Prof. Miller| ENG 1101 - OL62 | Fall 2020

“Micro-Activity#3: Malcolm X”

Quote #1: “What I wanted and desperately needed in those moments was a book to help me make sense of all my questions. I didn’t need answers, but I really wanted to know that my family was not alone. In those moments, I needed to read books by Sandra Cisneros, Laurie Ann Guerrero, Benjamin Alire Saénz, Luis Alberto Urrea, Ana Castillo, Javier O. Huerta, Denise Chávez and other Chicanx writers”.

Response: This quote to me stood out mainly because for Jose Olivarez he wanted to know more of what was going on with his family he wanted to read books urgently to get an idea of what was going on. This made me think of times when i’m struggling and i wish i has some sort of guid to tell me what to do next oir give me an idea of what i could do to get to the next step. In this case Olivarez wanted to read to inform himself more of his family situation.

Quote #2: “Writing shifted my relationship to education and power. After I started writing, I stopped being interested in models of education that didn’t consider me an active participant”.

Response: Many times a better way to understand certain things it does good to write down ideas about what stands out to you or what you think a phrase or a reading might be about. This quote in the writing of Olivarez stood out to me because when you have knowledge of an idea or facts you have the power to teach others. For example this made me think about how we all have different ways of learning some of us are studying different things which will one day teach other peers.

Quote #3: “I wanted to write poems that confronted the questions I felt as a teen. I wanted to write poems in a way that might give a young person in similar circumstances some comfort. I hoped my poems would be used to write new poems and to launch a million more stories”.

Response: What i believe this quote means is that when we read a piece of writing we sometimes could relate a lot to the characters involved or the to what the author is trying to imply. When we students are writing and get confused we reach out to our peers or read other piece of work to better understand or struggles we depend on one another and listed to different ideas because we all tend to get different things of what something could mean we learn from each other.

2 Comments

  1. Prof. Suzanne Miller

    Joselin,

    I appreciate the quotes that you chose & the attention that you paid to them. It seems like you connected to a lot of what Olivarez is saying in his piece.

    I think students could benefit from your observation that “… it does good to write down ideas about what stands out to you or what you think a phrase or a reading might be about.” In other words, you have related what you learned from Mike Bunn’s piece (“How to Read Like a Writer”) to the Olivarez piece! Nice work.

  2. Prof. Suzanne Miller

    Joselin,

    I appreciate the quotes that you chose & the attention that you paid to them. It seems like you connected to a lot of what Olivarez is saying in his piece.

    I think students could benefit from your observation that “… it does good to write down ideas about what stands out to you or what you think a phrase or a reading might be about.” In other words, you have related what you learned from Mike Bunn’s piece (“How to Read Like a Writer”) to the Olivarez piece! Nice work.

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