15) Student Choice: 500 words or 5-minute video. You author content that includes a title, category, and a reflection about your experiences in this class. Consider specific assignments, specific readings/films, specific conversations, and/or specific processes that helped you learn and grow. On the scale of one to ten, I would give this English Composition I by Professor Mangini to ten. There are few reasons why. “College Level” English made me nervous and worry if I could catch up the course as English is my second language. At the first day of class, I was surprised because the classroom is full of computers unlike other traditional classes! We did not need any textbook for this course but instead he provided his own digital portfolio as a source for this course. He also allowed us to build our own digital portfolios for the entire semester. On the portfolio, we posted blogs as our informal assignments, designed our pages, and gave comments on each other blogs. I think it is really innovative approach to get more attention from the students. Moreover, every classes were meaningful, and we never got bored. This is because we were in the process of writing. At first two or three weeks, he gave multiple short texts about writing process to read while other classes got one thick book to read. From the multiple texts, we could see all the good writers made “shitty” drafts before finals. Thus, instead of handing in the assignment and getting the grades back, we reviewed more drafts which developed our writing process.
Once we got the flow of this course, we started working on life choice: making connection. Every week, we read a short story about life choice and discussed it in the class. After getting the knowledge from the assignments, we were asked to recall the time when we made major decisions and put them into our informal assignments. Finally, it came the time to write a formal assignment, “Life Choice Memoir”. Since we had already got the rhythm of writing process, it was not that difficult to do a formal assignment. Plus, he encouraged us to revise more drafts as we all knew that the more we revise our work, the better drafts we will get. Besides, we scheduled one to one conference to discuss about the assignments and give helpful comments for individuals. We also watched “Where to Invade Next" documentary, summarized the film, made short arguments, searched the relevant sources and coauthored the titles for the research paper. This approach changed my perspective on research paper. I thought writing a research paper is a scary dream. But since we had already got what we needed for the paper, all we had to do was following the guide line of how to write the thesis statement and research paper structure provided by our Professor Mangini. How convenience it was! All other teachers from the English classes I had taken before never gave the detailed explanation and lecture about the research paper. Furthermore, he also provided the game shows and gave the meaningful prizes like extending the due dates or eliminating some blog posts in the class. This was a wonderful part of this class. To conclude, this English Composition I by Professor Mangini gave the meaningful time and experiences that I can apply them in the future. Again, I would recommend all the students to take this class.
0 Comments
14) Student Choice: 500 words or 5-minute video. You author content that includes a title, category, and a reflection about your experiences in this class. Consider specific assignments, specific readings/films, specific conversations, and/or specific processes that helped you learn and grow. In this post, I am going to reflect the time when Professor Mangini explained how to write the thesis statement and structure for the research paper. It was the most precious time for me that solved all the mystery about research paper. Plus, it is also knowledgeable to share to other people.
Thesis statement is crucial for the research paper because it inform the brief introduction about our whole research paper. Thus, knowing how to write the research paper is the most important and hardest one to do so. At first, I was lost since from beginning when writing the research paper. Once I get this information, I became to realize what to do with the thesis statement. Professor Mangini said that like GPS (Global Positioning System) which inform the location or time anywhere on the Earth or near the Earth, TPS (Topic, Position, Support) define the thesis statement. When writing the thesis statement, our topic should say about our paper, position is what we want to say about the topic, and support is to show the evidence for our position. He also gave an example that universal health care should apply in America because it will save lives, save money and save our humanity. In that example, we can see the overall paper of the writer's topic: universal health care, position: should apply in America and support: how the writer will defend his position. For the research paper structure, there are three portions: Introduction, Body, Conclusion. Each portion should be linked to each other to result stronger argument. In this paragraph, I am going to summarize how he described to us. First of all, introduction should provide information about the background, content and exigent matter of the paper. The main purpose of the research paper is to make the argument and persuade the readers to our claim. It is key to grab the attention from the readers to convince our arguments. How can we get them? Putting quotes and opening Annerdote about the topic we are going to make in the paper can help to get the interest. Once we get the attention, we can bridge to our thesis statement. After that, we move to the body paragraph. The first step to start a body is writing the topic sentence. Topic sentence should include the focus point of the paragraph. Once we gained it, we can jump right into the claim our opinions. Whenever we make the claim, we have to prove with the evidences. Evidences came from our research. And then, reconnect back to the thesis to notice the whole of the paper. Finally, there are some ways to conclude. As a first step of the conclusion, we can review the content in the body or review the thesis or make full circle of the process. Subsequently, we can put "closing quotes" or "question and answer" or "prediction for the future", that is the end the paper. Indeed, writing a research paper is a scary dream before we know how to write it. I do really thank to our Professor Mangini for his lecture. In the future, for English Composition II or whatever classes, we can apply this knowledge in writing the research paper. 13) Student Choice: 500 words or 5-minute video. You author content that includes a title, category, and a reflection about your experiences in this class. Consider specific assignments, specific readings/films, specific conversations, and/or specific processes that helped you learn and grow. I wanted to forget the past moments of my life when I had the inconvenient situations. But, start from the third week of semester, we were asked to think about the time when I made an important choice to challenge the status quo or refuse to obey an authority figure after reading My Name is Margaret (Maya Angelou). It is about the black girl who is being oppressed by her racist boss. Hence, I had no choice to do so. I had to give so much time to find the time inside the brain system, recall the scattered memory and rearrange it into words. When I was in seventh grade, I got a new friend, smart little girl, transferred from another school. We used to hang out and study together. She was clever enough to get the first place in that seventh grade but mine was on average. One day, she bad-mouthed about me that I am a stupid mixed blood girl. At that time, I challenged her words and I thought I won. After breaking up the friendship with her, I became an unfriendly person and only made two or three friends because I couldn’t trust other people to talk about me and I was over worried that they would bad-mouthed me. But now, I realized I lost her and my friends.
Mark Twain said, “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” In the podcast, What You Don't Know (Lulu Wang), all the entire family lied to their grandma about her health, stage 4 lung cancer. They believed that her life was prolonged because she didn’t know the truth. After listening to that story, we were asked to write about the time I made an important choice to tell someone a difficult truth or lie. I found myself in the past, I told the truth to my parents about my relationship, but all I got was the blame. Thus, I decided not to tell the truth next time about my relationship. From the bitter to the sweet, there is something more that I can learn from that moment. When I become a parent in the future, I will never ever blame my children for telling the truth. In the Hills Like White Elephants (Ernest Hemingway), the girl got the dilemma whether keep the baby or take the abortion. Hemingway didn’t provide the final choice of the girl. The story made us think about the time to leave or stay. For me, there was a time I failed my junior year at university and lost my dream. Thus, I was in the situation to retry the stupid education system or leave to the better place. Now, I have been in America and restart my dream. I found out that the things we take from the failure can lead to later success. The last assignment about life-choice is to break away or follow the cultural tradition that we share with our family or friends. I believe not all the cultural traditions are right to follow. After going back to the painful moments that I wanted to forget, I now realized that I should not forget but instead, learn from them. This life-choice assignment not only encouraged me to take a look to the past and discover what I was wrong but also made me mature enough to correct what I did wrong. Here are the links to the life-choice blog posts. Life Choice: Is That My Tradition? Life Choice: Should I Stay or Should I Go? Life Choice: To Tell The Truth? Life Choice: The Powers That Be? 12) Research Paper Reflection [Categories: Research Paper, Where to Invade Next, Reflection]: Please complete the following:
The main purpose of this post is to reflect the writing process of my research paper, “Should American Educational System Should Follow Finland's Educational System?”. I believe that reflective writing can give some ideas that I can imply them to write better drafts.
Who did you work with to compose your research paper? Was this a good approach? In the class, we co-authored the topics for research paper adapted from the documentary, Where to Invade Next. Also, we were provided the session about how to find the appropriate references from the school's data base. After that, I chose the topic, “Should American Educational System Should Follow Finland's Educational System?”, organized the references about the topic and compose by myself. This was a good approach. What rhetorical mode and genre are you using? The rhetorical mode and genre are argumentation and MLA (Modern Language Association) research paper. When did you write this project? Good approach? Before writing this project, We were asked to write the annotated bibliography of the six sources for the research paper as a blog post. Then, I started writing, and I felt the rhythm of my writing quickly because I already prepared the sources for the paper from annotated bibliography post. Thus, this was a good approach. Where did you write this project? Good approach? I wrote this project mostly at home as I like my own room that I feel comfortable. However, when my roommate arrived, I feel distracted when writing. This was a good approach as long as my roommate was not in my room. Why did you choose to write about your chosen topic? Good choice? I chose the topic about education. This is because all the future generations depend on the education system. If the future leaders are spoiled by the education system, that country will not develop anymore. America should also be careful of its education as it is left behind by Finland. Thus, it should take some good ideas from Finland. I think it is a good choice because I believe my research paper will help somehow for America’s education system. How did it feel to write this argument ("during, after, and since")? Do you have any "if only" moments that can help you revise the draft? I didn’t know how to write thesis sentence, I was lost when I started writing. Now, I realized that my thesis sentence was incorrect. During writing, I was worried if I cited the words correctly or not. About the topic sentences of the body paragraphs, I didn’t add them in my paragraphs as I didn’t know that we have to. After the project, I noticed that I need to put more of my opinion for argumentation. How will you revise your argument? I will definitely need to revise the thesis statement, and add the topic sentences to each paragraph and correct some of the citation. I will also put more of my opinion for argumentation and reorganize the references. I came to think about a topic, Freedom to speak after reading 'Freedom From Fear' speech by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese politician, diplomat, and author and winner of Nobel Peace Prize. The summary of the speech is that calling on the lessons learned from previous non-violent movements, Freedom From Fear' pays tribute to the epic courage and monumental power of spirit in Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters around the world who have sacrificed their own lives, families, and freedoms in pursuit of democracy and human rights. I will tell about my opinions why freedom to speak is important to everyone in this post.
Every people is speaking about somethings. But are they telling the truth or are they hiding their speech? Sometimes they speak about their business, relationship and social environment. So, people have to concern about the freedom to speak as they always communicate in their society. What is the freedom to speak? Freedom to speak is the state of being free to speak without fear, insecurity and shy. Thus, when speaking, people are hiding their truth because of their fear, insecurity and shy. While we will throw away our fear, insecurity and shy, we could speak freely. First, fear is the most important thing to stop hiding their speech. Fear comes from the worry of something bad or unpleasant. Why do we fear when something bad will happen? May be people are afraid of losing their lives or may be afraid of losing their position. Either losing their lives or their position make them fear. The result is that people could not speak freely to express their thoughts. In “Freedom from Fear” novel, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said, “We live in interesting times. A climate of fear allows the corrupt and the cruel to continue with President U Nay Win’s ways of repression and oppression. Burmese need to take up our cudgels, rise up and break the chains of fear which bind us. Revolutionize our mind! Free the spirit!”. This speech was given to Burmese who were under controlled by the unfair government. But this speech is vital for all because fear allows us to stop telling the truth. For example, imagine that a child doesn’t want to study a lesson, but his parent beat him instead of explaining why studying a lesson is important for his life as he don’t want to do. Then, that child will only get fear instead of knowing why studying is important. As the result, that child will lie to his parents when he didn’t study. A little fear will start giving him as a liar. Imagine if the situation is changed as his parents don’t beat him and explain the importance of learning, that little child will understand and speak the truth without fear. Secondly, another situation why people couldn’t speak the truth is because of their insecurity. Imagine a person knows that he will lose his family or land when he tells the truth. In this situation, if we are in the place of that person, would we also tell the truth? Thus, insecurity of a person makes the failure to speak freely. So, everybody should have freedom to speak, write or express his thoughts or emotions fairly. Nowadays, human rights are appeared to solve the insecurity of people. Women from elder days were looked down as they are weak or they are not as important as men. When women were pressured, they became lack of confident and lost their faith. Their only duty is to give birth and to do housework. Why couldn’t women have same rights as men? Women did their housework while men were working. The main reason is that women felt the fear, lack of confident and loss of faith to speak up the truth. When women threw away their fear and insecurity, they fought for them to have the freedom to speech. Hillary Clinton, the first female candidate of the Democratic Party for President of the United States in the 2016 election, encouraged to all women that “Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all”. Now, it is time to raise the freedom to speak for all people including women. When women are able to speak freely, the result is that they can raise their children to speak the truth as mothers are the first teacher for all child. In conclusion, in order to speak freely, people should throw away their fear and insecurity and get their strong confident and faith because that things will knock us down and let us face the difficulties in our societies. For example, if a girl was raped but she was fear and worry that people in her society will look down as she was raped, she would not have spoken the truth that she was bullied. When all people have a fair chance to speak their thoughts, people will respect each other’s thought and situation and they have a chance to share their problems and stresses will be left from our mind. Together we strong when we speak the truth and divided we fall when we hide our truth and lie to each other. Week 11 11) Annotated Bibliography [Categories: Where to Invade Next, Research Paper]: Please complete the following:
Research Question : Should the American educational system follow Finland’s educational system? Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore, 2015 In the documentary Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore visited the Western countries to take the things the Americans need from them and bring them to United States of America and convince fellow Americans. Through his journey, we found out how America is different from the world. Among the facts he provided, he persuaded his viewers why America should follow Finaland’s educational system by interviewing the teachers, principals from Finland. He mentioned that kids in Finland are ahead from the rest of the world, which is why, they have more recess time that means they have more time to enjoy being kids, and to do other things. Finland has the shortest school days and years, but still their students are ahead. We got our research topic developed from this documentary. Thus why, this is the primary source for my research question. Effects of Stress on Brain Development, Better Brains for Babies, 2017, http://bbbgeorgia.org/stressEffects.php In that website, it showed how the stress interfere the brain development and physical growth. As cortisol (a stress hormone that is released to help our bodies deal with threats) is produced during stress response (the heightened state of arousal that our body goes through when it perceives a threat). It can damage the developing brain and negatively affect the immune system. Due to the standardized tests, students suffer the stress, which slower the brain development and physical growth. It can be useful when I prove the negative effects of standardized test. 10) Where to Invade Next? An Argument. [Categories: Where to Invade Next, Research Paper]: Please complete the following:
In this post, I am going to choose three topics from the documentary, Where to Invade Next to represent my arguments and create the research question for each question. To know more information about the documentary, please check the Summary of Where to Invade Next.
Topic: School Cafeteria in America. Research: Should America provide more nutritious and healthy food for its school? Argument: America should take care more about the nutrition and diet for the school cafeteria because students are important for its country. School cafeteria directly deals with not only the health of children but also the knowledge of how to eat to be healthy. Once they get practice from school cafeteria, they can maintain the good habit of eating. Topic: No homework education system Research: Should American schools give any homework and less school hours to its students? Argument: American schools should not give homework lower the school hours to its students. The reason is that they can enjoy their time as kids, children to their families not students for their school. Giving homework is like blocking the curiosity of children. If schools give so much homework, students have to spend their time doing them at home. They can’t go outside and play with other kids. They can’t discuss other things with their parents. The result is that their brains cannot develop as much as they can. Giving homework is like blocking the curiosity of children. Topic: Death Penalty Research Question: Should American continue the death penalty? Argument: I believe it is the right thing for the people who deserve. Everyone only get one life to live with their beloved ones. If someone is killed and died, he cannot be alive and enjoy his life anymore as he wanted. It is really unfair for the one who was killed if we release the killer who may be enjoying his life like nothing happened. Or, he may kill people again if he is released from his sentence. The surrounding people will not feel safe if they know the serial killers are still out there. We cannot take back our lives once they are gone. Thus, we should respect other person’s one and only life like we value ours. 9) Summary of Where to Invade Next [Category: Where to Invade Next, Summary]: Please complete the following:
In the documentary Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore visited the Western countries to take the things the Americans need from them and bring them to United States of America and convince fellow Americans. Through his journey, we found out how America is different from the world.
First, in Italy, employees got the paid eight-week holiday and the total thirteen-month salary for a year. However, in America, there are no paid vacation unless it is the wonderful job which gives two weeks. Not only they get the long vacations but also, they get two-hour break that they can go home and enjoy their meals. In America, employees get only half hour break and got no paid. Even with long vacations and extended lunchbreaks, Italy is one of the most productive countries in the world, and have four-year longer life expectancy than average American. The next country, French have the school cafeteria which provides the healthy meal to eat in town. Once a month, the school chef gets together with city officials and dietician to go over the daily menu. The reason why they care the school cafeteria is that they regard the lunchtime as a class, where the students can learn how to eat in a civilized manner, enjoy healthy food, and serve each other. French also supports free health care for its people and nearly free day care. They can afford to provide all of that because they must pay more taxes. In America, we pay less taxes than they do, but we spend a lot more money for the services they get from the government. Moreover, every high school teach the sex education to control teen pregnancy. On the other hand, since there is no sex education, teen pregnancy rate in America is twice more than French. The kids in Finland are ahead from the rest of the world, which is why, they have no homework that means they have more time to enjoy being kids, and to do other things. Finland has the shortest school days and years, but still their students are ahead. Their teaching depends on what their students want to be when they grow up. In America, we use the standardized test and eliminates the Arts and poetry because they are no longer useful enough. Slovenia, one of the country which provides free education. College students are free from debt because of free college and university for anyone. American students have to pay tuition fees, lab fees, none residency fees and so on. Michael Moore mentioned that all colleges should be free to anyone. In Germany, it is against the law for employers to contact the employees while they are on vacation or after work. When work time is over, work is done. They also take the responsibility what they did in the past by teaching the young what their predecessors did and installing the ‘Jews Forbidden’ sign from 1930s. Until 2015, US never had a museum of slavery, hiding our sins. The police don’t arrest people for using drugs anymore started from last fifteen years in Portugal. Plus, regardless of the color of people, every prisoners or drug users can vote. In America, no people with criminal record can vote anymore. Also in Norway, their prisoners can vote during their sentences. The prison system follows the idea that the former American founding father put in the constitution, ‘No cruel or unusual punishment.’ In contrast, US is not following that way. Norway has no dead penalty and the longest possible prison sentence is only 21 years. Even with that system, Norway have one of the lowest murder rate in the world. Indeed, the women right started from America, until now, we still don’t get it yet. However, in Tunisia and Iceland, they already got the same chance with men. Government provides free women’s health clinic and abortion in Tunisia. Iceland didn’t bail out their banks but instead prosecuted the bankers and turned much of the financial decision-making over the women. In that way, their economy has recovered. Finally, Michael Moore discovered the wonderful ideas, the other countries using, are truly the American dream. However, it seemed to be alive and everywhere but America. It is never too late to start our dream! 7) Life-Choice Memoir Reflection [Categories: Life Choice, Memoir, Reflection]: Please complete the following:
In this week 7, we were asked to write a narrative about a time when we made a high-stakes life choice as a formal assignment. After writing first draft of life-choice memoir, we had to watch the video of the Reflective Writing, and then write the life-choice memoir reflection for further drafts.
6) Life Choice: Is This My Tradition? [Categories: Life Choice, Making Connections]: Please complete the following:
At this time, I am going to interpret the American tradition that is similar with the lottery tradition in the village from "The Lottery (Shirley Jackson)". Before talking about the American tradition, I would summarize the story first. Every year, a person was selected to stone till death by the rest in the story, which they called 'The Lottery' tradition. The people from the village later seemed to doubt if their tradition is right or wrong, continue or not. As i have been here only nine months, I honestly don't really know that much of the American traditions. When i google and research a little bit, I found an American tradition that is similar to the lottery tradition, and should be concerned. America is one of the developed countries, and also stands for wealth, technology and military. However, when it comes to health, more than two third of Americans struggle with obesity, caused mainly by the food they consume from the mass production. The American food system are largely made up by the mass production which leads to health concerns and environmental impact. The origin of this system started from packaged food cuisine after World War 2 for the military. Even though the mass production solves the problem of hunger, Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) may harm our health in long-term consumption. As the food get cheaper, people consume more than they can getting obsessed. Plus, when they can't finish all, or use, there goes the waste for the earth. Moreover, animals are treated cruelly and inhumanly on the mass produced farms. You can check the attached video how chicks are treated for the mass production. Also, raising animals cost a lot of water, land and lead to pollution. Not only the mass production impact the health of the human but also animals and the earth. However, the mass production of food solve the problem for the hunger. For the undernourished people, we should find out an another good way or control the mass production as much as we can. I understand that the mass production of food is like an tradition now, but they should think carefully for the long term situations rather than the cheap price. For more information about the mass production, please go to the links attached. Today was the full moon eve of October, the sky was clean, the stars twinkled and the moon seemed almost about a perfect circle. I saw it while i was sitting to my study table. On the opposite of the room was another table for my elder sister, was busy with her new mp4. My eldest sister ,lying at our bed, was watching her Korea drama. 'What a beautiful art! mom', I said. 'Yeah, tomorrow is the full moon day of Thadingyut (October)' 'Do you know why we call Buddha Day?' 'Nope, mama.' 'We will go to the temple and take the sabbath. You all must join with me.' 'Why, mama? Can we just stay at home.? 'I will not cook anything at home. We will be eating there. Come on, you enjoyed the dishes from there last time.' 'Yeah, yeah. But I don't want to wear Htamein(traditional costume for the female). In our country, every fullmoon day is the sabbath day for our religion. and we use to wear long gyi, about 2 meter long when they go to the temple or pray. I only wanted to wear skirts or pants which make me feel comfortable to move around. Imagine the weather is so hot and wearing htamein make me so tired. 'Long gyi are so hot and i don't know how to wear them properly. They make me feel tight.' 'Hmm, only one day, can't you bear it? 'Please mama, i can't.' 'Then,as you wish. But wear only long pants. I don't want to see you with skirts or shorts.' 'Yes, mama.' The next day, I wore the long pant and t-shirt. We four left the house and head to the nearest temple from our house. At the gate of the temple, we took off the shoes and held in our hands. Some young men with white shirt and Paso (traditional costume for men) helped the elder people to walk into the prayer's room. My mother was greeting to her friends, neighbors and elders. 'Come here, daughter.' said mom. 'Oh, you are now an adolescence.' said one of the people that mom knows. 'Look ,she doesn't look like a child anymore, a grown up women.', another woman said. 'By the way, why don't you wear htamein? the person on my left said. 'They are uncomfortable for me. I don't like them.' i said. 'Wait, you are a women, you should wear our traditional clothes.'one of the people said. 'You know, it is unsuitable for our tradition, especially sabbath day.' I wonder why they surprisingly care that tradition so much that make them feel tight, hot and uncomfortable. 'Don't you feel hot then?'i said. 'Well, we are used to it. You will be use to it soon. Don't worry.' mom said.' 'You know, some temple are not allowed to enter without wearing htamein. if you don't wear, you cannot go.' Why don't they allow?' 'Well, easy, this is our tradition.' 'Seriously? i won't go to there then.' 'What a rude girl.' said mom. At that day, i couldn't stop thinking about that tradition. What is wrong with pants, skirts since they don't accept if we wear them?I found no suitable answer for that question. I decided that i will not go to the temple if they don't accept how i wear my clothes. |
Zun Phyu ThantOn this blog, I will explore concepts in my English class and the world. Archives
December 2017
Categories
All
|