Reflection 1
Wow what a crazy two weeks! Well I have to stay that critical reading 101 isn’t what I expected it to be, but thats not necessarily a bad thing. It seems to me that my fellow classmates are making this class a lot harder than it needs to be. For example, and I might be over analyzing things, this is a critical reading online class so we will be expected to have some critical reading skill to begin with. Also, the directions for the assignment aren’t confusing, but you kind of have to interrupt what is being asked from us. My service learning project has had some hiccups, but I haven’t given up yet. I had a plan to volunteer at Paz de Cristo which is a food bank/ food the homeless organization. Since I have volunteered there before I was pretty confident that I could just walk in and set up the days I wanted to go in, like I did before. Little did I know that they have had so many people volunteering their time, due to the recession, that now there is a waiting list. So after Paz De Cristo became a bust for this class I had to go to plan B, which was volunteering at a museum or art center in downtown mesa. Once again failure was upon me. Summer hours and holiday weekends have limited the hours that these place are open, so I did the only thing I could do which was to send e-mails and left messages. I also went down to the United Food Bank on Mesa Drive and Baseline along with the Salvation Army yesterday, but they were also closed. Hopefully next week will produce some better result.
Reflection 3
The media today can affect what we read in to different ways. The media can have a positive effect on what we read by reporting the truth. Unfortunately, more times than not I feel the media fills us with lies and fabricated stories. The media, like most of the world, is conceded about one thing and that is making money. This means they will sell the juiciest stories regardless of the legitimacies of a story. I’m not sure how much the media has affected St. Vincent de Paul because I just met with them last week and my first day will be tomorrow. I do know that I found out about St. Vincent de Paul through the internet so in that way I feel the media has affect them in a positive way by reacting a wider audience in the technological era. This is something I will have to dig deep into. I finally did find a place to volunteer and yes as the precious sentence stated it is St. Vince de Paul. I met with Mike last week on Tuesday and everything seems to be good. Mike and I filled out the proper paper work and talked about things like what I was going to school for, what my availability would be, and where they needed the most help. As I told Mike I am going to school to be a teacher so he brought up that they might need help with tutoring and doing activities with the kids, which would be a great experience for me. Mike also said they always need help in the kitchen so I’m sure there will be lots for me to do.
Reflection 4
This week was a good week at St. Vincent de Paul because I had my first day of service learning. Monday at four o’ clock after I got off of work I drove straight to the charity dining room in downtown Phoenix. When I got there it was a little confusing because Mike, the guy I spoke to originally, said he was going to e-mail me a schedule of when I would be coming in, but I never received that. I did get a call from a lady, whose name I cannot remember at this time, asking if I could come in on Monday to help out. Anyways, after I clocked in the lady walked me over to the dining room where I would be helping out for the night. The first person I meet in the dining room was Susan. Who is also a volunteer who helps out every Monday. From what I noticed she seem to be the head volunteer, so she is above the normal volunteer, but not quite a supervisor. Susan was very nice and she showed me and another volunteer what we would be doing for dinner, which was helping out at the salad bar. For about an hour and a half we scooped peaches, cottage cheese, salad, vegetables, cheese, and ham, which was a cake walk. After that I help with the trash. This involved empting trash cans and throwing them into the compactor and then putting trash bags into the empty trash cans so they would be ready for the next day. That pretty much sums up my two hours at St. Vincent de Paul’s. Also, I did get a set schedule. After next week I will be going in at four pm Monday, Thursday, and Friday until six.
Reflection 5
This week I didn’t have any volunteer work to complete, but I did get a concrete schedule. So this week wasn’t a totally lost. Basically it looks like I’m going to be volunteer Monday, Thursdays, and Fridays for the next month and if it is something that I really enjoy I will continue to volunteer on Mondays. Chapter five discusses the patterns of paragraph. One pattern is the chronological order which refers to the order in which events happens. Another pattern is the spatial order which refers to the arrangement of details observed in an environment. Deductive order is where the main idea is stated directly at the beginning of a passage followed by explanatory material. The final pattern is the Inductive order, which is the inverse of deductive order. In Inductive order involves a series of specific observations leading to a main idea that reader can validly infer from those statements.
Reflection 6
This week at St.Vincent de Paul was a slow week. First off there were about twenty-five to thirty people, so as you can image it was pretty busy. When I got there around four everyone had already set up the tables and there were about a dozen people filling up pitchers of juice and water. Next we got in a big group and for some reason we decided to pray, I choose not to participate because I felt it was irrelevant to volunteering which was why I was there. After the prayed the head volunteer lady gave everyone a job. I unfortunately was last so I got the easier job at least that is what I felt. My job was to take the demographic, which was basically count the people who attended the dinner. For example if they were male or female, if there were an adult or child, and thier ethnicity. In this week’s reading chapter six I learned about language and its effects on the reader (p. 188). I also learned the difference between denotation and connotation (p. 189). Denotation is when the literal or explicit of a word; often called the dictionary definition. Connotation is the cluster of suggestions, ideas, or emotional associations a word carries (p. 189).
Developing Critical Reading Skills. Deanne Spers. Lisa Moore, 2009.
Reflection 7
This week was an easy week because I was not scheduled for any volunteer work. After last week wasting two hours of my time I figured it would be best if I didn’t go on Thursday or Fridays and just stick to Mondays since that is when I am most productive. It’s nice not having to drive over there, but I do look forward to returning this week to continue my service learning. This week I learned about tone, point of view, and allusion which chapter seven discusses. Tone which is feeling or emotional quality a piece of writing conveys to the reader (p.239). This basically is how we change the pitch of voice, or tone of voice, or expression in our face (p.239). For me I feel this is the most difficult thing to portray in my writing and even when I’m reading a book, magazine, or something on the web I have a hard time pick out the tone of something. I guess it’s just one of those things that the more you practice reading a writing the easier it becomes to identify it. Point of view refers to the writer’s attitude toward or position on a subject, his or her stance (p. 238). When the author gives her or his opinion on an issue, place, whether, etc. Allusion is a pointed and meaningful reference to something outside the text, which helps illuminate the subject (p.266). The allusion may be from any field, such as the Bible, history, or pop culture (p.266).
Developing Critical Reading Skills. Deanne Spers. Lisa Moore, 2009. Chapter 7.
Reflection 8
Wow what a week! Between work, school, volunteering, and of course the random detours throughout the week, there just no time to stop and smell the roses. Nine week in and I must say this class, and my others, are not what I expected. But I wouldn’t neccesaraily say it’s a bad thing. Anyways, it was another week a St. Vincent de Paul, but this time I got to do something new. First when I got there I noticed all new faces, which turned out to be a good thing because I got to do something new. The hot station is where I was placed. Basically every person who goes to the dinner gets to go through the salad bar and then they get a hot plate. Usually it consists of a meat of some kind, a vegetable, a starch, slice of bread, and a cookie. Since there was some confusion this week about if were we going to be in a group or not I didn’t get to start on Project Hope. My group that I formed had three people, but since we don’t have to do a group my group disbanded, so hopefully next week will be a success. This week in Developing Critical Reading skill we learned about elements of critical reading- analyzing the argument. Something new I learned was the change of Fact, which is “Blueberries contain antioxidants that help prevent cancer, Claims of value, which “Blueberry muffins taste better than bran muffins, Claims of Policy, which “All cities should follow the example of Oakdale and ban the use of plastic shopping bags.
Reflection 9
Well another week down, which means one week closer to finishing. Still no volunteering this week. My next visit is on Monday, so hopefully I can still get enough hours in before the end of the semester. I wish I could say this class is getting easier, but unfortunately it is not with my optimistic eyes wide open I hope the confusion will fade somewhat. This week in Developing Critical Reading Skills, chapter nine, I learned about problems in critical reading- evaluating arguments. A few key terms I learned were inductive argument and deductive reasoning. “An inductive argument is built upon a set of facts derived from observation or experience that serve as evidence and that lead to a conclusion” (Developing p.336). Deductive argument moves from general to specific; in other words, it moves from reason to conclusion or to specific application with certainty (Developing p.339). Also, I learned about appeals in arguments, which is something I have never heard of.” Appeals are something that makes an argument attractive, worth considering or plausible” (Developing p.348). Some appeals are emotional appeal, appeal to patriotism, appeal to tradition, and etc. Even though you may not be able to point this out, they are all around use and seen every day.
Developing Critical Reading Skills. Deanne Spears. Published by McGraw-Hill. 2009
Reflection 10
Busy is an understatement. Just when I was getting into the grove of the semester I get hit with a curve ball, but nevertheless change is always good. Another fun week at St. Vincent De Paul, this time I got to take orders and serve. Luckily I went on Halloween so things were pretty slow, which made it nice to serve people on a slow night so I could get the hang of things. It was also a fun night because everyone was dressed up in their customers. Even the cute little babies had the Halloween costumes on. But this does make the half way point for my service learning now I just have every Monday until the week of December 5 and then I should have all my hours. Also, this was a research kind of week. Looking for everything from speeches to statics on teen pregnancy to more searches on my issue and don’t forget another cartoon to round off all the research.” In Developing Critical Reading Skills I learned and practical applications in evaluating arguments” (Developing). “Some key points I learned were to analyze advertisements and public service announcements, political cartoons, political speeches, and websites” (Developing).” When analyzing advertisements you use some of the same techniques. For example, you ask yourself what is the subject, who or what is being depicted. What is the action, what is happening and what is the significance of what’s happening? What is the arrangement, what is in the foreground?” (Developing)
Developing Critical Reading Skills. Deanne Spears. Published by McGraw-Hill. 2009
Reflection 11
Well, what a semester and class. I hope a few weeks from now I can look at a passing grade, and look back and finally breathe. From week one, when I had no clue on what to expect, I can honestly say this class has been an experiment. Reading has never been my favorite subject and unfortunately or fortunately, depending who you are and how you look at it, I can say that has changed either. Over the last four weeks I learned practical applications in evaluating arguments. In our book it says to, “Use a certain criteria when examining advertisements”. These techniques include looking for the subject, action, the arrangement, etc (p.390). These same techniques can be applied to any kind of media, photos, movies, speeches, etc. For me nothing was a review this was all new things for me. I feel now that I can be somewhat more aware of valid argument. I think understanding the emotional and symbolic overtones is the most important tool to be used to validate argument and anything else for that matter, because if you can understand that then you will be able to understand the authors real message.
The best thing about this class was the service learning portion. Without a doubt more classes should participate in some kind of service learning activities. It not only changes up the receptiveness of your normal class work but you will be helping out your community and doing something nice for others. Not to mention that it can be a great way to get your name out there and build relationships in a field that students are trying to make a career in. I know for me I always wanted to volunteer, but I always made an excuse not to. Whether it was not having any free time, doing things for myself, or just being lazy I found myself trying to get out of, rather than making any effort to get in it. With the twenty hours that were required it really was a burden on my schedule. I simply just went to my organization every Monday for about two months for two hours every time. Imagine if everyone took two hours from there day, one day a week. The social issue that could be reduced, or even eliminated, would be remarkable. I would like to take a moment now and reflect on this semester. First, I would like to talk about the pros of the class. First is the service learning project. I really enjoyed volunteering and helping out in my community. Second, I liked the concept of making a website throughout the semester. Now, for the cons, I felt as though there wasn’t a teacher student connection. I know it was an internet class so communication would be subs pare, but I would have liked more feedback, more this is what I did right or wrong. By the lack of this I felt as through my work was affected. Sure I can read a book and write down what I interrupted from my reading but I don’t really have a sense of if I was doing assignment, project, test, etc. right or wrong.
Developing Critical Reading Skills. Deanne Spers. Lisa Moore, 2009.
Wow what a crazy two weeks! Well I have to stay that critical reading 101 isn’t what I expected it to be, but thats not necessarily a bad thing. It seems to me that my fellow classmates are making this class a lot harder than it needs to be. For example, and I might be over analyzing things, this is a critical reading online class so we will be expected to have some critical reading skill to begin with. Also, the directions for the assignment aren’t confusing, but you kind of have to interrupt what is being asked from us. My service learning project has had some hiccups, but I haven’t given up yet. I had a plan to volunteer at Paz de Cristo which is a food bank/ food the homeless organization. Since I have volunteered there before I was pretty confident that I could just walk in and set up the days I wanted to go in, like I did before. Little did I know that they have had so many people volunteering their time, due to the recession, that now there is a waiting list. So after Paz De Cristo became a bust for this class I had to go to plan B, which was volunteering at a museum or art center in downtown mesa. Once again failure was upon me. Summer hours and holiday weekends have limited the hours that these place are open, so I did the only thing I could do which was to send e-mails and left messages. I also went down to the United Food Bank on Mesa Drive and Baseline along with the Salvation Army yesterday, but they were also closed. Hopefully next week will produce some better result.
Reflection 3
The media today can affect what we read in to different ways. The media can have a positive effect on what we read by reporting the truth. Unfortunately, more times than not I feel the media fills us with lies and fabricated stories. The media, like most of the world, is conceded about one thing and that is making money. This means they will sell the juiciest stories regardless of the legitimacies of a story. I’m not sure how much the media has affected St. Vincent de Paul because I just met with them last week and my first day will be tomorrow. I do know that I found out about St. Vincent de Paul through the internet so in that way I feel the media has affect them in a positive way by reacting a wider audience in the technological era. This is something I will have to dig deep into. I finally did find a place to volunteer and yes as the precious sentence stated it is St. Vince de Paul. I met with Mike last week on Tuesday and everything seems to be good. Mike and I filled out the proper paper work and talked about things like what I was going to school for, what my availability would be, and where they needed the most help. As I told Mike I am going to school to be a teacher so he brought up that they might need help with tutoring and doing activities with the kids, which would be a great experience for me. Mike also said they always need help in the kitchen so I’m sure there will be lots for me to do.
Reflection 4
This week was a good week at St. Vincent de Paul because I had my first day of service learning. Monday at four o’ clock after I got off of work I drove straight to the charity dining room in downtown Phoenix. When I got there it was a little confusing because Mike, the guy I spoke to originally, said he was going to e-mail me a schedule of when I would be coming in, but I never received that. I did get a call from a lady, whose name I cannot remember at this time, asking if I could come in on Monday to help out. Anyways, after I clocked in the lady walked me over to the dining room where I would be helping out for the night. The first person I meet in the dining room was Susan. Who is also a volunteer who helps out every Monday. From what I noticed she seem to be the head volunteer, so she is above the normal volunteer, but not quite a supervisor. Susan was very nice and she showed me and another volunteer what we would be doing for dinner, which was helping out at the salad bar. For about an hour and a half we scooped peaches, cottage cheese, salad, vegetables, cheese, and ham, which was a cake walk. After that I help with the trash. This involved empting trash cans and throwing them into the compactor and then putting trash bags into the empty trash cans so they would be ready for the next day. That pretty much sums up my two hours at St. Vincent de Paul’s. Also, I did get a set schedule. After next week I will be going in at four pm Monday, Thursday, and Friday until six.
Reflection 5
This week I didn’t have any volunteer work to complete, but I did get a concrete schedule. So this week wasn’t a totally lost. Basically it looks like I’m going to be volunteer Monday, Thursdays, and Fridays for the next month and if it is something that I really enjoy I will continue to volunteer on Mondays. Chapter five discusses the patterns of paragraph. One pattern is the chronological order which refers to the order in which events happens. Another pattern is the spatial order which refers to the arrangement of details observed in an environment. Deductive order is where the main idea is stated directly at the beginning of a passage followed by explanatory material. The final pattern is the Inductive order, which is the inverse of deductive order. In Inductive order involves a series of specific observations leading to a main idea that reader can validly infer from those statements.
Reflection 6
This week at St.Vincent de Paul was a slow week. First off there were about twenty-five to thirty people, so as you can image it was pretty busy. When I got there around four everyone had already set up the tables and there were about a dozen people filling up pitchers of juice and water. Next we got in a big group and for some reason we decided to pray, I choose not to participate because I felt it was irrelevant to volunteering which was why I was there. After the prayed the head volunteer lady gave everyone a job. I unfortunately was last so I got the easier job at least that is what I felt. My job was to take the demographic, which was basically count the people who attended the dinner. For example if they were male or female, if there were an adult or child, and thier ethnicity. In this week’s reading chapter six I learned about language and its effects on the reader (p. 188). I also learned the difference between denotation and connotation (p. 189). Denotation is when the literal or explicit of a word; often called the dictionary definition. Connotation is the cluster of suggestions, ideas, or emotional associations a word carries (p. 189).
Developing Critical Reading Skills. Deanne Spers. Lisa Moore, 2009.
Reflection 7
This week was an easy week because I was not scheduled for any volunteer work. After last week wasting two hours of my time I figured it would be best if I didn’t go on Thursday or Fridays and just stick to Mondays since that is when I am most productive. It’s nice not having to drive over there, but I do look forward to returning this week to continue my service learning. This week I learned about tone, point of view, and allusion which chapter seven discusses. Tone which is feeling or emotional quality a piece of writing conveys to the reader (p.239). This basically is how we change the pitch of voice, or tone of voice, or expression in our face (p.239). For me I feel this is the most difficult thing to portray in my writing and even when I’m reading a book, magazine, or something on the web I have a hard time pick out the tone of something. I guess it’s just one of those things that the more you practice reading a writing the easier it becomes to identify it. Point of view refers to the writer’s attitude toward or position on a subject, his or her stance (p. 238). When the author gives her or his opinion on an issue, place, whether, etc. Allusion is a pointed and meaningful reference to something outside the text, which helps illuminate the subject (p.266). The allusion may be from any field, such as the Bible, history, or pop culture (p.266).
Developing Critical Reading Skills. Deanne Spers. Lisa Moore, 2009. Chapter 7.
Reflection 8
Wow what a week! Between work, school, volunteering, and of course the random detours throughout the week, there just no time to stop and smell the roses. Nine week in and I must say this class, and my others, are not what I expected. But I wouldn’t neccesaraily say it’s a bad thing. Anyways, it was another week a St. Vincent de Paul, but this time I got to do something new. First when I got there I noticed all new faces, which turned out to be a good thing because I got to do something new. The hot station is where I was placed. Basically every person who goes to the dinner gets to go through the salad bar and then they get a hot plate. Usually it consists of a meat of some kind, a vegetable, a starch, slice of bread, and a cookie. Since there was some confusion this week about if were we going to be in a group or not I didn’t get to start on Project Hope. My group that I formed had three people, but since we don’t have to do a group my group disbanded, so hopefully next week will be a success. This week in Developing Critical Reading skill we learned about elements of critical reading- analyzing the argument. Something new I learned was the change of Fact, which is “Blueberries contain antioxidants that help prevent cancer, Claims of value, which “Blueberry muffins taste better than bran muffins, Claims of Policy, which “All cities should follow the example of Oakdale and ban the use of plastic shopping bags.
Reflection 9
Well another week down, which means one week closer to finishing. Still no volunteering this week. My next visit is on Monday, so hopefully I can still get enough hours in before the end of the semester. I wish I could say this class is getting easier, but unfortunately it is not with my optimistic eyes wide open I hope the confusion will fade somewhat. This week in Developing Critical Reading Skills, chapter nine, I learned about problems in critical reading- evaluating arguments. A few key terms I learned were inductive argument and deductive reasoning. “An inductive argument is built upon a set of facts derived from observation or experience that serve as evidence and that lead to a conclusion” (Developing p.336). Deductive argument moves from general to specific; in other words, it moves from reason to conclusion or to specific application with certainty (Developing p.339). Also, I learned about appeals in arguments, which is something I have never heard of.” Appeals are something that makes an argument attractive, worth considering or plausible” (Developing p.348). Some appeals are emotional appeal, appeal to patriotism, appeal to tradition, and etc. Even though you may not be able to point this out, they are all around use and seen every day.
Developing Critical Reading Skills. Deanne Spears. Published by McGraw-Hill. 2009
Reflection 10
Busy is an understatement. Just when I was getting into the grove of the semester I get hit with a curve ball, but nevertheless change is always good. Another fun week at St. Vincent De Paul, this time I got to take orders and serve. Luckily I went on Halloween so things were pretty slow, which made it nice to serve people on a slow night so I could get the hang of things. It was also a fun night because everyone was dressed up in their customers. Even the cute little babies had the Halloween costumes on. But this does make the half way point for my service learning now I just have every Monday until the week of December 5 and then I should have all my hours. Also, this was a research kind of week. Looking for everything from speeches to statics on teen pregnancy to more searches on my issue and don’t forget another cartoon to round off all the research.” In Developing Critical Reading Skills I learned and practical applications in evaluating arguments” (Developing). “Some key points I learned were to analyze advertisements and public service announcements, political cartoons, political speeches, and websites” (Developing).” When analyzing advertisements you use some of the same techniques. For example, you ask yourself what is the subject, who or what is being depicted. What is the action, what is happening and what is the significance of what’s happening? What is the arrangement, what is in the foreground?” (Developing)
Developing Critical Reading Skills. Deanne Spears. Published by McGraw-Hill. 2009
Reflection 11
Well, what a semester and class. I hope a few weeks from now I can look at a passing grade, and look back and finally breathe. From week one, when I had no clue on what to expect, I can honestly say this class has been an experiment. Reading has never been my favorite subject and unfortunately or fortunately, depending who you are and how you look at it, I can say that has changed either. Over the last four weeks I learned practical applications in evaluating arguments. In our book it says to, “Use a certain criteria when examining advertisements”. These techniques include looking for the subject, action, the arrangement, etc (p.390). These same techniques can be applied to any kind of media, photos, movies, speeches, etc. For me nothing was a review this was all new things for me. I feel now that I can be somewhat more aware of valid argument. I think understanding the emotional and symbolic overtones is the most important tool to be used to validate argument and anything else for that matter, because if you can understand that then you will be able to understand the authors real message.
The best thing about this class was the service learning portion. Without a doubt more classes should participate in some kind of service learning activities. It not only changes up the receptiveness of your normal class work but you will be helping out your community and doing something nice for others. Not to mention that it can be a great way to get your name out there and build relationships in a field that students are trying to make a career in. I know for me I always wanted to volunteer, but I always made an excuse not to. Whether it was not having any free time, doing things for myself, or just being lazy I found myself trying to get out of, rather than making any effort to get in it. With the twenty hours that were required it really was a burden on my schedule. I simply just went to my organization every Monday for about two months for two hours every time. Imagine if everyone took two hours from there day, one day a week. The social issue that could be reduced, or even eliminated, would be remarkable. I would like to take a moment now and reflect on this semester. First, I would like to talk about the pros of the class. First is the service learning project. I really enjoyed volunteering and helping out in my community. Second, I liked the concept of making a website throughout the semester. Now, for the cons, I felt as though there wasn’t a teacher student connection. I know it was an internet class so communication would be subs pare, but I would have liked more feedback, more this is what I did right or wrong. By the lack of this I felt as through my work was affected. Sure I can read a book and write down what I interrupted from my reading but I don’t really have a sense of if I was doing assignment, project, test, etc. right or wrong.
Developing Critical Reading Skills. Deanne Spers. Lisa Moore, 2009.