Blog – Page 7 – Composition and Writing With Sources

What Does Jabr Really Mean?

Shannon McNulty

What Does Jabr Really Mean?

In the article, “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens”, Jabr explains that people have become so reliant on the online reading material and ebooks rather than classic paper text. He continues on to say that people are unable to follow the material they are reading and recall where the essential information is placed. He referenced various studies and statistics in order to support his claims. Overall, the article simply explains there is lack of attention while reading ebooks and online material unlike reading printed texts. Jabr provides many studies and statisitics in order to support his claims throughout the article.

Ferris Jabr wrote the article “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens. According to Jabr’s own website, ferrisjabr.com, he is a writer in Portland, Oregon who works for Scienific American. He has also written various other articles for many other sites such as The New York Times Magazine and Slate. Jabr has a MA degree from New York University in journalism and a Bachelors of Science degree in psychology and English from Tufts University (“About”). Considering all of this background information about the author, I can conclude that this article is a reliable source as he has background in writing and psychology.

In this article the targeted audience is most likely people who enjoy reading scientific articles as the article is on Scientific American. People who subscribe to Scientific American are people who have an interest in science and articles relating to science. Another reason scientific people are targeted is the article states many scientific facts as well as scientific studies, for example, Erik Wästlund conducted a study on whether paper or screens demand more physical and cognitive resources, Jabr referenced this study in his paper. The article could also appeal to people interested in psychology as many psychologists are referenced for certain studies they have done relating to Jabr’s topic. The secondary audience present may be students using this article for school or research purposes, similarly to me.

The main purpose of the article was to inform readers about the difference between reading ebooks and texts online rather than paper texts. It goes on to say that digital texts are increasing in popularity and therefore more people are experiencing effects of reading digitally rather than physical texts. Jabr makes various claims the first one being that people prefer reading paper text but digital reading is a lot more convenient and is available in many different forms so people tend to rely on it more. Another claim Jabr makes considers how paper texts allow us to navigate long readings and comprehend them but in return. digital reading does not allow readers to have the ability to map what they are reading and help them to comprehend the text. Jabr references how the brain treats letters as physical objects in which creates a “mental representation of the text” (Jabr, “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens”), which in return helps readers focus on a paper back book and easily navigate the book. However, screens do not allow this and rather trouble people by getting in the way of their journey of reading (Jabr, “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens”). According to a study by Anne Mangen referenced by Jabr, the inability to navigate the text hinders ones ability to comprehend. An additional claim found in Jabr’s text is exhaustive reading, which refers to reading that causes more attention than normal causing a drain in a readers attention span. Unlike text reading, with digital reading comes the aspect of light that may cause glare and cause readers eyes to get more tired during long periods of reading. However, this does not occur with paperback books as they tend to be gentle on readers eyes (Jabr, “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens”). The aspect of light can be a big factor when reading and can lead to loss of focus and possibly lack of comprehension. The final claim made by Jabr is readers attitudes when approaching their text, he explains that most readers tend to take digital reading lighter and tend to have the mindset to skim the reading. He mentions Ziming Liu who concludes that “people reading on screens take a lot of shortcuts” (Jabr, “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens”), people tend to browse and hunt for key aspects rather than read the whole article. He provides many convincing claims throughout the article with lots of evidence for persuasion.

The article, “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens” was published on Scientific American on April 11, 2013. The article is posted on the web probably so it is easily accessible. Readers will probably primarily read this article on a computer when having to do research on the subject matter, others may read it for interest in the psychological and science aspect of the article. It is listed under the sub category of Mind as it references many psychologists and focuses on the mental state of the brain when using different forms of reading.

The article is science based primarily focusing on psychology and research connecting the brain and reading together. Similar articles to “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens” would relate to our articles having to do with the mind as well as other articles relating the brain to reading or on the subject of digital reading versus paper reading. The Scientific American sub categories the article into the mind category, this is probably primarily due to the article relating to the brain and having so many psychological studies involved. So generally I would say the genre of the article would be related to the mind or psychology, which is where the Scientific American placed the article as well.

Picture of digital reader included in article

When reading the article “The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens” I noticed that it was written in black text with a white background in formal font, possibly mimicking a paperback book. The top of the page has the title enlarged to grasp the reader with a short one sentence summary in small gray writing below. This short summary is followed by sizable picture which is also in black and white, it is a picture of a digital reading device. The picture helps to provide a visual of a digital reader in case the audience is unaware and has never used one before. The only color found on the page is along the side under suggested articles relating to the current article being read as well as the advertisements that appear at the top of the screen and in the middle of the article. Another touch of color Scientific American includes is the big royal blue box trying to convince readers to subscribe now. Overall, the article was very simple and easy to navigate but it lacked intriguing images to drawl the reader in, however it was written in a science journal so that is expected. I would conclude that the article is a very helpful resource and Jabr is a reliable source.

Subscribe Now advertisement at the bottom of the article

He Has a Point

The author of the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, is Nicholas Carr. Nicholas Carr is well known for his publications, The Shallows and The Glass Cage: Automation and Us (“Is Google Making Us Stupid”). He has also written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired (Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid”). In a biography of Carr it asserts he specializes in writing about technology and culture. He is also a former member of Encyclopedia Britannica’s editorial board of advisors and an executive editor of Harvard Business review. According to his personal site “Nicholas Carr“, his education entailed a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a M.A. in English, American Literature and Language from Harvard University (“Home”). Carr seems like he has credibility, which makes his article trustworthy. He comes across as if he is very knowledgeable about technology and uses a variety of dependable research from media theorists, bloggers, developmental psychologists, media scholars, historians, MIT computer scientists and studies which back up his assertions throughout the article.

Carr’s article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, was published on The Atlantic. The Atlantic covers “news, politics, and international affairs, education, technology, health, science and culture” (Wikipedia, “Introduction”). The primary audience of this publication are middle aged people, including both men and women, who are frequently searching for a variety of news coverage. The secondary audience of The Atlantic are any age, specifically 14-25 year old’s, who are inquisitive about what is happening in the world or for research purposes. The audience for Carr’s article is congruent to the audience for this publication. Carr’s primary audience is middle aged people continuously accessing The Atlantic for primarily news coverage. His secondary audience are matured students in school who may have to research about how technology affects the way we read and write or people who are fascinated by the of technology’s impact on our reading and writing skills. Carr makes this clear by referencing A Space Odyssey in the first paragraph. This movie was produced in 2001, which makes the reference for 20-50 year old who would have been old enough to watch the movie and understand it. I know in my class nobody understood the reference because none of us were old enough to watch the movie when it came out and was prevalent. There were also flashing advertisements, in between paragraphs, for other articles on The Atlantic which were called “Rise of the connected family” and an article on the Vietnam war, “To Pledge Allegiance”, targeting middle aged individuals who most likely have families of their own. On the article page were also advertisements for internet and cable, which means you must have money and a house to find the ad relevant to your life. At the top of the article were buttons that say “share” and “tweet”, which shows there must be tech savvy people reading the article. If this article was made for elderly people, they wouldn’t know what those buttons mean nor how to use them.

Carr’s purposes are to display how the internet has modified the way we read and write and how we have simply become lazy, distracted readers. Carr portrays his purpose by using a variety of evidence in the article. He starts off by using his own personal experience stating his “concentration starts to drift after two or three pages” and he “becomes fidgety, lose the thread, and begin looking for something else to do”. He also talks about how the internet has made us become lazier. Before we would have to research for days in the library, but now we are able to search on google and find exactly what we need in a matter of minutes. Carr also talks about himself as well as his friends saying that they all think “the Net is becoming a universal medium”. This statement is true because no matter what we need, it is always there on the internet. Carr states that the conclusion of a study performed by University College London showed “skimming activity” and the subjects would read “no more than one or two pages before hopping to another source” (qtd. in a study of online research habits from University College London). He also brings up the fact that “the last thing these companies want is to encourage leisurely reading” and that “it’s in their best economic interest to drive us to distraction” since they get paid for how much they advertise. This ultimately ensues in our attention being scattered and disseminated concentration. The internet is a machine designed to get quick and competent information, which results in us becoming an idler and not being able to work to find information. Carr ends by stating “Kurbick’s dark prophecy” saying that the more we rely on computers, “our own intelligence flattens into artificial intelligence” (Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”).

This is the only illustration throughout the whole article

The medium of the article I read was on the web, but The Atlantic also published magazines and the article was also published in the July/August 2008 edition. This article was meant to be delivered on a phone or laptop when you have a full attention span. Whether you are looking for news articles in school, at work, in some cases at a doctor’s office or on your couch, you need to be able to focus as you read. On the website, similar informational and news articles surround it which means that these articles are all supposed to be read when you can concentrate and figure out what they are articulating. Carr adds an illustration by Guy Billout where the “internet patrol” is writing a ticket for a guy holding a book next to a speed limit sign. This picture is meant to add some humor to the article and show that the internet controls our everyday lives.

The genre of this article is an informational and critique article on how technology is affecting our reading and writing abilities. It is an informational article because it uses a lot of evidence to explain and depict how the internet affects our English skills. It is also a critique article because Carr is criticizing how we all depend on the internet to do everything for us and how he thinks it is affecting our intelligence.

These are the first things you see when you pull up the article

At the beginning of the article there is a big headline, bolded and bigger than everything else on the page to signal that this is the title and you can expect google and our intelligence to be talked about. Under the big headliner, there is the issue date and the author’s name in capital letters and highlighted in red, so you know who wrote the article without searching for the name. The web page is all white with black letters that are in a regular Times New Roman font. The only variation of font throughout the article can be found with the hyperlinks that are in a blue color font, which directs your attention to who the sources are. There is only one illustration in the whole article, which looks like it was designed on the computer and may even be clip-art. The picture shows an internet patrol officer by his car giving a man with a book a ticket, as they are standing by a speed limit sign. This picture was put into the article to show that it is uncommon for people to use books now, and that when you aren’t using the internet, there is a problem.

This article does an efficient job of persuading me that Google has made us lazy, preoccupied readers. While reading the article there are flashing advertisements and a variety of hyperlinks. This results in you getting distracted as you read about today’s society getting distracted while reading online. Not only do you firsthand get distracted, but Carr also uses a plethora of research to back up his claims. My first reaction to the article was “wow this is long” and honestly skimmed the entire article. It wasn’t until I decided to write my rhetorical analysis on the paper that I did a deep, diagnostic reading. Not only did I do a deep reading, but I printed out the article to read it. Which backs up all of his claims that we only skim read online, but use printed sources get a better understanding of the article.

Works cited:

Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 27 Apr. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/. Accessed 20 Sept. 2017.

Carr, Nicholas. “Nicholas Carr.” Nicholas Carr, www.nicholascarr.com/. Accessed 21 Sept. 2017.

“The Atlantic.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Sept. 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic. Accessed 20 Sept. 2017.

Protected: Fourteen Years

Simple Steps to a Challenging Journey

Shannon McNulty

Dr. Licastro

Simple Steps to a Challenging Journey

My name is Shannon McNulty and I am just beginning my freshman year at Stevenson University in Owings Mills, Maryland. I am from Newark, Delaware and recently I graduated from the Charter School of Wilmington in Wilmington, Delaware. I am now a student athlete at Stevenson studying nursing while playing on the women’s soccer team. Being a student athlete helps me to better manage my time and encourages me to be a hard worker all of the time. I am the youngest of two kids in my family of four. My older sister is a senior in college studying sports and exercise science, she attends Coastal Carolina in Conway, South Carolina. Both of my parents attended college, my mom graduated with a degree in business and my dad received a degree in chemical engineering. Since I have an older sister and grew up with her, I seemed to learn faster than others because I always wanted to be doing what she was. I was constantly wanting to know what she was doing and trying to do the school work she had as well as read all the books she had rather than my own. However, throughout my many years of school I am typically a person who prefers science and math, rather than English and humanities classes. So, as the years went on I enjoyed reading and writing much less than when I was younger.This is a picture of a Leap Frog.

The year of school that I really recollect is 4^th grade. In 4^th grade I had a teacher named Mrs. Fendell, she was a super sweet teacher that wanted nothing more than for her students to succeed, her smiling face every morning made me enjoy school every day. She got not only me, but the whole class engaged in writing and made us really enjoy it. I learned so much from her, but the most important thing I learned was how to begin writing a paper. She used a special method called the sandwich method to help us grasp the concept. The sandwich method tied each ingredient to a specific section of the paper. The two pieces of bread on each end represented the beginning as well as the conclusion. The middle of the sandwich contained the meat, cheese, and lettuce, they were the body paragraphs. Occasionally there would be tomato added to the middle of the sandwich when we needed an extra body section for our paper. To make the concept easier in the beginning my teacher would give us two brown sheets of paper for the bread, a tan piece of paper for the meat, an orange sheet of paper for the cheese, a green piece of paper for the lettuce, and a red piece of paper if there was a tomato section in our paper. This not only helped my whole class earn to write but was a fun way to get everyone engaged in writing papers. We would turn our colored sheets of paper into a mini book that ended up being our paper. Eventually we got rid of the colored sheets of paper and just began writing it all together on one sheet since we had developed our writing further. It helped us understand the concept of a structured essay and carry that with us in future school years. It got us very involved with our writing, which I had never been able to do before, since it incorporated a fun method into writing and made things simpler so we could learn rather than just jumping into things. I will always remember this memory because it was when I finally learned to give structure to writing rather than just jotting things down on a piece of paper.

A few years later, when arriving in middle school I remember taking nagging vocabulary tests every single week. At that point, I never understood how they were helpful and what they were doing for me. I continued to study for them each week but I never retained any of the words after taking the vocabulary tests. The ongoing vocab tests happened weekly all the way through high school. However, in ninth grade one day we came into class and my English teacher named Ms. Mancari asked us to write an essay using fifty percent of the words we had learned. This seemed to be a very simple task until she informed us that she was going to take our vocab books while we did the assignment. We were expected to remember the words we had learned along with their definitions. This daunting task seemed impossible considering ever since sixth grade I had only ever learned the words for the vocab test and then immediately forgotten them. The whole class seemed to be in the same situation as me, everyone was very nervous for the assignment and we had no time to prepare. She ended up not grading the assignment, instead she used it as a lesson we should learn from. From then on, I studied my vocab words in order to know them for the future rather than just short term for the test. I now am able to use those words every day and use them in my writing. If it had not been for my ninth grade teacher, I would have gone through the rest of my high school career and potentially college just learning various words for tests. Increasing my vocabulary has greatly improved my writing abilities and it was all thanks to the lesson learned in my ninth grade English class.

Many things have influenced my writing and reading skills but these specific examples mentioned were the most influential. They have gotten me to my current level and most importantly to college to further my education. I will continue to use these skills I’ve learned throughout my college career and will also carry these skills into my desired field of nursing. I will need to constantly be writing in patients records as well as reading medical histories. I would never be able to do this without the basic skills I have acquired over the years. Despite that, many medical terms and new vocabulary will need to be learned in this new field of study. This is only the beginning, I have many new things to learn and lots of other things to improve upon both in college and in the medical field. However, you have to learn the basics in order to get to the more complicated stuff. My many years of school has taught me several very useful writing and reading structures and strategies to help me on my journey through nursing school as well as further down the road when I begin my career as a nurse.

“LeapFrog Original LeapPad Learning System from 2004: Toys & Games.” Amazon.com: LeapFrog Original LeapPad Learning System from 2004: Toys & Games, www.amazon.com/LeapFrog-Original-LeapPad-Learning-System/dp/B00003GPTI, September 9, 2017.

“Sadlier School School Catalog.” Products List, schoolstore.sadlier.com/ProductsList.aspx?CategoryID, September 9, 2017

http://nursejournal.org/, 2017 NurseJournal.org |. “The 5 Most Common Mistakes Made By New Nurses.” 2017 NurseJournal.org, nursejournal.org/articles/the-5-most-common-mistakes-made-by-new-nurses/, September 9, 2017.

A Mouse And a Cookie

On October 13, 1999, Melanie and Michael Weisgerber had their second kid together. My name is Ashlyn Weisgerber. I’m now seventeen, freshly graduated from Liberty High School and a freshman at Stevenson University. I have a sister, Kait who is 22, and a half brother, Sam who is 25. Both my sister and I have played softball for a very long time, I thoroughly enjoy it. I also really enjoy reading.

When I was about four, my favorite book was If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It had a green and white cover with red writing and a mouse in blue overalls with a cookie. I would look through the book and read it with my mother or grandmother. When we’d read together, I’d look at all the pictures. Soon, I’d look through it by myself. There were two lines on each page with a picture depicting what the words were saying. This book sparked my love for reading.

My elementary school, Eldersburg Elementary, was in a small town in Carroll County. It was made of old maroon bricks that were chipping on the outside; the inside consisted of cinderblocks that were painted a bright white. Our mascot was a green, friendly, smiling dinosaur. This is the place where I had learned the basics of reading and writing. It started in kindergarten and went through fourth grade with these things called site words. These were little index cards that we were to memorize over a week. These were to help pick them out in books. In fourth grade, it turned to definitions. My kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Flannery, would pass out about fifteen each week. Mrs. Flannery was a tall woman with short, straight, light brown hair. Her room had round tables for us to sit in groups. In the back of the room were cubbies for us to put our book bags in, along with a rug for us to sit around and read. It was a very fun, kidfriendly room with bright posters and decorations.

In third grade, I had a teacher named Mrs. K. She was a relatively short woman with thin, straight, brown hair. Her room had desks set up into groups of four to make a table with a white board in the frontof the classroom, her desk was to the left when you walked in. Every morning on the white board would be a grammar warm up, we had to correct the sentence on the board. She also taught me cursive. She’d give us these templates that had the cursive letter, then next to it would be a dottedversion of the word that we could trace. Underneath those were empty lines to practice on once we felt we could do it without tracing. She’d also give us vocabulary tests weekly. If we did well enough on them she’d give us War Heads. Everyone always looked forward to the vocabulary tests.

In fifth grade, I had Mrs. Chiaramonte, she was my English teacher. She had short, frizzy, red hair and wore small rimmed glasses. Her room was fairly big; when you walked in there were desks set up into rows facing the white board, her desk was in the front to the right with a bookcase in front of it. She’d have us do these reading logs every Friday on what we read over the week. These were in blue folders with ‘Reading Logs’ and our name in the top left hand corner. Inside were templates; the top was a summary of what we read, then halfway down the page it turned into a rating and if we’d recommend this book to others. She alsohelped me remember that a lot wastwo words and not one; in all of my papers I had wrote it as one word. She had written upon the board and point it out to me and that helped me remember it was two words. Lastly, she’d also have us do warm ups of grammar corrections; she’d have sentences on the overhead that we’d have to fix.

In ninth grade, I had Mr. Flemming; a short man with black hair, glasses and a goatee. He’d usually always wear liberty pride clothing and would always relate things to sports since he coached two sports at our school. When walking into his room, he had tables set up from five desks, there was a white board in the front of the room along with his desk and laptop. Over my freshman year in English, we read Grendel and Beowulf. While reading these, he’d have us do REN1N2S; this stood for reasons for the chapter, examples, names, numbers and senses. This was to help us

recognize important details in the book and understand the purpose of the book. My senior year I had Mr. Flemming again along with his student teacher Mr. Erdmann. That year we read
. We would have discussions as to why the character did what he did and recognize the importance of the story. We also practiced more grammar with Mr. Erdmann and applied that to the sentence structure in the book.

All of these things and people have helped me become he reader and writer I am today. With all of the knowledge, help, and tips I’ve been given, I can make it through college and into my career. When I get out of college, I’d like to be a forensic scientist, and as a forensic scientist I’ll have to write reports and share what I have found with others in a professional way. I’ll continue to grow and prosper as I go through college and learn much more. These important figures and tools have helped me and will continue to help me throughout my life.

Citations:

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, Laura Numeroff 1986

Eldersburg Elementary, Carroll County Public Schools 2017

Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer, 1995

A Blast from the Past

As I start the 2017 fall semester at Stevenson University, I find myself doing an assignment for my English 151 class. I have been told to look back at my journey through life and figure out the key moments that led to me being able to read and write at the level I am now. Those moments are important points of my life and if they had not happened, I could be in a different place and lead a different life than the one I’m leading now. These moments are the ones that help eighteen-year-old me write these entries.

The first memory I can call back upon, takes place almost every night when I was five in our apartment building we were living in. The apartment was in Wilmington, Delaware and was decently sized and had two bedrooms (one for me and for my mom). It wasn’t anything special but it was home. Where my memories take place is in my room. My room was located at the end of the hallway and my mother’s room was to the left of mine. My room was the smaller of the two rooms and my bed was situated near the wall right next to the doorway. My bed was pretty small compared to how tall I am now but back then it could hold my mother’s full height (5’8). My nightly routine stayed consistent through that year of my life. I would take my bath at seven and brush my teeth right after. I hated this part of the night because it always felt like it took hours to complete but, it only took thirty minutes at the most. After I was finished, my favorite part of the night came. Me and mother read random books every night. Some of them were very complex. The main complex book we read was the bible. Most nights though, we read shorter books. My favorite of those books, was the Berenstain Bears. The Berenstain Bears really helped me read because the books really engaged me and made me interested in the stories of the fictional family of bears. This was the first time I could remember enjoying reading a book. This would be the first of very few books.

My next memory comes from my sixth-grade year. My middle school was called Nativity preparatory school in Wilmington, Delaware. It was a very small school and my sixth-grade class was just as small. We had ten people in our entire grade so we had a unique learning experience. We had different programs that helped us with two core classes. Those classes were math and English. We had to finish problem sets every Tuesday and Thursday that were built to focus on our strengths and are weaknesses. The problem sets were never overly challenging but they weren’t easy either. The English on the other hand was a bit more difficult. The English program was dedicated to the reading side of English. Unlike the math program, the English wasn’t built around weekly assessments. It was built around a point system. It forced us to read at least ten books per trimester. Each book had different point totals and at the completion of the book we had to take a mini quiz to see how well we read the book. I was a person who went for the quantity over quality approach. I read every single captain underpants book and flat Stanley. I never challenged myself because I didn’t have to. Then I ran out of short and medium books to read. Our library was filled with enough books for me to find more short and medium books to read. But none of them interested me. My friend Elijah recommended that I read the harry potter series. I gave it a try and hated it. The books had too many minuet details that were easy to miss if I zoned out at an important scene. I then went on to try another book series: Percy Jackson. The Percy Jackson series quickly became my favorite. The dialogue and storyline kept me engaged through the entirety of the books. Even though I personally believe the books got worse towards the end of the available books. After I finished the series I was lost. By the end of the trimester I had completed my goal but I hadn’t found that next series that could get me through the next trimester. I went and talked to my science teacher Mr. Hernandez to see if he can give me any help with my dilemma. He helped me find my favorite book series to this day. He pointed out that the author of the Percy Jackson books had another series called the Kane chronicles. This series was a trilogy unlike the Percy Jackson series which had five books. These two-series helped me discover the type of books that I like to read. My attention is grabbed by action and adventure stories that force me to use my imagination. The English program helped me discover how I read and helped me make previously boring reading bearable.

My next experience has to do with both my reading and my writing. My seventh and eighth grade years, I had one two English teachers who really paved the way for how I read and how I write. The one that influenced my writing was my teacher Chuck Selvaggio. He made us write every day before the start of class. He would give of the start of a sentence and we would have to finish the sentence and then right a short story about it. It helped cultivate my writing and helped me focus my thoughts into a constructive manner. It also hurt my writing a bit because he encouraged rambling in the story. He wanted us to keep writing no matter what. He said it would help because usually when a person can’t think of what to write it isn’t because they are out of ideas. It’s because they have too many and don’t know which to put down. He wanted us to write the first that came to our mind and run with it. I tend to stray away from my point nowadays because of it. I truly believe though, that I am better off doing his writing assignments than to have never had them. He helped my writing but my reading was truly helped by my other English teacher Paul Webster. I used to call Mr. Webster, Stabler. I called him this because he looked like detective Stabler from Law and Order: SVU and I couldn’t get out of my head. Mr. Webster helped me truly enjoy reading books that weren’t true action but were more centered around drama and suspense. One book in particular truly changed how I read. That book was lord of the flies. We read parts of the book in class and what we didn’t finish from the homework we would have to finish at home (usually would still be about thirty pages of the reading left). Reading the book in class and discussing it really helped me get a grasp on how I should read with more of a critical mind instead of letting my mind wander into my imagination. Mr. Webster helped me understand to a certain degree how to analyze the text.

These moments have shaped me into I am today. Each moment has taught me new lessons and challenged me to be a better student and a better person. They have helped me discover how well I can read and write but also how far I have left to go. These moments have created great building blocks for myself to continue to build upon. I expect myself to continue improving in both reading and writing to do my younger self proud for all the hard work he did. That is my goal for not only college but in life.

Christopher Meloni. Pintrest, i.pinimg.com/originals/1b/3c/60/1b3c6062d518b91219ce48e0bea9a63a.jpg. Accessed 11 Sept. 2017.

Paul Webster. Nativity Wilmington, nativitywilmington.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Paul-Webster-4.jpg. Accessed 11 Sept. 2017.

The Life of James

During the afternoon of a cool crisp day in Coon Rapids, Minnesota on June 27th ,1999, a boy with two lazy eyes named James was born to Kevin Hartner and Beth Hartner. Growing up and being the youngest of four boys prove to be a struggle at times. I felt like I didn’t get as much attention so I became independent growing up. Due to my father getting promotions in the Postal Service, my family has packed up shop and left to live in Colorado when I turned five and then to Maryland at the age of thirteen. Being the independent kid I was, it was hard to make friends but every friend that I had made seemed to be long lasting relationships that prove to not be fatal.
Over the course of my youth and early adulthood, I had experienced major bumps in the road that dealt with my literacy skills. At the age of four, I didn’t grasp the requirements that a boy my age should know in speaking abilities. The struggles caused me to see a speech therapist usually every Thursday. Walking into the building always turned my stomach around as I was never attracted to strangers and only felt normal around my family. The halls were wide and even after every step I took, the halls felt endless to me. The chipped white paint haunted me as I felt like I was closer to my doom. As we arrived in the therapist’s office space though, the small room was covered from head to toe with pop culture items that made my four-year-old self smile from ear to ear. With pictures of things that I had enjoyed, and enjoyable lessons like sounding out words by using pictures, my therapy sessions seemed to go by a lot easier, in which helped me advance my speaking and reading abilities into school.
In my elementary scholar years, I grew a larger array of reading abilities. During my third-grade year and beyond that, my classes had literature circles. These literature circles caused my reading abilities to sky rocket because the book was read to us and we were to discuss it as a class. It also gave me my first step in the water of using many literary devices like inferring, and being able to paraphrase a text to my own words. These circles caused my knowledge to broaden fast, both with the help of the teacher and the classmates. It also taught me to sound out words that I didn’t know and break those words down to figure out the meanings.
As I got into Middle School, the rise of technology proved to be an effective use inside of school. During my seventh-grade year, my language arts teacher was an avid geek when it came to technology, incorporating any type to every lesson if possible. It was a nice transition as any previous courses I had taken prior to that were filled with boring, and silent reading. With this, I could interact with other resources that actually made the subject enjoyable. My teacher, Mr. Schuster felt like a superhero to me, as he helped show the lighter side of reading and writing and helped guide every student to further the strives for knowledge. It was a time when technology was being introduced into education, and with his help, it was easier to navigate through websites and use the proper resources.
Jumping into High School was a whole different ball game. There weren’t many vocabulary tests, but instead a large selection of writing pieces in almost every class. Some teachers would shoot my ideas down, while others praised them. The one teacher who seemed to enjoy and hate my writing was one of my social studies teacher. I remember one day I received my graded paper back and he said, “I love your writing, but you say too much.” Even though it was a backhanded compliment and I shrugged it off at the time, I felt devastated. I didn’t know how to shorten my paper or any of my future writings. It made me realize though that I needed to learn to be “short and sweet,” and not let my ideas go off the tracks. With that realization, I felt able to condense my papers for future assignments in which it helped me stay on topic without writing about something totally random. It also helped me use descriptive words to my advantage too. Instead of using whole sentences to explain something, I could use descriptive language to get to the point quicker.
Literacy is used in everyday life. Whether it’s in the past, present, or future, events will help you grab onto knowledge to further progress in the abilities to read, write, and speak. I know these events will guide me through a bright future because they have taught me so much. I have a lot to learn but over the past eighteen years, I have learned so much in which I can tackle on the world if I so desired. These lessons have taught me to be a better writer, a speaker, a reader, and listener. With the knowledge I have now, I plan to further use it in my years getting my degree in Applied Mathematics. With this knowledge, I also plan to write my way into the job field as being an actuary or an engineer. Both the English language and mathematics come together to create something wonderful, and I want to be a piece of that. These experiences and lessons have also showed me to express my feelings through the use of language that I never thought I would achieve at such an early age. Without the help from my teachers and the constructive criticism I had received, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today. Every day there is a new lesson to learn, and from now on, I plan to use that to my full advantage. With every lesson, literacy is tied to all of them.

Citations:

Darwinek, Flag-map of Maryland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag-map_of_Maryland.svg (Maryland flag)
Energepic.com Writing https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-hands-woman-pen-110473/ (Woman writing)

Marchini, Leonardo. Colorado, Sign, Welcome, Travel – Free Image on Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/en/colorado-sign-welcome-travel-usa-1279373/ (Welcome sign of Colorado)

The other two pictures are of me as a child.

Literacy Narrative

Chris Fenzel
Dr.Licastro
11:00
Literacy Narrative
My name is Chris Fenzel, I am one of three boys that my parents worked hard to raise. I am from Pasadena, Maryland and currently I am a freshman at Stevenson University, which is outside of the city of Baltimore in Owings Mills, Maryland. I intend to be playing club lacrosse this fall and spring for the school. Of my family, I am the youngest sibling and the only one to be enrolled at a university. My eldest brother, Brandon, is 25 and works for a surveying company. My other brother, Jake, is 21 and is an apprentice at fire safety organization. I have a relatively large family and most of us live in the same proximity. I have been raised by both of my parents who both work for the National Security Agency for the Department of Defense in the United States. I believe my family had the largest impact on my ability to read and write. From as far back as we can remember we have soaked in information of the world that surrounds us. The most important tools that have helped us do that is reading and writing. These came to us throughout time from one stimuli to the next. It goes without needing to say that some factors had more magnitude then others. Not only that, but everyone learned in some different experience of their own, and quite frankly lead to some being more intelligent than others. Everyone is still learning because no one is ever perfect at reading or writing. For example, in high school my AP English Literature teacher, Ms. Nizer, always gave these thick packets of vocab words and we were tested on it. She was quite the eccentric teacher. She was about 5’7, a heavy set 65-year-old woman with dyed red hair, she talked as if she had three shots of espresso in a 25-ounce cup of coffee. She was the sweetest lady until you got on her bad side, luckily, I haven’t had that with most teachers. I Believe her test is a prime example a continuing experience because it made me think about all the words I really don’t know.
My parents have had three kids including me, I am the youngest so when I came they already had a pretty good idea of what to do. Even at the elementary level of school they harped on homework and they would sit down at our table and ask me various questions. They often asked me the meaning of words and how to spell them. Even today when I explain something scientific to them they like to play the game of 20 questions and ask the meaning of various terminology. When I was in elementary school my dad would sit down and help me with writing and urged in a sternly yet fatherly manner to better my penmanship. At the time, my father was about 5’8, black hair and goatee turning white so to a little kid he was always a bit scary when he was stern so I listened but improved in increments. Now in the car was where my mom would teach to read things. In enclosed space, my mom is a loquacious person. She had always asked me to read road signs and billboards, at the time I didn’t have glasses or even knew I needed them so half the time I really couldn’t see them, letters were just blurry but I made out the words from the shape of the letters. From them always pushing school is why I believe it has made the most impact on my reading and writing which in turn leads me to discussing being self-taught.
By support of my parents I believe that has had the largest impact on my ability to read and write, but it leads to then on being self-taught. They had gotten me started and I had taken over by myself from there. I began to just do required readings for my elementary school classes, but back then I was an extremely curious boy, even more so than I am now, so I wanted to read more sophisticated books, and so began my interest in space. This is where I believe I developed a love for science. At that point, my grandmother started buying me books about anything science and even took me to the Goddard Space Center in Maryland. I believe starting to do things for myself was the second biggest impact because I still had the support of my parents and even my grandparents, but that support is the sole reason I could do things on my own. A little optimism goes a long way for a kid.
Believe or not one thing that helped me write better quality was the tv show “Spongebeob Squarepants” on Nickelodeon. This is a cartoon that started in the nineties about a yellow, aberrant, and kind underwater sea sponge and his misadventures with his various friends and family. A certain scene somewhat stuck with me in the show, it taught me to write in better quality. Spongebob is in boating school to get his boaters license but he can never seem to pass anything in the class. He has a big paper coming up and he gets input from his teacher, Mrs. Puff, a puffer fish, on what he should write about. I don’t remember exactly what she told him but he did with the information I will always remember because it was humorous but still sent a message. The biggest paper he must do for his class and he spends all night writing the word “The” and made it look ornamental. What that taught me was to not spend so much time on little details. Work on the bigger picture first then go in depth as to get a better understanding of what you are doing. A show that had made me better at reading and understanding things as whole was the show “The Crocodile Hunter.” This was a show about an Australian crocodile hunter in Australia. The man’s name was Steve Irwin, he was tall, had blonde hair, and blue eyes, dressed in all kakis with a safari hat to top it off. This show helped me because I watched it with the subtitles on to learn how to spell the names of different animals (he wasn’t just a crocodile hunter, he loved animals) and learn about what they are and what they do. I believe for our generation media has had a strong impact on how we read and write. Between the social media, like twitter and facebook, to information mediums, like the discovery channel, we have all learned something important that effects our ability to read and write.
When we were young our parents always told us, we can be anything we want to be and change the world for better or for worse. To this day I still intend on trying to do that, hence why I am studying biochemistry to later go into research genetics- genetic mutation in specific. Genetic mutation is an alteration to the nucleotide sequence of the genome in an organism. I have had and still have to learn much terminology. Although I have a good grasp on the topic since I pushed myself to take many AP science courses in high school. School I believe is the most important in developing the skills to read and write because in my opinion its where you find what you want to pursue to further your knowledge in a particular area which means you have to learn more words and write exceptionally well which is what we are all trying to work on in this class as well as just fulfill our general education requirements, or the requirements that we need, but why not take the most out of the class and learn something that will stick. As Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world.”
https://media.giphy.com/media/4ZSMVksS24R3O/giphy.gif
Kessel, Jaclyn, Writer. Billy Madison. 1999. Performance by Adam Sandler, Universal Pictures, 2015. Accessed 10 Sept. 2017.

Danielle’s literacy narrative

Coming from a big family, I’ve always had the greatest support system. When spending time with my family and friends, I’m constantly learning something new every day from others. I’d like to describe myself as a social butterfly, outgoing, and adventurous. One thing I love more than anything is traveling because that’s the best way of learning. Constantly, I am learning something every day. Although, not everyone knows how I learn. Throughout my life I have had many difficulties with learning, mainly focusing on reading and writing. Many people have helped me through different ways of teaching. Without these people, I wouldn’t be who I am today. In some ways, I am forever grateful I do have this challenge because I’ve learned the benefit of hard work and how to overcome obstacles that stand in my way. Nothing comes easy, it takes effort and determination. I like to believe this challenge does not define who I am, but it is part of me.

When you are seven years old and you’re told that you have to memorize how and what more than 100 words mean was one of the most terrifying things to be told as a first-grader, at least for me it was. I was haunted by the yellow folder filled with verbs, adjectives, nouns, and pronouns which were just the main words that needed to be memorized. I remember crying to my mother explaining that I’d never be able to read because I could not do it. This was just too hard. My mother always had faith that I could do anything I wanted. Every night with my mother we would review these words each column at a time. Flash cards were always helpful when it came to memorizing words and definitions. These flashcards must have done something right because no where did I think I was capable of ever learning all these words.

For as long as I could remember, going as far back to the second grade, I have been tutored. Every Monday after school my parents drove me to Ms. Pedicord’s house located in Towson, MD, right off the beltway. She tutored me throughout my elementary and middle school days at St. Ursula’s School which is located in Parkville, MD; not too far from each other. No matter how bad Monday’s were I remembered always looking forward to going to Ms. Pedicord’s after school because I knew she was helpful to me in many ways. In her house, which is where lessons were held, she helped me with my reading, writing, and math. Pulling into her driveway and waiting eagerly for the next student to come out, I was nervous. I never enjoyed learning since I knew I was not good at it, but Ms. Pedicord helped me in a way that no other teacher could at St. Ursula’s school. She gave me hope that I could be better. Ms. Pedicord had a different technique of teaching students who learn differently. As I walked into her door I was always greeted with a huge smile and hello. That was always comforting for me to know that I was in a safe space. As I got my materials out Ms. Pedicord always had an after-school snack for me waiting, Annie’s bunny cereal or sometimes cookies. They were the best snacks, I even told my parents they had to get it from the store for me. Anyway, Ms. Pedicord was a big fan of color coordinating things, such as highlighters and colored pens. When reading and writing, highlighting and annotating the text in different colors was an important way of how I learned. This was a great way for me to remember the most important things in a text and being able to understand things. She was also a fan of graphic organizers. Linking and putting things together in bubbles always made sense since I am more of a visual learner. The graphic organizers made it incredibly easy to understand people, places, and events.

Since I was not fond of reading and never enjoyed reading summer books I would always prefer listening to an audio book. Renting an audio book from the library happened frequently, since I didn’t like reading to myself. At times, I could never understand what I just read, perhaps because I was too focused on what I was actually reading instead of comprehending the texts. Or it even could have been not being able to sit still and focus for more than fifteen minutes. Downloading the book onto my ipod I was able to listen to the stories on the go. With the audio book, it made reading the text more understandable as I read along with the book. At times, I would come across something I might not have understood and was able to take note and look it up. With an audio book, it helped me with how things should be pronounced while listening to the speaker. I am grateful for audio speakers because they were extremely helpful to me as a child and still until this day I use them.

In my junior year of high school at The Institute of Notre Dame. I had a young teacher Ms. Pomplon who taught British Literature, which also was probably one of my favorite classes I’ve taken. She knew how to make it interesting with different activities and ways of teaching it, but still kept the lesson very informative. But before class ever started we always started with a warm up, which included a notebook and pen or pencil. She began to give the class a situation and we would write our own story about it. The outcome of the situation could be whatever we wanted it to be. We began to use sensory detail and became incredibly creative with the stories. It was something that I really enjoyed because we completed it every class and I was able to see how much my writing skills had improved. As we wrote, she played the most soothing music, one I liked the most was “To Build a Home” by The Cinematic Orchestra. Until this day, when I write, I will always play this song in the background. She definitely had her own techniques of how and what you should do while writing and she helped me in so many ways with a soothing, relaxing song.

The struggles I endured have made me into a more determined and well-driven student. I am so fortunate to have been surrounded by a supportive and loving family and community and had been offered all the wonderful helping hands. Still until this day, and every day so on, I am still learning how my reading and writing could be better. Something I have always wanted to do for myself is blog. I believe that through blogging, I will be able to learn from my own writing and see who I am as a person. I hope one day I will be able to have the confidence in myself and in my writing to pursue this minor goal of mine.

citations:

Trevi Fountain: Danielle Commodari, 2017

Family picture: Danielle Commodari, 2017

Open notebook with pencil: classroom clipart, 2017

Slate’s audio bookclub: Robert Nuebecker, September 2017

yellow highlighter: Matheod, January 2014

Note cards: Clipart life, 2016

An Old Woman and A Cold Woman

My name is Alaina and I am a student at Stevenson University majoring in fashion merchandising. I am living at home with my parents, Kelly and Vince, my sister, Alicia, our dog, Lucy, and our cat, Cici. We live in an older, suburban neighborhood in Baltimore county, nothing too fancy. In the evenings, I work at Macy’s as a sales associate. This is the first time I am attending school while working, so I am learning how to manage my time more efficiently. There was research done at New Georgetown University in 2015 that showed seventy percent of students nationwide worked while in school. This makes me feel more hopeful that it can be done. The reason I have made it this far in my educational career, started a long time ago when I was learning to read and write.

Both of my parents had the biggest impact on teaching me how to read and how to write. My dad has dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and he wears glasses. My mom has lighter brown hair, like mine, hazel eyes and she also wears glasses. They both are very literate and it was important for them to share that same love for reading with me. I asked my mom if there was any specific tool or device that really assisted me learn to read and she said when I was in pre-school and kindergarten, she would use these small flashcards with colorful pictures on them to teach me. For instance, a flashcard would have a picture of a red apple on it and typed on the bottom would say “apple”. I was a visual learner, so the word and picture combination helped me remember the object and what it was called. My mom and dad would go through the flashcards with me whenever there was downtime like after they got off work or on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Wondering Bug Mascot by Hongkiat, Aug 16, 2013

The second most important way I learned to read was through books themselves, a great step up from single-worded flashcards. My parents said they would read to me usually before bed when I was about three years old. My dad told me that I always had to pick a book that rhymed and was humorous. My favorite books were, There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, and, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, both by Lucille Colandro. They were both hardcover, very colorful, and came with a plush doll of the main character, the old lady. Basically, in both books, this elderly woman with a grey bun in her hair inhales these things and nobody knows why. In There Was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, the grey-haired lady ingests the proper tools to build a snowman. First, she swallows some snow, then a pipe, some coal, a hat, a stick, and finally a scarf. The end result is that she hiccups and everything flies out and lands perfectly as a snowman. In the other book, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, she ends up having to keep ingesting critters so that they will catch one another. She gets a spider to catch the fly, a bird to catch the spider and this keeps escalating until eventually she has to swallow a cow. My parents said they enjoyed reading these two books to me and that I savored the ludicrous stories and the rhyming words. I would recognize words I had seen on the flashcards and seeing how they were put together, forming sentences, was extremely helpful on my journey to learning to read.

The last technique that helped me learn to read and to write was television. I remember sitting on the green carpet of the living room floor at home waiting for my favorite shows on our old box television set. My mom told me that when I was younger I was really into Dora the Explorer. Dora the Explorer is a cartoon about a little girl with brown hair who ventures out on missions with help from her monkey friend, Boots. She also has other animated friends that assist her on her adventures such as, Map and Backpack. Throughout the series she taught me a ton of vocabulary in English and Spanish. This strengthened the words I already knew and showed me how to use them differently. The show also used music and math to keep my interest and make learning fun.

I believe these devices I used prepared me for where I am now. Many of the above techniques I used, I still use today. I continue to read all kinds of books, watch documentaries, and use flashcards to study vocabulary words. My college studies about the fashion industry have already brought me new experiences. I am going to be taking a business writing course and I am reading a History of Costume textbook which comes with many new terms. My foundation of literacy skills continues to improve every day.