Blog 10- Preserving Native American Language
It is hard to imagine loosing something that comprises your whole history, your future hopes of passing it on down the generations, your culture, and your set of beliefs. Unfortunately, many Native American people do not have to imagine this because they are experiencing it firsthand. For many Native American tribes in the United States, their tribal language is on the verge of extinction. Those who do speak the language fluently often have a difficulty passing it on to younger generations because English is often used in everyday life instead of the tribal language. It seemed an overarching view in the text that unless Native American communities have a purpose and a use for their language in everyday life language loss will occur. The text also emphasized that a language will not survive when just one person or group tries to maintain it. Rather, there must be a unified effort between Native American families, communities, and schools. In order to sustain a tribal language, they must all be diligently doing their part in working together toward a common purpose.
Through my teaching, I want to aid communities and families who have the desire for tribal language preservation. In order to do this, I can encourage language use in the school. One way to do this would be to bring in adults who speak the language and have them teach the class about important aspects of their culture and their language. Also, through group presentations I could have the Native American students teach other students in the classroom words from their tribal language. This would hopefully instill pride for their tribal language in Native American students.
Blog 9- Grandpa
Written the day after my grandpa died last month…
Somehow Grandpa has died. It is so unexpected that it is shocking. He died last night, he woke grandma up and she ran to call 911, when she got back he wasn’t breathing. I was about to head out the door for work this morning at 6:00 a.m. our house phone rang and dad answered right away bc he was expecting to get called to work so I didn’t think anything of it. Until I heard my mom sobbing a minute later, I went into their bedroom and mom was on the phone and dad told me grandpa died, but I thought he said grandma. So I was like what she died? And then he said, “no grandpa gordy.” So unexpectedly. I went to work but then they said I could go home.
Grandpa was a people person. He knew people everywhere and everyone liked him. Grandpa loved the land and his cattle, farming was in his blood. He loved to drive out in the mornings in his pickup truck and go check on the cows. Grandpa’s arms and face were sun-worn from farming summer after summer but it gave us all a chuckle, when he would put his swim trunks on or walk around in his pajama shorts with a stark white belly and legs. He would fall asleep so easy, often on the couch watching a baseball game with the TV volume up super loud and his snoring even louder.
I so appreciated the time grandpa called me after our basketball team lost when we were expected to go to state. He called to ask how I was doing and to tell me that he knew how it felt, that a similar experience happened to him when he was in high school.
I loved getting a big hug from grandpa and the way he would kiss me on the cheek.
Our family loved it when grandpa laughed, when we were playing board games or he was telling a story about when he grew up.
Blog 8- Teaching Students to Write In A De-contextualized Manner
Literacy brings empowerment. The chapter we read in my Education class discusses the struggles many Native American students have in the areas of reading and writing in the classroom. There are many factors that could contribute to the difficulty Native American students have in developing the proficiency in literacy that the dominant culture requires them to possess in order to succeed. One of these factors could be low attendance at school. By not being at school, a child has fewer opportunities to practice their literacy skills. Another factor is that the Native American culture is one of oral tradition and close community where children interpret abstractly what they learn from stories. Because of this, Native American students often struggle to write with the de-contextualized expression of thought that is an emphasized and strategic skill their teachers want them to gain. Native American students may not see the need for writing in a de-contextualized manner. Teachers need to help their Native American students understand how “if they want to advocate for themselves in the dominant culture, they need to learn the ‘secret English,’ which we think is de-contextualized articulation of thought” (pg. 192). This knowledge will empower students to make a difference by having a voice in the world.
This chapter of text was really enlightening for me and I learned a lot of things I want to implement in my classroom someday to help Native American students be successful in literacy. One thing to do in order to have students began to develop the skill of writing in a de-contextualized manner is to give them real people and a real purpose to have in mind while writing. I also like the idea of having students who are struggling with reading go and read books to younger elementary students. This would allow the student to have extra practice reading without the judgment and comparison of their peers, the opportunity to bolster their self-confidence, and a way to use reading to accomplish a purpose. I also want to incorporate reading and writing assignments that deal with things that matter to the students to increase their interest. In order to incorporate all of these things, I could have Native American students practice writing letters to authority figures explaining why they think a certain tradition or activity that it important to them should be incorporated in the community. I hope that I can be a teacher that helps students see how their education, and specifically their ability to write in a de-contextualized manner, will empower them to have a voice in the world.
Blog 7- Every Day is A Choice
After composing my most recent structured writing for my EDUC 489 class, the theme of my paper has stuck in my head and provoked my mind to roll it around and ponder the concept, begging me to see its merit for my own life.
I was writing about how oftentimes people in generational poverty don’t recognize they have a choice, a choice to not live that way. A choice. It’s true that there are a lot of things we can’t control in life, but we do have a choice about how we live, about our responses and attitudes.
Recognizing this, brings conviction to my heart. It brings a desire to be better, to live more fully. I know that on my own, I am selfish, I am a sinner. But I love Jesus because he loved me first. I know that the good in me, is from him. But oh how I need more of that good! And I think that I need to take more responsibility for my attitudes, for my life. I have a choice- having a Christ like attitude, living with joy, living graciously among others, I often think that these things should just overflow naturally out of the life of someone who is close to Jesus. But I wonder if that ideology is used by others and me to escape responsibility. You know if we spend enough time in the Word, we will magically live righteously.
I want to be filled with the presence of Jesus from spending time with him and learning from his word, that love overflows out of my life. But my desire to please him is so great, burning in my soul, that I just want to live that I praise you, my heart’s desire is to obey you. My desire to please my Jesus is enough that I need to make the choice to live with righteous character, speaking words of life, and living in love- even when it doesn’t come naturally. Too often my “natural” response to things is not one that would please Jesus.
I have a choice. I have a choice about the way that I live. I am responsible for today. I will be held accountable for the life I have been given. I need to chose, to determine, that I want to live in this manner….and then do it. Live with an attitude that pleases Jesus. I want to delight the heart of my king. No more of this living without passion, without intention, I need to EMBRACE every day. I am responsible for the relationships I have. I am responsible, no one else can live this life for me, no one can force me to make the right choices.
I am the only Lauren my brothers will ever have as a sister, I am the only Lauren my parents will have a daughter, I am the only Lauren Noah will have as his girlfriend. I am the only Lauren my friends will know, I am the only me. God created ME. I think I need to ponder that more often. God created me, I am here because he knit me together in my mother’s womb. This is my life. How am I going to live it? Everyone wants to live with no regrets you know, but how many people actually chose to live that way?
Blog 6- Life is Precious
Life is so precious, so beautiful. I want to bring beauty into the lives of others. I want to bestow graciousness and kindness. It really is tragic that we can go through day after day of mundane life forgetting what a treasure life is. Forgetting how we have been blessed. JESUS LOVES ME, how can the mysterious wonder of that become dulled and unrecognized in the way I live?
So often my heart wants to make life better for others, to ease the burden on their back, but I don’t act upon it. I want others to experience life and joy. I want my mom to smile and laugh, I want to make cookies and food for Noah’s friends and roommates to bless them, I want my dad to have a day filled with happiness. I want to bless Ben. But so often, I don’t do the things my heart is pulled towards doing, and I need to do them more often.
I have one life, I do not want to waste it away. I need to make the choice to see the beauty of people’s souls and uplift their spirits.
I can no longer wait until my tomorrows to live the way I want. To be who I want to be. To have the attitude I desire to have. To bless people by being a bearer of beauty. God has created me. He has created me a woman. He has appointed me to go forth and bear fruit. He has made me beautiful. And I desire to be beautiful in the way I am a fragrance in the lives of others.
Life is precious. Will I make the choice to see people not as recognizable faces on a mundane day but as souls? Will I chose to encourage the spirits of others? Will I chose to through my attitude represent Jesus Christ? Will I make the choice to not live in my “natural” but be transformed by the grace of God?
Works Cited
Works Cited
Slide 1. http://www.reach4success.com/images/EmptyWallet-thumb.jpg
Slide 2. http://crayzblonde.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/kid-watching-tv.jpg
Slide 3. http://www.nanoaction.org/images/photo/nano/warning_sign.jpg
Slide 4. http://www.matriclabs.com/nl/0805/doctor_kid.jpg
Slide 5. http://www.cleanliving.zoomshare.com/files/Mom_and_housework.jpg
Slide 6. http://boldt.us/6652-4/copy_cats
Slide 7. http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00295/Images/Emily_Gallery/Agressive.jpg
Slide 8. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2432/3613027533_28e3b6d005.jpg
Slide 9. http://z.hubpages.com/u/225054_f260.jpg
Slide 10. http://wfnx.com/blogs/bigjim/fat_kid_tv.jpg
Slide 11. http://www.thehumanist.org/images/Parents_with_kid.jpg
Slide 12. http://www.seprafilm.com/patients/surgery/~/media/Seprafilm/gms08001_patient_mother_baby%20img.ashx
Slide 13. http://continuinged.uml.edu/online/images/kids.jpg
Slide 15. http://zioneocon.blogspot.com/pal%20poster%20girl%20in%20chains.jpg
Slide 16. http://cdn.hellobeautiful.com/files/2009/06/baby-watching-tv-300×180.jpg
Source 17. Bayer, Rich. “Kids and TV.” 2003. Upper Bay Counseling and Support Services, Inc. 17 March 2010 <http://www.upperbay.org/articles/kids%20and%20tv.pdf>.
Source 18. Boyse, Kyla. “Television and Children.” November 2009. University of Michigan Health System. 10 March 2010 <http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/tv.htm>.
Source 19. Gavin, Mary. How TV Affects Your Child. October 2008.
Source 20. “Television’s Impact on Kids.” 2010. Media Awareness Network. 15 March 2010 <http://www.media- awareness.ca/english/parents/television/tv_impact_kids.cfm>.
Source 21. McCall, Jeffrey M. “TV’s Negative Influence on Kids Reaffirmed.” News Gazette (2008).
Source 22. Park, Alice. “Study: TV May Inhibit Babies’ Language Development.” Time Magazine (2009).
Blog 5- Paper Analysis
The paper entitled “University Education Should Not Be Universal” argues that the culture should not put such pressures on all students to go to college. The argumentative paper supports this statement by outlying the reasons students are drawn to go to college and the ways the current pressures on students are causing a lack of interest in education among college students.
I reverse outlined the paper and it begins with an introduction about how students often do not come to college to learn. The first main point is that students need to have a choice to attend college or not. The second main point is that most college freshmen come directly out of high school. The third main point contains the reasons that people go to college. These reasons include that many students feel that they are supposed to go to college after high school, that they are encouraged to go to college in order to make more money, and that the culture places enormous assumptions on high school students that they will be attending college. Next, another point is made that the culture’s assumption is unfair, unrealistic, and overwhelming to students. Finally, the author wraps it up with a conclusion.
The author uses ethos through his use of outside sources, specific statistics, and acknowledgement opposing viewpoints to his own. The author uses pathos by convicting the reader that their culture is forcing youth to do things that they do not want to do. The author uses logos by reasoning about reasons that college students do not seem as interested in their academics as you would think they should be. I would give the paper an “A” because the author thoroughly describes his idea and backs it up with specific reasons and facts.
Blog 4- Thoughts about Chapter 3
I thought several things were interesting about this chapter of text. I
am familiar with the canons of rhetoric being applied to text but had
never heard the canons applied to photographs until reading this chapter.
The statement on page sixty-eight the “reality that photographs display is
actually a version of reality created by a photographer’s rhetorical and
artistic decisions” was very striking to me. Written text and photographs
are both powerful means of communication that allow the author to inform,
persuade, and influence his or her audience towards a particular point of
view. I also found it interesting to read about the different ways one
can arrange their argument such as the chronological structure,
cause-effect, problem-solution, block structure, thematic structure, and
deferred thesis.
I’m hoping the pre-writing checklist at the end of this chapter will be as helpful in getting my thoughts flowing as the pre-writing checklist from the last chapter was. For the rhetorical analysis paper I wrote, I started by going through the pre-writing checklist and I hope this one can be utilized for the next paper we write for class!
I would like to know how you can be aware of the type of persona others
see you as. This would be enlightening in order to see if their view
contrasts or supports the persona you thought you were conveying. I also would like to learn more about the different rhetorical stances that lead to communication failure in writing or speaking such as the pedant or preacherly stance, the advertiser’s stance, and the entertainer’s stance.
Blog Three: Student Paper Description
This student paper examined an advertisement by The Body Shop and the showcasing of their “Ruby” doll. It began by setting the stage for the cultural relevance of the advertisement and introducing the ad’s purpose in the first paragraph. The next paragraph begins the body of the paper by describing the advertisement and the ethos that made the ad effective. Then, the writer moves into an analysis of the meaning of the written words on the ad and the logos behind them. In the next paragraph, the humorous appeal of the advertisement is discussed. After that, the pathos is analyzed. The paper is concluded by recapping the appeals and the purpose of the advertisement.
The writer explained the background and social context of the advertisement very well. I had never heard of The Body Shop or the Ruby doll but was still able to understand what she was discussing. Through her description of what the Ruby doll looked like, I was able to draw a visual picture of the image she was conveying. Through her ability to describe the topic and the background surrounding it, the author demonstrated ethos to me.
The author used logos in her paper by presenting the cultural “Barbie” standard of attractiveness that is conveyed through celebrities and the reality that the “Barbie” appearance is not normal for real women. She utilized specific statistics and quotes to back up her points such as “there are 3 billion women that don’t look like supermodels and only 8 that do.”
There is lots of pathos used in the paper simply by the ability of women everywhere to relate to the topic the writer is discussing. The writer’s discussion about the abnormally thin supermodel images that are displayed on magazine covers incites a feeling of frustration in the reader as they can relate to the harm this has had on their own self-esteem and the devastating affect it has had on the culture at large. The writer also used pathos through her use of descriptive words such as “absurdity” to describe that the abnormally thin women should define attractiveness and “torture” to describe the striving of women to reach the perfection ideal.
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