Category: Papers

Posted on

creating a movementt

Alivia Shattuck 

 

Professor Drown 

 

English 123 

 

29 April 2019 

 

What does it take to create an anti-racism movement?  

 

In this paper, I am going to examine the social habits of humans and how they are connected to weak ties and strong ties in order to understand how to create an anti-racism movement here at UNE. Coming from a city where 26.43% of people are colored, made an impact on me as I came to UNE.  

 

During my first year at UNE, I have only been in two classes with people of color. Not only is the majority of UNE being white, but people of color come to this school they feel “alone”. When it comes to race in the classroom, people may interpret their actions and words into something that white people believe is rude. There are different body languages and ways people speak in the classroom, so faculty and students who are white may not understand why they are Like that or may think they are misbehaving in the classroom. White people and Black people are both raised with different social habits and this causes the other race do not understand their actions. In the classroom when a professor hears a student speaking loudly, they may tell the student to be quiet or send them out of class. However, that student may have grown up in an environment where that is okay and normal for them to do. This causes the student to feel like they do not belong in the classroom. Which poses more of an option to transfer.  

 

As I am majoring in Elementary Education, this is a topic that concerns me for my future classroom. As a future educator, I never want my students to feel unwanted in the classroom or school. I think about ways that I can help the student of color feel more comfortable in my classroom. There are many different key components in order to make your students of color feel more important. The ones I thought were important are teaching my students to love themselves, inviting families and community member into my classroom, exposing the students to role models of color and letting the students tell their story. Teaching students to love themselves inside and outside the classroom is very important because this invites the teacher to better understand the students. Another important thing is to honor their language. When teachers try to fix students’ languages to make it more like theirs, they often communicate to students that their way of speaking is “wrong”. These important factors do not only apply to the elementary classroom, but it applies everywhere.  

 

  

When it comes to creating a movement, it is important to think about your social habits. Social habits are the unthinking behavior of a large group of people. Social habits create a wall in front of you that prevent you to think otherwise. One social habit for people is to cover. Covering is defined by Kenji Yoshino as to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream. Covering plays, a role in creating a social movement because people have a social habit to cover who they are and their background. The socials I will be targeting at UNE is racism, diversity, and people who are looking to get involved in a group.  

 

 

As I think about the key components of creating an anti-racism movement at UNE, I think about my strong ties and weak ties. Strong ties are a close friendship, like friends, roommates, specific departments (Erica Rousseau), and professors. Strong ties help to get the word out to the people around you but not to the people outside of your group. These Strong ties are important but however, weak ties are more important when it comes getting the movement out there for people to hear about. When weak ties is a tenuous friend, like people in different grade levels or faulty at UNE. Weak ties are very important because it allows the word to get out too many more people. I will spread my movement by hanging posters around the campus and having a booth in the commons.  

 

 

Here at UNE, the majority of people are white. This causes people of color to not feel wanted in their community. This is an important problem that we need to address at UNE as the number of colored people is limited. There are many ways that we can help. White people may not know exactly what they are going through, but they are there to help them. As I have thought of ways, I can create a movement for anti-racism, I have finally understood how much a movement like this needs to occur here at UNE. 

 

 

 

 

 

Work cited  

 

Yoshino, Kenji. The Pressure of Covering , 15 Jan. 2006, kenjiyoshino.com/articles/pressure_to_cover.pdf. 

 

Duhigg, Charles. “From Rights to Megachurches.” Https://Ericdrown.uneportfolio.org/Wp-Content/Uploads/Sites/5/2019/04/Duhigg_FromCivilRightstoMegachurches.Pdf. 

 

Posted on

Informal Essay

Alivia Shattuck

ENG 133

March 30, 2019

Dr. Drown

 

 

For centuries, the idea of race has been an ongoing important topic. After reading many different articles, I have found an understanding of what race means to other people. In Hochschild’s article I Spent 5 Years With Some of Trump’s Biggest Fans, she emphasizes the idea of a “deep story”. She describes a “deep story” as “The deep story reflects pain; you’ve done everything right and you’re still slipping back.” (Hochschild, Page 24) As she talks about what a “deep story” interviews many different people. These people she has spent five years with and has a view of how they live with a different perspective. One of her interviewees stated “You are patiently standing in the middle of a long line stretching toward the horizon, where the American Dream awaits. But as you wait, you see people cutting in line ahead of you. Many of these line-cutters are black—beneficiaries of affirmative action or welfare. Some are career-driven women pushing into jobs they never had before. Then you see immigrants, Mexicans, Somalis, the Syrian refugees yet to come. As you wait in this unmoving line, you’re being asked to feel sorry for them all. You have a good heart. But who is deciding who you should feel compassion for? Then you see President Barack Hussein Obama waving the line-cutters forward. He’s on their side. In fact, isn’t he a line-cutter too? How did this fatherless black guy pay for Harvard? As you wait your turn, Obama is using the money in your pocket to help the line-cutters. He and his liberal backers have removed the shame from taking. The government has become an instrument for redistributing your money to the undeserving. It’s not your government anymore; it’s theirs.” (Hochschild, Page 14) People are coming to the United States from all over the world and as they entered this country, they are getting treated how they shouldn’t be. As we know from Kenji Yoshino’sCovering, covering is “to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream.” (Covering, Preface) Hochschild’s interviewees use covering as a way to hide their “deep story”. People who enter the U.S also use this as a way to hide how they came here as a way to hide who they really are. Yoshino also talks about the idea of True Self and False Self. True Self is “the self that gives an individual the feeling of being real.” (Covering, Paragraph 13). The false self is “the self that gives an individual the feeling of being unreal.” (Covering, Paragraph 13). Those with a “deep story” try to hide their true self and false self in order to avoid racial judgments. Steve Olsen’s The End of Race: Hawaii and the Mixing of People and Covering see eye to eye on this idea. Olsen explains how moving does not solve the problem of racism. No matter where you go, you are going to be faced with racism.

 

The real way to get the answer on how somebody feels when they are faced with racial challenges is to ask them directly. A website called Witness Project, asked white millennials from Dallas, Texas ideas on race. Many of them had experience with racial judgments and others have viewed it. Lena age 21, described her experience as “I would tell my dad not to come to my basketball games. don’t come to my volleyball games because he looked very middle eastern and so when people saw him, and they found out I got called tritiated and people were very rude to me.” and Liam age 18 describes his experiences as “If you ever watch an NFL game and you look at a white receiver vs. a black receiver you know the white receiver is a lot of time will be described as he’s such a smart receiver he knows how to run his routes very well. A lot of the times when they describe black receivers, they say this guy is a real athlete. This guy can make any sort of catch.”  Each person has their own story of how they have experienced racism, but you can never know how it feels until you experience it yourself.

 

 

 

Posted on

nutshell draft

Alivia Shattuck

March 1, 2019

Eng 123

 

As your sitting in a classroom full of people you many or many not know everyone, but each person has their own life story and identity. From their race and gender to their social class and work ethics, we are all put into a category. In the past and even now today the way that black people live are very different. The way you get treated, raised or even the footsteps they have to follow vary by race. In order to understand the way that our lives and life paths are shaped by our social identities, let’s look at Te-Nehisi Coates and Mike Rose, both grew up in a neighborhood where they had to worry about their race as they walked down the street every day and fought to find themselves a future. Although Coates was black and grew up in Baltimore in the 1980s and Rose was white growing up in Los Angeles in the 1950s, they both had their lives changed by their social identities. Coates grew up hearing stories from his family about the challenge he has to face because he is black. However, Rose, had to face similar challenges due to him being white and living in a neighborhood of Hispanics and African Americans. For Coates, he had a fear of walking down the street because he was black. These causes him to feel vulnerable as his social identity has changed the way he lives his life. He lives his life in constant fear and always be on the lookout for safety. When for Rose, he was afraid because he was white. Roses life is shaped by his neighborhood and who stood around him. Coates helps us to explain how he felt as a black person living in the 1980s by stating “As for now, it must be said that the process of washing the disparate tribes white, was not achieved through wine tastings and ice cream socials, but rather through the pillaging of life, liberty, labor and land; through the flaying of backs; the chaining of limbs; the strangling of dissidents; the destruction of families; the rape of mothers; the sale of children; and various other acts meant, first and foremost, to deny you and the right to secure and govern our own bodies”(Page 8) For Coates, growing up as an African American has shaped how he thought of his social identity. He became angry at the fact that people who are black have to be shaped because of their identity.

 

As Coates grows up living in Baltimore, he came to an understanding of how Americans are shaped based on their identity. He adds “Americans believe in the reality of “race” as a defined, indubitable feature of the natural world.” (page 7). He believes that race is something that naturally taught to be different. The way black people are treated is a way to destroy their body and who they really are. They are taught that they are less than those who are white. Coastes growing up in a black family was exposed to violence and comments. This shaped who he as. As he dedicated his story “Between the World and Me” to his son, he explains that because you are black their will changes as you go throughout your like. Living in America and hearing about the American dream, he comes to his own understanding of the American Dream. The American Dream to him is that people who are black are taught that it is natural to have racist comments towards them and that because of this their bodies where to be destroyed. The American Dream is based on enslavement and our schools are there to fail us and the destruction of the population. Coates explains how “When our elders presented school to us, they did not present it as a place of high learning but as a means of escape from death and penal warehousing. Fully 60 percent of all young black men who drop out of high school will go to jail. This should disgrace the country.” (Page 27). For Coates, he faced fear and violence within the ways school affected him. Schools affect those who were black, and they shaped their life path. Because those who were black did not feel comfortable in school, they convinced them that there was no future ahead of them because of their race.

Even though Mike Rose was white, his social identities shaped his life paths and his life. Rose’s experience was similar but different as he grew up. Rose grew up in a working-class family on Vermont Ave in Los Angeles. He lived in fear as he left his front door. He found a passion for chemistry. In his senior year of high school, he met a role model who helps shape who he was as a person. Jack McFarland was a role model to him on being able to succeed in life. McFarland was able to let Rose see that there is a world outside of Vermont Ave. He explains this by saying “It enabled me to do things in the world. I could browse Bohemian bookstores and Farah call my mysterious Hollywood I could go to the cinema and see if vents through the lens of European directors and most of all I could share an evening talk that talk with Jack McFarland the man I most admired at the time. Knowledge was becoming a bonding agent. Within a year to the Persona of the disaffected Hipster would prove too cynical to alienate to last. Before our time it was new and exciting it provided a critical perspective on society and it allowed me to act as though I were living beyond the limiting boundaries of South Vermont.” (Page 37). Rose believed that after he met McFarland, he could do anything. He was able to override his social identity and persuade what he wants to as he lives his life paths. As Rose had McFarland as a role model, he was able to see that this world has in hold for him.

 

Rose and Coates both were shaped by their social identities and how they were treated. In Coates story, he was able to teach his son the information he needs to live in a world where blacks are mistreated. He talks about America as if the things they did harm his body in a way he was unable to succeed. For Rose, he was taught that no matter your upbringing with the help of a persuasive adult you can do what you need to succeed.

 

 

 

Posted on

Habits of the Creative Mind Essay

Alivia Shattuck

November 26, 2018

Throughout elementary, middle and high school, you are taught to read and write a certain way. However, once you come to college those all change. As I went through school, I was taught to write a paper in five paragraphs, include a thesis statement, mainly is focused on one question and using one approach. For reading, I was to read a book or paper and either retain the information or answer a few questions. Once I came college that all changed. In college, reading and writing is very different and much more difficult. For writing in college, you much approach the topic with different views, ask and answer questions throughout the writing, respond in detail, and write as many paragraphs as you want. And for reading, you must digest, annotate, ask questions, write key information, and complete many assignments on the reading.

 

As I entered College reading and writing 1, I did not know what to expect. I knew that it was going to be difficult for me. Once we began writing our first paper, I had a hard time stay away from my high school writing habits. I expected that at the beginning I was going to need help grasping the new information but by the end of the semester, I would be able to write a paper with few corrections and no help. As I am ending the semester, I have come to the conclusion that my expectations were not accurate. I am on my way to becoming a better writer, but I still need help from my professor and my peers. As they read my papers and make correction, I am able to understand where I went wrong and how I can improve. The habits I learned from reading and writing helped me in my other classes too.  If I needed help on a paper, I would refer to the book Habits of the Creative Mind to help me with my paper. The authors Miller and Jurecic, describe the habits as “curiosity, attentiveness, openness, flexibility, reflectiveness, persistence, and creativity”. Their habits help to engage the reader in their own reading and writer. They describe the habits in the chapter Orienting: “Curiosity-the desire to know more about the world”, “Openness- the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world”, Flexibility- the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands.”, “Persistence- the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects.”, and “Creativity- the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas”.

 

When it came time to reading and digesting my first article, I struggled. I would underline and circle a few things. However, I later learned that I was supposed to do more. Now by the end of the semester, I am able to annotation, ask questions, highlight important details, create voice markers, and many more. When it comes to class reading or reading on my own, I have become a stronger reader. Miller and Jurecic, point out a great view. They say “In order to learn to write, you have to learn how to read as a writer. There’s only one way to learn how to

read well, and that’s by rereading”. Having to leave my old “rules” was difficult for me but in my opinion, I am starting to move in the correct direction of becoming a better writer.

 

As I look through my past work in class, I realized that I had many goals in order to become a better reader and writer. On August 31, 2018, I write three goals for myself. They were: “1. Get away from my normal style of writing, 2. Everything has the potential to be exciting, and 3. Use creativity.” In this journal entry, I used a quote from Miller and Jurecic and it said, “Many writers are boring their readers, but everything has the potential to amuse someone”. I have learned that this is true. Many things I have written have been “boring” but if I had a few key information it can amuse my readers. As I read through my writing log, journal entries, and my past informal essays, I noticed a pattern. At the beginning, my goals were small and not in detail. Now, as I am approaching the end of the semester, my goals have grown and are in details.

 

As I went throughout the semester, I had many growths regarding my reading process, writing process, and integrating ideas with others. For my reading process, I had a large growth. As I am looking at my papers, I see that I got all “Not Yet” at the beginning of the year. I struggled with understanding that reading is inseparable from writing. I was unable to connect two texts together, view how writers approach situations and seek important information. For annotations, I had a difficult time keeping a running summary, take notes, record reader, ask questions, and I was only sticking to the “easy” way of annotating. For writing process, I got many more “Not Yet”. I had a hard time engaging in the conversation. I needed to use voices to implement ideas of others and have game-changing ideas. As I went throughout the steps of writing a paper, I did not take revision as an essential part of writing. Also, when it came time to use critical analysis of my work to rethink and develop the complexity of my Ideas, I struggled. I needed to plan changes from received feedback, go beyond the comments from others when revising, elaborate existing evidence, and embrace new ideas. Next, for integrating ideas with others, I got many more “Not Yet”.

 

When it came to writing my papers I was unable to embed words correctly into my papers. I needed to use they say I say to help me connect my passages, accurately represent borrowed passages, use signal phrases, react to borrowed sentences (spotlight, explain, translate, analyze, interpret, apply, build on, question, complicate, criticize, and reject), use blockquotes appropriately, and have a work cited page. As I review my papers from the beginning, I net moved onto the papers from recently. I have come to the conclusion that I have grown in this class. For my reading process, I got many “good” and “OK”. I was able to see how writers connect to a network of conversations, record the reader, ask questions see how writers improve understanding and keep a running summary of the reading. Then for writing process, I did much better. I was able to use informal writing to make connections, approach revision to develop new ideas, go beyond the comments to revise my paper, rework sections to clarify new ideas, and embrace new ideas that evolve over time. Lastly for, integrating ideas with others, I still got many “Not Yet”. Some things did improve; however, some stayed the same. Something growth was seen, was that I was able to bring out the meaning of words, use background information, choosing relevant passages, and embedding words of others into my sentences. Overall, as I finished looking at my paper, I realized that I have growth throughout the last couple of months.

 

While reading and writing, I had to learn to attempt my weakness into my projects. While I was writing my papers, I would look back at my rubric to make sure that I am included all the needed information. Using this has helped me become a stronger writer. I also would look at my past writing assignment and the comments to see what I did wrong on those and how I will not make that mistake on my next writing assignment. When it came to reading, I made to rely back on my rubrics in order to have advanced annotations. Now when I read things for other class, I always make sure to have that paper with me, so I can refer back to it when I am struggling.

 

The only way to become better at something is to learn from your mistakes. Learning from your mistakes will help you to achieve your goals. As I went throughout the semester, I learned from my mistakes to become a better reader and writing. As I wrote my papers, I would look at my comments from my peers and professor on my past writing assignments on what I can do better. What I learned in class or writing lab, I would use those strategies on my assignments. As I will be taking a writing class my second semester, I found ways that I can learn from my mistake in order to become a better reader and writer. I will use my rubrics, past assignments, and feedback from my professors and peers. This helps to find what I need to approve on. As I reviewed my feedback, I have found things that I will need to improve on my reading and writing. When it comes to reading, I will need to improve on my annotation and summaries of the content. Next time I annotate, I will add notes, questions, underlining and assumptions. While I am making the annotations, I will keep a running summary of the information. For writing, I will need to get away from my high school habits and focus more on college writing. I will look at my rubrics and comments to improve.

 

As the year went on, my reading and writing patterns changed, which I am not proud of. When it came to assignments, I would do really good on it and then the next one I would not finish through. For next semester, I will make sure to complete all my assignments with the best of my ability. When it comes to class time, I will make sure to be attentive and engage more into the conversation.

 

Alivia Shattuck

November 26, 2018

 

 

 

Throughout elementary, middle and high school, you are taught to read and write a certain way. However, once you come to college those all change. As I went through school, I was taught to write a paper in five paragraphs, include a thesis statement, mainly is focused on one question and using one approach. For reading, I was to read a book or paper and either retain the information or answer a few questions. Once I came to college that all changed. In college, reading and writing are very different and much more difficult. For writing in college, you much approach the topic with different views, ask and answer questions throughout the writing, respond in detail, and write as many paragraphs as you want. And for reading, you must digest, annotate, ask questions, write key information, and complete many assignments on the reading.

 

As I entered College reading and writing 1, I did not know what to expect. I knew that it was going to be difficult for me. Once we began writing our first paper, I had a hard time  stay away from my high school writing habits. I expected that at the beginning I was going to need help grasping the new information but by the end of the semester, I would be able to write a paper with few corrections and no help. As I am ending the semester, I have come to the conclusion that my expectations were not accurate. I am on my way to becoming a better writer, but I still need help from my professor and my peers. As they read my papers and make correction, I am able to understand where I went wrong and how I can improve. The habits I learned from reading and writing helped me in my other classes too.  If I needed help on a paper, I would refer to the book Habits of the Creative Mind to help me with my paper. The authors Miller and Jurecic, describe the habits as “curiosity, attentiveness, openness, flexibility, reflectiveness, persistence, and creativity”. Their habits help to engage the reader in their own reading and writer. They describe the habits in the chapter Orienting: “Curiosity-the desire to know more about the world”, “Openness- the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world”, Flexibility- the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands.”, “Persistence- the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects.”, and “Creativity- the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas”.

 

When it came time to reading and digesting my first article, I struggled. I would underline and circle a few things. However, I later learned that I was supposed to do more. Now by the end of the semester, I am able to annotation, ask questions, highlight important details, create voice markers, and many more. When it comes to class reading or reading on my own, I have become a stronger reader. Miller and Jurecic, point out a great view. They say “In order to learn to write, you have to learn how to read as a writer. There’s only one way to learn how to

read well, and that’s by rereading”. Having to leave my old “rules” was difficult for me but in my opinion, I am starting to move in the correct direction of becoming a better writer.

 

As I look through my past work in class, I realized that I had many goals in order to become a better reader and writer. On August 31, 2018, I write three goals for myself. They were: “1. Get away from my normal style of writing, 2. Everything has the potential to be exciting, and 3. Use creativity.” In this journal entry, I used a quote from Miller and Jurecic and it said, “Many writers are boring their readers, but everything has the potential to amuse someone”. I have learned that this is true. Many things I have written have been “boring” but if I had a few key information it can amuse my readers. As I read through my writing log, journal entries, and my past informal essays, I noticed a pattern. At the beginning, my goals were small and not in detail. Now, as I am approaching the end of the semester, my goals have grown and are in details.

 

As I went throughout the semester, I had many growths regarding my reading process, writing process, and integrating ideas with others. For my reading process, I had a large growth. As I am looking at my papers, I see that I got all “Not Yet” at the beginning of the year. I struggled with understanding that reading is inseparable from writing. I was unable to connect two texts together, view how writers approach situations and seek important information. For annotations, I had a difficult time keeping a running summary, take notes, record reader, ask questions, and I was only sticking to the “easy” way of annotating. For writing process, I got many more “Not Yet”. I had a hard time engaging in the conversation. I needed to use voices to implement ideas of others and have game-changing ideas. As I went throughout the steps of writing a paper, I did not take revision as an essential part of writing. Also, when it came time to use critical analysis of my work to rethink and develop the complexity of my Ideas, I struggled. I needed to plan changes from received feedback, go beyond the comments from others when revising, elaborate existing evidence, and embrace new ideas. Next, for integrating ideas with others, I got many more “Not Yet”. When it came to writing my papers I was unable to embed words correctly into my papers. I needed to use they say I say to help me connect my passages, accurately represent borrowed passages, use signal phrases, react to borrowed sentences (spotlight, explain, translate, analyze, interpret, apply, build on, question, complicate, criticize, and reject), use block quotes appropriately, and have a work cited page. As I review my papers from the beginning, I net moved onto the papers from recently. I have come to the conclusion that I have grown in this class. For my reading process, I got many “good” and “OK”. I was able to see how writers connect to a network of conversations, record the reader, ask questions see how writers improve understanding and keep a running summary of the reading. Then for writing process, I did much better. I was able to use informal writing to make connections, approach revision to develop new ideas, go beyond the comments to revise my paper, rework sections to clarify new ideas, and embrace new ideas that evolve over time. Lastly for, integrating ideas with others, I still got many “Not Yet”. Some things did improve; however, some stayed the same. Something growth was seen, was that I was able to bring out the meaning of words, use background information, choosing relevant passages, and embedding words of others into my sentences. Overall, as I finished looking at my paper, I realized that I have growth throughout the last couple of months.

 

While reading and writing, I had to learn to attempt my weakness into my projects. While I was writing my papers, I would look back at my rubric to make sure that I am included all the needed information. Using this has helped me become a stronger writer. I also would look at my past writing assignment and the comments to see what I did wrong on those and how I will not make that mistake on my next writing assignment. When it came to reading, I made to rely back on my rubrics in order to have advanced annotations. Now when I read things for other class, I always make sure to have that paper with me, so I can refer back to it when I am struggling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alivia Shattuck

November 26, 2018

Throughout elementary, middle and high school, you are taught to read and write a certain way. However, once you come to college those all change. As I went through school, I was taught to write a paper in five paragraphs, include a thesis statement, mainly is focused on one question and using one approach. For reading, I was to read a book or paper and either retain the information or answer a few questions. Once I came to college that all changed. In college, reading and writing are very different and much more difficult. For writing in college, you much approach the topic with different views, ask and answer questions throughout the writing, respond in detail, and write as many paragraphs as you want. And for reading, you must digest, annotate, ask questions, write key information, and complete many assignments on the reading.

 

As I entered College reading and writing 1, I did not know what to expect. I knew that it was going to be difficult for me. Once we began writing our first paper, I had a hard time staying away from my high school writing habits. I expected that at the beginning I was going to need help grasping the new information but by the end of the semester, I would be able to write a paper with few corrections and no help. As I am ending the semester, I have come to the conclusion that my expectations were not accurate. I am on my way to becoming a better writer, but I still need help from my professor and my peers. As they read my papers and make correction, I am able to understand where I went wrong and how I can improve. The habits I learned from reading and writing helped me in my other classes too.  If I needed help on a paper, I would refer to the book Habits of the Creative Mind to help me with my paper. The authors Miller and Jurecic, describe the habits as “curiosity, attentiveness, openness, flexibility, reflectiveness, persistence, and creativity”. Their habits help to engage the reader in their own reading and writer. They describe the habits in the chapter Orienting: “Curiosity-the desire to know more about the world”, “Openness- the willingness to consider new ways of being and thinking in the world”, Flexibility- the ability to adapt to situations, expectations, or demands.”, “Persistence- the ability to sustain interest in and attention to short- and long-term projects.”, and “Creativity- the ability to use novel approaches for generating, investigating, and representing ideas”.

 

When it came time to reading and digesting my first article, I struggled. I would underline and circle a few things. However, I later learned that I was supposed to do more. Now by the end of the semester, I am able to annotation, ask questions, highlight important details, create voice markers, and many more. When it comes to class reading or reading on my own, I have become a stronger reader. Miller and Jurecic, point out a great view. They say “In order to learn to write, you have to learn how to read as a writer. There’s only one way to learn how to

read well, and that’s by rereading”. Having to leave my old “rules” was difficult for me but in my opinion, I am starting to move in the correct direction of becoming a better writer.

 

As I look through my past work in class, I realized that I had many goals in order to become a better reader and writer. On August 31, 2018, I write three goals for myself. They were: “1. Get away from my normal style of writing, 2. Everything has the potential to be exciting, and 3. Use creativity.” In this journal entry, I used a quote from Miller and Jurecic and it said, “Many writers are boring their readers, but everything has the potential to amuse someone”. I have learned that this is true. Many things I have written have been “boring” but if I had a few key information it can amuse my readers. As I read through my writing log, journal entries, and my past informal essays, I noticed a pattern. In the beginning, my goals were small and not in detail. Now, as I am approaching the end of the semester, my goals have grown and are in details.

 

 

Posted on

Teachers expectations on overweight students

October 23, 3018

Alivia Shattuck

October 19, 2018

Dr. Drown

Eng. 122

 

AsI was reviewing over the article “XXXL: Why are we so fat?” and my essay that I wrote on the key concepts to answer the question. I found a section of the article that drew in my attention. It explained how educators in a classroom setting lower expectation for children have who are overweight. As we know from experience, children in a school, do get teased because of their weight. I have seen it with my eyes and Elizabeth Kolbert, the Autor of “XXXL: Why are we so fat?”, she explains how “three out of five of the heaviest kids have been teased at school” (paragraph 27). It hurts me to hear that the teachers are contributing to the teasing. I directed this writing mainly to classroom teachers but in this scenario every other person does apply.  the real question is why are teachers holding lower expectations to those children who are overweight?

 

As a teacher in a classroom, you are there to support your students each and every day. You are there to help them grow, not only cognitively but social-emotionally, and physically too. As a teacher you should not base expectations of a children on their weight, race, gender or family income. Kolbert explains how “Teachers consistently hold lower expectations of overweight children…..” (paragraph 27). It makes me upset as a future educator that classroom teachers have different expectations for each child based on something that is not educational. My own view is that as a teacher or even a patron, you should never look at a someone and make an expectation on them. Youcould see someone who is homeless and think “that person is dumb” but maybe in reality they could be a genius. I have an example that relates to this. Last year I student taught in a kindergarten classroom. In the middle of the school year, we had a new student from Africa join. He did not know English. Throughout the year, I worked one-on-one with him to help him grow as a student. Teachers and other students thought that, because he did not know English he was not as smart and was going to stay back. Each day that I was with him, he excelled in the classroom. By the end of the school year, he was at the same level of the children who English is there first language. This relates to expectation of children who are overweight. Teachers should never have a different expectation on each student.

 

Even though I do not agree with this, I do understand that some teachers do this in a classroom. There are ways that you could you or someway you may know change their expectations on a child. If a student says “I give up” or they get frustrated when they do not understand something. You might automatically think “this child has no motivation” or “they’re lazy”. This issue is important to understand because you never want to make expectations on a student. In order to help raise your expectations, you should try going over to the child, sit with them and help them through their problems. Make sure to tell them that they are doing a good job and to keep it up. As we may know child obesity in the United States is rising and with that comes health risks. One way that we can help our students is to enforce healthy and activity. You can teach your children, the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods. In the classroom that I student taught in, each day the teacher would hand out fruits or maybe some vegetables. To help keep the students healthy, as many of them would bring unhealthy snacks to class.

 

As I read through the article “XXXL: Why are we so fat?” many statements that the author, Elizabeth Kolbert explained interested me. As I grew in up a house where everything was healthy. I always knew that junk food was very bad for you. After reading this article, I grew new information on the true reason on why they are bad for you. As I thought everything was interesting, there was one thing that caught my attention. It was that classroom teachers have lower expectations for children who are overweight. As I have spent 3 years working in a classroom, I could never treat a child like this. Not only does it lower their expectations but it also many hurt then mentally. This is very sad but children who are bullied are 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide. I know that is something that we do not want to think about, but suicide does happen. In my opinion, I believe that no teacher or actually anyone should ever have lower expectations for someone who is different than them. Here is how I think of it. We are all human, we may not have the same education or look the same but we all should be treated the same.

October 22, 2018

Alivia Shattuck

October 19, 2018

Dr. Drown

Eng. 122

 

As I was reviewing over the article “XXXL: Why are we so fat?” and my essay that I wrote on the key concepts to answer the question. I found a section of the article that drew in my attention. It explained how educators in a classroom setting lower expectation for children have who are overweight. As we know from experience, children in a school, do get teased because of their weight. I have seen it with my eyes and Elizabeth Kolbert, the Autor of “XXXL: Why are we so fat?”, she explains how “three out of five of the heaviest kids have been teased at school” (paragraph 27). However, it hurts me to hear that the teachers are contributing to the teasing.

 

As a teacher in a classroom, you are there for your children each and every day. You are there to help them grow, not only cognitively but social-emotionally, and physically too. As a teacher you should not base expectations of a children on their weight, race, gender or family income. It makes me upset as a future educator that classroom teachers have different expectations for each child based on something that is not educational. As a teacher or even a patron, you should look at a someone and make an expectation on them. You could see someone who is homeless and think “that person is dumb” but maybe in reality they could be a genius. I have an example that relates to this. Last year I student taught in a kindergarten classroom. In the middle of the school year, we had a new student from Africa join. He did not know English. Throughout the year, I worked one-on-one with him to help him grow as a student. Teachers and other students thought that, because he did not know English he was not as smart and was going to stay back. Each day that I was with him, he excelled in the classroom. By the end of the school year, he was at the same level of the children who English is there first language is their first language. This relates to expectation of children who are overweight. Teachers should never have a different expectation on each student.

 

Even though I do not agree with this, I do understand that some teachers do this in a classroom. There are ways that you could you or someway you may know change their expectations on a child. If a student says “I give up” or they get frustrated when they do not understand something. You might automatically think “this child has no motivation” or “they’re lazy”. In order to help raise the expectations, you should try going over to the child, sit with them and help them through their problems. Make sure to tell them that they are doing a good job and to keep it up. As we may know child obesity in the United States is rising and with that comes health risks. One way that we can help our students is to enforce healthy and activity. You can teach your children, the difference between healthy and unhealthy foods. In the classroom that I student taught in, each day the teacher would hand out fruits or maybe some vegetables.

 

As I read through the article “XXXL: Why are we so fat?” many statements that the author, Elizabeth Kolbert explained interested me. As I grew in up a house where everything was healthy. I always knew that junk food was very bad for you. After reading this article, I grew new information on the true reason that they are bad for you. As I thought everything was interesting, there was one thing that caught my attention. It was that classroom teachers have lower expectations for children who are overweight. As I have spent 3 years working in a classroom, I could never treat a child like this. Not only does it lower their expectations but it also many hurt then mentally. This is very sad but children who are bullied are 2 to 9 times more likely to consider suicide. I know that is something that we do not want to think about, but suicide does happen. In my opinion, I believe that no teacher or actually anyone should ever have lower expectations for someone who is different than them. Here is how I think of it. We are all human, we may not have the same education or look the same but we all should be treated the same.

Posted on

Writing to a question

October 18, 2018

 

Alivia Shattuck

October 17, 2018

Eng. 133

 

 

 

As I read the article, XXXL: Why are we so fat? There were many things that I found interesting and surprising. This article can be seen as informational or controversial. The journalist, Elizabeth Kolbert, explains how America is one of the leading countries, obesity wise and why that is. She goes into detail on how and why our country is overweight. She explains the many different views, in order to help find an answer to why we are so fat? You can ask this question to anyone and they will all have a different answer.

 

I couldn’t help myself but having my own opinion to what Kolbert had to say as I kept on reading. One thing that David A. Kessler said that drew my attention was “Conditioned hyper eating works the same way another ‘stimulus response’ disorders in which reward is involved, such as compulsive gambling and substance abuse” (paragraph 15). This interested me because I did not know that food is as addictive as substance abuse. He also said, “brains react to sweet, fatty foods the same way that addicts’ respond to cocaine” (paragraph15). I do not understand what addictive chemicals are both food and cocaine, but I am intrigued to learn more. People who are overweight tend to eat more and this is where the addictive chemical plays into place.

 

Over the past decades, companies have risen the calories in their food. A small fry at McDonalds used to be two hundred calories. Today, a small fry is two hundred and thirty calories and a large fry is five hundred calories. As Kolbert states, “During the nineteen-eighties the amount of food that was counted as a single serving increased rapidly” (paragraph 23). That statement has a correlation to the increase of human weight. As people eat more, the more weight they gain.  Kolbert also says that “the bagels that Americans eat have in the past twenty years swelled from a hundred and forty to three hundred and fifty calories” (paragraph 23). After she said this, I was surprised because I eat a bagel almost every day.

While I was reading the article, I came across something that that worried me as a future educator. She explained how “three out of five of the heaviest kids have been teased at school” (paragraph 27). This statement really did hurt me. Children, no matter their size should never be judged. Then she went on to talk about how “Teachers consistently hold lower expectations of overweight children…..” (paragraph 27). Teachers in a classroom should never have expectations on children no matter their weight, race, gender or even their financial background. This conversation really did fight with my thoughts. I am having a hard time processing why this would even happen.

As you look throughout the United States you can see that people who are overweight tend to get rude things said to them or they are starred at. This is because we have a “size bias” (paragraph 28). In the U.S., it is seen okay to be skinny or underweight but when someone is overweight they are hated on. When people think of the heaviest country, they think of America. Francis Delpeuch, Bernard Maire, Emmanuel Monnier, and Michelle Holdsworth states how “Americans were the first to fatten up, they no longer lead the pack” (paragraph 30). As of current data, it reveals that Finland, Malta, Slovakia, Germany, Greece, the Czech Republic and Cyprus all have a higher proportion of overweight adults than America. This astonished me because I have always been taught that America is the fattest country.

When you go to the grocery store and you look at the shelves you can see that the unhealthy foods are always less expensive than the healthy things. With over 29% of adults in the United States being classified as lower class, some of the families do not have enough money to buy food. In that case, they tend to buy unhealthy food because it is less expensive. In the past few decades, fattening foods have become cheaper. In the book “Fattening America”, Eric Finklestein talks about how between “1983 and 2005, the real cost of fats and oils have decreased sixteen percent” (paragraph 12). There is a big correlation between consumption and cost. When people buy unhealthy food, they tend to be less expensive and come with more food. With the prices in food decreasing, children in schools being bullied, calories getting higher and many more. All of these examples are to help explain the question of “Why are we so fat?”

 

As I read this article, I thought of the ways that writer began and ended the argument. She began by starting the conversation with a question, “why are we so fat?”. As she kept writing and gathering information, she would ask smaller questions through the article. As she read other books and talked to people, she found out that there are many different answers to her question. Finding the real and exact answer to her question is going to difficult but know people know that sometimes you may not be able to get one answer out of a question.

Posted on

Re. An Animal’s Place

 

September 21, 2018

Alivia Shattuck

September 14, 2018

English 122

 

As Michael Pollan sits in a restaurant eating a rib-eye steak, he reads Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation. Animal Liberation exposed the realities of today’s factory farms and product-testing. He advocates his readers to make a movement to transform their attitudes towards animals and climate the cruelty we inflict on them.  As Pollan reads the book, he contradicts himself. He thinks of the ways that he knows animals are killed and tested but in reality he does not know the truth. In the book, Singer Argues that people should stop eating meat because of the way that the animals are killed. He used many allies inorder to find the truth behind the cruelty of animals.

One aspect that drew my attention was, “animals on factory farms”. As singer claims, “Animals feel the need to exercise, stretch their limbs or wings, groom themselves and turn around, whether or not they have ever lived in conditions that permit this.” I agree with this quote because animals are naturally built to be able to run in a field or fly in the sky. As I know from my prior knowledge, animal farm factories are places where animals are kept in tight corridors, fed non-natural foods, and not healthy. By keeping them under a roof and lack of room they become very sick and unhappy. They are then eventually killed by torture in order to provide customers with meat supply.

Pollan says “The measure of their suffering is not prior experiences but the unremitting daily frustration of their instincts”. This supports to what I said about the animals not being able to run around in a field or fly in the sky. Pollen next goes on to talking about how animals are getting used to have lotions, creams, washes etc. tested on them. He writes “In the case of animals testing, all but the most radical animal rightists are willing to balance the human benefit against the cost to the animals”. This sentence made me very frustrated because companies are using harmful substances on animals just to see how they will react to human skin. Which is hurting the animal.

One other thing that caught my interest was when pollen met with Joel Salatin, owner of Polyfacefarm. He went on to tell Pollan how he only eats meat that he kills himself. Before Saltatin kills his animals they are treated with respect and then had a peaceful death. Many farm animals live a “characteristic form of life” before they are killed. For example, animal are able to express their natural instincts without being locked up in a concrete building not being able to move. One thing that Pollan has influenced me on is by saying “For my own part, I’ve discovered that if you’re willing to make the effort, it’s entirely possible to limit the meat you eat to nonindustrial animals.” I agree with this idea because it lets the animals be able to live life “normally”. Myself as a meat eater will be able to eat meat and still know the animal was able to live a “normal” life. If you do not want to give up eating meat, then you have to think about if the animal had lived a “lifetime of suffering” or a “normal” life. When it comes down to eating meat many people are very skeptical on what meat they should or shouldn’t eat. In my opinion, you should get meat from a local farm to ensure that the animal had lived a life of non-suffering. When it comes to the way animals are killed, you really need to think to yourself. “Is this worth eating?” or “how was this animal killed?”. As of today, the way animals are killed is cruel and evil to do to an animal. We may think that they are just an animal and they have no feelings but in reality, they are still treated in a bad way.

 

 

 

Alivia Shattuck

September 14, 2018

English 122

 

Michael Pollan makes very good points in his article “An Animal’s Place”. As he sits in a restaurant eating a rib-eye steak he reads Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation. Animal Liberation is a book describing how eating, wearing, experimenting and killing animals is cruel. The book tries to persuade you into changing your ways of eating meat. As Pollan reads the story, he thinks of many aspects on why eating animals is bad. One aspect that drew my attention was “animals on factory farms”. As singer states, “Animals feel the need to exercise, stretch their limbs or wings, groom themselves and turn around, whether or not they have ever lived in conditions that permit this.” As I know from my prior knowledge, animal farm factories are places where animals are kept in tight corridors, fed non-natural foods, and not healthy. Animals are meant to be able to run around in an open field or be able to express themselves. By keeping them under a roof and lack of room they become very sick and unhappy. They are then eventually killed by torture in order to provide customers with meat supply. Pollan says “The measure of their suffering is not prior experiences but the unremitting daily frustration of their instincts”. This goes back to what I said about the animals not being able to run around in a field or fly in the sky. Pollen then goes on to talking about how animals are getting used to have lotions, creams, washes etc. tested on them. He writes “In the case of animals testing, all but the most radical animal rightists are willing to balance the human benefit against the cost to the animals”. This sentence made me very frustrated because companies are using harmful substances on animals just to see how they will react to human skin. Which is hurting the animal. One thing that really drew my attention was when pollen emet with Joel Salatin, owner of Polyface farm. He went on to tell Pollan how he only eats meat that he kills himself. Before the animals are killed they are treated with respect and had a peaceful death. Many farm animals live a “characteristic form of life” before they are killed. This lets the animal be able to express their natural instincts without being locked up in an concrete building not being able to move. One thing Pollan has influenced me by is saying “For my own part, i’ve discovered that if you’re willing to make the effort, it’s entirely possible to limit the meat you eat to nonindustrial animals.” I liked this idea because it lets the animal be able to live life like an animal and myself as a meat eater will be able to eat meat and still know the animal was able to live a normal life. If you do not want to give up meat then you have to think able if the animal has lived a “lifetime of suffering” or a nice natural life. When it comes down to eating meat many people are very sceptical on what meat they should or shouldn’t eat. In my opinion, you should get meat from a local farm to ensure that the animal has lived a life of not suffering.

 

css.php