Tag Archives: critical thinking

Weekly Reflection 11

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This week I read the New York Times article, “Race and the Standardized Testing Wars.”  The article highlights some of the internal conflicts ongoing with minority groups who believed the parents allowing their children to opt out of standardized testing was a form of white privilege.  Recently however, minority groups and more parents in general have started opposing all the standardized testing for various reasons including resulting cut backs to enriching programs like art/music, and the damaging effects students’ test scores can have on self-esteem.

I took a personal interest in this article because I have always hated standardized testing.  I normally take longer than other students to complete any prompts/questions because I like to take more time to develop all my thoughts and go back and check my answers.  Therefore, I have never scored well on timed standardized tests.  More than once I have felt like a total failure for not receiving marks in the “proficient” or “advanced” category because I did not even get to finish my test.  I think this article brings up a lot of important points because it is amazing still to me how much my Mississippi public school system emphasized state testing.  It created such a terrible environment because I felt like my teachers were trying to program me to get a certain number of questions correct on a test as opposed to trying to teach me any real knowledge or make sure that I understood key concepts.  I understand that the standardized tests can have benefits, but I think school districts and the people calling for more and more tests should listen to the students’ thoughts as well.  I enjoyed reading this article because it is nice to know this topic is starting to get more attention.

4/20/16- Daily Reflection

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The multimodal project has been challenging because it is not easy finding pictures for my topic.  I have had to create a lot of them myself which is time consuming and I’m still not sure they clearly depict what I’m trying to say.  From the feedback I received today, I think my argument is overall clear but I know I need to work on limiting text and adding more substance/slides to show the opposing view point as well.  This project has reminded me I struggle with displaying things visually without text and it is difficult to capture what my argument is without a voiceover.

Unit Reflection- Argument

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The argument section has by far been the most challenging for me.  I initially thought that I would have no trouble with this paper and it would be easy to write, but the further we moved into the paper the more I realized how challenging it would be to master this section.  There are a lot of layers that underlie this section that I did not realize I needed to consider.  The topic that I chose was also more challenging than I realized.  It was also challenging to understand how to qualify.  If I had more time for my paper I would have liked to find more sources to use so that I could add more detail and support to my thesis.  I made a lot of commitment to this paper trying to make sure it was something that I liked and making sure that it flowed well and all my sources were credible.  It was difficult at first for me to figure out how to integrate them into my paper without the flow of my paragraphs being interrupted.  However, practicing with the citations in class helped with this.

Weekly reflection 8

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This week for my reflection I read The New York Times article, “My Banished Brother.” This was an article in the health section, detailing the author’s personal story about how she dealt with having a brother who was “banished” because he was born severely disabled and had Down Syndrome. The author’s parents believed that having a “vegetable” son was a sign of punishment or wrong doing from God and sent him away to be a ward of the state.   They did not let their other three children ask about their brother, Jimmy. The only time the author visited her brother was right before he died, but she was able to learn about who he was and how he impacted others’ lives. The author is now living with the regret of not meeting her brother before and not being a part of his life.

While I do not have a sibling who was sent away, I feel I can relate to this article very much still. Learning to value and always cherish your family members no matter what was an important lesson from this article. In my personal life, I worry about losing touch and growing apart from my mom who is six hours away. I have so much schoolwork it is a rare occasion for me to go home, so I constantly feel guilty about not spending more time with her. It is hard sometimes to put aside time for family time, but it is never something I regret doing. This article was a nice reminder for me that not only is it important to accept and embrace differences, but also to cherish your family while you can.

 

Weekly Reflection 5

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This week I chose to read the New York Times article, “She Wanted to Do Her Research. He Wanted to Talk ‘Feelings.’” I was drawn to this article because I thought the title was very unusual and I was interested in finding out what it was about. Professor of geobiology, Hope Jahren, wrote the article discussing reasons she believes behind why many women leave science and STEM fields. The article goes on to address specific examples of one of her students who was emailed by her advisor professing his admiration for her and stating basically she is just going to have to deal with it until one of them leaves. The author highlights other specific examples of similar emails and confrontations made.

As a female going into a STEM field, I found this article very enlightening. While I personally have not experienced any sort of discrimination and/or any uncomfortable confrontations, I realize how this could become such a serious issue. Behavior that may be deemed harmless and romantic in reality just becomes a form of harassment and becomes dreadful for the women who have to deal with it. Reading this article actually made me angry thinking about how much these inappropriate dealings are looked over until far too many women have left their once-beloved fields because they feel so uncomfortable they cannot even do their work. While this may not affect me at the moment, I plan on doing my own undergraduate and graduate research as well as in my professional career and do not think it is fair to have to worry about being harassed.

Unit Reflection-Visual Analysis-03/04/16

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The visual analysis was a challenging paper for me.  I struggled with “seeing through the picture” and I had a hard time differentiating between what was obvious and what was analysis.  I enjoyed this unit because it gave me a different perspective as to why specific images are included with certain articles and text.  While writing this paper, I learned that I actually enjoy analyzing images and having time to think about what symbolism might be underlying in them. I have not done a paper like this before, so I had to commit a lot of time and effort to make sure I was staying on topic in my essay and had given a thorough analysis.  This was challenging, but the in-class activities and group work we did as part of this unit helped me to understand what exactly I was looking for in pictures and different ideas to discuss.  Re-learning pathos, ethos, logos, and kairos was also very helpful for analyzing the image and thinking about why certain elements were included.  After this unit, when I see an image I will be able to analyze it and understand the significance of why it was chosen.