Final Reflection

                On the last day of class, Lacy asked us to describe a time where we struggled with her class. Except instead of using the word “struggle” she used the term “wobble”. She then asked us what we thought the term meant. People shouted out many answers like dance, shake, wiggle, to sway, to stagger, unsteady motion, like a baby, and to falter. She then told us that for our final reflection she wanted us to talk about how we struggled with English 1101. She didn’t want it to be a success story; she wanted to hear stories about how we “wobbled” throughout the class.

The biggest struggle I had during this class was my literacy narrative. I was so excited to write it because I loved my topic, but when Lacy mentioned she wanted us to revise it and to completely think in a different way, I was stuck. I had just written this four page paper that told the story of a major event in my life and she wanted me to change it? So when it came down to it, I made very minor changes with grammar and Lacy said that wasn’t enough. Then she suggested the rolling due date, so that made me procrastinate a lot. And the night before the assignment was due I had to pack all of the revising into one night. I had to revise my paper and make it completely different and then I had to write a final draft of it. I was up for hours! So needless to say, this was what I “wobbled” with the most.

I also struggled with my daybook. I enjoyed having the chance to write every day because it challenged me. I’m not used to doing that so I had a hard time with it. I didn’t know what to write but Lacy told us that it didn’t matter because she was never going to see it. She also told us that there was no right or wrong thing to write about, she always gave us the option. So in the end, I ended up really enjoying the daybook but in the beginning I wasn’t sure how to use it.

All in all I truly enjoyed having Lacy as my first English teacher in college. She never told us we were wrong, but she always gave us her opinion on how we could make it better. She was really big on revision and even though it sucked sometimes, it made me think out of the box and I learned a lot from it. I know that I have grown as a writer and am excited for what the future holds.

Reflective Blog for Literacy Narrative

I knew exactly what I was going to write about as we were choosing our topics. I had just recently finished my last year as a dancer so I knew I wanted to write about my last recital and what it meant to me. When we had to write down other ideas I listed dance recital, letters to santa, writing for the SAT, pen pals, stats project, and practicing spanish. None of my ideas were interesting to me except for the one about my dance recital. I knew I would have a lot to say about it.

When it came to revision work I had a hard time. I knew I had written it the way I wanted it. My first draft was witten in first person and in the present tense. I included some specific times to let my readers know when and where the events were taking place. In my second draft I switched it from the present tense to past tense, but I still kept it in first person. I added more times to it so that it seemed more like a timeline. For my final revision, I went back to the present tense because I felt like I could tell the story much better if I was telling it in the moment. I kept the extra times because it added to the story and made it more interesting. Needless to say I did not enjoy the revision process. It was long and tedious and I really like my first draft so I didnt like having to change it.

Overall I enjoyed this assignment because it brought back so many amazing dance memories.

Ethnography: Sound

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRQqXY0JYvQ&feature=youtu.be

This project was deffinatly one that I enjoyed making. Our topic was sound and we decided to make an audio recording like we heard in "This American Life". We started out with a sound map that we made in class. We wrote down music, language, singing, ringtones, noises, videos, and voices/conversations because that is what we expected we would hear when we went and did our sound mapping. Next we went to the student union and wrote down everything we heard. We also included interviews where all three of us each interviewed someone. once we had all of these components together we went back to the student union to recap everything we had learned over the process of completing this project. I personally learned that sound differs in different cultures and that what we are used to around us might not be what others are used to. Also we dont really realize all the sounds around us. we only focus on what we want to hear.

Ethnography Interviews

For our (me, Brian, Gabi) ethnography project we decided to include an interview into our audio recording. So over the weekend we all picked one person to interview and we asked them three questions about sound. I interviewed my friend who was from New York because I figured she would be used to a lot different things. I asked her, Where did you grow up and describe how growing up there was in terms of sound?, How does the sound you are used to growing up in New York differ from what you hear now in Charlotte?, and for the last question we all thought of different ones. Mine was, Do you agree that sound differs in different cultures?. My friend told how she was used to the busy sounds of New York and then when she came down here she noticed things were much calmer and people didnt talk as fast or loud.

Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge

In class, Lacy read us the story "Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge". Afterwards she asked us to list five things. Those things were: something warm, something from long ago, something that makes you cry, something that makes you laugh, and something as precious as gold. For something warm I listed my dog Niko when he used to sleep next to me every night. For something form long ago I said a teddy bear that I got the day I was born named "Brownie Bear". Something that makes me cry is any song that has to do with the father daughter relationship and growing up. Something that makes me laugh is a picture from last thanksgiving of my mom and my grandma making silly faces at the camera. And something as precious as gold are lyrics, written on a sheet of notebook paper, of a song my dad had wrote a while ago and I remember telling him he was going to be the next James Taylor.

This page in my journal is one of my favorites so far because it let me relive some very good memories. Although at first I thought it was a little weird that Lacy was reading a childrens book to a group of college kids, I now understand the underying message.

Annotated Bibliography

Student Union at UNCC, Charlotte, NC. 30 Oct. 2012. Josie Young. IMG_2576

This is a picture of the student union at UNCC. I chose to take this picture to show where I was sitting when I did my observations. The topic I did was sound so I sat in the union and wrote everything I heard.

Ethnography Mapping in Daybook, Charlotte, NC. 30 Oct. 2012. Josie Young. IMG_2578

This is a picture of my notes I took in my daybook. I took my daybook with me to me to the student union. When I was there at the student union I took noted on everything I heard since my topic was sound.

Ethnography Mapping, Class notes. English 1100. Lacy Manship. 30 Oct. 2012

This is my citation of my actual written notes in my daybook. The notes in my daybook were on my topic, sound, for my ethnography project.

Ethnography Mapping

So today for english, my ethnography group went to the student union to observe. Our topic was sound and noises so we sat in the main lobby area (shown in the bottom picture) and wrote down what we heard. I made a list of literally everything I heard; from keys rattling to high heels clicking on the tile floor. I felt kindof creepy listening in on peoples conversations so I tried to steer away from those kinds of sounds. One really funny one was you could hear someone playingan Adele song on the piano and then some girl walked by and started singing along with the music. All in all I think I was successful in mapping where I heard everything.

Revision?

What does revision actually mean? Lacy gave us a handout that talked about revision the other day. It talked about how revision was a second chance, or maybe and third or fourth or fifth chance. It was a tool to help you start over because not everything’s perfect the first time around. When I did my writing into the day for this, I focused on how revision doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve messed up or done something wrong, it just means that you have a chance to make it even better.

Midterm Mission

 

 



            The other day my writing group and I went on a mission. Our task was to find a mentor text in Atkins Library. My group started by looking up what a mentor text was on the web. Once we figured that out we were on a hunt to find a book. We started out with three different choices and only one was actually in the library. We wrote down the section of the library it was in and headed up to the fifth floor. It took us forever to try and find this book and we eventually gave up. I had an idea of another book that we could use and thankfully it was in the same section, but a lot easier to find. We chose “Granny Torrelli makes Soup”. The book was about a young boy and his troubles he faced with his best friend who was also blind. The young boys would always go to granny to get advice. Granny would share her wisdom from her past experiences and was really a mentor to the two young boys.

            Documenting this midterm was a lot of fun to do. I go to follow behind everyone and take pictures every step of the way. We decided to just piece all of the pictures together and make a video.   

The Charles Sequence

                The other day in class, Lacy gave us a story called “The Charles Sequence”. It was set up like a newspaper article about a 6-year-old boy driving a car. It talked about the man that was driving in the car behind him and how he noticed something was a little off. Roy Dyer was the man driving behind him and he thought he was following a drunk, but he never saw the driver until the young boy pulled over and got out the car, Dyer was so confused.

                Lacy had us rewrite the story from one of the characters points of view. I chose Roy Dyer. After completing this assignment, I realized that this was the way I was going to write my Literacy Narrative project. It made it easier to write and since I was telling a story it made it more personal.

 



                On September 20, my class and I were given a piece by George Ella Lyon called “Where I’m From”. It talked about his past and little things he remembers. In my daybook, I took it as my roots and where my ancestors came from. I talked about my mom’s side of the family because they’re more interesting. My mom’s grandfather came to America on a boat from Romania and her grandmother was from Ireland. I love that my family is so diverse.

Literacy Dig

 



                What is a Literacy Dig? On Tuesday when Lacy gave us the assignment, I was asking the same question. I had to find five items around my room and write their meaning.

                My planner is something that I couldn’t live without. I am not an organized person and this is the only way I will remember to do anything. Since it is a weekly and a monthly planner, it helps a lot. I keep track of my events on the monthly section and I write my assignments on the weekly part. This thing is a life saver.

                My alarm clock/radio is another life saver of mine. It is the only reason I am in class every morning. I also plug my phone into it to use it as speakers so I can listen to music when I am getting ready or just hanging out.

                I have a collage of pictures on my wall and one of them is a picture of all the graduating seniors, this past year, from my dance studio. We had the largest group of 16 graduating girls. We all grew up together in the studio and it was so hard saying goodbye when we left for school. This picture really means a lot to me.

                Sitting on my desk is a jewelry box that my mom gave to me. It’s glass and has a gold plate on the top with my grandparents names engraved on it with wedding bells. It was a wedding gift to them and has been passed down to me. I keep my most valuable jewelry in it.

                Lastly, my dry erase board. I had this dry erase board hanging up in my room for about 4 years and every time someone came over they would write on it. So now it’s filled up with little sayings and old memories.

Writing Timeline

On Tuesday’s class, Lacy asked us to go home and create a writing timeline. She told us to think back over our lives and try to pinpoint some times where writing played a big role. These events could be school assignment to little things you remember that were not school related. She wanted us to display them, in order, on a timeline.

                As I was thinking back over my life of writing, little memories popped up that I decided to put on my timeline

                The first thing that came to mind was learning how to write the alphabet. Just about every kid remembers those days in kindergarten, writing on those strange papers with the lines that looked like roads. You had to write so big because the lines were so far apart.

                The next thing that popped into my head was writing letters. I distinctly remember writing letters to a pen pal and letters to Santa every Christmas. My pen pal in third grade was from Virginia and we would write to each other about every month. The one letter I remember most was a valentine I got from her. It was folded in half and looked like a mouse on the outside but when you opened it, it was a heart. I can’t believe I still remember that.

                I am a people person, I love listening to what people have to say and listening to their stories. On the first day of English 1101, Lacy (my English teacher) told us to go home, and in our daybook, introduce ourselves and just share something about us. Since I like sharing my story and am an open person, I had an easy time doing this.

                Here is my daybook entry. I started off by introducing myself and where I was from. I talked about my childhood and hat I had been interested in. I then started to explain what I wanted to do in the future and what inspired me.

I would like to elaborate more on my job at the YMCA. I always tell people how much I love working there, but I sometimes feel that they don’t quite get it. I was introduced to the job by a friend. She talked about how it was easy money and a good job to have while we were still in school. I had no clue how much it would change me. I’ve worked there for a year now and it has been a great experience. Like I explained in my daybook, the kids look up to me as a role model and I love being there for them.  Since I love helping kids, I decided I would make a good teacher. Hopefully my plans work out and I’ll be teaching in front of a classroom full of first graders one day!