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Reading Together

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Author: Gabriela Luevanos

Last Post… Any ideas? I might have one!

Last Post… Any ideas? I might have one!

Happy Easter Everyone! It’s a great day to share my ideas and I am so excited! I woke up this morning with a great positive attitude and I hope you guys did too :)

So to be honest, I was having trouble wrapping my head around my final project BUT out of nowhere I started to get all these ideas. Initially, I wanted to do a video. Then, I started to read up on other multi-modality projects and that’s when I thought of a new direction for mine.

I hope my image above gave you a little idea of where I want my project to head. I currently work on the second floor of the library, at the Copy Center. I am not sure if any of you have stopped by but if you haven’t, you should :). Anyways, we have a LARGE variety of multiple colors of paper. We literally have almost a whole wall displaying these beautiful colors. And so I thought… How can I use my resources for my final project? This is the time my idea started to creep up on me and just like that I wanted my project to show all these colors of paper, but how? Then I connected this with… Origami! I have done origami in the past as a stress reliever and I loved it but I’m no expert. So, now I want to use it for my final project and I am not sure how exactly but I will be looking back into our readings and possibly create the key words or make something that represents that reading specifically. For example, a ball for Russell’s piece. I am not completely sure if this will work out but we will see.

 

P.S Here’s a quick picture I wanted to share of last year :)

 

Multi-modality: My experience

Multi-modality: My experience

Question: How would I incorporate my experience with multi-modality to our next project?

Okay, so my second semester of my freshman year I took a U-Course. As many of you know, U-Courses are one of the best classes to take(in my opinion) even if it can be a drag sometimes because of the length of the course. Anyways, I was taking English 130 and Geo science. For one of our assignments, we were required to make videos of ourselves and upload it on youtube. The videos had to incorporate our progress in trying to either change how much we used water or how we contributed in recycling, disposing, and reusing.

Personally, I’m not the type of person to record myself doing anything, really. So, as I sat there about to record myself, I started to freak out! It wasn’t because I didn’t know what I was going to say, it was because after my 20th time trying to perfect the video, I was still not satisfy.  Until, I was introduced to cutting videos and pasting them together? I’m pretty sure that’s not the correct way to describe that, but I hope you understand what I’m talking about. From that moment on, I ENJOYED making those other 5 videos I had left. Instead of spending more time on actually recording, I spend more time actually editing the videos. I found myself being a little extra with my videos, but I didn’t care because  I would get 12/10 points! So it was worth it. I’m obviously not perfect at it but I am happy that I was exposed to it.

 

Overall, I might want to incorporate some type of video for my assignment. I think it is important to utilize tools such as a camera that allows us to capture knowledge beyond writing.

Here is one of my unedited videos(as you can tell):

Movie on 12-9-14 at 4.22 PM

Sadly, I deleted my videos on youtube :( or else I would have inserted the link here.

Let me just leave this here…

Let me just leave this here…

MMM… “What have I learned so far?”

#ExpandLiteracyPractices (shoutout to Kassandra for the hashtag).

The END.

Just kidding. Lately I’ve been thinking about how I should approach this paper(like most of us are). I really liked the idea that was mentioned in class of a newspaper article. So, I decided that I will be doing it as a magazine article instead. Although, I must say I’m not 100% sure I can pull this off but Ruben told me that he has no problem on helping me if I have any questions(THANKS RUBEN).

Okay… so about a week ago, I was scrolling through Facebook and came across this post.

And then it hit me.

*break*

I want this image to be my focus point while I write this magazine article. I think I will also include this image so my paper can have an example of what I intend to explain. I will be focusing on the impact that  the 5 body paragraph format has and how it’s influencing/affecting social media users. Shoot.. maybe I can ask a few questions to some of my peers regarding this image and what feelings or thoughts this image brought? MMM Maybe…that sounds like a good start. I also, want to include why or how has the 5 body paragraph format been used to establish educational levels. I know this kinda sounds like a research paper but we will see how it turns out.

Lights out. 

 

 

 

 

Title goes here…I knew that!

Title goes here…I knew that!

(Topic sentence goes here).

OKAY…So as you can clearly see I tried to follow Schaffer visual digram of the formula she provided but I stopped because my blog wasn’t going to be as entertaining to write.

In class, we discussed each other’s experiences and thoughts of the 5 body paragraph format. Due to this, I went back to search for some papers/writings I had submitted my senior year of high school. Since, most were saying that they felt like the formula was shoved down their throats, I wanted to freshen up my memory. In my findings, there were papers that I had submitted following a similar format as Schaffer. Which I cannot lie… I was surprised. I mean it has been awhile since high school and I had forgotten that I too was doing the 4 body paragraph stuff. On the other hand, some of my assignments differed completely from that structure. In this class(AP Lit), we went through readings really quick therefore, assignments were due twice a week. In class, I mentioned that I didn’t recall this format being shoved down my throat. Instead, I remembered my teacher giving us options to choose from. I am not sure why i didn’t remember writing the four body paragraph but it was probably because I was utilizing the format but not as often as others. There was an assignment in particular that made me think about one of the quotes that stood out to me from reading Wiley.

The important long-term benefit for students is that they develop multiple strategies so that they indeed have choices( Wiley 67).

In this particular assignment, we were asked to do a book analysis. Now, our teacher would give us options on how to turn in this assignment. 1. We turn it in as questions with answers(a-e options) regarding things such as, setting, tone, figurative language, etc. 2. Submit it has a four body paragraph format or 3. Identify  a following list of words in the reading(he would provide) and give examples and they should be about a paragraph each. I ended submitting the assignment as number 3 because I found  myself able to express myself the best using that strategy. In our discussion,  we mentioned that the 5 body paragraph should not be a format that students get attached to but rather a platform for them to start with. I do recall having that format in hand but it wasn’t the only thing I would think about when it came to english and writing.Taking AP Literature my senior year, really opened my options in writing. My teacher exposed us to different forms of writing strategies throughout the year. This is why the quote really stood out to me. It should not be a formula that students feel they should follow but rather an option from them to choose from.

 

 

 

 

It now makes sense…

It now makes sense…

 

For the purpose of this blog lets take it back to last semester, when I was taking English 276 and English 277.  In English 276, I was instructed to write ARPs(Analytical Response Papers) on certain week’s readings. I caught myself struggling when it came to analyzing tales from Chaucer to sonnets from Robert Herrick. That is why, I was constantly going to office hours before the assignment was due, to double check that I was on the right track or at least understanding the purpose of the assignment.

I was really committed to analyzing the readings because I knew that if I were to enhance my understanding of analyzing now, it would benefit me in the long run.

Two weeks after writing my first ARP, I was then instructed to write a blog from the readings we were currently doing in English 277. As I sat on my bed working on my blog, I was unaware that I was using the same method of analyzing that I did in my English 276 to my other course.  This method that I had improved in was becoming natural to me. Yes, most of us have done analyzing in high school. However, the feedback that I was receiving back from my Professor did not compare to high school. The time dedicated into analyzing line per line did not compare to high school.

Just like Kim said in class on Wednesday, we all have that semester(mostly your junior year) when we realize the connections in our courses and how everything seems to come together. Last fall was my junior year semester that I realized it all makes sense (and that too) *Laughing Out Loud*. When I received my feedback from my blog I was thrilled to know that I was enhancing my knowledge and that other Professors were noting it.

 

Now, how does this tie to the reading we were assigned to? Well, I do have to be honest that I actually enjoyed the reading. Yes, it was long and I found myself having to take a few breaks here and there…but overall I managed. In David R. Russell’s paper on, Activity Theory and Its Implications for Writing Instruction, he states, “As one becomes adept at more and more activities that require writing and hence at writing more genres, it is more likely( but no means certain) that one will be able to master a new genre/ activity that resemble features in a genre/activity one already knows”(Russell 11). I am not sure if I am hitting the ball right with this one but here it goes. From my understanding, the activities that I encountered myself with included blogging and writing ARPs. The features that resembled in each were analyzing a text. Although they were different in genres I was able to transfer and transform my knowledge to another activity/genre. Exposing my self to different activities helped me master another course.