ROG

Rain of Gold Blog Assignment: Write two questions to any of the characters in chapters 18,19 and 20. Ask a question directly to the character, as though you were interviewing him/her about his/her intentions, thoughts, motives, purpose etc. Be prepared to discuss these questions on Tuesday. Then select one quote from each chapter that you want to discuss. Explain WHY you selected this quote and why you want to discuss it in your group on Tuesday.

Dona Guadalupe: why did you drill Juan with all the questions, what was different about Juan than all the other suitors that came to your home , such that of Carlota's?

Juan Salvador: How did you take it when you were losing faith on your friends that didn't support you on your time of need?

Ch18 ""Hold your ground!" yelled Salvador. "You've done nothing wrong! drinking wateris your right! Don't move! We're human beings! Not dogs! Damn it!"" (352)

He uses his bad temper and love for Lupe as his intentions for trying to save Don Victor and Lupe from the fat Anglo. Which earned him some bonus points with Lupe's dad.

CH19""But, sadly, the things of the heart are seldom what the seem.." (423)


CH20 "She grabbed him byt he earand twisted him down to the floor until he was kneeling" (449).

Ch21 "DO YOU HEAR ME?' she screamed, leaping forward and grabbing Jose between the legs by his balls. 'These tanates of yours,' she said, yanking the startled boy by his balls, 'are your responsibility!'"(458)

ch22 "'To water with love and watch your seed grow? And to trust and always be understanding?' continues Dina Guadalupe, still holding onto the clay pot" (489).

Ch23 "Ah bull! Everyone drinks. Next you'll tell me she doesn't fart, eihter" (524).

Ch 24: " This was it; this was indeed, life- la voda" (545).

CH 25 "The two old she-boars looked at each other and started alughing,laughing until they had tears in their eyes" (550).

Critical Thinking

In 300 words or more, write a posting onto your blog on a news item that is interesting to you and examine it from at least two opposing viewpoints. Please describe your opinion on the subject. Post the blog by 11:59 pm on Tuesday, November 24.

The news item that was presented in class was a huge eye opener. If it was pointed out in class, I would have never noticed the difference in scenery. They made the viewers believe what they put together and tried to make their point have a better argument in supporting it with some concrete details. Too bad they got caught on their trickery and apologized for it. Even though they apologized for it they made a "smart a**" remark about the people who put a complaint against it, which I thought was pretty immature. At first when I was watching the segment I was more focused on what I saw and only paying attention to the headline and what was being said often. I based my opinion on the segment based on the footage because I wasn't interested and the speaker's did not really grab my attention. Once the different sceneries were pointed out, that's when i realized the segment did have some "fishy" stuff going around. If it's those minor details that you lack to notice change the whole story or even make the story false then it shows how much most busy americans don't pay attention and how most of our societies views can be mainly based upon lies that they go a wrong impression of a certain subject. If I was a critical thinker and was on my toes like that I could of probably questioned things like that, But since I wasn't really absorbing everything they were saying and on auto-pilot while watching the news segment I got that wrong impression that everyone got, and how the group they were supporting looked like they were true to their word when in reality they "mistakenly" mis-inputted the wrong footage at that same exact time where it would fit. Being a critical thinker would open the eyes of most people and even get people to start asking more questions to our government!

Summary Evaluation

o What was the most challenging part of writing the summary? What was the least challenging? Why?
o Did you get the grade you expected on this summary? Why or why not?
o Based upon my comments, the summary rubric and the concept handout, what do you think your strengths are?
o How will you improve for the next summary?

The most challenging part of the summary for me was to know how to use the transitions smoothly. I had trouble trying to find a good flow for my summary to not have it repetitive. Grabbing the things I wrote in my outline had to be altered and edited to make it fit and to make sense in my summary. The least challenging part of the summary was relating to it. It was an interesting topic to summarize because I can relate to it and I have experienced what Tan was talking about. I received the grade that I was anticipating. If I revised it thoroughly maybe I would of caught on to the changes that Susie wanted me to make and receive a slightly higher one, but overall I was satisfied with the grade I received. My strengths based on Susie's comments seemed to be the summarizing and paraphrasing portion. I seemed to capture Tan's ideas in my summary. I believe in this because of that connection I mentioned earlier, if I couldn't understand or relate to what Tan was writing about I wouldn't of been able to re-illistrate her ideas. On the next summary I will probably improve in taking the reading concept handouts and focusing on structuring my summary on the tips that they give. I feel if I focus more on the tips and format the Reading Concept Handouts inform me about then my summaries should be stronger.

reading response

In the text "Feminists Shouldn't Be a Dirty Word," by Christina Libby I disagree that feminism was being discriminated on, because in her essay she states that the random students she interviewed agreed that they weren't feminist but also said they weren't against feminist ideas. I wasn't convinced enough that feminism was marked as a "dirty word." Libby seemed to implied, to me, that she expected everyone to have a straight answer on her question, rather than being ignorant about it. I feel that the students couldn't answer her question was because they didn't really know the concept of feminism to acknowledge whether they feminists or not feminists. The lack of knowledge from the students is what frustrates Libby the most because that would be the reason why she couldn't get a straight answer. Libby although does provide reasons why there are not more self identified feminists. She mentions the views that other people give towards it, how some see it as a group of "man-haters." There are views on the type of characteristics they have that they are ferocious, passionate, loud. Many others who are mostly men say that it is only for womyn. Because of the word feme the random public automatically assume that it is limited to only womyn, and womyn only. Libby feels that more people should identify themselves as feminists because feminism is all about giving people a choice, giving people opportunities that don't suppress them by sexism, sex exploitation and any other kind of oppression. Libby wants the random people she interviewed to know that just because feminists are majority of womyn, mostly womyn who felt that oppression or were ruled over that oppression because of their gender doesn't mean that men cant feel that same way. She means that men are open to feminism because it affects them too, that men can be oppressed by their gender, sex exploitation and sexism. She wants people to know that feminism is a group of PEOPLE that give those who are oppressed in any way a choice.

memorizing

Blog on the most valuable technique learned from Chapter 8. Can you use it in all types of memorization? If so, why and if not, why not?

The most valuable technique that I read in this chapter is the way, you can manipulate it. I can't remember anything or learn anything just by reading it, if I read then i would have to put little side notes on the material to make sure I'm understanding it. For math, I can't just read the chapter, I would have to read the chapter then when I am done reading and annotating the chapter I would have to practice the problems to make sure I understand what the concept of the chapter is. Another good point that this section of the chapter pointed out is to disect whatever the part you are trying to memorize. Pull it apart and put it together in a way you can understand, which ties in with the techniques of personalizing, and making it stick type of memorization. I feel like all of these techniques are all valuable because in a way they all connect with each other. Because most of the techniques tell you to break it down, connect with it, and then let it make sense in you head to have it imprinted naturally. I feel that for me I can only memorize something if I can learn to understand it. If i can break it apart and connect with whatever i have t memorize i'll usually remember it but if I just tried cramming and just trying to memorize it without knowing or having any idea what it is about then 99.9% of the time I won't be able to remember it or apply anything to it because I did not make that connection with it or did not try to understand what i was mainly suppose to be doing. I can only memorize something if i have practiced it and applied it to whatever i had to be doing and actually learn what it is I am suppose to be focused on. Cramming is never a good solution that i can do because it rarely works, the times it does the work you can try asking me anything about it and i wouldn't be able to answer you. Since most of the time it doesn't work instead of cramming most of the time i would just accept the fact that i wasn't prepared and not attempt to rush through my learning process. The most efficient way for me to remember anything is if I learn and understand it first.

Transfer Motivational conference

In 300 words or more, write a posting onto your blog about the biggest highlight of the transfer Motivational Conference for you? You may want to discuss the workshops you attended, the she speakers, or your experience in meeting other Puente students. You can also include photos in your post. Please post the blog by the beginning of class Tuesday, November 10.

The Transfer Motivational Conference, TMC, gave me a better insight on what schools to look at or I would be interested in. I talked to majority of the schools that had their tables and asked them why would I pick your school.. Some were taken back on my question and others answered my question gracefully. It was good to hear what they had to offer in order for me to pick which school best suited for me. The conference was pretty fun, getting to see the roll call and other schools show their puente pride. One of the workshops we attended was the Women's Independence one and the speaker had a good story to share with the students about her journey. She had a great sense of humor but most of her jokes were said in spanish words or phrases so I felt kind of secluded while everyone was laughing and there I was clueless. I know puente was founded by chicano students and is more focused on the Latino students but when speakers would come up and talk about opportunities it was more focused on latino students, I felt like their main focus was to boost up the latino culture. I see nothing wrong with that but I guess I want that same connection with my culture to feel what majority of my classmates felt with that connection with their same "gente." During parts of the conference I felt somewhat out of place but tried my best to make connections to what the speakers were saying.

P.S. word travels fast in Sac Town (Alicia and I would know ;) )

Anzaldua's Blog Response 2

Anzaldua inserts her own language in her writing. She lists down examples of what type of language latinos use.The way she wrote it was more like and instruction manual. She showed how to pronounce certain word, food about their culture, movies and music that was created by latinos. She describes how with their language even though they were looked down upon made their culture stronger and how today t is one of the dominant cultures here. She basically states her opinions than provide proven facts to support her thesis. In the beginning she uses a metaphor to describe what she is talking about. She proves that without speaking out and stepping out out of your comfort zone that latinos got their chance to publish books, star in movies, and sing on records. "We are you linguistic nightmare, your linguistic aberration, your linguistic mestijae, te subject of your burla" (paragraph 21, Anzaldua). She indicates more of what she views of how their language is percived here.

Anzaldua Blog Response

2. Write about a time when you felt that someone in authority tried to silence you or criticize the way you spoke.

My cousin Kevin and I were both born in the United States and all my other older cousins were born in the Philippines. Kevin and I were the only one’s living with our parents and other aunts and uncles at the time because everyone else kids including our older siblings were still in the process of coming to America. I grew up in a house filled with four of my mom’s sisters and two of her brothers, my dad’s sister, and maybe five other people who came from the Philippines that my family took in, so it was rather crowded. I learned the way they spoke and our true dialect but I was still deeply influenced with the workings of Sesame Street, Barney, and Banana’s in Pajamas educating me on how to truly speak English, but my English was still not proper enough, it would have been considered “broken.” The summer before hitting third grade our family headed back to the Philippines for my grandparents’ 50th anniversary. We spent three months there, my cousins there were shy to communicate with Kevin and me because they didn’t want to sound dumb attempting to speak English or they had no clue. Kevin and I decided to adjust for them and speak what we still knew of our dialect, but they laughed at us or made fun of us because our Filipino accent was replaced by this “stiff” American tongue. My grandmother get irritated with us when we would speak to her and mispronounce a word, she would impersonate us and have all our older cousins tease us about how we’re not considered Filipino anymore; that we misplaced our culture somewhere drowned in those stars and stripes; feeling misplaced, unidentified by my own culture and family! By the end of the three months our tongues loosened up adjusting to our native language when getting back to school we realized that kids would comment on the way we spoke. One of the girls in my class told me I talked funny and sounded out words like how her grandmother would have done it. Frustrated not knowing where I stood. Questioning myself should I adjust again to the “proper” English I can relearn, or would that mean my family was right that I was replacing my native tongue, betraying my family’s culture…