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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Independent Blogpost #1

         Recently, I have found myself dreaming of independence. All my life, someone has been telling me what to do and how to do them. I have always tried to live up to people's expectations but I would like to find my own person. I realize that I am unique and that at the end of the day, I should be happy. To accomplish this dream, I am trying to find my niche or  on which I can expand upon. Also I have become more assertive in general. I am trying to come up with ideas for me to have a kind of steady income such as tutoring, therefore; I will not need to be as dependent on my mom for somethings and be able to help when I can. With time I hope to be as independent as possible.

Senate Debate



Assignment/Activity Title— Senate Debate Year—Freshman
Skill—  research, analysis, strong arguing Portfolio Category— Critical Thinking
  
The Senate Debate on whether to provide arms to England during the beginning of World War 2 was a very educational experience which has expanded my thinking in many ways. This helped me in learning how to formulate arguments. Since we did this in debate style, there were many things that I had to do that are not really necessary in an essay. With a debate, I have to state my opinion from the beginning and remain concise because I might not be called on again. Also I need to make sure that I know all about what I am going to say because there are people to refute me as soon as I am finished which would damage my credibility. I also learned how to place my arguments. With debates, one cannot simply go back and re-read, therefore I place my strongest argument last because it will  be last to leave the memory. It also benefits if you can comment last. Lastly, this taught me to look at things from the other perspective. In debating, it is not guaranteed that you will get to speak twice, or directly after your opponent, therefore you need to refute what your opponent says before they say it. This skills can be very useful in future research and essays such as the critical thinking paper.

Harlem Webquest



Assignment/Activity Title— Harlem Webquest     Year—Freshman
Skill— Presentation, research      Portfolio Category— Social Awareness
During the Harlem webquest assignment I learned a lot of things about the Harlem Renaissance and the ideas surrounding it. During this project we were asked to search the internet to find out about the Harlem Renaissance. We had to find out about the history in general, the art/literature of the time, and the politics to create a brochure. We also had to read a poem in front of the class.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Cinematic Analysis (Quarter One)



Assignment/Activity Title— Quarter 1 Cinematic Analysis Year—Freshman Skill— Writing, analysis, media, research Portfolio Category— Media and Communications


The first Quarter cinematic analysis asks each student to watch a film from or set in the Gilded/Progressive era and give a plot summary, a historiography, and analyze the basic hooks of the movie. My first Cinematic Analysis with Quiz show was not my best work. I did not know how to connect the plot summary to a theme without being redundant. After receiving my grade and looking over the plot summary, I realized that it was very bland. With my next cinematic analysis I made as many relations to the theme as I could to try to make the plot summary more interesting. It was during this process that i realized how many things a film has to portray it’s theme. Even the smallest aspects of the film portrays the theme.

W.E.B. Du Bois vs. Booker T. Washington



Assignment/Activity Title— W.E.B. Du Bois vs. Booker T. Washington Essay
Year—Freshman Skill— Research, Writing Portfolio Category— Critical Thinking
The W.E.B. Du Bois vs. Booker T. Washington essay was the first essay that I had been assigned in Mr. Grossman’s class. During this period, I was learning a lot about reconstruction and how African Americans were affected by the ending of reconstruction. Many of the things that I was learning appalled me because I did not know that things were so bad. We also touched on the different methods African Americans believed would grant them equal rights.