Portfolio Assignment

At the beginning of the semester, I entered my English 333 class dreading the fact that I had to write essays; at least that is what I imagined. I have never felt comfortable enough to tell myself that I am a good writer and I had never considered my self one. To my surprise, I found out that English 333 was not the class that I had anticipated. I discovered throughout the semester that this was not at all the typical English class where you have to write several convincing essays in order to pass the class. Instead, I met with Professor Peter Kittle whose ideas of teaching writing I really liked.

I encounter a different ways of creating writing that was not fearful for me. We started the semester using the book titled, “What video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy,” by James Paul Gee. In his book, Gee explain about learning in different modalities and used video games to make reference to his point. From the book we also learned many of ideas that Gee called “principles,” which are the ways in which learning takes place. Gee compared the literacy learning that takes place while playing video games to that in classroom settings; which he disagree with the second one arguing that in schools teaching literacy has become non-effective.

Our first big assignment was our digital document. We created a digital document using Gee’s ideas and learning principles. I created a digital document or digital movie, about learning how to eat better and take care of my own health. To create my digital movie, I incorporated multimodalities of learning. For example, I used visuals using pictures and audio by narrating my story. This was definitely a much enjoyable way of literacy.

Moving on from Gee’s book, our class got into groups of four to work on several articles related to teaching writing. The articles were very long but very informative as well. I founded interesting the idea of letting students choose their own topics when writing. This gives students the opportunity to elaborate and be more passionate about their writing. Of course, there were many different ideas on these articles that we created a memorandum, pretending we were school teachers and making suggestions to the school principle of what kinds of teaching writing programs should be implemented at the school. Other ideas found in these articles were: modeling, using prior knowledge, and personal choice.

In this class we took advantage of using many different learning modalities. Of these was the use of technology; we used the computer and the internet to share ideas and information within our class. We created this blog to posted analysis and ideas that had been discuss in class or in the reading assignments that we had. In addition, we also created a wiki account were we analyzed the several articles on the teaching of writing and shared our comments to our group members.

One of the last things we did this semester was to read the book called, “Nonfiction Matters,” by Stephanie Harvey. Her ideas of using nonfiction materials and teaching students the value of nonfiction in their writings, gave rise to our last class assignment which was writing a lesson plan. This lesson plan I did it with my classmate Nou Thao. We decided to create a lesson for a 7th grade class using the Renaissance time period to create a nonfiction writing assignment. I believe that our assignment was very creative and at the same time was a great writing experience that acknowledges the standards relating to the 7th grade curriculum.

Overall, all that we did during the semester has definitely impacted me as a future elementary school teacher. I have learned many ideas that I will put into practice when I became a teacher. From this class I will take many ideas like: using multiple modalities when teaching in order to reach every student, giving students some freedom when choosing topics for writing but at the same time guiding students into where I will want to go with their writing, the importance of modeling what is expected from them and most of all showing students that I care for them.

Reflection on Memorandum

The memorandum project was very interesting. Writing the memorandum gave me a feel of the memos that are really used in schools. It made me feel like if I was a real third grade teacher with great knowledge on the subject of teacher writing.
Even though I thought that the memorandum was a great writing assignment, I had some difficulties getting the final draft done. I found it hard to decide on the topics for the "writing program." I personally thought that the articles that we read included many important topics that could be implemented for a stornger writing program at any school. My problem was deciding which one was better than the onther one.
At the end, I was very satisfied with my end product.

Teaching of Writing

The articles of teaching of writing are very, very interesting. As a future teacher, I thought that all the articles have helped me analyzed the process for teaching writing. I believe that the main objective of these articles is to instill in children the love for writing. Also, I think that they try to demostrate the best ways children can become writers. There is a lot to the process of writing. There are many misconceptions of what is good and what is bad when teaching children to write, and I want to learn them all.
One idea that has repeated over the three articles that I have read so far, is that children write better when they choose their own topic. At first I thought that given children so much independence was not such a great idea. I have learned that it is actually a good idea because children will get more involved in comething they like. In addition, I have learned that even though children have the opportuniuty to make their own choices, teachers are the ones that guide students on the path they (teachers) want them to go. Teachers do this by asking questions, refering to specific books, articles, events, etc.
Another very interesting point given in the articles of teaching writing is that children like it better when they know their teachers care for the things they write.
I hope after reading all the articles I will have a more clear idea of how to use this articles in a classroom when I become a teacher.

What I thought about Ofelia's movie

I thought her movie was really funny; it made me laugh. This movie is a great way to help you understand how important it is to eat healthy. I hope she continues working hard to reach her goal.
Excellent job on your digital document movie!!!
Yuriana Hernandez CSU CHICO student

Reification

The digital document/mini-movie, involved too much work from my part. It involved hard work and too much thinking in order to convey my idea across to my specific audience. I had to first decide what my learning was, and the different levels of obstacles I encounter when learning that new thing. After I knew what I wanted to talk about, then came the big question, "how do I put all my ideas together in a way that it's interesting and makes sense to my audience."
I made my movie on learnig how to make better choices when it comes to eating healthy. For this reason, I thought that I would definetely need pictures of me showing why I want to loose weight (because I am fat and scared for my own health), the things I did wrong when it came to eating habits (eating fast food and junk food), and the things I had to learned in order to accomplish my goal (eating more veggies, fruits, drinking lots of water, reading food labels, stop eating junk food). I also thought about a song that would demonstrate the way I feel about doing this change in my life, and I think I found just the right song: "Rocky Balboa's theme song." Every time I hear that song, it makes me thing of not giving up. It's a song that I relate with courage and willpower. That's what I had to go through when learning how to eat better.
First, I went to McDonalds and bought a hamburger that I didn't even eat (it was so hard), to show a video of me throwing the junk food in the trash can, getting rid of it. With this I wanted to demonstrate that in the past, even though I wanted to loose weight, I always fail to eat healthy and went back to eating junk food. I also went to a grocery store and had my husband take pictures and video of me shopping the right way, making sure that my cart included lots of veggies and fruits. My husband was a great support in the making of this movie and in the learing of eating right as well. He has changed his eating habits just to give me moral support. Once I had all the images and video that I needed, I proceeded on arranging then on chronological order. After I had all the images in the order I wanted, I began to write my narrative that would go along with it. That was a much easier process because I just explained them. Of corse, I had to make sure that it made sense and that it had transitions like in an essay. One thing I struggled with, was the music. Eventhough I knew what kind of music I wanted I didn't know how to have music and narrative at the same time. To make things easier for me, I played the song while I recorded my narrative, and that solved my problem.
At the end, I can say that I feel pretty good about the final product of this mini-movie. I just hope that the movie will demonstrate what I wanted to convey. I also hope that it demosntrates all the effort I put in the making of this movie.

Digital Document

Last time, I had all the ideas on how I wanted to make my digital document and put it into a movie. I have moved on from that stage, now I am in the polishing stage. At this point I am working on making my mini-movie better. So far I have included pictures, videos, music, and my narration. It is a finished product that has a lot of space for improvement. In the last few days I've been thinking of different ways to improve my movie. I have been thinking of new narration that I can include, as well as new images. First, I wanted the music I chose as background music. I wanted the music to be playing while I was narrating, but since I couldn't do it, I am kind of liking it the way it sounds with it. I did include it almost at the end of the movie and it continuos through the credits. I hope this movie to be good and to be something that other people can relate to.

The process of my mini-movie

To be honest, I am still having trouble putting my mini- movie together. However, I am glad because I finally have a topic that makes me feel comfortable. I first thought on different things that I am learning right now, but none made me feel comforatble enough to make a mini-movie. Now, I have decided to make my movie about eating healthy. I have this idea in my head about the way I want my mini-movie to be like. I still need the majority of the pictures and video that includes me. I already have the pictures I got from different websites.
I have thought about the different scenes in my movie and I can almost see them as if I already had them all put together. First, I am going to have maybe a video and some pictures of me thinking of eating fast food (McDonald's), stopping at the drive-way and taking the food home. Then, before I eat I will weight myself and be ashamed. It is then that I will throw away the fast food in to a trash can. Then I will go and by healthy food at the grocery store. And finally, I will eat a healthy meal.
But, so far this is still in my head. I hope nobody steals my idea. No matter what, I thought about it first and this blogs proofs is my idea.

Cultural Model Idea

Paul Gee in his book titled, " What Video Games Have to Teach Us," explains that a cultural model is made out of "images, story lines, principles, or metaphors that capture what a particular group finds "normal" or "typical" in regard to a given phenomenon." What I get out of this is that as groups of people we see things differently. In other words, a group of people can be a family unit, a community, a church congregation, an ethnic group, a political party, etc. Depending on what your group of people believes, you will have an opinion on a subject that might be completely different from the point of view of a different group of people. For example, different Christian churches will have different point of views of what it is to be a good Christian. It all depends on what a specific church claims to be the actions of a "good" Christian.

Situated Learning...

Chapter 4 in James Paul Gee's book, " What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy," has some very interesting ideas. I found true that as humans we have a brain that works similar to a computer. By this, I am trying to say that we can edit the most important things that happen to us and store it as knowledge for future experiences in our lives. This is what Gee says it's to have a connection or make a connection between our stored knowledge and new experiences. This of course will be different from person to person because we are all different. Another point I found interesting and that I agree with is the fact that in every situation where learning is taking place, there has to be active learning, engaging in an affinity group and thinking and acting as a knowledgable person in the specific area to be learned. I this is a very good idea since many of us can read but not really understand what we are reading. To make things short, I think that situated learning is a process that requires lots of work and engagement.

Video Games

My first experience with a video game was in 1988. I must've been around 8 years old. I remember I would go to my cousin's house to play the only game she had, Super Mario Bros. I would go to her house very often that she started to charge me ten cents every time I wanted to play with her Nintendo and her Super Mario Bros game. I didn't mind paying her ten cents each time I wanted to play, with that money I could play as long as wanted. That's why I payed! Luckly for me, that same year for Christmas my parents got the Nintentdo game platform that came with the Super Mario Bros game. I was very, very happy! Since then I bacame Mario's fan. Unfortunately, my Nintendo game platform doesn't work any more, but I still play Super Mario games on my brother's Game Cube, Game Boy Advance, and more recently in his Nintendo DS game platforms.

What I have learned in the recently past...

Not to long ago, I began to learn how to cook. I have not taken any cooking classes or special courses on the culinary arts. No, I learned how to cook because I needed to eat. Well, the truth is that I had to learn how to cook because I got married. When I still lived in my parents home I never liked the kitchen or to help my mom to cook. My mom is a very good cooker, everything she cooks is just delicious! Maybe that is why I was always intimidated to even try cooking at home. But, my marriage responsibility made me go into the kitchen and start experimenting with foods. Now, I do not think of my self as the best cooker in the wide world, but I do think that my food is edible. I'm just glad that my husband actually likes my food and that he appreciates my effort. All I can say is that I'm still learning and now cookinghas become something I enjoy doing!

My first blog!

Today I'm typing my first blog ever! To be honest I do not feel very comfortable making this blog. I hope that I will get used to it and start to like it soon. My second blog will be done in the near future.