Two artifacts that I chose to include in my portfolio are Background Research and themes of literature, as well as the assignments. I have selected background research and themes of literature because I learned so much from the culture of my immigrant. Also, I choose assignments because I struggle too much with it but I learned to do my best. These items will help future students to get related with their immigrants and see things from another perspective.
In this semester I read a letter and a poem from a Hmong person. One theory of criticism that I think this culture has taught me the most is Feminist criticism. When reading texts from this culture, the reader sees the place women take, impacting the audience. In Hmong culture women are supposed to stay at home educating their girls how to serve men and how to have things done. Everyone in this culture are used to it, they have been raised that way, so they see it as something normal.
At the beginning of this semester we were assigned to choose three themes and to learn more about it through the rest of the course. Love is the worthiest of pursuits, Sacrifices bring reward and Ying & Yang, are the ones I chose. While reading my immigrant's letter and the poem I realized that in that culture, the way they behave is normal and they love and protect each other. Hmong females that immigrated to the United States have seen the difference and the opportunities this country brings, therefore; they stand up and speak. When Hmong females stand up and speak for their own good, those female’s reputation goes down, so it is a sacrifice for them to stand up and do what they want. Ying & Yang represents the good and the bad in this type of situations. In life, there is always going to be something bad but because bad exists, the good comes with it too. Everything happens for a reason and that reason will be found sooner or later.
In this course we had to collaborate with a group and present a project in order to teach the class a lesson; the midterm assignment. My team was not organized and we all had other classes, so we did not get the chance to work things out until the last minute. After all, everybody did what they could to cover everyone’s back. At the end, we completed the assignment and we did a great job. In my team were the people who talk the most in the class and I thought that they knew what we had to do but when we gather together to discuss the assignment, I notice we all were confused. So, I learned that we all have our moments of confusion and it is not bad to be confused or wrong because at the end as a team we all figured out the assignment. If I had known that the midterm was that easy I think we could have done it better, but confusion sometimes does not let us see what is obvious. The midterm assignment is confusing but if everyone does their part and collaborate, then that assignment would be easy.
The background research and the poem explication are examples of the assignments that helped me achieve and understand two of the course objectives. The background research I did based on my immigrant’s culture helped me understand and discuss the social, cultural and historical contexts of the work. The poem explication paper allowed me to identify the key ideas, attitudes and social injustice issues related to nationally, linguistic background, race, gender and class according to the poem. At the end, I think that every given assignment offered me the opportunity to learn, think, appreciate and see things from a different perspective.
This English 223 course is absolutely different and I exhort you to open your mind for something new, and different. Since the beginning of this course everything was already confusing and I notice that at the second or third week many students just give up. So, I decided to stay, to focus on the learning and not in just passing the class. I encourage future students to do all the assignments the best they can. Before you think you cannot do it and just give up, think that you might not do it but give yourself a chance to learn and experience something new.
In this semester I read a letter and a poem from a Hmong person. One theory of criticism that I think this culture has taught me the most is Feminist criticism. When reading texts from this culture, the reader sees the place women take, impacting the audience. In Hmong culture women are supposed to stay at home educating their girls how to serve men and how to have things done. Everyone in this culture are used to it, they have been raised that way, so they see it as something normal.
At the beginning of this semester we were assigned to choose three themes and to learn more about it through the rest of the course. Love is the worthiest of pursuits, Sacrifices bring reward and Ying & Yang, are the ones I chose. While reading my immigrant's letter and the poem I realized that in that culture, the way they behave is normal and they love and protect each other. Hmong females that immigrated to the United States have seen the difference and the opportunities this country brings, therefore; they stand up and speak. When Hmong females stand up and speak for their own good, those female’s reputation goes down, so it is a sacrifice for them to stand up and do what they want. Ying & Yang represents the good and the bad in this type of situations. In life, there is always going to be something bad but because bad exists, the good comes with it too. Everything happens for a reason and that reason will be found sooner or later.
In this course we had to collaborate with a group and present a project in order to teach the class a lesson; the midterm assignment. My team was not organized and we all had other classes, so we did not get the chance to work things out until the last minute. After all, everybody did what they could to cover everyone’s back. At the end, we completed the assignment and we did a great job. In my team were the people who talk the most in the class and I thought that they knew what we had to do but when we gather together to discuss the assignment, I notice we all were confused. So, I learned that we all have our moments of confusion and it is not bad to be confused or wrong because at the end as a team we all figured out the assignment. If I had known that the midterm was that easy I think we could have done it better, but confusion sometimes does not let us see what is obvious. The midterm assignment is confusing but if everyone does their part and collaborate, then that assignment would be easy.
The background research and the poem explication are examples of the assignments that helped me achieve and understand two of the course objectives. The background research I did based on my immigrant’s culture helped me understand and discuss the social, cultural and historical contexts of the work. The poem explication paper allowed me to identify the key ideas, attitudes and social injustice issues related to nationally, linguistic background, race, gender and class according to the poem. At the end, I think that every given assignment offered me the opportunity to learn, think, appreciate and see things from a different perspective.
This English 223 course is absolutely different and I exhort you to open your mind for something new, and different. Since the beginning of this course everything was already confusing and I notice that at the second or third week many students just give up. So, I decided to stay, to focus on the learning and not in just passing the class. I encourage future students to do all the assignments the best they can. Before you think you cannot do it and just give up, think that you might not do it but give yourself a chance to learn and experience something new.