Reflection

I really liked the graphical novels that we read. At first I didnt think that I would really learn anything from them, but after reading them I found that I actually got a lot more out of them than I expected. I was able to understand the material better, and the pictures in the text really helped me to understand what was going on in the story. For example after the reading Maus I understood the Holocause better because this story gave a very straight forward story about what went on inside concentration camps. Not all of the stories that we read were fun but I learned something from all of them.
The main impact that the literature that we have read has had on me is that when I am a teacher I will be more open to differnt kinds of texts like comics. I understand that not everyone loves to read books, and these comics provide the same information just in a differnt way.
At first I did not like reading graphic novels. I thought it was weird and it took a lot more time to read. I sitll dont love them, like if I had to read a book I would rather just read the book, but I think that the graphic novels can be an excellent resouce tool, and another way to get your information. I think that my appreaciation has grown from these graphic novels over the semester because I usually have a hard time with Shakespeare and the comic version helped to explain it a lot better than just actually reading it word for word from the original text.
Overall as a reader and interpreter of literary and non-tradtional, visual text I think that I have learned a lot more from the actual stories. And I have also learned that there are differnt ways to get your information (book, graphic novel, etc) you just have to find the one that works best for you.
I had a hard time reading Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, because I thought it was raelly boring. I didnt relate to it and it was just not my favorite book to read. I think that I didnt learn that much from it because I didnt really like it. So in order for me to be prepared to discuss it in class I read it, and reread it and if I still didnt understand it I just googled it.
My intrepretations of non-tradtional text have changed a lot. I think that if you get something out of it then it can be useful. Its just all about what you take out of the text and how you interpret things. You can learn many things from a book you just have to be open to it.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

While looking online at pictures and images I found several differnt things.

one was a play clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhi2DhV1j_k)

While I was looking at the pictures the majority were pictures from the movie or pictures taken of the play.

I think it is okay that people re-do and sort of make a goof out of the original version. When other authors & producers change it up a little they are making it accessable to more people. And more people become engaged and learn the overall idea.

FOR CLASS: Argue to keep Shakespeare in the original form:

~You might lost some things when you change its form

~It is not as meaningful

~Mabye if you dont understand it than its your fault & you need to work harder to study it and learn about it

~ Its not always good to change things from the past

~ It was written the way it was for a reason

Part # 2

Romeo & Juliet

After looking at the manga version of Romeo and Juliet I dont think that it is a good idea to change some things about a story but not everything. for example in the manga version the author changed the pictures but not the words. I think that if they were going to make a comic book about it they should have kept the pictures realistic to the times or changed the words to make them flow better with the modern pictures. The death scene is one of the most commonly known scenes in this play. Romeo and Juliet decide that if they cant live with one another than they would rather not live at all. The scene in the manga is displayed differntly and gives you a differnt interpretation of the story.

Part #3

Demetrius/ Helena

Helena loves demetrius and demetrius loved hermia. Its a classic loves story about wanting what you cant have. It seems very typical to todays socitey as well. Its always more fun when you have to work at it but once you dont your usually over it adn dont think that it is worth your time.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

After reading this book it really seems like a story within a story. On page 68 the scene looks like it is staged with Demetrius trying to get rid of Hermia and Hermia attaching herself to Demetrius in any way she can. He is standing to the left trying to leave her and she is at the bottom right holding on to his leg. All of the word bubbles are in the shape of a heart. There is love between both of them and you can tell becasue the word bubbles that are in the shape of a heart are going both ways. This realtionship is valuable becuase it is the main relationship in the story. The words are very important but the pictures add so much more to it that it really makes this scene come alive and it is easier to understand.

I think that if readers were to read the manga version of this as well as the regular version of this story they would get a lot more out of the manga version. This seems to be a harder story to understand and the pictures really add a lot to it, making it easier for the reader to undersatand .

Maus Second Part

After our first in class discussion I realized that Maus was called mouse and it made me read the story a little differently. I loved how in the end of the story Valedik was burried next to Anja. On page 295. They were shown with their gravestone together but cracked down the middle. I am guessing that hte author decided to shown their gravestone this way becuase by the end of the story they were no longer married even though they still both cared very deeply for each other. They were true sweethearts and it was a cute way to end it. I also liked how in the end Mala and Valedik became clsoer they had a lot of hardships and had a very long time getting along with one another. I would have liked it better if in the end Valedik had more compassion for Mala and would have shown her some appreciation. Mala went through the same things as Valedik went through they just both reacted in their own differnt ways to them.

Maus Homework

After reading some of the articles I noticed that a lot of them mentioned about how Art Speigelman used mice, cats and pigs to represent the characters was a form of sterotyping. I find it very interesting that others and not only our class find this to be true as well. When I was writing my response paper I wrote about how the characters were portrayed but I thought that I was the only one who thought anything of it. I love how so many people in our class had the same idea.
A lot of the articles also go into great detail about how this story was like a guideline of the Holocasut providing details adn perspectives pre/post the holocaust as well as during it. And since it is Artie's father telling the story and Artie writing it, its almost as if you get the story exactly.
I also find it very interesting that he decided to use a comic book form to write about such a tragic and historic event. Most people think of comics as being funny and a joke so I am very suprised that this book turned out so well and that it won so many awards.

Maus

After reading the first part of Maus, a theme that I thought was present all through out the story was friendship and family bonds. The story starts off with Artie roller skating with his friends, when he starts complaning about his friends his father says the way you know someone is your true friend is if you are locked together in a room with no food for a week and you manage okay. This was in the first two pages before the actual story begins.

Friendship and family bonds are present in several other situations as well such as on page 112-113 when Artie's father and mother hide in a bunker with some other Jewish people to try to escape from the Germans.

My response paper was mainly focused on why the characters were depicted as mice instead of people. But for today in class I think tha ti would like to focus on the idea of friendship. Their is a lot of information that can back up and support my thoughts.

Artie's father met his wife on page 18 through friedship and family ties.
Met friends in the P.O.W. camp page 55
Friends and business partners get hung page 85
changing sides page 93
hiding page 112-114, 123

Ideas for Research Papers

I am thinking about writing about self image. And I would use the bookes American Born Chinese, The Bluest Eye, as well as Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. These three books inparticular work with my research paper because they are about people who want to be something that they are not.

I was also thinking about presenting my research paper in the multimedia way becuase it looked to be exciting, and differnt. I plan on starting my paper by doing it the multi-media way but I am also nervous that it will be like the others so i need to work on finding differnt resources than they used.

The main thing that I would research would be teenage girls and how the media affects them and their self image. I plan on looking up books in the library, medical journals, magazines, movies, and many other things as well.

Blankets

A pannel that I thought was very interesting was when Craig and his little brother got seperated because they were making too much noise and would not go to sleep. The boys were arguing with one anotehr but i think that is just a thing that typical boys do. After they were seperated Craig's little brother was scared becuase we was in a dark and unfamilar room and Craig felt bad because he was the older brother and he felt like it was his responsibility to take care of his little brother. It seems that the father would have also choosen to take Craig and make him go in the hidden room instead because he was older. These pannels seem sad and very emotional. They are very big pannels and very bold. The colors are very dark and everything seems to be drawn with very bold lines. PG 16

A second pannel that i thought was very interseting was the one where Raina and Craig first meet. They are at church camp because their parents are very regligious and that is how they grew up. They are both outsiders and dont really fit in but they seem to be like a puzzle piece and they fit perfectly together. From the first moment that they met they want to spend every second together and it seems as though they just want to escape their world and be with one another. The lines in this pannel seem to be softer to represent love and tehir affection for one another. PG 89

Craig's Relationship's:
His brother- when they were younger they were close but as they got older they drifter apart but they came together in the end.
God- Craig is very close with god throughout the whole story, he does have his moments of doubt
Himself-He is not always sure of who he is and who he wants to be but i feel that by the end of the story he is okay with who he is and he accepts himself the way he is.
Raina-She is the girl of his dreams, someone he can love and realte to and who loves him back. They have their moments of distance but they make very good compainions for one another.
The Church-Craig starts out having an extremely strong relationship with church. He goes to sunday school and even though he does not always like what he hears, he always listens and tries to believe in the way of god.
His parents-He does not have a very good realtionship with his parents it just seems to be sort of average. You never seem him talking with his dad, you only see him talking with his mother. I think as the story goes on their realtionship imporves, but it is never perfect.

While reading this book some things that I noticed and was really interested in were Craig and his brothers realtionship. When we are first introduced to them they argue a lot and don't really seem to get along. As the story goes on we learn that they were very close when they were younger even though they did bicker a lot. They slept in the same bed until they were a certain age and then they were given their own. When they first became sepertated they missed each other a lot. But as they got older they grew apart. Towards the end of the story they don't really have anything in common, but in teh veyr end Craig tries to develop a better realtionship with his brother, and he tries to find something that they can talk about. Drawing is something that they both have in common so that is what they bond over.

Emily Dickinson

Life:
I think that assent means that you follow the rules and do waht your told to get a good life, but on the other hand if you demur it means that you are a bad guy and go to jail (handled with a chain). It does not seem like a very happy poem just that this is life you take it as it is or leave it. It seems that if you try to change anything to make it different then you take a chance of either going to jail or escaping it all and having a better life.

Can relate to Jeanettes mother, what she believes is true and if you dont agree with it than you are in the wrong.

chain- chained up like an animal

assent- go along with
demur- deny, oppose

Nature:
She doesnt just think about god on sundays she thinks about him all days and wants him to be apart of her life everyday. Doesnt just focus on going to church she focuses of believing in god. Relates to Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit because even though Jeanette doesnt go to church anymore she still really believes in god!

Mabye she doesnt fit in with the church crowd but is still a big believer in god.

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit - Pick A Passage

When reading Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit I thought it was very interesting how on page 93 Jeanette says "Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently". I loved this passage because it makes me question this story more. It sort of makes the story seem that it might not be completelt accurate and that it is just a piece of the puzzle rather than being the whole puzzle. This piece is Jeanette's point of view not everyone's, and not everyone's is represented into the book either. I also really liked this passage because it is something that everyone should keep in mind when hearing stories or even telling them. You can't take everything you hear as being the right thing because it might not even be true.
Through out this whole book Jeanette is telling us (the reader) her life from her point of view. She doesen't always tell us what she hears but what she interprets which can be two totally different things. This makes the story interesting because you can really relate too and understand Jeanette better. It almost sort of seems that when Jeanette says "Everyone who tells a story tells it differently, just to remind us that everybody sees it differently" is saying that this is my story it might be true or it might not be but from my position this is what I believe happened. She also seems to be trying to tell the reader that you would hear a totally different story if her mother, father, or melanie were telling the story. And it also sort of relates back to the title Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, meaning that this is not the only side of the story, that their are more. It seems like she really wants to emphasize the fact that their are more than one side to every story and more than one option for everything, it is just up to you to figure out what thoes options and choices are.

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit

What do you believe?
I believe in myself and that everyone always has the ability to choose right or wrong. I believe that mistakes happen and you can learn from them and make the situation better.

What or Who has shaped your system of belief?
I think that my parents and siblings have shaped my system of belief. They have raised me to make choices and to think about the outcomes of situations before i act. I also think that where I grew up helped to shape my system of belief.

Think of a time when your belief system was challenged. How did you respond?
I can't really think of an exact situation where my belief system was challenged but I can see one being if all of my friends wanted to go do something and I didnt think it was the right thing to do. I think that if I were put into a situation where I didn't feel comfortable or I thought it was the wrong thing to do that I would remove myself from the sitaution and find something else to do.

What beliefs are firmly upheld in Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit?
The beliefs that I saw all through out the story were the beliefs in god and the bible. Jeanettes mother took Jeanette to church with her and Sundays were their holy days. There was no television watching on sundays just prayer. For example one Sunday when Jeanette adn her mother came home from running errands Jeanette's fatehr had the television on and Jeanette's mother made him turn it off right away and she was furious with him. In their family they went by the bible adn if the bible said to do something they did it and if the bible discouraged something they did everything in their power to avoid it.

How are Jeanette's changing beliefs demonstrated symbolically or through forshadowing withing the pages of the novel?
Jeanette's changing beliefs are forshadowed when she is a young girl and at the carnival. A fortune teller or a gypsey walks up to her and tells Jeanette that she will never marry a man. I think that this small piece of information gives the reader a big clue as to what is going to occur in the rest of the novel.

What struggles still exist for Jeanette, even after she has "accepted" herself?
I think a huge struggle that Jeanette faces is is she doing the right thing, she is worried that she is not doing the right thing by falling in love with anotehr women because her whole life she was raised that a man loves a woman and a woman only loves a man. She is disobeying her religion by choosing to follow her heart. But at the same time she does not want to be untrue to her heart.

Making Connections Across Texts

After reading American Born Chinese and The Bluest Eye I came to the realization that people always want to be something that they are not. Many of the characters in these books wanted to be white because they thought that to be white was to be better. In American Born Chinese Jin Wang wanted to become a white person because he thought that they had the better life and that he would fit in better if he were just white. For example on page 28 Jin wang says that when he gets older he wants to be a transformer because we wanted to change his apperance. And while reading The Bluest Eye all of the girls in the story wanted to have blue eyes and to be white. They learned that when you are white you are considered pretty, smart and you are treated with kindness. This is shown in the clip Black Doll, White Doll as well. Fifteen out of twent one black children choose the white doll to play with over the black doll. When they were asked which doll was better or "good" they said that the white doll was good because it was white. And when asked what doll was "bad" they choose the black doll and said that it was bad because it was black. They all identidied with the black doll when they were asked which one was more like them.

I think it is really sad that people cant be happy with what they have. They all want to be something that they are not and a lot of the times it is becuase of what they have learned from tehir parents or socitey. They are told that in order to be pretty or to be the best you need to be white. In all three (American Born Chinese, The Bluest Eye, and Black Doll, White Doll) they all thought the perfect normal thing to be was white.

After reading and watching all of them the doll one (Black Doll, White Doll) really seemed to affect me the most. It was very moving to see young black girls and boys all choosing the white doll as the better "good" one. Since I want to be a teacher I was thinking about my future students and all the stereotypes that they will already walk into my classroom with. I think it is very sad that even in today's society people still think that being white is the best thing that you can be. And in order to be successful or good in life you need to be white. I hope to try to teach my students to break thoes stereotypes and be proud of themselves for what they are and who tehy are. I hope that in the future years all of these stereotypes can be broken and children can be proud of themselves for who they are and not be judged by how they look!

Close Reading

For American Born Chinese:

I noticed that when Wei-Chen thinks about what a girl would want or what the perfect person is he thinks of a person who resembels Danny. He wants to have blonde hair, blue or green eyes, and light skin. Wei-Chen seems to think that if he was a white, blonde boy all of his problems would seem to disappear. This is shown in the panels on page (I have to still look it up), where Wei-Chen is sitting on a bench imagining blonde hair. I think that it is sad that he can't just love himself for who he is and try to find the good parts about being him. A lot of people try to change their apperance or just who they are in general to try to fit in.

For My Papa's Waltz:

"Then waltzed me off to bed"
I think that the line above is the most importnat in the poem. It seems to show how even though the dad is drunk he still cares about his child. The father seems to be spending some quality time with his son by teaching him how to dance. From teh line "Sill clinging to your shirt" made me think that the father and son dont get to spend a lot of time together becuase the son doesnt want to let go. The dad seems to work hard long days because his hand is "caked with dirt" which seems to mean that he has an outside jon where mabye he works in the fields or does some sort of manual labor.

Thesis: The poem My Papa's Waltz represents a good night story between a father and child.
Support:
1. "Palm cracked hard by dirt"- the father works doing manual labor during the day
2. "Then waltzed me off to bed"- tucking the child in for the night
3. "Off to bed"- After Dinner

ABC

After reading the first part of American Born Chinese, I am left wondering how do all three of these stories relate and if they are one big story why did the author chose to tell them in three different ways. Overall though this book seems to be very good. It keeps my interest, and I don't get so bored. The majority of ABC seems to be the Chinese and their culture. My favorite part of the story so far was the part with Danny and Chin-Kee. They seemed really funny, and that part of the story seemed the easiest to relate to/ understand. Its also kind of sad that Danny is so embarrassed by his cousin. When Danny and a friend of his were studying, Danny was embarrassed that his cousin was talking to his girlfriend. For my interpretation I felt as if at one time or another Danny was not embarrassed by his cousin it was just fairly recently that he began to feel this way. But I do understand how Danny would like to keep his home life and family seperate from his social life and his friends at school.

Overall I think that American Born Chinese is going to be a really good book. I think that the stories are going to come together in a very interseting way. I hope that Danny will learn to appreicate his cousin for who he is and not judge him for what he looks like or how he acts. I also hope that the monkey learns to be proud of himself for what he is and that he learns that he does not need to be the greatest in the world, its oka to just be good enough! I also hope that the boy in the second story can learn to be content with being chinese and I hope that he makes some really god friends in teh future. Everyone no mater their origin deserves to have friends and to be treated fairly.

Race, Color and Gender

I think that race, class and gender play a huge role in how we interpret a piece of literature. It has you think about how the person in the book or how the author feels about what they are writing. If a female wrote a book about how to be a man you would get everything from their perspective and you would not necessarily know what it was like to be a male unless you interviewed or read books by other male authors. Race plays a huge role as well. I think that in a lot of books that i have read if the author is African American then it is okay for them to say things and write about things that if a white author was writing about would not be okay for them to say. For example if I was African American than it would be okay for me to refer to myself as being black but since I a white it is more correct if I say African American. I don't think that is fair. If I have to watch what I say to respect someone else, then they should have to watch hat they have to say and respect themselves. Class also lays a huge role in writing Many people write about the upper class as being snobby, and boring. And then several others write abut how poor classes are lazy and worthless.


I thought that # 26 about being able to go somewhere and buy something such as a doll is very true. Until very recently all barbie dolls were white, they did have different hair colors but they were all white. Now when little girls go to the store they can find a Barbie in whatever race they are looking for. They come in white, black, tan, chinese, indian, etc.

I also thought # 46 abut make up was kind of funny. Whenever I go to the store to buy make up many of the colors are listed as being flesh tones, or neutral, and if someone other than a white person tried to use flesh tones or neutral it would look bad because it would not match their skin color In all honesty I have never been to the store and seen makeup for other races of skin color.

Can also relate to people of other colors, so we should not just look at this as black and white!

Multimodel Literacy

Multimodality, multisemiotics and multiliteracies all seem to mean a way of communicating, and understnading. Multimodal is what the individual experiences such as seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. Multimodality is how we realte to our experiences. And that things can have more than one meaning. Multiliteracies is a fancy word for multimedia. Multiamedia can be anything from comic books like "Understanding Comics" by David McCloud, or the internet, TV, as well as simulations. All of these have been used to increase the learning that takes place in a class room. Being able to communicate in more than one way creates an endless list of opportunities for you as well as for the people that are learning from you. They can learn things in many differnt ways and they get the chance to experience many differnt things.

Multimodality and multiliteracies are seen everyday in classrooms, computers, and on televisions. Understanding Comics is an example of multiliteracies becasue it is a book giving information but in a way that you would not have expected. The information about comics is coming in the form of a comic. Comics help you get all your senses. There are pictures wich are visual. There are words that are spelling out words that are used as sounds such as cough which is audio. There are writting words which are linguistic. There is movement through lines of indication which are gestural. And there are words like MMM for spatal for you to get the effect of smelling.

Overall I think that Scott McCloud's book was very helpful. It pointed out tons of things that i never thought about before, adn I am glad that I now know them!!

Comic Book Chapters 1-4

In response to Scott McCloud's book Understanding Comics I think that "real" literature is something that someone took the time to write. I believe that literature can be anything that is written down, painted, colored, etc. Someone took the time to put their idea down on a surface of some soft and so therefore I consider it to be literature.

The only knowledge that i have about visual texts is from comic books that I have seen, the Sunday morning funnies and from this book. Until after reading this book I never really considered comics to be a way of expressing literature, but after reading all that i have read I do consider comics as a form a literature. A very helpful one if that! Many children do not always like to read therefore it is important for them to still be able to receive all the knowledge that is written down and I believe that comics can be a good way to do so.

When I first starting reading this book I was like what in the world am i going to learn from a comic book and why did my teacher decide to assign this book for homework. But after reading a few pages I started learning things that I never knew before. So far I am very glad that we were assigned to read this book because I think that it can help me be a better teacher. Instead of just assigning my students boring books to read a comic book might be just the perfect thing to mix it up a little bit from our everyday routine. One thing that kind of got on my nerves though was how time consuming reading this book actually is. Not only do you need to read the words for understanding you also have to look at all the pictures. It is difficult to read and look at the pitcutes in a detailed way fast, so it did take some time to read and understand for clarity!

Story of the Picture American Gothic

After looking at American Gothic I think that the artist was trying to depict a married couple who worked as well as lived on a farm. Their faces are round seeming to symbolize calmness and humbleness. The background of the picture however seems to be very square and have sharp shapes. Which seems to interpret structure and order. The background seems organized and dependable. The top of the house is a triangle and it seems to be pointing toward the heavens. The people are dressed in black which is thought of as a mourning or sad color. However the background is very pastely. Since light colors are though of to be safer the background is safe while since the people are dressed in dark colors they must be unsafe. The people are also located front and center which seems to mean that they are the main subject of idea of this piece of work.
When I first look at this picture the first thing that catches my eye is the mans face and his eyes in particular. They look so serious and focused on something. His face kind of seems to imply that the artist was taking up his time and that he ahd better things to do. He does not look angry he just looks preoccupied. His wife on the other hand which I am assuming is his wife looks sort of sad and worried. Like she is unsure of what is going on and she doesn't know how she feels about the situation yet. She looks uncomfortable. I also noticed that the woman is placed behind the man seeming to symbolize that whatever he says go and also that she does not ahve as important of a role as he does in this piece of work. In a lot of equaler pictures men adn women are placed side by side, and if they are a close couple tyically the mans are will be around the woman. I get the feeling from the way that they are positioned that they arent a very close loving couple, or it they are that they dont do public displays of affection. There seems to be no love between them just commitments and obligations. Mabye the reason that they have such sad faces is becuase they don't experince and love...

Poem ~ I Resign Author Unknown

I resign
Author unknown

I am hereby officially tendering my resignation as an adult.
I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an 8- year-old again.
I want to go to McDonald’s and think that it’s a four star restaurant.
I want to sail sticks across a fresh mud puddle and make ripples with rocks.
I want to think M&M’s are better than money because you can eat them.
I want to lie under a big oak tree and run a lemonade stand
with my friend on a hot summer day.
I want to return to a time when life was simple.
When all you knew were colors, multiplication tables, and nursery rhymes,
But that didn’t bother you because you didn’t know what
you didn’t know and you didn’t care.
All you knew was to happy because you were
blissfully unaware of all the things that should make you worried or upset.
I want to think the world is fair.
That everyone is honest and good.
I want to believe that anything is possible.
I want to be oblivious to the complexities of life
and be overly excited by the little things again.
I want to live simple again.
I don’t want my day to consist of computer crashes, mountains of paperwork, depressing news, how to survive more days in the month
than there is money in the bank, doctor bills, gossip,
illness, and loss of loved ones.
I want to believe in the power of smiles, hugs, a kind word,
truth, justice, peace, dreams,
the imagination, mankind, and making angels in the snow.
So…here’s my checkbook and my car keys, my credit cards and all my responsibility.
I am officially resigning form adulthood.
And if you want to discuss this further, you’ll have to catch me first, cause,
Tag! You’re it!




I choose this poem because I like how everyone can realte to it. And sometimes it would be so nice to jsut resign from adulthood and go be a kid again!!

Palm Trees make me think of summer, vacations and going to the beach! Summer is one of my favorite times of the year! I love it because there is no school, so no homework and it is so nice and sunny outside. I love just laying around in the sun with my friends or going to the pool or the beach!! Last summer I spent my whole vacation in New York where I worked at a summer camp. I worked at camp echo where I met a ton of people from all over the world!

What is an American?

I think that an American is a person who lives in the United States of America. Many have jobs, go to school, or try to do something to make sure that they have a better life. After reading the poems "I hear America signing" by Walt Witman and "I, Too" by Langston Hughes last night I got the impression that an American is anybody who lives in America. There is no color, job or age requirement. People come from all different backgrounds and have several different beliefs. In America people are told that there is no inequality and that they can be whatever they want to be as long as they are willing to put in the time and effort to get it.
Many people come to America for a better life. They come so that their children may receive a better education, and for a more successful future. They want opportunities and they want to seek their full potential. Americans come in all different kinds of shapes, sizes and colors and that is what makes America so unique. America is known for being diverse and proud of it. An American has a future and they have the choice and power to make their future however they see fit!

After reading about literary theory I learned tons of things that I never really realized. Overall I came out thinking about how great it is that so many different types of literature can be used to teach children. A lot of people are very traditional and think that it is best to just have children read stories or textbooks and learn from them. But with all of our technological advances children can do a lot more and typically like to be more involved and engaged in what they are doing/ learning about.
There are several different ways to learn about the same thing. For example we were given the example in our reading about Shakespeare and how his work was related and compared to other more modern pieces of work. When children were told about these other resources they typically learned a lot more because they found it interesting and something that they could relate to and understand better.
Literature is broken down into several different categories such as popular culture, feminism, biographical, historical and several others. Each of these categories was developed and used most frequently in the time period that was needed. For example the feminism category was mostly used during the time period when women were fighting for equal rights. Over the time it was used less and less, but it is still used as a method of writing today. By having all these different types of literature it helps the students engage and participate in a way that is beneficial to their learning.

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So this is my first blog ever & I have no clue how to do a blog! So I am just going to write about my day! It is freezing outside and it makes me miss Florida...thats where I spent my vacay! And my house is freezing bc were trying to keep our heat low to save some $$!!! So as the day went on I went to the bus stop where I realized I totally forgot my schedule for the day and had no clue where in the world I was suppose to be! Thats when I started texting everyone that I knew that wld be up! When I finally got ahold of someone I got my schedule! Then I got to campus and now I am in class writting my blog! I am super pumped for my next class because my friend Bekah is in it and i havent seen her in forever! Anyways thats my day so far its pretty great!