Homework Due Wed. Sept. 22nd
- Read “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X and respond to the questions below. PLEASE try to reply to AT LEAST ONE classmate in the comments!
- What did you think of this text? Explain!
- What is it mostly about? Write a 2-4 sentence summary. Be specific. Refer to the text itself. Use quotes even!
- 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 X’s literacy narrative similar to or different from those of Tan and Vargas?
- ***Draft of Project 1 Due Mon. Sept. 27th***
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What did you think of this text? Explain!
I thought this text was interesting because it shows different ways on how different people solve problems
What is it mostly about? Write a 2-4 sentence summary. Be specific. Refer to the text itself. Use quotes even!
I think the text is about being determined to learn in your own way for example in the text he said words that don’t make sense he often look them up in a dictionary and even so it was new words he still have no clue what they meant
What is the genre of the text? What is the tone?
the genre is Autobiography and the tone is determined and serious because he made it clear that he going to read and learn at any time he had
What motivated Malcolm X to learn to read?
he couldn’t read books without skipping words so it made him want to study a whole dictionary.
Why do you think Malcolm X wrote this article? Who do you think is his intended audience?
I feel as if he wrote this to inform the people that learning makes you stronger as a person and the audience is the people who cant read but wants to learn
How is Malcolm X’s literacy narrative similar to or different from those of Tan and Vargas?
I feel as they all share a passion for what they do and how they do it for example in Vargas he watches tv to learn the American accent so he won’t be found out and in tan, she found out how to understand other forms of languages to communicate
Hey Justin, I enjoyed reading your response. You described the article very well and its main details. I agree that Malcom X shared a passion for what he did and that connects to Vargas.
Dear Justin,
Good job! I would love to see you add specific examples or quotes from the reading to support your thinking. Be really specific! The more specific and more examples and explanation you provide the better! Good job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
– I liked that is was an excerpt that he wrote himself not second hand interview. He goes through the thirst for knowledge that he experienced and that I found a bit admirable. I hope to not find myself in the same situation but I like that he put his “free time” to good use.
– This text is mainly about the way Malcom X learned about the history of civilization and more importantly the way whites had treated the other races of the world. The worst of all were the Africans that shocked Malcom greatly. Quoted from the text it says “which opened my eyes gradually, then wider and wider, to how the whole world’s white men had indeed acted like devils” He would read for hours and hours cutting sleep and after being freed would still read as much as he could.
– This is an autobiography and a personal essay with a formal tone.
– He was very popular for his speaking ability but when it came to his reading and writing skills he was very lack luster. He felt that he could not express himself as he wanted through text and wanted to do something about it
– I think he wrote this to prove that he had indeed learned to read and write and to be proud of what he had accomplished. I think his audience was those who take education for granted and the knowledge readily available to us that most don’t take advantage of.
– Malcom X’s literacy narrative is similar to the previous ones in that it was written by someone who is a minority and talks about their struggles steaming from it. Tan and Vargas focused on adapting to American culture while Malcom was about learning about the slavery that took place.
I also agree, I think that the way he viewed opening up his mind to more knowledge was admirable and do you think that we don’t take advantage of the resources/ access we have to learn more?
I agree that he made a positive experience of his time in prison by teaching himself how to read. I think that in doing so it made his time in prison a really formative experienced and a time of significant growth for Malcolm X.
Dear Geraldo,
Excellent job. This is a great response. I like how you use a quote to support your thinking. Great job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
1. I think the text was very eye opening. I say that because he learned more in prison then he did in formal education.
2. The story is mostly about him wanting to becoming more literate even while being incarcerated. While in jail he read everyday even when they turned off the lights. He also started to learn about black history and slavery.
3.The genre of the text is autobiography. The tone of the text is passionate and serious.
4.What motivated Malcolm x to read was he couldn’t read without skipping almost all the words. He also wanted to communicate with Elijah Muhammed.
5. I think he wrote to show people that you can self educate even if you don’t go to school. I think the intended audience is people that want to learn no matter there situation.
6. One similarity that i see with the others is that they all where willing to learn in anyway they could.
I like how you said “he learned more in prison than he did in formal education.” Just shows that know matter where you are, you could always learn something new.
Dear Christopher,
Good job! I really enjoyed reading your response. I would love to see you add quotes and examples from the text to support your thinking–the evidence that really proves what you are saying! Good job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
1) I think this text is really inspiring and motivating. This text is truly very interesting to see a different perspective on how passionate someone can be to learn something that is new to them.
2) This text is mostly about the things he had overcome with his path to his self-taught in learning English words. This text described Malcolm X’s learning to read while he was in prison showed the value of literacy. As stated in the text, “I spent two days just riffling uncertainly through the dictionary’s pages. I’d never realized so many words existed! I didn’t know which words I needed to learn. Finally, just to start some kind of action, I began copying.”
3) The genre of this text is autobiography/ personal essay. The tone of this text is determined and genuine.
4) His time in prison motivated him to learn to read. He received letters from prison which also motivated him to learn how to read and write.
5) I think Malcolm X wrote this article to show his perspective and his beliefs hoping it would impact and effect others as well. I think his intended audience were the people that he believed were brainwashed by white culture hoping to help them and to open their eyes.
6) I feel like Malcom X’s literacy narrative is similar to Tan and Vargas because these three stories share personal experiences and each story had a purpose which was to share something that is deeper inside them.
I agree with your response, I can see why you say it’s motivating. Before he started reading he couldn’t’ even read through a book and after he self-educated himself, he improved in reading which helped him expand his vocabulary.
Dear Tehmina,
Great job! This is a great response. I love that you chose a quote to support your thinking, I would love for you now to add an explanation. What does the quote mean? How does it support your thinking! Great job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
This Reading was helpful because it’s the autobiography of Malcolm X almost like a diary that he wrote. This is also motivational because it’s never late to expand your knowledge. This is where curiosity led him since he had time to pass.
I liked this reading because it gave a feel about how Malcolm’s life was in prison. It gave us his perspective and something positive came out of it. He wanted to learn more and to expand his knowledge of the English language.
The genre would be an autobiography and the tone can be considered to be optimistic. I say this because Malcolm throughout the passage tells his experience in a way that he wants people to look up to him.
Something that made Malcolm motivated to do this was because he needed to use his time in prison to be productive. Since he didn’t have anything to do he would spend the time reading and he learned many things he didn’t know before. He used his time and learned many things. For instance the words in the dictionary along with the history of slavery that he never learned about.
I believe his audience can be the people that want to give up on something and see that they are not progressing but to give them motivation and see that there are many things that they can do to move forwards. There are ways to expand your knowledge as well.
I think that the Malcolm X passage related to the other stories because they are a specific experince that each writer experienced and at the end its directed to a specific audience.
I also liked that he made something positive from what he was going through as well. He would become a person people would look up to and so this would give them hope that their life can be bettered as well.
Dear Kaylee,
Great job! This is a great response. I would love to see you include quotes and examples from the text to support your thinking. It will really help strengthen the response! Great job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
I think that this text was good and very descriptive. I like how history was included in the text and how he included why he read and how he began to. This text is mostly about how Malcolm X became more articulate, how, and what inspired him as he did so. According to page 2, “I saw the best thing I could do was get hold of a dictionary—to study, learn some new words”. This was a way that he basically taught himself and became the person everyone reads about in textbooks. The genre of the text is autobiography and the tone is formal. What motivated Malcolm X to read is his drive to be articulate. He wanted to be educated, he actually wanted to learn and be more than what was expected of him as a black man. I think Malcolm X wrote this article to expose the history of America, the one that was hidden. As he states in page 3, “…when white men had written history books, the black man simply had been left out”. I believe his intended audience is everyone because this is history that needs to be heard and taught so it is not repeated. Malcolm X’s literacy narrative is different from those of Tan and Vargas, because both Tan and Vargas include their family while X restates history. They had two different perspectives on how and what to write but all three of them still reached the same ending either way.
Dear Darleny,
Great job! This is an excellent response. I would love to see you add even more details in your response. What does it mean to be articulate to Malcolm X? Explain. You add a great quote, but now explain it! Great job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
1. This text was an eye-opener to me on how important knowledge really is and a lot of people take it for granted sometimes. It also goes to show that knowledge is endless as long as you are curious you can keep learning new things every day for as long as you can live.
2. The text is mainly about Malcolm X’s Understanding of History and the choices he made to help him reach the level of knowledge he was hoping to achieve. The Author In the text “Malcolm X Learning to read” gives us a look at how good Malcolm felt when being opened up to something new like reading. For example, the author states” I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading opened up to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life”. Malcolm realizes that deciding to read in prison was a very important step in his life that has awoken his ability to understand the history of how things came to be. If Malcolm never had the will to improve his vocabulary he would have never known how much he would enjoy reading books that shaped his mind which is now a passion of his.
3. The genre of the text is an autobiography because it was a story about Malcolm X written by him. I would say the tone of this text is passionate because Malcolm X shows a lot of interest in reading and then goes on about all of the stuff he learns while reading all of these books. Another things that push the tone of Malcolm’s tone being passionate is when he says that he is always reading even if he can only read for 15 minutes
4. Malcolm X took interest in reading because of a guy in prison named Bimbi whose knowledge he envied but in a way looked up to it at the same time. In the text “Malcolm X Learning to read” the author states “ It had really begun back in Charlestown Prison, when Bimbi first made me feel envy of his stock of knowledge. Bimbi had always taken charge of any conversation he was in, and I 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 have been in Chinese” Malcolm admired the fact that Bimbi was able to take control of conversations due to how smart he was. Malcolm wanted the amount of knowledge that Bambi had so much he even tried acting like Bambi. This made Malcolm realize that he was lacking the ability to read fluently when he didn’t know most of the words inside of a book and that there was a lot of space for improving the capacity of vocabulary that he had not yet understood.
5. Malcolm X wrote this to show that it is never to late to grow a passion for something and that anything is possible if you put your mind to it such as self education. I think he wrote this for people who just needs a push, the overall tone of the text is positive and he shows us the amount of knowledge he has acheived by being passionate in comparison to before.
6. I think Malcolm X’s literacy narrative is similiar to the narratives written by Tan and Vargas because they all share the sense of passion. In each text every author overcomes a challange that they face and it changed there life forever.
Dear Travion,
Excellent job! This is an excellent response! I love how you really support your thinking with evidence from the text!
Warmly,
Prof. C
1 – Like many said, I found this text very motivating. It shows that you can always learn something new everyday no matter what. Malcom goes beyond that when educating himself on his race and different resources he uses.
2 – “Learning To Read” written by Malcom X is about how he self educates himself while in prison for burglary. He goes by the name “X” in prison. Malcom X wanted to sharpen his speech so when people see him and hear him, they don’t think he is an uneducated man like how many whites viewed all blacks. The way African Americans were appressed and forced to hate themselves was heavily taught by they’re masters. The text it states “many who today hear me somewhere in person, or on television, or those who read something I’ve said will think I went to school far beyond eighth grade. This impression is all because of my prison studies.” This quote clearly shows how Malcom X states he wanted to be viewed as a man who was well educated, and takes pride in the fact that he is self taught. He didn’t want to be the man talking in slang feeding the stereotype that all African Americans were uneducated.
3 – The genre of the text is a self narrative. I say this because as your read the text Malcom X writes this speaking about him self. He tells the story of him learning from a first person point of view. The tone I feel as I read is informative. Malcom X gives a rundown of how the time period he was living in was about, and what he has done and why he has educated himself and wanted to be the one to stand out.
4- Many reasons why Malcom X wanted to learn to read. He didn’t want to be the African American that wasn’t literate just because the White folks made it that way. The text states “The teachings of Mr. Muhammed stressed how history had been “whitened” when white men had written history books, the back man had simply been left out. Mr. Muhammed couldn’t have said anything else that would have struck me.” This quote expresses how Malcom X felt after Mr. Muhammed told him how the White folks didn’t want to acknowledge the blacks in history at all.
5 – The audience for this article is for everyone. Showing that it is never too late to do anything you want. Mainly I feel he’s trying to say that you should always educate yourself on your history and background to know where you come from. Malcom X also wrote this to show how African Americans were treated unfairly compared to the whites. How the blacks were always looked down on and never respected. To show the unfair treatment they suffered and had gone through.
6 – After reading all 3 texts, I feel they are all similar in there own ways. They all have a protagonist that struggles and faces a problem affecting their lives. They all stayed true to themselves and worked hard to be educated on what they had to do.
I agree with you it is very motivating, people can be inspired by his experience and want to start on something that they always wanted to learn. And by hard work and dedication it can be earned just like how Malcom X learned how to read and write.
Dear Abdul,
Excellent job! This is an excellent response! I love how you really support your thinking with evidence from the text!
Warmly,
Prof. C
– I thought the text was very informative as it was sharing a perspective of Malcolm X as he was in prison and some of the things he learned while being there.
– It was mostly about Malcolm X learning while being in prison. It shared his experience there and the challenges he faced, as well as how he was able to overcome it. He mainly shared his experience on reading, and he shared some of the things he learned from it.
– The genre of the text is personal essay. The tone of the essay is composed as he was guiding learners through his experience in prison.
– The motivation for Malcolm X to read was he couldn’t articulate the thoughts he wanted to write down and he realized a way to overcome that was by start reading books.
– I think Malcolm X wrote this article to share a portion of his life in prison and wanted to showcase the challenge he faced and what he did to overcome it. His intended audience is for people who were probably in his situation and to also make people aware of his situation.
– It is similar to Tan and Vargas by heavily expressing what obstacle was being faced and how he was able to overcome it.
Dear Noman,
Good job. I would love to see you add even more details in your response. For example, can you explain more what you mean about the tone of the text? Use actual langue from the text to support your thinking. Great job!
I thought this text was an interesting insight into the simple struggles of someone as iconic as Malcom X.
The text details Malcom X learning and improving his reading ability. As well as him applying these skills to learn about history, and use these learnings to enhance his understanding of the world around him.
Memoir and the tone is informative.
His lack of ability to properly articulate himself when writing and speaking, as well as his frustration from being unable to understand complex books.
The Article was intended to spread insight upon his struggles and to give inspiration to others with similar challenges. From Malcom X’s history and goals it is definite that he was targeting fellow African Americans with the article.
Just like the others Malcolm struggled with something as simple as reading and writing and had to take it upon himself to work hard to improve upon these skills.
Dear Khalil,
Good job. I would love to see you add even more details in your response. For example, can you explain more what you mean about the tone of the text? Use actual langue from the text to support your thinking. Add quotes and specific examples! Great job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
I thought that text was interesting because of how it showed Malcolm being introduced into a new world after he started reading and learning about different words and history that helped to shape his character.
This was mostly about Malcolm’s experience with development of reading and writing that helped him to learn more about his history, black history and being able to learn about different things from books that would look like a different language to him. He wouldn’t have to feel inferior to his cell mates since some knew how to read and had more knowledge than he did.
This is a personal essay about malcolms growth in language arts and development in history. The tone is formal.
Malcolm was motivated by many things to begin his reading and writing pursuit. One was not being able to express his thoughts properly on letters he would send out people example those to elijah muhammad and his jealousy towards one of his cells mates bimbi who always had knowledge to share that he learned from books. He started to feel proud after practicing his writing and learning how to keep words in a straight line and being able to memorize different words on pages of the dictionary. He was now addicted to being able to absorb all this new knowledge from books after learning how to read through his wider word vocabulary. His motivation continued when he started to learn more about elijahs teachings and of black history that was bleached by white people and the sins they have done in the past which continued to open new worlds for him as he continued to read.
He wrote this article to show the importance of reading and writing to him and how it changed him and opened new worlds for him. The intended audience might be people who dont see how being able to read and write can change a person.
They are all similar because the English language gave them new views of the world or of the language or Goals they wanted to achieve. Example Amy understanding that all english is correct and not everyone has to speak in same form english to understand each other opened her eyes to the complexity of the language, like when she was still in school she wanted to break the stereotype about immigrants but found herself mocking her mom about the same stereotype showed he that not everyone ahs to speak the same english. With vargas wanting to achieve his goals to show that hes the same as every citizen and that he can be an outstanding member of society, he developed his passion for writing as child who didnt understand the language much at all but learned and wrote for different articles and news lines, won awards with his team and it gave him opportunities even though they were risky to take. And finally malcolm who grew to enjoy books and reading after learning words from a dictionary because he was frustrated with his lack of knowledge and lack of writing and reading capabilities. And through learning and reading the english language he was able to seek out and read different forms of black history books after learning more about elijah muhammads teachings, changing his whole world around through the use of reading and understanding. They all were similar because the english language gave them something learn and look back on.
Dear Shariffe,
Excellent job! This is a fantastic response. I like how you provide specific examples and explanations from the text. Great job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
a) I find the text rather interesting to say the least. I find it interesting that despite being in prison, Malcolm pretty much made the place into his own personal school where he educated himself on the English language as well as world history.
b) The text is mostly about how Malcolm views human society in the past and present after reading books about it. He first had to learn much of the English language by learning from a dictionary. He then used this new profound knowledge of the language to read and understand as much books as he can get his hands on while in prison. Over time, he learned about the history of the world, mainly through the perception of white men, and developed his own perception of how history was written by the victors. As stated in the text, “…when white men had written history books, the black men simply had been left out.”
c) The genre of the text is a personal essay since it mainly discusses a specific part of Malcolm’s life that can be learned through its theme. The tone is rather informative since it shows his overall perception on the past history.
d) Malcolm’s unarticulated English when talking greatly motivated his desire to learn the English language. The first sentence in the text sums it up, “It was because of my letters that I happened to stumble upon starting to acquire some kind of a homemade education [his time in prison].”
e) Malcolm X wrote this article probably to show that despite having a hard time understand and conveying English at the start, the amount of time he learned the language greatly changed his place and his perception of the world. All of that was because of one lone dictionary and as Malcolm puts it, “…I also learned of people and places and events from history. Actually, the dictionary is like a miniature encyclopedia.” His intended audience is probably those who couldn’t understand English and/or those with a vague perception of world history.
f) Malcolm’s literacy narrative is similar mainly to Vargas in that both had to learn and understand the English language in order to understand the would and human society around them. Malcolm’s literacy narrative contrasts with Tan in that Tan had to understand her place in society through the dialect and English of another person (her mother) while Malcolm had to understand his perception of the world through his own understanding of the English language.
Dear Rudrajit,
Excellent job! This is a fantastic response! Excellent job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
I thought this text was inspiring and helped me understand who Malcolm X was.
This text is mostly about his journey learning to read in prison and how his motivation led him to become articulate. It shows how being in prison and meeting people like Bimbi shaped him to be the person he became.
The genre of the text is autobiography and The tone is slightly humorous. For example he talks about the debates that are held among inmates on subjects such as whether or not babies should be fed milk.
What motivated Malcolm X to learn to read? He wanted to sound articulate and have audiences spellbound the way he had them in the streets. He wanted to be taken seriously academically.
Malcolm X wrote this piece to show that he didn’t start out with the reading and writing skills people know him by, he had to teach himself. His intended audience is people who face similar struggles such as not knowing how to write or read well or people of the African diaspora in general.
His literacy narrative is different from Vargas and Tans because they already knew how to write and read, they just struggled with different types of english and slang. Malcolm X already knew how to speak in slang he just had to learn formal english which is the opposite of Vargas and Tan.
Dear Xenia,
Great job! This is a great response. I would love to see you use the text itself to support your thinking (quotes, examples, etc). How can you provide specific details that will better explain the point you are trying to make? Great job!
Warmly,
Prof. C
1. I really liked how he put his personal experiences into this text that he wrote, it was really inspiring to see how he learned how to read and write in prison which seems almost impossible. It inspired me that you can do anything that you put hard work and effort in.
2. This text is about Malcom X learning how to read in prison, he had to self taught himself while in prison. In the text, it states “I’d never realized so many words existed! I didn’t know which words I needed to learn…”(page 258). This shows how he started from 0 and taught himself all the way through by dictionaries and letters people sent to him.
3. The genre is autobiography and the tone of the text is very passionate because he seemed very passionate about wanting to read and write. An example from the text is “I was so fascinated that I went on- I copied the dictionary’s next page…”(page 259). In this paragraph he seemed so proud of himself for being able to write lot of words and he wanted to keep going because of his progress.
4. He wanted to start learning how to read and write when he stumbled upon some of his letters. He wanted to convey how he felt in letters and was frustrated that he couldn’t write or read to do that.
5. I think Malcom X wrote this article for people who might be in prison just like he was or people who wanted to be inspired by him. People can be inspired and want to start something that they always wanted to learn just like how he was passionate about reading and writing and by hard working he earned it.
6. Just like Tan and Vargas, Malcom X shared his personal experience of what he went through and the audience could relate or be inspired just like how Tan and Vargas wrote their articles.
Dear Saida,
Excellent job. This is a great response. I love how you use the text to support your thinking. I would love for you to use those same examples and details when comparing the 3 texts. Excellent job.
Warmly,
Prof. C
I appreciated how he included his personal experiences into this work; it was encouraging to see how he learnt to read and write while incarcerated, which seems nearly impossible. It taught me that if you work hard and put forth effort, you can achieve anything.This text is about Malcom X learning to read while in prison, which he had to teach himself. “I’d never realized there were so many words!” says the text. I had no idea which words I needed to study…” This demonstrates how he began at the beginning and taught himself what he knew through the use of dictionaries and letters from strangers. He was very passionate about wanting to read and write, which is evident in the tone of the text, which is very passionate and autobiographical. He needed to begin learning how to examined and type in when he faltered upon a few of his letters. He needed to communicate how he felt in letters and was baffled that he couldn’t type in or perused to do that I think Malcom X wrote this article for people who could be in jail like him or people who wanted to be inspired by him. People can be inspired and want to do something they always wanted to learn, just like he had his passion for reading and writing and earned it through hard work. Like Tan and Vargas, Malcom X shared his personal experiences of what had happened and the audience was able to inform or get inspiration, just as Tan and Vargas wrote their articles.