What life and literacy have shown me so far is that you can’t abandon hope. I’ve learned thatthe world can be a very confusing place, especially if you’re not versed in all of its literacies.
Pasqualin highlights the impact and importance of learning the many different types of literacies the world has to offer. The way he has shared his experience has such power and gives learning the many different types of literacies a new meaning.
itwas just as important that I had a really keen eye and an acute understanding of body language
I’m glad that Pasqualin pointed this out. This is one thing that I don’t think people talk about how important it is to know how to read body language while working in a social setting or any setting in general.
“Don't Panic.” I learned from Douglas Adams that,while I didn't understand why my brother continued to get into trouble, or why my parents didn'twant to be together anymore, or why it seemed I was left alone, it was all okay; things didn't alwaysneed to make sense.
This is a great motto to live by/remember. We live in a world where one small thing could lead us to spiral and question ourselves. Where if a drastic change happens, if we go through something traumatic, or if something just simply doesn’t go the way we plan it to, our own little world just stops. I find that most people try to constantly make sense of it when these things happen, but learning that these things don’t always need to make sense to us can drastically change the way we live our lives.
Iremember she would set up these wild games involving crazy chases through the house just tomatch a picture to the correct spelling of a word. While I did not realize it at the time, these gamesand her attention are probably the reasons why I took to reading as quickly as I did. While myactual love affair with reading and writing did not start until much later,
This makes me wonder, if his mom had taken a different approach to helping him learn, would his love for reading and writing be different or would it be the same? Would it spark his love for a different subject rather than reading and writing?
perhaps to protect myselffrom my doubts, I stopped taking English seriously.
I find that this is common amongst a lot of people. I can even say so for myself, when I wouldn’t do as well as I thought I did on a test or in a class I would get discouraged. It made me grow resentment towards a class I once enjoyed. That led me to procrastinate even more and made me dread doing the work for that class. Although failing can really mess with your head, I think this story points out the importance of determination despite all the discouragement
. That time I did cry,and even went to my English teacher, Mrs. Brown, and asked, "How can I get A's in all my English classesbut fail the writing part of the proficiency test twice?"
Nichols incorporates a little bit of vulnerability to connect with readers. She conveys her experience and emotions in a way that evokes empathy and relatability in the audience. Her vulnerability makes her essay eye catching and makes you want to read more to learn the outcome of her story.
I was smart, and I knew it. That is, until I got the results of theproficiency test
This clearly illustrates how one thing can easily alter your view or feelings towards something. Whether that be your own self confidence, your love for said thing, or even a person/a place. Nichols really sets the tone for her essay, displaying disappointment and self doubt. This helps the audience relate to her work.
I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky
I absolutely admire the amount of courage and determination Alexie has. He was in no way going to let himself succumb and fall into the stereotype of being an indian that was expected to be “stupid.” I think this is a lesson we could all learn from this essay
I read the books my father brought homefrom the pawnshops and secondhand. I read the books I borrowed from the library. I read the backs of cereal boxes. I read the newspaper. I read the bulletinsposted on the walls of the school, the clinic, the tribal offices, the post office. I read junk mail. I read auto-repair manuals. I read magazines. I read anythingthat had words and paragraphs. I read with equal parts joy and desperation. I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying tosave my life.
This really goes to show how one can learn so much from something that might seem so little. I would’ve never guessed that you could learn as much as Alexis did by reading the backs of cereal boxes, bulletin boards, junk mail, etc.
“There has never been a more important time for children to become storytellers, and there have never been so many ways for them to share their stories” (p. 3). Our students and their stories should be an essential part of our teaching. As educators, we need to encourage students to tell their stories and help build community. Each shared story has the potential of teaching us.
I think it is super important for storytelling to be apart of a child’s curriculum. The mind can develop to a great extent through storytelling. It is apart of daily life that I think is often overlooked or taken advantage of.
When students’ lives are taken off the margins and placed in the curriculum, they don’t feel the same need to put down someone else” (p. 7). Students need to feel that their voices matter, that they have a story to contribute or share and that their stories are a rich part of the curriculum
This is true. If we avoid stereotypes, it invites a more comfortable environment for students to share authentic stories. It relieves the pressures and ideas that certain people have to live up to a specific standard or act a certain way.
Students who search their memories for details about an event as they are telling it orally will later find those details easier to capture in writing
It can be hard to find the right words when telling a story orally. For me personally, I often struggle to find the right words to describe certain things, or often myself using the wrong words, so writing it out definitely helps me brainstorm different ways I can describe certain details. It also gives me an opportunity to expand on those details to make the story more captivating or interesting
“there has probably never been a human society in which people did not tell stories”
This is fascinating to think about. If you think about native traditions, you will find that all, if not most, come from story telling. A lot of them are from oral tradition/storytelling, so it’s definitely interesting to think about how far story telling dates back to.