HW 3: Due Friday Sept 6 (by midnight on Friday night); then comment on two student peer posts by Saturday Sept 7
Choose ONE from these two choices of writing prompts
- Use the Title: Mentor Quote — Your Name
—OR —-
- Use the Title: Between Two Worlds – Your Name
- THEN—Pick the Category Writing Task Mentor Quote
—-OR—-
- Pick the Category Writing Task Between Two Worlds
CHOICE 1 Mentor Quote
Have you ever had a time when you had to overcome somebody’s mistaken perceptions of your ability? Have you had to prove yourself to someone or to yourself? Think of a time when a mentor or authority figure spoke to you using negative language that caused you pain or told a joke that you didn’t find funny. Did you challenge those words? What steps did you take to triumph? Starting with the words themselves–give the quotation–how did these damaging words affect your educational journey?
Remember Esmeralda Santiago’s story. “That’s not the way we do things here,” says Mr. Grant. Yet Esmeralda challenges the way things are done at this school and she triumphs.
Start your story with the mentor’s own words–that is, with a quotation. If the person is speaking in another language, consider using that home language. Start with the quote at the top of your page.
CHOICE 2 Between Two Different Worlds
Esmeralda Santiago arrives from Puerto Rico and enters an American school only to be placed in a learning-disabled class instead of the standard 8th grade class although she is a bright student. She must navigate between her 8th grade class of outcasts and the English-speaking teachers and students at her school feeling out of place in both groups.
Have you had an experience of being between two worlds that shaped your educational journey? Be sure to explain to your reader exactly what the two worlds or two identities are. You might be bi-lingual or bi-cultural, but you may also consider other worlds besides nationality–race, class, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, education, etc.
Have you had the experience of living “between two different worlds” or we might say of having two different identities? In your own life how have “ambiguous” feelings or internal conflicted feelings–about language, culture, identity, gender, injustice, religion, or opportunities that affected your own educational journey? In your educational life, have you had experiences of others stereotyping you based on any of the above? What actions have you taken to address the conflict? Or, how have you learned to live with it?
Refer to:
- My example post (by Lisa) with quote from my father.
- Leylah Fernandez (US Open Tennis FINALIST)’s quote from teacher who told her to quit (NYTimes par 22).
US Open Tennis finalist Leylah Fernandez, 19 years old, of Canada said she had faced many doubts in her early career about her potential. She remembered a teacher in Canada telling her to stop playing tennis and just focus on her studies because she would “never make it.” “Now I’m laughing,” she said. “I’m just glad that she told me that because every day I have that phrase in my head saying that I’m going to keep going. I’m going to push through, and I’m going to prove to her everything that I’ve dreamed of, I’m going to achieve.”
Looking ahead to next week’s reading. Pls organize yourself and printout ahead of time. Look at the Weekly Schedule. Print out now the readings for the UPCOMING WEEK.
Groups for Vocabulary List for Monday’s reading “My American Journey” by Colin Powell. DUE BY Sunday NIght to the Google Drive.
Group 1: (p 90-93) Noreen, Said, Christi, Maria, Jelani
Group 2: (p 94-97) Amit, Ryan, Jennifer, Giorgi, Johnny
