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.

Vocabulary for Book 1 of Native Son

Here are the vocabulary words for the 1st section of Native Son. You will have a quiz on them after we finished reading Book 1. 

• galvanized
• gingerly
• plumage
• surly
• translucent
• nostalgic
• succumb
• vestibule

Annotation Log Native Son

I will keep an ongoing list of the Annotation Log quotes, page numbers, focus, date assigned & date due......just to help keep us all organized. It will be sorted by most recent log entry assigned. I will do my best to be able to post to it daily.


Annotation Log 1 [pgs 7-12]
Assigned: 10/18 (2nd, 3rd) and 10/19 (6th)
Collected: 10/22
** do a multi-lens annotation for each of the quotes below; follow model from class
Quote 1: "Abruptly, they all paused...eyes strayed apprehensively over the floor." (pg. 8) 
Quote 2: "The rat's belly pulsed with fear. Bigger advanced . . . tiny forefeet pawing the air restlessly." (pg. 9)
Quote 3: 'Buddy opened out a newspaper . . . "why I birthed you," she said bitterly.' (11)


Annotation Log 2 [pgs 13-24)
Assigned: 10/22
Collected: 10/23
** complete an annotation for each of the quotes given the focus assigned
Quote 1 [Postcolonial]: 'He looked at the poster . . . "YOU CAN'T WIN."' (pg. 16)
Quote 2 [Marxist]: 'He opened the door and met the morning . . ."I'm always broke!" he mumbled.' (pg. 17)
Quote 3 [Feminist]: "Bigger took out his pack and . . . she disappeared into a doorway." (pgs. 18-19)
Quote 4: [Imagery]: "They laughed again, reclining . . . squarely at this problem." (pgs. 20-21)


Annotation Log 3 [pgs 24-44)
Assigned: 10/25
Collected: 10/27 (needed for Socratic seminar)
Quotes TBD

HW Reading Questions for Native Son pgs 24-44

1. Bigger persuades G.H. and Jack to agree to rob Blum. Bigger needs Gus to agree, too. Why then does Bigger feel a "hot hate and fear" toward Gus?
2. Why does Bigger feel excited about his new job after watching the newsreel?
3. Wright portrays the media as contributing to the racial stereotyping of blacks, Find an example of this kind of racism in this section. What evidence is there that the media may also be stereotyping whites?
4. Why do you think Bigger picks a fight with Gus?
5. What does the following passage tell the reader about how Bigger will probably react to stressful incidents in the future?  "He had fought with Gus because Gus was late.....gratify powerful impulses in a world he feared." (p. 44)   Consider the WHOLE passage.

Homework for this weekend

Just a reminder about your To-Do List for this weekend:

1. read to page 44 of Native Son
2. answer all of the reading response questions from handout I gave in block period
3. there are no annotations to do (yet)
4. complete Working Bibliography for Process Journal 3 (due Thursday)
5. don't forget to vote for Senior Hoodies
6. continue working on your CSU applications (3 seniors have submitted their so far....woohoo!)

I'll stop there. Good luck everyone!

Senior Sweatshirts

Hi Class of 2011,


Some Senior Business. I want to place the order for the Senior hoodies. That means submitting your illustrations/images/ideas for consideration so that the Seniors can vote on the different submissions after school on Wednesday, October 20th.  


If you are going to submit an idea for the Senior hoodies, I need the following BY TUESDAY, 10/19:


1. Image for the front
2. Image for the back
3. Color of the sweatshirt


You can hand me a hard copy of your idea or a soft copy to my email. I will compile all of the entries and present it to the class for a vote on Wednesday, October 20th, after school. 


EVERYONE should submit an idea. If you're worried about skills, you can use an online design tool found at http://www.customink.com/q/02/.  Send me a link to the design, and we can include it!


Again, DEADLINE to get yours into the voting pool is Tuesday, 10/19.

REMINDER -- Vocabulary Test on Tuesday

Your vocabulary test will take 15 minutes. Study hard.


Period 2 list:  accentuates, attacks, deviates, symbolizes, conscientious, empathetic, tenacious, ethical, bureaucracy, egalitarian, art, pacification, aggression, kindred, matrilineal, equality, brideprice, polygyny, humanism, reciprocity


Period 3 list: accentuates, attacks, deviates, symbolizes, conscientious, empathetic, tenacious, ethical, anthropocentric, dowry, bureaucracy, foragers, one-world culture, fusion, apartheid, urbanization, holistic, innovation, colonialism, reciprocity


Period 6 list:  dowry, egalitarian, anthropocentric, art, reciprocity, culture, ethnocentrism, rap, pacification, law, matriarchy, genealogy, accentuates, attacks, deviates, symbolizes, conscientious, empathetic, tenacious, ethical 


Just think, your brains are 20 words bigger after this. 

Extra Credit for Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl"

This story is written as a mother's teachings to her daughter. What is your reaction to the content of the story? Also, why do you think the author chooses the structure that she does to present this story? 


Your responses are due by this Friday evening.

Great resource for EVERYTHING about writing process

I frequently use this website from the OWL Writing Lab at Purdue University to give students added writing support for the senior project and papers you'll have to write in other classes. It is especially helpful for looking up the format for creating citations in your essays.


The link is:   http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Extra Credit for Chekhov's "The Bet"

If you are interested, below are 3 questions for you to answer as extra credit. Please post your responses to the blog. The deadline for submission is Tuesday, 9/14. Only quality answers will be given credit. Here are the questions:

1. Do you agree with the lawyer that "To live anyhow is better than not at all?"
2. Why does the narrator call the bet "wild and senseless"?
3. Why, after reading the classics for three years, does the lawyer act the way he does (angrily talking to himself, not reading books, throwing his writing away, crying)?

Good luck!

Potential Exhibition Topics

Here is a list of the topics and equity groups that Period 6 generated yesterday. It has most of what came out of the other 2 senior English classes as well, but for those who missed the long block or want other topics to consider in preparation for next week's block period, here you go.  The assignment is to come to class with 3 potential topics for your Senior Paper. You will then have discussions in your table groups about your individual choices. We will also use "critical lenses" to generate questions about your topics, and I will distribute your 1st Process Journal assignment. 


Issues:

·      Violence in the projects

·      Lack of educational opportunities/higher education

·      Corruption in military

·      Forced marriages

·      Genital mutilation / circumcision

·      Genocide (of indigenous people) both in history and contemporary

·      Gender stereotyping

·      Risks of emigrating

·      Environmental destruction & pollution

·      Dropping out of school

·      Unlawful imprisonment

·      Domestic abuse

·      Gangs

·      Healthcare access

·      Homelessness

·      Hunger & starvation

·      Access to clean water

·      Access to modern medicine

·      Religious freedom

·      Identity theft

·      Corporate corruption

·      Prison rehabilitation

·      Human trafficking

·      Prostitution

·      Population control

·      Drugs use & drug trafficking

·      addiction

Equity Groups

·      Black families

·      Urban youth

·      Rebels

·      Common citizens

·      Women in tribal communities

·      People in 3^rd world countries

·      Indigenous tribes

·      Brown and black women

·      Poor people

·      Animals

·      Teens

·      Those who speak against govt

·      Children

·      Elderly

·      Veterans

·      LGBTs

·      Physically & mentally disabled

·      Ex-convicts in US

YOUR questions about ME....answered

1. What made you want to be a teacher? This is more a question of "who" than "what." My dream growing up was actually to be a photojournalist, traveling the world and taking pictures, and then writing stories about them. After college
2. Do you want your children to attend the school where you're teaching? Yes, but they're not in high school yet, and I'm not sure where I'll be teaching when that time comes.
3. Can you call my house and tell them that I need a computer before he goes to Mexico on Friday? Oops....didn't read this one in time to make that phone call. However, I DO have computers available for students to borrow when truly needed.
4. Will your class be hard? Hmmm...the class will be hard for different people at different times throughout the year. Some will find they have a skill set in one area that they might not have in another. My belief is that if it does not offer some challenge to everybody, then I am only insulting the intelligence of the students I serve.
5. What is the difference between going to college and high school? A major difference is being able to choose your classes in college.
6. If you work, will it affect how much $ you can get from FAFSA? No. You will have to file your taxes if you make more than $7,000 a year, but even then, that's not enough to have an effect on the money they offer you for college. Many of my former students have qualified for FULL financial aid, whether they had a job or not. What may affect the amount of money you're offered is how much your parents make and file on their tax returns.
7. Is it difficult to do the Senior Project? Yes.
8. How do I find information about my Senior Project? We spend weeks researching and evaluating sources for the right information to help you on your topic. The public library is an excellent resource, and this year, because I am a student at UC Berkeley, I have access to a a number of research databases that I will share with my students. Information for your projects exist ALL AROUND YOU. It is up to you to be thorough and have the stamina to evaluate that information though.
9. Can I make my Senior project a documentary instead of writing a paper? You can do a documentary as an optional Senior Product to enhance your paper, but no, it cannot replace the actual written paper.
10. What happens if you don't pass your Senior Project? If you don't pass on the 1st try, you have the option to re-do one more time. The re-do option is not something you want to rely on though, since it sucks to have to still be revising and freaking out when everyone is celebrating their year almost being over.
11. Where do you come from (3)? My mama. If you mean culturally, what are my roots, then my mother is from the Philippines and my father is Puerto Rican. I have ancestry that traces to China, Africa, Spain...among other places.
12. How many brothers do you have? One by blood and a handful of others in spirit.
13. When will we begin with the Senior Projects (3)? We already did ;)
14. Do you like Oakland? No. I love Oakland.
15. Describe a time in your life where you struggled the most. When I was 8 years old, I was in an accident involving my sister and cousin. I was the sole survivor. I struggled like any child would who has to grapple with tragedy, but my takeaway from it was that I was/am meant for something great on this planet......like teaching.
16. Do you do drugs? If coffee is a drug, then yes, I'm addicted.
17. Do you smoke? Not anymore. I quit the day I found out I was pregnant with my firstborn.
18. Why is it closed campus this year? I believe the reason was for safety concerns, but for the full story, you may have to talk to Mr. Hurst or Mr. Sanchez.
19. How do you manage to look so young? Genetics. My mom and dad also look young for their age. Working with youth all day and then coming home to my own children keeps my physicals young. I do believe that I have a very very old soul though.
20. What classes do I have to take in college to major in business? It depends on the college you attend. Prepare to take economics, statistics, business administration, entrepreneurship, and others. If you really want the scoop, then email me and I will put you in contact with my little brother who graduated from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
21. What does it take to pass this class? Proficiency in the skills I'm teaching and a solid work ethic. I do encourage my students to do more than just try to pass any of their classes. Your goal should be to EXCEL in your classes.
22. Where did you graduate from? I have a Bachelor's in English from UC Berkeley, a Master's in Education from Stanford, and I am getting a second Master's in Educational Leadership at Berkeley right now.
23. How do I join the Yearbook Club and Student Council? With eyes wide open. Both are huge responsibilities. If you mean the process of joining, I will have information out to Advisories by this Friday.
24. What do you mean by this class being fun? We laugh....a lot.
25. How big is California in mm? On my globe here at the house, it measures about 100 mm, but if you're taking actual size, I'm not sure.
26. How much is an essay worth for our grade? Essays and major assessments count for 40% of your semester grade.
27. How much is taken off our grade if an essay is late? 10% for every day it is late.
28. How do we get our Senior Project topic? We go through two block periods of discussion and questioning, pre-reading and evaluation of personal experiences. A majority of students have a good sense of their topic after this process.
29. How long have you been teaching? This is my 10th year of teaching, and you all are the 8th class I'll be graduating.
30. Will there be any physical movements in the class or are we going to sit & listen while taking notes? We do way more than just sit and listen and take notes. I do my best to make sure that all of my students stay engaged in the work.

31. How do you manage everything you do such as all the Senior stuff and your children? Coffee. It helps a lot. I am also a multi-tasker like my own mother. I can plan curriculum while folding the laundry, hold my sleeping daughter in my lap while writing this blog, etc. I have also managed to harness the power of technology to help keep me organized and on top of my game. Much of my life overlaps too. You'll see what I mean when I have to bring in one of my sick children to work with me while teaching all of you.
32. Are you married? Yes, for 10 years now.
33. During the months, are we only going to focus on the Senior Project (2)? No, the Senior Project is one facet of the class. Studying literature is the other. You'd get bored if we just did one or the other.
34. Did you have any other majors in college other than English? Yup...I did English and Education.
35. How was college life? Was it difficult? Did you feel like giving up at one point? College life was some of the most fun I've ever had. It became really difficult when I got pregnant my Junior year and took my son to class with me every day during my Senior year. The tough stuff in life makes you stronger though. No, I never felt like giving up. It would have been dishonorable to do that to myself, my child, and my ancestors. I did learn the value of prioritizing and letting things go though.
36. When you were a Senior, did you feel like giving up or felt like you wouldn't make it? Given the school my parents sent me to for high school, I never wanted to give up. I was out to prove something to all of the privileged kids around me who believed a student like me who was attending on a work scholarship was somehow less than they were.
37. Can you help me with grammar b/c I'm not too good at it? Yes, but remember that good grammar doesn't make you any smarter than anyone else. Helping students learn how to think and articulate their thinking is one of my main goals for your class.

Thank you for all of the wonderful questions. I hope that I have given you a snapshot into my life. I've had many struggles and celebrations, but it's all kept me real. Always feel free to share with me as well. I am here to listen.

Ms. Paraiso

Congratulations Class of '11

You made it through your 1st week of Senior year! Before you know it, June will be here, and you'll wonder where the time went. Although you have a lot of work ahead of you, as much as possible try to enjoy this year full of "lasts"---last time sitting on the deck, last time dressing up for Spirit Week, last time ______. You get the point.


I was very happy to meet most of you for the first time and to reconnect with familiar faces from last year. I do look forward to an active and memorable year with the Class of 2011, and I am proud to be a part of your high school experience.


Check this blog often for important news about any of the following:

• English 4
• Senior Exhibition
• Yearbook & other extracurricular opportunities
• Student Leadership Council
• Scholarship announcements
• College Admissions process
• College Financial Aid process
• Senior business and activities
• Etc........

My hope is that our blog can serve as a useful resource for information about everything related to Senior year. I hope to post daily, so please feel free to send me questions that you think would be helpful to answer for everybody in your class.

Have a lovely evening,

Ms. Paraiso