What Elbow Thinks!

I want to talk more about Peter Elbow's writing "Coming to Know Myself as a Vernacular Intelect" and how I understood it.  When reading Elbow's writing I thought about so many events over the years that have potentially shaped or changed my experience as a writer and a student.  Elbow repeatedly calls attention to the teacher student relationship and how he views it.  Elbow says that teachers have an unfair control over their students creativity.  Teachers have the chance to tell a student if their work is right, or wrong which is solely based on the teachers discretion.  This is unfair seeing as though your teacher changes frequently.

 

Here is my daybook entry where I talk more about what interests me in Elbow's writing.  I have always thought that teachers control way to much of what students feel is right or wrong, and it's nice to know I'm not alone!

Myspace, Facebook, Twitter!

I've had these thoughts and mixed feelings about social networks on my mind for about a week now.  I've heard so many different points of view about whether or not social networks are good for you, or bad for you.  On the good side it is said that social networks help teens to build, perform, articulate, and develop friendships.  This is said to be what social networks provide for young adults.  I believe this is what they were created to do, but they fail.  In my opinion social networks are completely unnecessary.  I believe they tarnish children's self esteem and promote a need to be liked or accepted.

 

Popularity!  The image shows a picture from my daybook of notes I took while reading about social networks.  The word that stood out to me was popularity!  Social networks create the need for kids to feel and be popular.  They create a false image of what's cool and what's not.  Personally, I believe social networks impact a child's social development negatively by creating false images of what acceptable, and teaching kids how to be someone they're not, thus leading to low self esteem.  What do y'all think?!

Are they ALL beneficial?!

Okay, I really want to talk more on the subject of the "games" we all brought into class to share.  I was really fascinated by the variety of games people brought.  I saw everything from simple word games to games that required creative experience.  This was interesting because we all saw them to be beneficial to learning no matter how simple or complex they were.  By reading Gee's passage we automatically think now that every single video game ever created is beneficial to our learning.  However, I don't believe that this is the case.  Although, I do agree with Gee in him saying that GOOD video games can yield GOOD learning.  There is still a such thing as a bad video game, or one that does not help our growth and developement, or does not challenge our problem solving or thinking skills.

For example, I do not believe this video game challenges anyone who is able to play it in any beneficial way.

http://www.agame.com/game/bubble-shooter.html

This games only tests your ability to aim the arrow in the perfect direction, and at the perfect angle to eliminate the bubbles.  What kind of development can you gain from this?  Seriously......  What videos games are truly good learning tools, and which ones are just simply pointless?

Good Video Games, Good Learning.

I want to talk more here about the "Good Video Games,  Good Learning" passage.  This passage really interested my because it focused a lot on the connections between a good, "educational" video game, and actual growth and development of a child.  James Paul Gee gives us a list of insightful things that a good video game can provide to a child.  This words on this list are all collectively critical in the social development of a child.  This passage interested me because it tells us that these traits don't only have to acquired formally, but they can be learned from a video game.  This wold almost certainly cause kids to play more video games, but also help them to grow and develop.

My Wobbliness!

In this English 1101 class I would say that I have had my share of wobble periods.  I have tried new attitudes, new ways, and new points for writing.  A lot have failed, although a lot have also worked!  I came into this class without a clear understanding of what I would be doing.  However, I came out with a completely new outlook.  I have learned many new styles of writing, and ways to write about life.  One very important thing that I have learned is that everything with writing is not always black or white, there can definitely be grey areas!  Wobbling in this class, or not having a solid understanding, has really made my writing what it is.  By wobbling I have learned how to pick myself up, pick my work up, dust myself off, and keep on trucking!  I have learned how to take and receive criticism, and also learn and improve from it.  All in all I would say that my wobbling in this English 1101 class was necessary for me to be able to get a better grasp of the different writing concepts, attitudes, and techniques.  I have learned a great deal in this class that I plan to use for the rest of my college years, and for a lifetime.  I will keep moving forward as a novice writer, and better myself day by day.

Ethnography Project Final Blog Post

Our ethnography project came together well, even though it did not start off as easily.  Starting my ethnography project and trying to find something to write about was not a simple task.  I had the building that I planned on talking about, but I just had no way of relating it to literacy underlife.  After our group came upon the topic of architecture everything seemed to fall into place from there. 

 

 

In this picture you can see my original connection between architecture and literacy.  I used Robinson Hall very heavily to emphasize my point.  However, my focus on Robinson Hall in specific did not last all too long.  I then began to expand my focus points while working with my group.

Revising my work however was a completely different story.  After doing my literacy narrative, revising was not as bad, simply because I now know exactly what it was.  The hardest part in revising my ethnography project would be from broadening my points from Robinson Hall specifically, to all academic buildings on campus.  I think this was a special kind of revision because it didn't focus on actual writing, but rather on changing my work to fit my groups progression, but revision nonetheless.

Working in a group seemed to flow a lot smoother for this project than just about any other project that I have worked on.  My group seemed to pretty much just understand everything that needed to be done.  We never really had any problems with not completing any assignments involved in completing our ethnography project.  I know we aren't supposed to say that everything was peachy clean, but when it comes to working in this group, honestly it was!

However, creating an untraditional piece was not easy at all.  It's so hard to kind of go against everything that we've been taught going through school.  I also think this ethnography project was necessary because it helped us to see that our writings and meanings are created by us.  We're so used to doing things by the book that we forget to add our own creativity and letting it shine through in our writing.

Overall, I think the ethnography project was important for our growth in writing.  It helped us to see that we can't always look for basic meanings that are given to us, but we have to create our own.  I think that is exactly what we needed to learn in our freshmen year of college for many of us.

This picture is my portion of our ethnography project in writing.

Literacy Narrative Final Blog Post

Wheeewwww! Where do I begin?!  Writing this literacy narrative has not been a walk in the park.  I have struggled with about everything under the sun when it comes to writing this paper.  First, I couldn't find a topic, then I struggled with making it interesting,  and I also didn't understand what to write.  However, once I discovered my topic I pretty much just plowed my paper out from there.  I wrote my entire literacy narrative in literally about 3 days, and that was the problem.  I never really stopped to think about the actual assignment, but rather just getting it done!  When I figured out what to write, my essay started off like this......

 

However, after reading and analyzing the start of my first draft I realized that it was not what I wanted to write about,  or even read for that matter.  So it was back to the starting blocks.  My final draft is still based on the same topic as my first draft, but I go about telling the story in a completely different way.

 

Revising my work on the other hand was along the same lines of picking a topic!  I didn't completely understand how to do it.  Coming into this literacy narrative I had revising and editing totally confused.  I mistook one for the other.

 

 

 

This picture shows how I tried to switch writing styles on October 4th.  I tried writing with the "Lydia Davis" style of writing.  I tried incorporating short, choppy sentences, and questions to get my point across.  As you can see, I wasn't the best at it!  Editing and peer editing was pretty easy and successful for me.  I believe I gave a lot of interesting points and suggestions.  I also received just as many helpful points and tips.  When editing my work I had a few goals that I wanted to get accomplished, these were:

• Completely understand my writing, and which direction I'm taking it.
• Try different styles of writing.
• Work on better intros and conclusions, and ways to experiment with my writing.

I would say that I accomplished these 3 goals.  The only one that I feel like I could have had a better handle on was the first one.  I feel like I could have gotten a better understanding of my writing then I have now, but that's my personal opinion.

 

Overall I would say this literacy narrative assignment was extremely helpful.  It wasn't just a normal essay that I was just trying to get over with.  It actually required some thought and input from others on how to make it my own writing and not just some boring, factual essay.  While writing this essay  I learned the true difference between revision and editing.  I also learned how to play with my writing, and not use the basic style for an essay, but switch it up and make it interesting.  My final conclusion from this literacy narrative is more of a opinionated one, but still important nonetheless.  I have learned that writing an essay does not have to be a template or pre-designed event.  Writing an essay can and should be a reflection of your feelings, emotions, and experiences!