Imagery and Tone in Chapter 2 of Down These Mean Streets

The imagery of the cold presented in chapter 2 really caught my attention. The Thomas family lives in a broken-down apartment, comparable to the tenement Bigger Thomas and his family lived in in Native Son. Piri Thomas writes, "Momma picked up a hammer and began to beat the beat-up radiator that's copped a plea from so many beatings." (p. 9) The heat has gone out (again) in their apartment and Mama beats on the pipe to let the landlord know to fix the pipes. Soon, everyone in the whole apartment building starts doing the same. The reader can hear the beats and pings of the all the people in the building "playing their radiators" and although it seems like a party, it masks the poverty that led them to their play in the first place. When looking at this through the Marxist lens, the symbolism of the cold radiator represents heightens how impoverished the family really is. The tone of the quote is one of irony. Although the scene seems happy, why they are are beating on the radiator is not.

Invitation to honor CPAA's Student Poets

Dear Faculty and Students,

Please come and celebrate our Seniors who were published in the Oakland Citywide Poetry Anthology,Voices of the Future, by attending their book release event at the Bay Street Barnes & Noble on February 12th, from 1-3pm. We'll also be hanging out for pizza afterwards at CPK, if you're interested!

The students whose poetry appears in the anthology include:

• Taray Sanders
• Evelin Vargas
• Kassandra Hernandez
• Valeria Ambriz
• Edvin Pablo
• Jennifer Castillo
• Precious Watson
• Julio Cervantes-Flores
• Gene Dalusong
• Syrice Daure
• Alejandro Diaz
• Tyree Harris
• Karina Macias
• Erika Lopez-Navarro (also received Honorable Mention award)
• Sabina Torres

They all painted different pictures of their futures with their words. I'll make sure to pick up a few copies to share with staff and students, and if you see these poets in passing, please congratulate them!  

Ms. Paraiso

Process Journal 5: Reflecting as Writers

I have spent my last 6 months in grad school at Cal, and not one day in those 6 months has been easy. I feel like I've been going hard 25 hours a day, and even though I've never been one to cry easily, I've had some dark moments where I felt like I just wanted to give up on being a student. There have been times when I felt like I let my students down because my brain was too busy processing all of the other aspects of my life. Between working, going to school at night and on weekends, and being mom to three....I don't know. I never realized a person could feel torn apart like that.

Has it been worth all the drama and the stress???

Yes.

Looking back now, when I still have papers to turn in, even though classes are technically over for the semester, I can still say (with confidence) that I am glad I went through it. The whole process taught me how tough I can be, how much I needed the challenge, and it definitely taught me a whole lot about leadership.

On the flipside, I figured out areas where there is so much room to grow. I was really intimidated by all of the learning theory my program was throwing at me. On top of that were all of the observations I had to do to understand multiple models of teaching. Have I lost you yet?

What I'm saying is, understanding all of those theories was really hard work, and I was scared of it, to the point where I kept telling myself that I would get it eventually or learn about it over one of the long weekends. Basically, I kept giving myself excuses for not buckling down and taking charge of my own learning. I had no self-discipline, and it ended up getting me into a whole lot of trouble. I procrastinated on papers until they piled up to the point of impossibility. Now, I've spent every day in the last 2 weeks just playing catch up and kicking myself because I am finally getting some understanding about learning theory and it wasn't so bad to get there.

My biggest Aha(!) moment came when I was in the car this morning and realized that I put my students through the same thing. I ask them to understand and apply their knowledge of LITERARY THEORY and then expect them to do deep analysis and seminaring about their analysis. I can see why it's so difficult, and it took me going through it myself to understand where my own students are.

That being said, I also feel fortunate because I realized that much of the work I was able to accomplish this semester was because I've had to look at the world through the critical lenses my own students are working on now. It took over 10 years of doing so to make my interactions with the world that much more meaningful.

I know my students will get there as well.

I also know that I am getting closer and closer to understanding what has been so new for me--learning theory and models of teaching using those theories. See, I can say that now without my fingers shaking when I type the words.

The lesson learned here.....don't be afraid to learn new things.

Is this a Thesis?

I am proud of all of you for the thinking and stress that has gone in to creating a really strong thesis for your research. Please post your thesis to the blog so that other students and teachers can offer you feedback. Once you have posted your thesis, pick one of your fellow students and read their thesis. Then, offer CONSTRUCTIVE feedback based on what your understanding is of a quality thesis.
                               Post by the end of class.  

Due Dates

Some important reminders:

1. 11/16 (Tuesday):  Close Reading paragraphs for Book 1 of Native Son. Must be typed.
2. 11/17 (Wednesday): Process Journal 4 -- Thirty quotes covering all 6 sources WITH paraphrases underneath.
3. No new reading, questions, annotations for this weekend.
4. You CANNOT miss class on Thursday. I am explaining the Draft 1 process for your Senior Paper. You must also complete a district benchmark exam that will be factored into your English 4 grade.

Reading Questions for Final Pages of Book 1 in Native Son

In case you did not pick up the questions for homework this weekend, they are posted below. 

1. Why does Bigger see Mary with a "mingled feeling of helplessness, admiration, and hate"?
2. For what reasons is Bigger terrified of being discovered in Mary's room?
3. Briefly outline Bigger's plan to cover up Mary's murder.
4. Review the definition of parallelism. Find a passage in this section demonstrating Wright's use of this literary term.
5. Why does Bigger think he will have time in the morning to take the trunk to the train station?
6. Cite incidents from the story to support or refute the following statement: Bigger does not feel remorse for murdering Mary; he is concerned only about getting caught.
7. Why does Bigger take Mary's purse out of the car? What do you think this action says about Bigger's state of mind?

Quality responses are due by Monday, 11/8.

Virtual Socratic Seminar, Native Son pgs 44-80

When you post your response to different students slides, please include:

•  their name, 
• the page number, 
• a quality academic response 
• and YOUR NAME

Post before the end of class.

Assignment for Thursday, October 28th

Hi everyone, 
Here is your "To-Do" list for today. NOTE that you will have to submit your work to urbanilliterati@gmail.com by the end of class, so leave yourself about 5 minutes to be able to send that email.

1. If you have not done so already, submit your VOTE for the senior hoodies. Check your email to see what you're voting on. If you have already submitted, good for you! You've completed your 1st task!
2. Complete and submit Process Journal 3, your Working Bibliography. If you have already submitted, good for you. You've completed your 2nd task!
3. Begin working on Process Journal 4, which is to COLLECT NOTES from your sources and organize them into a word processing document. Do the following steps:
1. Open up a Word document where you will save all of the important quotes from all of your sources. Save this document as YourName_PJ4_2010-11.
2. Open up the first article you have listed on your Working Bibliography. (You should have sent ALL of the articles to yourself by email.) 
3. Number the articles so that you can match them to your notes.  
4. Begin reading the article. You are trying to find quotes that will help you answer your questions from Process Journal 2. 
5. When you find a quote that you feel is significant, copy and paste it into your open Word document.
6. Repeat this process until you have finished the article. 
7. Note: you will find that some of the articles are not helpful to your particular research. That is okay....that is why it is called REsearch. It just means that your search for worthwhile articles must continue.
4. At the end of class, submit the Word document to my email. In the email message, tell me how many of the sources you were able to go through from your Working Bibliography. Let me know how the process is going for collecting these notes. I EXPECT AN EMAIL FROM EVERYBODY.