Yesterday we practiced using annotation as a way of engaging in "active reading," and as a way of generating ideas for a paper. Today you used the same method on your own writing--the stories you wrote about your own experiences of learning about race, which will be one of the two core texts for your essay. The worksheet asked you to find two or three words, phrases, images or ideas in your story that struck you as especially central or significant, write them in the first column, then comment on them in the second column. Some writing teachers call this the "dialectical notebook." You don't need any special form for it, just a piece of paper with a line drawn down the middle, so that you can put quotes on one side and annotations on the other. If you're working with a longer piece, the more quotations you annotate, the more connections you will start to see, both in the text and in your thinking about it.
This method of annotation is useful not only as a way of reading and thinking about a text; it is also great way to get started on a first draft. After you've identified at least three key images, phrases, or ideas, follow up with some writing that leads you towards the next level of synthesis. Some possible questions: What do the phrases, images, or ideas you chose have in common? What theme runs through what you have written? You can do this exercise with both your story and the reading that you've chosen.
The next stage, which we began at the end of the lab, is to put the two texts (story and reading) into dialogue with one another. The second worksheet asked you to choose two of your key words or phrase, or short quotation, and then to find a short quotation from one of the readings that seems to you to "speak" to them--through a common theme, or a point that's somewhat different from yours but still related in some way, or a shared key term (which may mean something different to you, in terms of your experience, than it did for the author of the reading). Use the middle space to explore your ideas about the connections between your writing on the topic (how kids learn about race) and the other author's. Use the other author's writing to expand your own ideas, or to react to something he/she said.
You can use these writings as notes when writing the first draft of your essay.
Great work today! Please post your stories on the Blog so we can all read them...
Emmett Till
Murdered at 14 years old in Money, Mississippi. The spectacle surrounding Till's murder was one of the precipitating events leading to the Civil Rights Movement.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
revisied Brinstorm
another topic i am considering writing about is how people through out history not only whites have fed African American children with the idea that something is wrong with being African American. in the children's study where the children were asked which doll was the nicest or which doll was the best the majority of the children answered that the white doll was best. I have always wondered why is that? As an African American child growing up around most African Americans there was constant talk of how being of a lighter skin color ,even though you are still African American, is better how its harder to get ahead if your a darker complexion than other blacks in the world , and although it was never directly stated to me it was always an understanding that being a light skin African American or being white enables you to do more, or is the better race . Just like in both excepts by Grainier and Wright the young children are faced with or subconsciously taught that the white race is superior. Even until this day other people are telling us our insecurities and i still struggle with fully being proud of the color of my skin.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Brainstrom
ok umm im not really sure exactly what my final topic is going to be but it may be how in my own life i havent experienced the side of school that isnt diversed but how i witness it everyday. I live near a school that has been broken up into 5 different schools. The reading rates are extremely low and it has everything to do with the lack of money.
essay
In my essay I planning to write about my own personal experience in school, the progress that I believe has been made in the last 5o years and the improvements that i feel need to be made. I also want to write about how even though there isn't legal segregration, in NY you can see the difference in schools and the education which people recieve. There are some sudents that recieve a much better education then other just because of where they live, there are kids who are confined to a certain school. As a student in public school i know that there is a lot more then can be done. In the essay i also want to mention how sometimes kids don't realize what is wrong in the education which they are recieving, because even though they might be doing well in the situation that they are in there is more that they are capable of doing. In Uncle Tom's cabin and The sky is Gray we see how our society and the people around us affect us, I belive that my environment and the people who I have met have had an influnce on me.
Lessons mother teach their children through hardcore diciplines
" Then I catch her kind of looking where i'm at. i smile at her a little bit. But think she'll smile back?"(pg. 91) - "The sky is Gray"
When I read this quote I compared my parental relation with his in a strange way. In this quote his mother reaction to his gesture of love and sympaty was very cold and sometimes my mom is very cold with me. Mothers love their kids but they have a diferent way of expressing that love. As I grew up surrounded by my grandmother who spoiled me alot and my mom who was very young and with poor experience in the filed of motherhood. With my grandmother I experience the sweet part of life and how to be caring and sensitive. However, as James mother my mother also at some random moment in life had a radical change in her life. Transitions are part of life and my mother and my father separated in a moment my mom was not pepare o take responsibility for me and herself. As James father was taking away to go and serve for the army his mother had to step out and be the man and the mother. My mother did too. As she was rasing me she also was growing and it was mutal fight for survival. She was not the loving mother I would have liked to have. Nevertheless, she was the young mother who without any experience in life was looking forward to enhance me with the best education as posible. When I read how James tryed to be a man and not complain and understand his mother I realized in a strange way I have done that myself. I did all I could to be the perfect daughter because that would be a problem less for my mother. My mom was very straight and always made me get rid of my fears and at that moment in time I could not understand why she was doing that but now I see it was to prepare me to survive in a world of darkness and fight for my goals. She made do my own things but now I know it was so I could be independent. As I was reading this I was atonished to discover my mother has just being preparing me so when is time for me to go out to the world.
When I read this quote I compared my parental relation with his in a strange way. In this quote his mother reaction to his gesture of love and sympaty was very cold and sometimes my mom is very cold with me. Mothers love their kids but they have a diferent way of expressing that love. As I grew up surrounded by my grandmother who spoiled me alot and my mom who was very young and with poor experience in the filed of motherhood. With my grandmother I experience the sweet part of life and how to be caring and sensitive. However, as James mother my mother also at some random moment in life had a radical change in her life. Transitions are part of life and my mother and my father separated in a moment my mom was not pepare o take responsibility for me and herself. As James father was taking away to go and serve for the army his mother had to step out and be the man and the mother. My mother did too. As she was rasing me she also was growing and it was mutal fight for survival. She was not the loving mother I would have liked to have. Nevertheless, she was the young mother who without any experience in life was looking forward to enhance me with the best education as posible. When I read how James tryed to be a man and not complain and understand his mother I realized in a strange way I have done that myself. I did all I could to be the perfect daughter because that would be a problem less for my mother. My mom was very straight and always made me get rid of my fears and at that moment in time I could not understand why she was doing that but now I see it was to prepare me to survive in a world of darkness and fight for my goals. She made do my own things but now I know it was so I could be independent. As I was reading this I was atonished to discover my mother has just being preparing me so when is time for me to go out to the world.
Essay Brainstorm
To elaborate on my previous statement, I think can relate to the topic by comparing how life for colored youth has drastically changed from then to now. Education has changed today but yet some aspects still remain the same. White education today has a higher quality than that of minority schools. I can compare my experience to that of other kids and their high school experiences.
EZ's Storm in the Brain
I would like to write an essay that could put the characters in a hypothetical world. And compare or contrast the different actions Richard would take. Instead of listening to what the white people said he should do, he would do what he thought was the right and fair thing. This would also show that Richard would not become spoiled and steal and lie. Instead we would see the honest and kind person he could have becoe if he was treated like a human being and not an animal.
wannabe essay topic
i would feel comfertable writting about the strategy used in the days of jim crow and displaying the difference between the survival tactics and the steps taken toward change. i could use the mind set of teens and students today and our environment and how that effects us in comparison to the surroundings of richard and the boy who suggested that the grass was green.
Prompt for tonight's postings
Hey guys,
Hope that you had a good first day at Vassar! I was quite impressed by our discussions, and I look forward to more as the week goes on. For tonight, you should read pgs 61-96 of the Civil Rights Reader. As I said earlier, you all will be writing a short (2 pgs.) essay connecting the Gaines, Wright, and Civil Rights Reader pieces to your personal experiences. Each of the readings addresses the question, "how do children learn about race?" We would like you to address that question for the Jim Crow era of Gaines, Wright, and other children mentioned in the readings on Brown, and for you in the late 20th/early 21st century. Show how you identify (or not) with the characters from the readings, and in what ways you feel racial education has changed for children now, over 50 years after the Brown decision. You may also integrate the recent Supreme Court decision in your essay, if you want.
Tonight's posting should be a brief brainstorm of your ideas for the essay. You don't have to write much, but I think that thinking "out loud" on the blog will help you formulate ideas and relate concepts you want to address in the essay. Please make your posting before writing lab tomorrow. We will go over them tomorrow.
Thanks guys! Great work today:)
Hope that you had a good first day at Vassar! I was quite impressed by our discussions, and I look forward to more as the week goes on. For tonight, you should read pgs 61-96 of the Civil Rights Reader. As I said earlier, you all will be writing a short (2 pgs.) essay connecting the Gaines, Wright, and Civil Rights Reader pieces to your personal experiences. Each of the readings addresses the question, "how do children learn about race?" We would like you to address that question for the Jim Crow era of Gaines, Wright, and other children mentioned in the readings on Brown, and for you in the late 20th/early 21st century. Show how you identify (or not) with the characters from the readings, and in what ways you feel racial education has changed for children now, over 50 years after the Brown decision. You may also integrate the recent Supreme Court decision in your essay, if you want.
Tonight's posting should be a brief brainstorm of your ideas for the essay. You don't have to write much, but I think that thinking "out loud" on the blog will help you formulate ideas and relate concepts you want to address in the essay. Please make your posting before writing lab tomorrow. We will go over them tomorrow.
Thanks guys! Great work today:)
Reflection on Today's Writing Lab
Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to review what we did today in Writing Lab. We were exploring the idea of writing as a conversation--with texts (or whatever you're writing about), with others, and perhaps most importantly, with yourself. In getting your ideas out on paper, you are externalizing the internal conversation you had with the text when you were reading, and you begin to hear your own responses more clearly as you put them into words. Later, when others join the conversation (either in a class discussion, or when you engage with others' ideas in a paper), you respond to their comments and your thinking evolves.
The exercise we did on the Blog was in three parts. First, you chose a quotation that provoked a powerful response in you; you posted that quotation, along with a brief comment explaining why you chose it, and what it meant to you. In the second phase, you left that conversation temporarily to read what others had posted about their quotations, and you responded with a comment of your own. In the third phase, you went back to your original posting and reflected on it by explaining how your ideas developed in response to one or more of the comments.
The 3-part process in this exercise is a model of the 3-part process that you use whenever your are writing an essay in college. First comes "brainstorming"--finding a topic you want to explore (many of you used them as the titles of your first posts), finding texts that relate to that topic, exploring your first thoughts, but without necessarily knowing where you want to go with them. Then comes "drafting"--your first attempt at formulating a statement, developing an argument. The drafting process often involves what you were doing in the second phase of the exercise, too, that is, putting your ideas into a larger conversation (with other texts, and/or other writers). Finally comes "revision"--the moment when you go back to what you wrote at first, with a clearer understanding of what you really want to say, and rewrite with an imaginary reader in mind--a reader you want to engage, excite, convince.
My hope is that thinking of writing as process and as conversation will help free you from the fear that sometimes sets in when you face a writing assignment, such as a paper--the fear that whatever comes out of you onto the screen has to be "it," the full-fledged argument, the final word, and that some invisible Teacher-Reader is hiding inside your head, overhearing everything, poised to jump in and correct you. The more you get used to approaching writing as your own process, the more you'll be able to shut out those negative voices, and the better you'll be able to hear your own.
I'd be really grateful to get YOUR feedback on this writing lab: was the approach new to you in any way? what did you like best about it? what might have worked better for you? do you have any concerns or questions about writing that you'd like us to work on this week? You can post your comments on the Blog, or if you'd prefer to write just to me, my email address is dunn@vassar.edu.
Thanks, Leslie
I just wanted to review what we did today in Writing Lab. We were exploring the idea of writing as a conversation--with texts (or whatever you're writing about), with others, and perhaps most importantly, with yourself. In getting your ideas out on paper, you are externalizing the internal conversation you had with the text when you were reading, and you begin to hear your own responses more clearly as you put them into words. Later, when others join the conversation (either in a class discussion, or when you engage with others' ideas in a paper), you respond to their comments and your thinking evolves.
The exercise we did on the Blog was in three parts. First, you chose a quotation that provoked a powerful response in you; you posted that quotation, along with a brief comment explaining why you chose it, and what it meant to you. In the second phase, you left that conversation temporarily to read what others had posted about their quotations, and you responded with a comment of your own. In the third phase, you went back to your original posting and reflected on it by explaining how your ideas developed in response to one or more of the comments.
The 3-part process in this exercise is a model of the 3-part process that you use whenever your are writing an essay in college. First comes "brainstorming"--finding a topic you want to explore (many of you used them as the titles of your first posts), finding texts that relate to that topic, exploring your first thoughts, but without necessarily knowing where you want to go with them. Then comes "drafting"--your first attempt at formulating a statement, developing an argument. The drafting process often involves what you were doing in the second phase of the exercise, too, that is, putting your ideas into a larger conversation (with other texts, and/or other writers). Finally comes "revision"--the moment when you go back to what you wrote at first, with a clearer understanding of what you really want to say, and rewrite with an imaginary reader in mind--a reader you want to engage, excite, convince.
My hope is that thinking of writing as process and as conversation will help free you from the fear that sometimes sets in when you face a writing assignment, such as a paper--the fear that whatever comes out of you onto the screen has to be "it," the full-fledged argument, the final word, and that some invisible Teacher-Reader is hiding inside your head, overhearing everything, poised to jump in and correct you. The more you get used to approaching writing as your own process, the more you'll be able to shut out those negative voices, and the better you'll be able to hear your own.
I'd be really grateful to get YOUR feedback on this writing lab: was the approach new to you in any way? what did you like best about it? what might have worked better for you? do you have any concerns or questions about writing that you'd like us to work on this week? You can post your comments on the Blog, or if you'd prefer to write just to me, my email address is dunn@vassar.edu.
Thanks, Leslie
Response to Yudany
After reading Yudany's post, I realized that in the several times I've read the Gaines' piece, I never once thought about the boy's upbringing, who is parents were, and how they feel about their son's choice to have faith in his mind over his heart and over God. Since this boy seems to be well-educated, I wonder about his socioeconomic background, and whether or not his parents are also well-educated. All of these things contribute to a particular kind of freedom a person feels that they possess... perhaps his parents were more open with him, allowed him or encouraged him to rely more on his mind/logic than matters of the spirit. Or maybe he was a complete rebel. It's difficult to tell, but I do think that it is very important to think about the influences of each individual's background on his/her ways of thinking. Background is by no means the determining factor in how one thinks, but sometimes its influence can be profound.
reaction
as one person said that really made me think is that we should greatful that today we have more freedom compared to back then because there were certain rule they had to obey. Today we can go outside, laugh, and hang out with other colored people including white because certain white people were treated just like black because they were for black rights.
REFLECTION ON: where is the pain being felt?
i agree with the comments that the main problem that richard is having is understanding that his actions will always put him in a position where he will have to be punished one way or another and he must be able to see the REAL war and that it goes much further and is much deeper than simply throwing cyinders at white kids.
What came to mind after reading the comments
I have to say the power of the mind is rich n powerful. " Think with the head not the heart or the other way around." Yes people do forget to about the mind and emphize alot in the heart as well as untained said there has to be a lil of happiness. In deed, there have got to be a balance. But I insist that we should be more aware of the power of our mind. Is the mind the one that have feelings b/c is with it that one think about those emotions. Is our brain the one that control the hormones that cause different feeling not the heart. Is the mind that knows who is fear and anger as well as sadness and happiness. Heart is just an organ wich with imagination and fiction has become a personification given life by humans .
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