Week 13: Into Paragraph

A main problem that students have with University of Lafayette at Louisiana is the extensive amounts of money they have to pay. Some students have parents who can afford to pay for their tuition and other needs and wants, but many students are mostly or completely their own. With the overpriced food on campus, school supplies, parking, and tuition being paid, many people are struggling to just get by. If the pricing doesn't go down on these things, then many students will be forced to drop out of college, leaving them with no higher formal education. Also, many high school graduates will not be able to attend this college because they don't have the money for it. I think that if ULL wants to stay a great college like it has been, then they will need to lower prices in order for people to be able to pay easier and not have to be stressed or worried that they won't have enough money.

Week 12: A Week in the Life of a Part-Time Teacher

1. I think that the reason the teacher was "acting like an ass" was most likely because they were going through the same problems that Claitor was, but that gives them no right to act that way.
a). One thing that they could do is get all of the students' work schedules and be aware of the things they have to deal with in their lives on a daily basis. Then, you could show that to the head of the school and try to make them realize that these students need this schooling and deserve it because they are trying so hard.
       i). I think that if the teachers and students sat down and wrote out the schedules and their other life issues, then presented it, it would be easier to make them understand. And with giving them their schedules, they could work out a time for them to go that fit their schedule.
b). Another thing that they could do is have online classes. Teachers could put all of the material on a website and the students could go there whenever they had time and could do their work and send it in over the computer. If they had questions, they could Skype the teachers, because that is what they do sometimes at UL.
       i). There would be many complications of that, though. Sometimes the internet would be down, or they might not have enough time in their day to get the work done, the teacher might not be available to get onto Skype if the student has a problem, and some students might not even have computers or be able to afford internet.

2. It affects her students because they trust her and feel comfortable with her teaching them. With the example she gives of a student being upset when finding out that she won't be able to teach the next class he's in, it shows that they look forward to going to her class and learning from her and when you're that comfortable, you will open up and want to learn more and that benefits the students if they have a teacher like that.

3. a). One change they would make would be to keep the teacher, Claitor, around.
i). I think it would work out fine. If it worked in the past, it should still work now. Claitor would be getting paid, and the college would also still be getting paid because of the students attending.
b). Another thing they could propose would be to possibly have more classrooms.
i). This change would probably cost more money, though. Which would cause the students to end up paying more to attend because the school would have to pay for a new classroom. It would also take a long time to build onto the school, which results in the students not getting their learning in quickly enough.

4. The main problem was that the department heads had been fired. That caused a lot of chaos in the school when she returned for the summer semester. Another cause might have been money. The school might not have been making enough money to pay the department heads to stay or maybe the department heads wanted more money than the school would give them. But, Claitor also stated that when she returned, she found out that two more subs had been hired. So, they obviously had the money to pay the department heads.

5. The teachers, because they are having to double up classrooms.
The students, because they are losing the teachers that they are comfortable with and learn the best from and they aren't being able to learn when they need to for certain jobs.

Week 11: Scenarios

Claim #1: A medical worker doing research on a disease is entitled to break down ingredients in a medication to see the effects it has on a person.
Reason: because a major part of intelligence is being able to analyze, break down and understand, certain things they encountering their job.
Warrant: my definition of analytical skills is being able to break down what is given to you.
No, sometimes breaking down a problem too far will result in a negative outcome.

Claim #2: Johnny had a fight with his girlfriend and in order to solve the problem, he talked to her and worked it out immediately.
Reason: because when growing up in his home, when problems arose, the correct way to handle them was to work it out right away.
Warrant: My definition of common sense is that it is a natural thing and learned from experience in home life and other relationships.
No, because if the child were to grow up in an unstable home, he/she would do things that are common sense to him, but society will believe that the person has no common sense at all.

Claim #3: Johnny adapted to the new car he bought without difficulty.
Reason: because he bought a new car, he had to adapt to the changes in the car he was driving.
Warrant: in my definition of intelligence, adapting is being able to conform to something new without difficulty.
No, because if a person is required to adapt to new things in their job, then that may require formal education which may be difficult.

Online Classwork for Monday, November 7

1. a) I can talk in greater detail of how earning a baccalaureate degree doesn't make someone intelligent.
    b) I can give personal examples rather than examples of someone else to show that I know what I am talking about.
    c) Earning a baccalaureate degree does not signify someone as being intelligent, nor does not having that degree make someone unintelligent. Intelligence cannot be learned in a book, rather by experience and life lessons.
A very close friend of mine, who never went to college and only received a high school diploma, has told me countless times that he has learned more working the job he is working now than he has ever learned in school. Now, learning through life experiences like that make a person intelligent because intelligence isn't something learned in a book.

2. a) I'm not sure of the answer to put here, but I reviewed pages 4 and 5.
    b) I think that my topic sentences all reflect what is going to be talked about in the paragraph. I don't plan on changing them.

3. a) Certain cultures do not recognize any form of degree as a sign of intelligence. In some foreign countries, people do not have the privilege to go to school and earn a degree if they want. They identify intelligent people by judging how they make a living with what they have, such as being able to feed their families, keep them safe and clothed and protecting them. When they learn those things, they are considered intelligent people. Degree's, which are earned from books, are not acknowledged in other countries, therefore, they are not a deal breaker on whether someone is intelligent.
   b) I could give more examples of what these people do to make a living. I could identify who these "people" are and where they live. I could go into more detail of the countries and their cultures to give the reader a better understanding.

4. a) I haven't gotten around to making the old and new rebuttals, but the one I have made up is
"It is a fact that people who receive a formal education have a better chance of succeeding in life than someone who has not., but it all depends on the attitude and effort put forth by the person in order to succeed. If a person is determined enough to become a success, then they will find a way to make it happen."

WEEK TEN: GROUP BRAINSTORM SESSION

Claim - An employer looking for a person with "good problem solving skills" is looking for someone with common sense and analytical skills.

Reason – Having analytical skills is being able to break down a problem and understanding material and evidence. Common sense is natural and innate and sometimes learned through life experience by being observant and perceptive, which gives you “street smarts” and makes a person able to apply analytical skills to any situation.

Warrant – The fact that they compliment each other means that you need both to have good problem solving skills.

WEEK 9: Adrienne Rich

1.) The hints she gives for giving women more soft-skills in education is to "consider what we have to work against, as well as with, in ourselves, our students, in the context of the curriculum, in the structure of the institution, in the society at large. And that means, first of all, taking ourselves seriously: recognizing that central responsibility of a woman to herself, without which we remain always the Other, the defined, the object, the victim; believing that there is a unique quality of validation, affirmation, challenge, support, that one woman can offer another."
The ways she gives is very important because I do think that women should recognize what they are capable of and every human being should take themselves seriously. Women, especially, like to play the victim in everything, but if you expect others to take you seriously and see that you're not just an object or incapable of doing some things, you cannot act like you're the victim. I also think that this is an even more important issue today because of the media making women out to be incapable of anything really and that they're there to just look pretty for men.
2.) I don't agree that the issues with gender are the same as the issues with race and class. They are not even close because if a person is being discriminated due to their race or class, it is not something that they can help. People are born a certain race and cannot change that and you are born into a class because of your family. And even though you can change the class that you're in based on the money you make when you get older, it doesn't mean that the class you were born into just disappears. Women are being discriminated based on gender because they're made out to be stupid and incapable of doing important things. That can be changed by the woman working hard and proving that everyone is wrong about her. Even though I don't agree with the perception that people have on women, I still think that there are some things meant for a man to do and not a woman. There is no way that a woman could run the country the same way that a man could. Women are too emotional and when their emotions get in the way, things go wrong. I think a man is much more suited for that type of positon than a woman could ever be. We also need to understand the difference in biology of a man and woman. I'm not saying that women should stay home and cook and clean every day and let men to absolutely everything, but there are just certain things that a woman is suited to do as well as a man. I think the university still has a lot of work to do in this area and always will because there will always be people who have different feelings on such a touchy subject.

Week 8: Gains and Losses

Question 1:
a). At home, my family speaks all english, so there are no differences from my home and school dealing with language. I do have a friend whose parents are Spanish and has grown up speaking spanish at home, but at school is taught English. It seems to be hard for her sometimes, because at home, her parents only speak spanish and know a little bit of english, but when she goes to school or talks with her friends, she speaks complete english.
b). I think that when you grow up learning a certain language it will obviously be easier to learn than having to learn a language for your career. The reasons it would be easier is that if you grow up your whole life hearing a certain language spoken, it will stick better with you and it's just how you were raised your whole life. Once you grow up speaking this language, it can be very difficult to try and learn a different language because you already know one language and it's so normal to you to speak that and putting another in there to learn can get confusing and hard.
c). Belonging should always be an important thing when referring to language use. It's important to be confident and be proud of who you are and I think belonging has to do with just that. Then, feeling that belonging will make you not afraid to speak in public with any language, whether you grew up speaking it or learned it for a career. People can always tell if a person is confident or not and seeing that confidence in a person could get you farther in your career.
Question 2:
a). As children grow up, their families will change because people themselves change all the time whether they notice it or not. It is not always a bad thing, but it happens. In Rodriguez's case, the change wasn't a good one because of the language barriers and the fact that his uncle, who raised him, didn't speak much. I do think that achieving success does take sacrificing, but I don't think it should be your family. There's always going to be sacrifices made to be able to get to where you want and that's where your moral value should come in so that the sacrifices aren't things that will hurt someone in the end.
b). Having intimacy with language in our career and academics would certainly be fulfilling. Without the intimacy, there's really no feeling behind your achievements with the language. Having the intimacy shows that you care and want to achieve the most you can and when you do that, it should be a fulfilling experience because those goals are the reasons you were intimate with a language.
c). The way Rodriguez speaks about going back to the time of his youth when he hears someone speaking Spanish makes me think that he isn't sad or even thankful of what he "lost". He seems very comfortable and confident with the language that he speaks now, but I think that because he doesn't speak Spanish anymore, whenever he hears it, he appreciates his youth more and goes back to a time when he would hear his family speaking and that brings joy to him. It makes him happy for a little while and brings back good memories.

Assessing Your Essay Author's Rhetorical Situation

Lisa D. Delpit is an African-American Scholar in education who is writing "Education in a Multicultural Society" in an informative and precise way. She uses personal experience to show that students, depending on their background, need different styles of teaching and that their teachers need to recognize this. The teachers need to understand the students lives outside of the classroom to determine what their abilities are.
The audience, mainly teachers and upcoming teachers, are very open when reading this and are wanting to understand and be informed of the difference in backgrounds and how to go about teaching them.
The whole purpose is this text is to show that teachers often take things how they see it, meaning they do not go into a deeper meaning or understanding of the students life outside of the classroom. They are stereotyping children depending on their ethnicity and background - asian students are perfect and don't need help with learning, black students are a lost cause and won't learn much because of where they live and how they were raised, white students get the most attention because they are white and dominant, Indian students are very quiet and keep to themselves in the classroom, and Latino students don't really care to be there at all. This stereotyping needs to be understood by the teachers and addressed in certain manors. Delpit uses examples from personal experience and the examples of people she knows personally to give the reader a better understanding and to show that what she is writing is very factual.
This is all taking place in today's generation. This is happening in our communities wherever we may live in the United States.

"On Self-Respect" by Joan Didion

1.) The effect that this has on the reader is a good and bad effect. It helps the reader to better understand the points she is making, but it can also be hard understand some of the analogies she is using. It could also be easier to understand because she is using real situations. Therefore, it can or cannot be helpful to the reader depending on how well they understand what she is saying. I don't think it is alienating because with examples like hers, we can apply them to ourselves and something like that that we have had experience with.
2.) "Self-respect is something that our grandparents, whether or not they had it, knew all about." "To have the sense of one's intrinsic worth which constitutes self-respect is potentially to have everything: the ability to discriminate, to love and to remain indifferent."I think that generally, people would agree with this. It is almost an understood thing that our grandparents know respect because they were raised much differently than we were and were taught to respect everyone or they would get into serious trouble. Also, when we have self-respect, we feel like we have everything. I think that when asking for forgiveness, whether is be adultery or any mistake, it takes a lot of courage to recognize the fact that you have screwed up. It takes away from character when you make those mistakes, but it also builds character to realize what you have done wrong and then to ask for forgiveness.
3.) Those statements go together with writing skills because like she says, having self respect in "habit of mind" and "can't be faked." You can't fake caring about your work in order to do well. Self-respect is a discipline and we need discipline to do our work to the best of our ability. It shows that a person has self-respect when they do well with writing skills or any work. They are showing that they care enough about themselves to succeed.

Analysis of an Essay

1.)
Who - the Acadian people
What - the disappearance of the French language in Louisiana history
When - from three hundred years ago up until today's generation
Where - in South Louisiana
Why - having French immersion programs to keep the language alive

2.)
M - sentence one
E - sentence two, sentence three, sentence four, sentence seven
A - sentence five, sentence eight, sentence nine
L - sentence six, sentence ten

I'm not too sure that I got these in the correct order, but it seemed this way to me. It does work for me because I like how she used evidence for three sentences, explained it with one analysis, and then used another different evidence sentence followed by two analysis sentences.

3.)
● reworded what the essay covers in a new way
● quote backing up points made in the essay about having pride in her culture
● restated thesis in a new way
● quote backing up points made in the essay on keeping the language alive

4.) The key idea used in this paragraph is "...nearly three thousand took refuge in Louisiana, and they called their new region Acadiana..."
The key idea used to bridge paragraphs 4 and 5  is the first sentence in paragraph 5. It is saying that even though the Cajun culture is thriving, like stated in paragraph 4, the French language is suffering, which is the opening of paragraph 5.
"The passion of the Acadian people for their culture brings the most significant argument of the importance of French immersion in Louisiana."

Discussion Prompt #4

1.) There is advertising everywhere showing women as sex-symbols, that women should have perfect bodies, should stay home and take care of the kids, have the house cleaned at all times, wait on their husbands hand and foot, and many times are portrayed as being very ditzy. Some of this might have been true many decades ago, but today, they have full-time jobs, provide for their families, and are working in very high positions. These women have strong minds and don't let people tell them what they can and cannot do. That being said, the same goes for men. Men are portrayed as having to be the only one providing for their families, being very manly, controlling the relationship, and as sex-symbols, too. That's not always the case. Sure, the majority of men are that way, but there are some who are like "Mr. Mom." No matter your gender and what you are doing in your life, you should still be treated equally to the next person. These men don't let people disrespect them for choosing a different way of living than what society says is right.

2.) I think that by "ethical and intellectual contract" between the teachers and students means teachers should see their students for their minds and morals. Other elements should be judged on the work you put forth, the way that you view things, and your morals that you have for yourself. Students agree to learn and understand what their teacher is giving them. They're agreeing to claim all of the knowledge they possibly can. Teachers are agreeing to provide as much knowledge as they can to their students. They're agreeing to help them in any way and see them to their full potential. They are encouraging them to set goals and reach them. The more ethical goal would be the standards and morals both teachers and students put on themselves. These two things, ethical and intellectual, go together because the morals and standards you have for yourself deal with the education and learning you choose to receive, which is the intellectual part.

Discussion Prompt #3

1.) Before beginning a paper, I usually try to look over the assignment as much as I possibly can. That could be anywhere from 5-20 times. I always forget what I read, so I tend to do it much more than normal. During the assignment, I will look over it the material constantly to make sure that I am doing everything correctly. Whenever I am done with the draft, I will read it over and over to make sure I've accomplished everything that I needed to. A huge benefit from looking over the assignment when you're done is the satisfaction of knowing you've done what you needed to do. I do that many times so that I will hopefully make a good grade on the draft.
2.) When writing an Argument from Personal Experience paper, "consider the evidence" is a great concept to use. Personal experience is a major type of information you can put into that paper. You can make so many great arguments that way. Someone else's experience is not always the same as your own. And when you argue, it's because things differ. If it is personal, you cannot use another article as your own experience. That's not being true to what your paper is about. You have to write everything your own and your paper will come out very well.
3.) The most useful bit of information that I got from this is to identify the meaningful parts of the subject. It helps me a lot because I never used to do that until now. I always just read things fast and didn't really understand until I learned to find the important things. I think that they should definitely explain more about engaging in an open inquiry where the answer is not known at first. I get what it's saying, but I need more explanation so that I can understand it perfectly. I need to be able to understand things fully in order to write to the best of my ability.
4.) A similarity between the two is that they are both explaining what you need to accomplish in the paper you are writing. They give specific things that will need to be written in the paper. A difference in the two is that in the outline, we need to write more specific things pertaining to the audience, author, and in the text. The rubric is more specific and detailed than the three characteristics of academic writing.

Discussion Prompt #2

1.) I think that the term "homemade" means something that you can buy at a store but you would rather make yourself or something that you could learn from going to school, but learned through experiences outside of school for whatever reasons. Homemade things, in my opinion, can be both good and bad. An example of it being good is getting your father a gift for his birthday. Making or doing something for him yourself would be much more valued than something just bought from a store. Sure, he would appreciate either, but making something yourself would have much more meaning. An example of it being bad is buying an appliance for a house like a washing machine. You might be able to make one, but is it really going to work as it should because you made it rather than buying it at a store when you know it's going to work? Another thing is learning. You can learn a million and one things by going to school and getting an education, but learning through experiences, you would probably value that more because you've been through it. I'm not saying that education isn't important or meaningful because it is. I just think that through experience someone will value that a little bit more like Malcolm X did because he took it upon himself to learn the things he learned.

2.) I think that Malcolm X compares to that because he wanted so badly to learn more and more every day. He wanted that satisfaction of being "smart". He also achieved that and I'm sure it meant a great deal to him when he achieved his goal because he did it on his own and succeeded. So, in a sense, he has that freedom to educate himself and go farther in life. I think it is a contrast only because of the fact that Malcolm X did this on his own and not in a classroom or with the help of a teacher. Yes, they have the same reasoning behind what they're doing, but it was just done in different ways.

3.) The subject that I would be most passionate about if I were stuck in a jail cell would be psychology. I am fascinated with what goes on in our minds and how our bodies react to it. I would want to study it more and try to have a career in that whenever I got out. I would need to constantly keep learning more and more to become successful with it. I would use all of the knowledge that I have about psychology to become successful with it. I would want to study people and write about what I've taken in while I was in the jail cell. I would want to write down everything about how people acted in jail and what they were in there for and their personalities so that when I got out, I could be able to study that and I would have a first-hand experience with that.

What Happens When Basic Writers come to College?

1.) One benefit of a basic college student drafting papers using their own world view is having other people of our generation understand them. Many people in our generation do not attend college, therefore they do not get the higher education that we do. They also do not seem to care as much about what's going on in the world because they're not having to reflect on it daily like college students. If we could draft papers in a way that is comfortable to us, maybe we could reach out to our generation. We could also make it more interesting than just writing in Standard English. And, college students today will be running the world tomorrow, so why not let them write in a way that gets the attention of others in this generation?

2.) Personally, I don't think that she is right at all. My life in school and my life outside of school are two complete opposites. I handle both very well and I may have conflict sometimes, but it is never something that I can't deal with. Sometimes we will learn things in classes that we may not agree with outside of class, but if that is what the professor tells you is right or what they believe, then you learn to deal with it during class. There will always be things we don't agree on with someone and that's life, but we learn to accept that. If you can't, then you might have a very hard life ahead of you.

A Little About Me

My name is Alexandra Purser. I'm from Opelousas, Louisiana and I graduated from Opelousas Catholic High School. My major is psychology and I want to get my Ph.D. and become a psychiatrist. For this class, I'd like to learn to write paper's better, because I suck at it. I really don't have many interests besides music and traveling. I listen to every genre/decade of music, but 60's and 70's, in my opinion, had the best music. I'm also on Facebook very much. That's about it.
:)