Op- Doc Analysis Unit Reflection

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Screen Shot 2015-10-09 at 10.11.56 AMThis picture represents the scene where his parents receive the phone call from the school saying that his son was being suspended for hitting another child then lying about it. In reality, he never hit the boy and the school failed to research into the report more. They assumed that because the confrontation happened between both white and African American boys, Idris had done it. The reason I think this scene had the largest impact on my paper is because it was the first time the viewer understood in reality what his personal struggles were. At this point in the story the viewer is able to see a specific example and better understand the purpose of this video. I was able to really expand on this particular example in my analysis because it was the first time I personally experienced emotion by the film. When watching the video for the first time, this was the scene that caught my attention and helped me decide how to analysis the rest of the film. Overall, I felt this initial scene that depicts his personal struggled helped me put into perspective the rest of my analysis.

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I feel this picture best describes the activity that helped me the most in writing my paper. During my conference, I had good body paragraphs but failed to have a clear and organized introduction, thesis and conclusion. When we discussed that I could rearrange the last part of my thesis into the conclusion, I was able to clarify my purpose of the introduction.  When I left the conference, I moved the “so what” piece of my thesis into the topic sentence of the conclusion. In addition, I went back and added a few sentences in my body paragraphs to help build up to my conclusion’s purpose. Another helpful organization tip I gained from my conference was how to show the complexity of my video’s issue. Being too broad about the racial tension in the education system was hindering my flow of the paper. I found myself bouncing back and forth between the different pieces of the complex issue. I was advised in my conference to look at all the issues I discussed in my paper and move them around within the paragraph so the overall message was more concise. This reorganization of my middle paragraphs helped the fluency of my concluding paragraph. In conclusion, I found my conference to be the activity that impacted my final paper.

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The image above really pin points the complex issues that my Op-Doc Video depicts. The image above shows a typical school building but with a large set of diverse kids within it. Generally speaking, the range of ethnicities in the education system is the main topic of both the paper and the video. Where I found the real issues of the racial struggles in the picture was by how the school is being stretched. I thought of this as representing the elements of my thesis that articulate the social issues piling up within the education system. In my thesis I talk about the complexity of race and how it effected Idris over time. When I think of how his life was portrayed in the film, I thought of each struggle as something that was piling up on him and personally affecting him to the point where he may “pop”. In total, I feel the picture above expresses the complexity of my thesis.


Daily Write: Media in The New York Times

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Today I learned that The New York Times uses media to add emotion to their writing pieces. As my group and I discussed our different news stories, we concluded that we were drawn to the article because of the pictures and videos within the text. We also decided that the pictures provoked a variety of emotions. For example, at the top my article there was a picture of a young deceased child that had be swept onto shore by the ocean waves. This initial visual made me feel upset and horrified as to how something so tragic had happened. Had I not seen this picture, the topic of immigration wouldn’t be something I was interested in reading about. On the contrary to my feelings, one of my group members found the picture to be disgusting and unnecessary. She expressed her extreme dislike for the inclusion of the picture even to the point that she wouldn’t have wanted to read what the reporter had to say about the incident. That one picture changed the perspective of the entire article for each of us in a different way. In the past, I had not payed much attention to the effects of the visual media when reading an article. Overall, I realized that The New York Times uses visual media to attract and provide additional emotion to the reader.


Daily Write: Personal Experience with the New York Times

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Today was the first time that I truly read more than one article in the newspaper at a single time. In the past, I haven’t had a personal reason or need to read the newspaper. My family, mainly my Dad and Grandparents, read newspapers daily. Therefore, I have always let them do the reading and I listen to the summary and debates they create. I also found that the topics the main page would express were not something I was interested in. After my experiences today, I feel I am becoming more comfortable and aware with what the New York Times has to offer. However, I am still learning so much about the construction and topics within the website.