String games

                On the first day of classes Lacy gave us some string. At first I thought we were just messing around, but I soon realized the point to the activity. She gave us the string and some instructions on what to do with it. We learned how to do the basics and how to make a cup and saucer. The point to the activity was that we learn that it is okay to make mistakes in this class. Making mistakes helps you as a writer to learn what works best for you. It also helps you learn which way works best for you as a learner.

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.