to read and write differently in their own way with none but themselves to learn.
Dear Adrian,
Great job! I am glad you found the text interesting. I would love to see you use specific examples from the text to support your thinking (quotes, summaries, etc). Great job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
-I enjoyed reading this text because of how much knowledge I learned since Malcolm X was heavily stating historical information he learned. I knew white people were definitely not saints in history but this gave me a better understanding of how white people have created a world only meant for them to succeed.
-The text is mostly about Malcolm X and his literary journey. While being in prison, Malcolm X taught himself how to read and more importantly, understand literature. He copied down an entire dictionary and studied the words until he was able to read and understand books. He feel in love with it and read for hours a day(and night). Reading helped him understand history that wasnât through the words of a white man. He states âBook after book showed me how the white man had brought upon the worldâs black, brown, red, and yellow peoples variety of the sufferings of exploitation.â(pg. 263). This show how he began to truly understand the negative impact white people had over the rest of the world.
-The genre of text of the text is an informative autobiography. This is because Malcolm X brought us through in journey reading while giving us all the new information he learned.
-What motivated to learn to read was a person named, Bimbi, who was so full of knowledge that Malcolm X envied him. He says âBimbi had always taken charge of any conversation he was in, and I had tried to emulate him.â(pg. 258). This shows how X was ambitious to bring so much knowledge to a conversation. I feel though that this motivation later on changed when he started reading seriously. He dove into this world of knowledge written through the black manâs perspective which was different than what heâd learned up until that point. He then took it upon himself to learn the history of his people and everything theyâve gone through in the hands of white people.
-I believe Malcolm X wrote this article to display how warped history is being taught to us. There is a whole different world of knowledge they wonât teach us simply because we will in a white manâs country who only paint themselves as the good guys. His intended audience is all non-white people who may not have the known the true drastic effects white people have had on all of us.
-Malcom Xâs literacy narrative is different from those of Tan and Vargas because of how much information he gave in his narrative. While Tan and Vargas gave a run down of their lives, Malcom Xâs one had much more non-fiction in it.
Dear Marzan,
Excellent job! This is a fantastic response. I am glad that you found the piece interesting and I really liked reading about what you took away from it. Excellent work!
Warmly,
Prof. C
1. I think this text is a great way for getting people to understand how literacy is a different journey for everyone .
2.This text is mostly about Malcom x’s journey with literacy and how he learned to read and write while in prison after not being able to articulate his words in a letter, ” I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote – In the streets had been the most articulate hustler out there — I had commanded attention when I said something . But now , trying to write simple English, I not only wasn’t articulate ,I wasn’t even functional”.
3.The genre of the the text is narrative , the tone is formal writing
4. I think Malcom X was motivated to read by wanting to emulate a prisoner Bimbi , who made Malcom X envious of his knowledge ,and how he took charge in every conversation he was in .
5. I think that Malcom X wrote this to tell people his journey on learning how to read and write while in prison and use his story as motivation , I think the intended audience was other black people who at the time could’ve been illiterate and motivate them to learn how to read and write .
6. I think the Malcom x’s narrative is similar to tan and Vargas in the way that they all felt the need to learn ” proper” English to be “better”,but I Also believe that Malcom X’s story is different from Tan and Vargas because Malcom x was born in America but in time period that he was born in proper education for black people wasn’t available.
Dear Diamond,
Great job! This is a great response. I like how you use a quote to support your thinking. I also like your comparison between the 3 pieces. Good job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
1) for this text it was hard to make me focus because it did not talk about things that i interested in but knowing how he learn English was interesting. he copy the dictionary to learn more and more words.
2)it is mostly about how his life has change and how he learn language by itself without help by other but only dictionary and make his life change completely.”i copied the dictionary’s next page. And the same experience came when i studied that. With every succeeding page” this shows that how he find a way to learn English by his own way.
3)the genre is narrative because he is talking about his own experience and the tone is very informative
4) he was motivated to read because he cant express what he is trying to say “I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what i wanted to convey in letter that i wrote” and he also find so many interesting word in the dictionary that keep him wanted to keep reading.
5)i think the author is trying to express this story to people who don’t understand English and want to learn English because to show them how they could learn English with dictionary and to motivate them not to give up.
6) i think MalcolmX stories is similar to Tan and Vargas because both of the stories is motivating the audience and telling their experience and how to find opportunity to go through bad situation