Essay 3: Literacy Narrative

Leslie Moreno                                                                                                                                 Moreno 1

Professor Macklin

English 114 A

21, November 2011

Literacy Narrative

            Children start attending school around four years old, and as they grow they start to develop two very important factors in their lives, reading and writing. Kids are told that they must remain in school in order to become someone in this world we live in. Besides graduating with a diploma from at least high school, a person should be able to read and write proper English. I believe that a person does need to know how to read and write in English because it’s the most known language in the U.S.A; person cannot work at a department store only knowing Chinese or Spanish, most people would not understand them. English is not a question of whether you want to learn it or not, it’s a matter of you have to learn it in order to survive. Even for college students, they did not make it to college not knowing English; they needed to develop their English skills in order to make it as far as college. C.S.Lewis wrote, “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.”

            When I was four and I started school, I was scared to attend I didn’t know what to expect. After a while I began to love school because all I really did was play with my friends. As I

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grew older I started to learn more and more English without even knowing it. We would learn it through songs we would sing and games we would play. After years of going to school I started to hate going to school because as the years past I got to play less and less until it got to the point where I didn’t get to play in class. I couldn’t play inside and I could only play for twenty minutes outside, it eventually got to the point where I sat in a desk for most of the day reading different books. I never thought about how I was having the privilege of learning English and other subjects for free. Children from other parts of the world can’t even go to school. Fredrick Douglas once wrote, “During this time, my copy-book was the board fence, brick wall, and pavement; my pen and ink was a lump of chalk. With these I learned mainly how to write.” Fredrick Douglas had to use other objects in order to learn how to read and write English.

Many kids don’t seem to fully understand how important it is to learn English and to take advantage of the free schooling provided.  Even for those kids who graduate from high school, they don’t want to continue their studies and are okay with any job.  The point for us as students is to be able to go further than our parents did to be able to achieve that feeling in life that we accomplished something. It is not an easy road but it is not an impossible one either, for some reason most kids now think it is too hard and so they will not go forth in education. We ourselves make it impossible for being lazy and not wanting to reach a little bit further. They probably believe since they know English they can work something out, and why stop there if you can make life just a bit easier by studying a little bit more. They can have the work they always wanted to work, they can work on something that they truly love to do.

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I believe English is a vital element for any person living in the US, without it people could not survive. When I go to the store they have people speaking English and another language, but their main language is English. A person cannot work at a department store and only speak another language that is not English. In this country we live in, the majority of people speak English; if a costumer were to ask for help and the employee only knew Chinese or Spanish then how would the costumer get what she needs? If the cashier at the cash register only understood Spanish then how would the customers’ pay for their things? Every single job has an English speaking role; the employees must know English to communicate with customers, other employees, and their bosses.  During the Christmas season, such as Black Friday, if a customer has a heart attack or an accident happened where a customer is dying and the ambulance come and ask the employee what happened and the employee only knows Spanish what happens? There might be witnesses but you as an employee is responsible to get every detail of what happened what will you do? It is a very tough world out there and sometimes people don’t get what they want, not because they don’t want it but because they don’t try hard to get it.

            I feel that we as humans have to try to surpass our own abilities and try to surpass our own learning abilities. Humans are known as unique creatures because we have the ability to do things other animals can’t, yet other animals aren’t as dumb as human beings. Animals are known to be at the bottom of the food chain and humans right on top, they are known to have more intelligence than us and I agree. When an animal feels danger it runs the opposite way, yet when a human feels danger it somehow goes towards it, how does that make sense? When the climate changes or the weather becomes really bad animals adapt to their environment in order to survive, we just put on some blankets and a heater and all we are doing is wasting electricity. Then again they don’t have to go to school or learn English and how to write, but I feel it’s the same situation as animals learning how to survive and humans learning to survive. Animals need to learn to adapt to their environment and they need to learn how to survive through different obstacles. I believe humans have to also; we have to learn how to survive on our own, if it means we learn English and be able to write it then so be it. Our brains and bodies are built to learn and grow, why not take advantage of what we have? Most of us might not be rich, we may be poor but we can become rich, we can become someone in life. My parents are poor, they don’t have brand new cars or expensive clothes but they did everything they could so that my sisters and I would live the life we live. I am attending California State University Northridge, I made it to a place no one believed I would make it to and yet here I am, writing an essay on English. English was a stepping stone to my now present day and it will continue to be throughout my future. I thank the people that taught me English, my teachers that helped me have the opportunity to be where I am. Thank you, English.

Excersise 3.3 Argumentive Proposal

Leslie Moreno                                                                                                                        Moreno 1

Professor Macklin

English 114A

15, November 2011

Argumentative Proposal

            English is known as the most known language in the United States. It’s said that to live in this country you must be able to write and read in English. In any job someone applies for they have to know how to speak and write English. It is said that in order to move to a higher living people have to know English. In order for someone to achieve greatness, achieve the “American Dream” they must know English. I agree that in order to survive in this country you need to know English, but I disagree that just by knowing English itself that you will achieve your lifelong goal. People are lazy and they think that just an average job is okay and just by knowing the English language everything is alright, when in fact it is not. Literature is a “steppingstone” for those who want to achieve greatness.

            I read an essay from Greg Lewis called “An open letter to Diversity’s Victims” and as I was reading it I thought I disagreed with him. He wrote about how in the old days in schools they would separate the kids into classes by the language they spoke. If you spoke Spanish you were put in classes where the language they talked in was Spanish. He thought it was unfair that different diversities couldn’t learn to speak English. I agree with him only to that point because afterwards he starts talking about how without English they cannot get a higher job position. I believe the problem is people not knowing English but it’s the people themselves who are the problem.  Many children are raised here and go to school, but it is their problem if they don’t want to continue in their education. In 2011 there were less kids attending college than before, it wasn’t because of money, it was because they were lazy to go any further. Children have to learn that in order to be better in this world they have to work hard and most kids don’t like the “work hard” part. He wrote “Don’t let diversity destroy your soul and rob you of the chance to be who you truly are.” He is right, no one should not reach for success just because of their diversity, and everyone is born into this world with a chance, whether they take it or not it is up to them.

            Julia alvarez wrote Dona Aida, With your Permission, and she may have not had problems with English but what she did is a good example of what I mean. She is an American-Dominican writer and she was a keynote speaker at an annual meeting along with another woman named Aida. Aida spoke in Spanish and she spoke in English. When they were done Aida told her, “It doesn’t seem possible that a Dominican should write in English. Come back to your country, to your language. You are a Dominican.” She replied by telling her that she cannot be a Dominican writer because she was not born there, she is not a true Dominican. I feel that she should have been proud that she is successful and she used her studies to her advantage but I don’t think she should have responded that way. She should have said how proud she was to be a successful English writer proving a Dominican can be successful in English, and that she would be willing to learn more about Dominican so she can be better than how she is. I admire her for her hard work but I wish she could have reached a little further to become greater than she already is.

            Literacy is a big part of the United States and I feel sad many kids do not take the opportunity to continue and become the best that they can be. I hate seeing people on the street and it’s hard to have a good life, but no one said that life was easy. People say this line all the time but what they do not know is that if you try hard life will become easier, maybe not all the time but at least you will not suffer as other people do. Life is tiny seed that with time and good care it will grow to become a beautiful and strong tree. It is hard and a lot of kids don’t like school, I’m not a big fan either but I will push myself to become the best I can be. Life is a huge ocean and in order to cross it to my dream I begin with stepping stones, and one of the first stepping stones are English itself.

Excersise 3.2

With a cup of Starbucks and a book at hand she went upstairs to sit in her usual seat at Barnes and Nobles. The third chair away from the stairs by the window. She cracks open a new book and begins to enter into a new world of imaginations.  While she was in her seat reading a man sat across from her. As she raised her head to observe the man she stopped, she was shocked, and a little startled to see that it was Fredrick Douglass. She said hello and asked him if he had time to talk. And he kindly accepted her request.

Alvarez: It is such an honor to meet you.  I appreciate your essay “The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass” I read your story I admire your motivation and desire for education. It is very inspiring. Thank you again for taking time to talk with me.

Douglass: My pleasure.

As you probably already know i went through a lot to even learn how to read. I had to sneak around; asking little white boys to teach me how to read, in exchange for bread. As i said in my book, "I strongly tempted to give the names of the two or three of those little boys, as a testimonial of the gratitude and affection i bear them..." I was the happiest slave alive.

J: I also read that you had some difficulties after learning how to read

D: I did, I started to question my being a slave and not having the freedom the little white boys had. I used to talk to them about it and i would say to them, “You will be free as soon as you re twenty-one, but i am a slave for life! Have not i as good a right to be free as you have? The little boys used to look at me with sympathy and they would tell me that someday i would be free just as they would be.

J: they were right. You were able to become free and became one of the most famous writers in history. Although if i remember it correctly you only knew how to read. How were you able to find that strength in you, to not only learning to read but, to write as well?

D: At first all i really wanted to do was to be free. I wanted to be free so badly that i started to think of killing myself. I was eager to hear any one speak of slavery. There was a time when i went to Mr. Waters and saw two Irish men unloading a scow of stone. Without asking i went to help them and they asked me if i was a slave. I told them I was and they asked if I was a slave for life, and I told them i was. They then told me it was a shame that a fellow like me had to be a slave for life and told me i should run away to the north and find friends there so i could be free. I pretended i could not understand them because white men were known to trick slaves like this many of the times.

J: trick slaves? What do you mean by trick the slaves?

D: They would encourage the slaves to run away and then catch them and get a reward for catching them. I wanted to learn how to write at that point. I wanted to tell the world what i went through, i wanted the world to know my story. I still wanted to be free of course but i thought until that day i would learn how to write.

J: I understand.

D: Do you really understand?

J: Excuse me?

D: i also read your work. I read your essay "Dona Aida, With Your Permission." I could not understand why you did not want to continue to learn. you wrote in your essay, "I am not a Dominican writer. I have no business writing in a language that i can speak but have not studied deeply enough to craft."

J: I felt that i could not be Dominican writer because i was not a traditional Dominican. "I don't live on the island breathing its daily smells, enduring its particular burdens, speaking its special Dominicano." I was raised with Dominican parents which is the reason i can speak the language, but that did not make me a true Dominican.

D: I could not read and write and yet i managed to do both. You have the resources to learn and become a Dominican writer.

J: It’s not the same as growing up knowing the culture as it is learning it when you are older.

D: Yet, it is not impossible. When i was learning how to write my copy-book was the board fence, brick wall, and the pavement. My pen and ink to write with was a lump of chalk. "with these, I learned mainly how to write."

D: Why have you not embraced freeing yourself in order to become a Dominican  /Latina writer

J: I have both cultures…I am an American Dominican. “To know who I am I have to know where I come from” and that is why I always come back to the island. - Ashley I just put this you can take it out if it’s unnecessary

J: Mr. Douglass I have really learned a lot today about you, more than I could have known through just reading; you are a man of intellect and high motivation. Thank you for sitting and talking to me today.

D: You are welcome and I appreciate the way you have handled the conflicts you have been faced with within your culture. You certainly turned out to be very intellectual, well rounded individual. This conversation with you today has been very great. Hope to see you around. Have a wonderful day.

Excersise 3.1: Argument and Analysis

Leslie Moreno                                                                                                                               Moreno 1

English 114A

Professor Macklin

8, November 2011

Argument and Analysis

            . Have you ever been in a classroom where all anyone did was listening to the teacher talk for an entire hour? Where there ever teachers that did not permit a single student raise their hand to answer a question? In “From Talking to Learners to Talking to Them and with Them; From Listening to Learners to Being Heard by Them” by Paulo Freire, he states that there should be democracy inside a schools classroom. That a student should have the right to his/her own opinion. He says that teachers should teach the learners how to have a democratic classroom so the learners could become democratic themselves.

Paulo said that a teacher should let democracy be allowed in a classroom and that the students should have the right to speak their mind and have opinions on the subject that is being talked about. Paulo says that if teachers talk to learners about democracy them the learners will start speaking about democracy and then the teachers could listen to them speak about democracy. He said, “Speaking to and with the learners is an unpretentious but very positive way for democratic teachers to contribute in their school to the training of responsible and critical citizens, which we need so badly and which is indispensable to the development of our democracy.” One way that a teacher could show the learners how to be democratic would be by using real life experiences going on and discussing it in class so that the students could have their own opinions.

            Paulo Freire is basically saying that there should be a democratic school where the students can be heard and the teacher can teach them how to have their voices heard. I agree that students should be allowed to speak their mind but it seems as though we already do. Whenever I’m in a class and the teacher is discussing they always ask the class what they think about whatever it is that we are doing. In my English class my Professor always asks us what we think of the readings and how we can interpret them. The problem isn’t the teachers teaching democracy the problem is the students opening up to talk their minds and have their opinions heard. Some students hold back from discussing or speaking their opinions in class and they aren’t heard, the question would be why?

 I know that in my English class I don’t talk and I don’t even try to be a part of the discussion. I can’t say I’m scared to speak my mind because I’m not. I can’t speak up because I feel like my response will be wrong and I won’t say the right thing, I feel embarrassed because most of the time I don’t quite fully understand what they talk about in class. Even though I know that my classmates aren’t judge mental and that they will listen to others opinions, I just can’t talk. Maybe because I lack courage or because I feel unsafe to talk something keeps learners from speaking their mind. I can’t help but wonder that the problem is inside every one of us and that maybe the cause is our own minds.  “…such as the disposition to listen to others---not as a favor but as a duty---and to respect them…that nevertheless does not deny anyone who differs in opinion the right to express his or her disagreement…”