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.

blog 1

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!