Author: Frida Martinez (Page 4 of 8)

Topic:  What would it be like to live in another country? Specifically Mexico. If I ever wanted to move out of the country, I should educate myself about it first. Is living in Mexico similar to living in the United States?

K-Know:

• They have different money currency. (peso)
• Different culture.
• Different climate.
• Many monuments.
• They are more traditional
• The have different housing structure due to natural disasters.

W-Want:

• Why is their currency different from U.S dollar.
• Understanding the history behind monuments such as Pyramids in Mexico.
• Geography/ natural disasters that occur.
• learning about why they celebrate different holidays that the U.S doesn’t. Does it have to do with culture/traditions? or Mexican history?
• What holidays are celebrated differently such as hallowen.
• Cultural differences.

L-Learned:

• the Mexican peso produces higher returns than the U.S. dollar because of higher interest rates.
• Pyrimids in Mexico were created by the aztecs. It was once known as the part as the aztec empire. The pyramids in Teotihuacan is said to be about 2,000 years old.
• The climate over there is tropical. The usual temperature in all areas of Mexico ranges between 50°F and 90°F throughout the year.  Mexico regularly suffer from natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and volanoe eruptions.
• Mexico celebrates different holidays such as Benito Juárez day, Flag Day, Boy Heroes Day, etc. As well as religious holidays.
• Holidays such as Halloween and Christmas are celebrated differently. Christmas holidays are celebrated religiously (Las Posadas: From December 16 – December 24). On the day of Halloween, Day of the Dead is celebrated. On this day families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion with foods and drinks (Celebrated from October 31st-November 2nd)
• People in Mexico greet with a hug and kiss.

DEJ

Page 41

Quotation: “Students placed greater value in professors’ feedback vs. peers’, usually ignoring peer responses unless they were forced to use them in revisions”

Analysis: I agree with is this quote because I sometimes tend to do this myself. Most of us don’t realize that our peer’s feedback can actually help us develop a better writing piece. It is important to keep this in mind for when you are analyzing your peer’s writing. It is also important to accept feedback from both teachers and peers.

Page 42

Quotation: “Students would often judge their peers’ writing based on what they thought a teacher would want, rather than their own criteria for what makes writing good”

Analysis: This is relatable because I usually stick to answering the question rather than adding more ideas because I don’t like to go off topic. However, it is good to add your own criteria because it makes your writing more interesting.

Page 43

Quotation: “Meaningful praise, then, is feedback that recognizes something that is working for you as a reader, that gives you an opportunity to have a dialogue with the author, and that expresses some sort of appreciation for the work the writer has done, or for the writer herself.”

Analysis: I never heard of meningful praise in writing. It is good to know about this. I often find myself appreciating the way authors word things in their writing. As well as their writing techniques because this allows me to incorporate similar writing techniques in my own writing.

Page 47-48

Quotation: “You may try to write your peer response using different color pens—for example, green for praise, orange for combination comments, or green to praise stylistic techniques and blue to praise ideas.”

Analysis: This is great advice. I never thought about giving feedback this way. I can use different colors to point out ideas, praises, constructive criticism, and comments. This way is more organized and it shows my peer that the feedback I am giving them can be useful and they will appreciate more rather than just leaving a simple comment. This goes back to my first analysis that most students ignore their peer’s feedback. This is most likely because their feedback isn’t organized so they won;t find it useful.

Curiosity is the desire to want to learn or know something. It is essential for the mind and human development.  It all begins with wondering which later on, makes us ask questions. Something I was interested in as a kid was learning about the world. I always had a strong desire to travel around the world and learn all about different types of cultures. I would always ask myself questions like what would it be like to adapt to another country.  I thought about many things such as culture, climate, money currency, living conditions, and even employment opportunities.  Wondering and asking about these things helped me learn about the world because as I grew up, I gained more knowledge about other countries. For example, when I visited Mexico I noticed that things over there were different from the United States. I learned that the Mexican peso is less than the United States dollar.  Another thing I learned was that houses in Mexico are made of concrete while houses here in the United States are made out of wood. This is because concrete buildings withstand not only flooding but also hurricane winds.  Wood is hardly durable for these types of climate disasters. This difference made me wonder why Mexico experience many natural disasters compared to the United States. The educational system played both a good and a bad role in my curiosity about the world. For one, I was able to learn about how global warming and climate change affect countries around the world. However, the education system lacked teaching me about global currencies and about culture in other parts of the world. The majority of the topics I learned in school mainly covered up American history. Not learning about these things made me even more curious about the world. This is still something that interests me. As I grow up and explore more, I will gain more knowledge about the world than what the educational system could ever teach me.