I would define a writer as anyone who’s writing or interested in writing really. I don’t think there’s any age or special requirements that need to be met to identify as a writer. Any person who is writing to get some sort of message, idea, or thought across is a writer in my eyes. As a writer I would describe myself as an evolving and learning writer, a student writer perhaps. There are times where I’ve felt confident and proud in my writing, and times where I’ve felt very lost and inadequate. I would describe myself as a talented writer who is still making mistakes and is far from professional, but working towards understanding my strengths and how to utilize them. I consider myself a writer because I am constantly writing about something, arguing a point, or trying to get an idea across and I believe that my contributions and my voice could make a difference someday if I continue to work and better myself. I like to get my messages and thoughts across in a fun and interesting way that even I would enjoy reading, and that’s saying a lot. It can be difficult sometimes for me to get into reading and a lot of the factors that come with the writing process but that doesn’t make me any less of a writer. Every writer has their own perspectives and routines and every thought is important and deserves to be heard. I love writing and getting to read others writing because I know just how different every individual writer is and that’s what makes it so captivating. 

 

During this Ted Talk Celeste Headlee discusses how in this day and age, physical face to face conversation is seriously diminishing. She talks about how the world is very divided right now and strong in their beliefs, only associating with people who have the same perspective as themselves. Smart phones and technology have also created a huge portal but also a massive road block in modern communication. Headlee goes on to say how we aren’t opening up, learning, or evolving as we should be, we’re avoiding conversations that we know may challenge our beliefs simply because we don’t want to see any other side. This form of close minded communication is damaging and doesn’t build on the conversation. I really liked Celeste’s point that we should assume we have something to learn from every conversation, and to be ready to accept new ideas and information. I felt like this was the ultimate way to listen and learn from people and what they have to say. I’ve been stubborn many times thinking right off the bat I won’t agree with someone or that a conversation is meaningless because I don’t know or ‘like’ a person, going into a conversation open minded and ready to absorb new information has really helped me find meaning in every conversation. This is a way of understanding every else’s ideas as meaningful too, even if I don’t necessarily agree.

Rhetorical Analysis Wednesday

Reading Journal Keith Grant-Davie Friday October 2nd

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One is a docx. one is a PDF sorry I just wanted to be sure at least one would work and open!

 

• What are adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and toxic stresses? ACEs are life altering and possibly traumatic moments that can happen during a person’s childhood. These experiences can have long lasting effects. 

• How can adversities like poverty, racism, and violence impact a child’s development? Adversities like poverty, racism, and violence act as barriers, stopping children from believing they can achieve anything. The students who face these struggles are constantly trying to catch up to those who have more support. In schools across the country, children in lower income areas that have issues such as violence and racism as well, tend to get cheated out of their education with less funds and less passionate teachers. These students also don’t always have someone at home who’s supporting them, due to the circumstances that they can’t control many of these students won’t get the same opportunities. 

• How might ACEs affect literacy? Childhood experiences shape our personalities and make us who we are. Most children learned their earliest forms of literacy through their families, not through school. If a child grew up with an abusive family, and little access to school and resources, his version of literacy wouldn’t be the same as the child who was taught to read and write as soon as they could put together words, and was sent to a prestigious school. Where and how someone is raised can greatly impact their literacy.

 

How did Dr.Mona’s actions make a difference in the community of Flint? Even after being silenced, Dr. Mona did everything she could to collect data and research that would expose and prove that the water in Flint was putting many people and children at risk. She worked extremely hard to spread awareness of the issue in order to get it fixed. Without Dr. Mona’s discoveries and efforts to spread and expose that knowledge, many more children would have suffered and so many lives would be lost much earlier. 

 

Can you think of a time in your own life when you have made other people aware of a problem that they were not aware of? I always try to keep up with the news and stay very aware of what’s going on around me. I also use tik tok for some of my news, I don’t believe everything I see, but I have learned something new that I’ve also shared with my friends. I’ve seen a lot of videos spreading awareness about sex trafficing all over the US. They often go over tips to make sure no one is following you, as well as things to look for that may indicate you’re being watched that I would have never thought of. I always forward these types of videos to my friends to make sure they’re watching out for any of the strange signs that something may be off, and who knows, maybe that may save one of our lives some day. 

What can you do as an individual to make the world a better and safer place? I think the best way to make the world a safer and better place is to spread information and keep everyone aware! Everyone should be watching some sort of news or should have some outlet to information regarding the issues we face today. It’s extremely unfortunate that some people either can’t access this information, choose not to be aware, or simply disagree. The more we know, the more we can understand and work with. 

 

 

Reading Journal The Makers Eye Donald Murray

1. To me, literacy is pretty much exactly what its formal definition is, the ability to read and write. It doesn’t have to be perfect or scholarly, just able to be understood by some kind of audience.
2. One of my sponsors of literacy would have to be my Honors Advanced Composition teacher from my senior year of high school named Mr. Schmaltz. He was notoriously one of the biggest sticklers any student had ever known, it was common knowledge that the class was difficult to get an A in. I was so nervous that my writing wouldn’t be good enough and that I’d be an ultimate failure in his college level class.
3. In March of my senior year of high school, the Coronavirus shut down my entire school and I was forced to move completely to online classes very quickly. By that time in the year in my writing class, I was pretty comfortable. I could definitely churn out some decent essays and always manage to get at least a B. I quickly realized that my teacher wasn’t so strict or mean, he was just extremely thorough and particular, but I soon grew that way too about my writing. By the time March rolled around, it was time to start preparing for our huge 10+ page research paper project, and usually Mr. Schmaltz would have hundreds of power point slides prepared to show us exactly how we should write our research paper step by step to get a good grade. With everything being suddenly online, there was also suddenly much less support and help that came with writing the paper, and mind you, non fiction persuasive writing is not really my forte. Well, for two months I worked so hard on my research paper, I had to figure it out all by myself and it was probably the most confused and tired I’d ever been, especially after the excessive amount of source and info cards. But to my surprise I finished the paper on time and managed to get a B on my paper. I felt like I had seriously accomplished something and I was proud of my research paper, the other work I did all year, and how much I had grown as a writer. This was a big moment for me and what my writing meant to me.

Reading Journal AMISH