Category: Eng 110 Blog

Delpits first objection to Gee is “There are two aspects of Gee’s argument that I find problematic. First is Gee’s notion that people who have been born into dominant discourses will find it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to acquire such a discourse.” A way Delpit objects this is when she tells the story of Marge who wasn’t expected to succeed but ended up becoming the top student in her class and her professors wanted to work with her. She was able to achieve this goal with the help of a woman named Susan. “Susan continued to work with Marge, both in and out of the classroom during the following year. By the end of the year, Marge’s instructors began telling Susan that Marge was a real star, that he had written the best papers in their classes.” This shows that Marge was able to get accustomed to the new discourse and succeed even better than the white students who that environment was built for. Jordan would agree with Delpit on this matter. This is because her students have personally adjusted to that discourse in the classroom to the point where the reject their own discourse in the classroom.  

Delpits second objection to Gee is when she argues against “an individual who is born into one discourse with one set of values may experience major conflicts when attempting to acquire another discourse with another set of values.” Delpit gives evidence of this when she talks about E. Franklin Frazier. “He learned lessons so well that his achievements provided what must be the ultimate proof of the ability to acquire a second dominant discourse, no matter what’s one’s beginnings.” Delpit continues to explain Frazier’s accomplishments and how this further proves Gee’s claims to be incorrect. Jordan would once again agree with Gee because as a teacher she has personally seen this happen with her own students.

Gee’s theory represents different dialects and how someone may or may not become accustomed to them. He refers to these different dialects as discourses and believes that everyone has a discourse, they are comfortable in but can learn a new one at any point in time. Jordan describes a specific discourse which is referred to in her story as “Black English.” She introduced her students to the book the color purple thinking that her students might relate to it better since they talk in a similar way but instead the students didn’t like the way the characters talked and found it funny and wrong. I think these views are seen as controversial because people believe that the way someone talks would be very easy to understand. But Gee says in some instances it’s very hard to adjust to a discourse that is not our own. But sometimes it can also be easy if you accept it with open arms. For example, when I was a junior seven football players from Canada, and they had some very odd slang when I first heard it. As I got to know them more, I also began to understand the slang and using it myself. Those guys became some of my closest friends and sometimes I use that slang currently. Jordan’s opinion on the book was controversial because she assumed that the students would like the book and relate to the characters. The students instead did the opposite and wanted no parts of the book.  

Mush fake is when is when someone basically tries to fit in. They make up speech to try and seem like they know what is going on. That is why it is mush or a bunch of nothing and also fake because it is not actual terms used by anyone.

Gee mentions the common theme of discourse throughout the article. What I got from reading is that discourse is like an identity that one owns. The example given are a teacher or a factory worker. Each one of these play a crucial role within the daily lives of people. When thinking about my own discourse the first thing that comes to mind is my beginning years in school. My teachers played a crucial role in my development learning wise and they are mostly the reason I have so much knowledge today. The lunch ladies were responsible for making sure I was fed and got the proper nutrients every meal I ate. The bus driver made sure I got home and into my house safely. All of them played a prime role in my development as a young child and many other children. Gee describes this kind of environment where we all depend on one another for something and it is not uncommon. People have been doing this since the beginning of times. Men would go hunt while Women would stay home and took care of the children. They relied on each other to get through life.

 

Primary and Secondary discourse is a smaller theme that is presented by Gee. He mentions the conflict between them as this is something that is very common in young kids life. They are presented with multiple different view and things and they have to choose the one that they think is right or most fits them. An example of this for me was when I went to school. My mom had always told me not to fight unless it was self defense but I had a hot temper and got into trouble a lot. I started to form my own view on why I would fight and argue with other students. I usually had a good reason in my mind but my mother didn’t want me getting into altercations. Eventually as I got older I learned to be more calm and pick and choose which arguments to get into. My mother respected this and though she did not agree with my fighting she saw that I had a reason to do so as self defense which was exactly what she taught me. Another example of this is when I was playing football. My high school coaches always taught me that as a corner you should back pedal and turn once the wide receiver threatens your leverage. Once I came to UNE they showed me a shuffle technique which I hated at first but learned to adapt to and got good at.

 

Jordan tried to change her students view on the book the color purple because they didn’t like it and said they talked funny. She figured that by showing them it in a way they could understand it better that they would possibly like it. This is a form of discourse because the book was showing the English language in a southern dialect and then Jordan showed them it in a current dialect. The students had the option to try and read it the way it was written in which the message behind the book was more powerful but instead they chose to learn it in their own way which is not necessarily bad but in my opinion the message is as powerful.

 

Gee would say that by Jordan translating this “Black English” to “Standard English” is teaching her students that this is the proper way to speak and pronounce words. But in reality there is no proper way to speak and pronounce words since they were just made up by us. If we taught everyone to talk in slang terms that that would eventually become the right way to talk and then “proper” pronunciation of words would become slang instead. In my personally opinion the only reason I see for Jordan to translate the words is because her students didn’t understand the work that had been written. I remember when I was reading Huckleberry Finn there was somethings that I couldn’t understand. My teacher at the time who’s name was Mr. Fisher helped translate what Jim was saying so that way we could understand the message behind the book and what he was trying to express. What this does teach us that if you don’t understand something from one point of view try to change it or understand it from a different perspective. By doing so you can formulate your own opinion and get a better understand yourself.

 

 

 

This podcast tells a story of how I greatly disliked reading. It goes through the journey of how I found my way to enjoying reading again and the book that helped me achieve this goal.

What I learned from this project was the many things I can do in garage band. I enjoyed the process and I’m glad that we are going to be working with this again in the future. I hope I can master all the programs by the end of the semester.

Jeremy Diaz

Dr. Michael Cripps

English 110

January 31, 2019

Growing up reading wasn’t really my thing. If i’m being honest at some points I hated reading because it bored me and every time I started I just wanted to be done. Though I had such a strong dislike for reading I wasn’t necessarily bad at it. In fact, when I first started to learn how to read, I was one of the best in my class if not the best. I don’t mean to brag but it is just weird to think that at one point I was a pretty good reader even though I didn’t really enjoy the subject. The sad thing was as I grew up I started to lose all interest in reading. One of the reasons I think I may have lost interest completely was because of how good I was at reading. Since I was always at the top of the class the teachers didn’t really push me to hard because I was above where I needed to be. So I guess at that point I took it upon myself to just stop reading period.

In pre-K I had always enjoyed reading Dr. Seuss and books of that sort. As I went up in grades, I was always able to find a book series that I liked. Some of these were Geronimo Stilton and Captain Underpants. I guess I liked these because they were fictional, and the characters would do things that I couldn’t, so I saw it as an escape from the real world. Some of these characters were able to fly or were really smart and able to figure out how to get out of sticky situations. I always admired these characters and their unique abilities because in a way I wanted to be like them. But eventually this enjoyment would come to an end. Fourth grade was where I first started to stop enjoying my reading. I would fill my reading log in and just skim the pages or read the back so I could have a general understand of what the book was about. Even though my teacher never really checked up on me to see if I was doing the readings or not my

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reading level didn’t decline. The reason I knew my reading was still up to par was when we had to do in class reading assessments I always did well. I got away with not doing the work and moved on to the next year.  

Once I got to the fifth grade, I really didn’t like reading at all. This wasn’t because I couldn’t read or anything of that sort. It was because the books I was required to read started to have less and less pictures in them. For me personally I took this as some more work to do. I liked the pictures because they helped me envision what was going on in the story. It helped with my imagination and believing that some things in the story might actually be possible. That wasn’t the only reason why I chose not to read though. I did get lazy and decide that I only wanted to read books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and ridiculous books like that. My teacher whose name was Mrs. Jimenez eventually banned us from counting those books to our reading hours. By then I had almost given up completely. It eventually got to the point where I wouldn’t read books and just lied and said I did. I gave up because I thought there was no enjoyment to be found in reading. All the reading I had done in the past allowed me to be free minded and now I felt imprisoned whenever I read a book. I was in need of some big help if I was to ever like reading again.

Mrs. Jimenez eventually caught on so one day she sat me down and asked me what things interested me. I don’t really remember what I said I did and didn’t like but she told me stay where I was and returned a few minutes later with a book in her hand. This book was titled the Lightning Thief. I still remembered when I first saw the book. I was confused because I thought the cover looked boring. There was a boy standing in water with some strange objects in his hand. He appeared to be looking up to the sky scrapers and the sky. I immediately thought this was going to be awful but I gave it a shot. This was a series about a boy who was a

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demi-god and had to return Zeus’s thunderbolt back to Mount Olympus in order to save the world. I ended up falling in love with the series and I was so happy I had found it. I think it was because I felt like I could personally relate to the character since he was from New York City just like me. He was also a very determined individual and cared about his friends and others. He was an unselfish character in many ways and that is why I admired him so much. From that point on I tried to find books with characters that I personally liked. I knew that if I liked the characters then it would make the time I spent reading a whole lot easier.

I think I personally owe Mrs. Jimenez a big thank you. If it wasn’t for her then I would not have been able to get back into reading and see it from a different perspective. At the same time, my opinion on reading itself didn’t change. I still saw it as a burden in many ways. But I knew that if I found a genre that I personally enjoyed or a character I could relate to then I wouldn’t mind reading at all. That is what I took from Mrs. Jimenez and my 5th grade year. I learned to be more open when reading and not give up on a book after the first 10 pages. I learned to value the importance of reading and the knowledge that comes with it. This is a message that I hope everyone gets to learn. Sometimes reading can be frustrating to the reader but I promise if you are able to find a book about something that you will actually enjoy it while learning something at the same.

Growing up reading wasn’t always my thing, but I wasn’t necessarily bad at it either. In fact, when I first started to learn how to read, I was one of the best in my class if not the best. I don’t mean to brag but it is just weird to think that at one point I was pretty invested in reading and would eventually lose my drive for it. I don’t even remember how it happened to be completely honest. All I know was I lost interest in what I was reading at the time and almost gave up on the whole thing as a whole. 

In pre-K I had always enjoyed reading Dr. Suess and books of that sort. As I went up in grades, I was always able to find a book series that I liked. Some of these were Geronimo Stilton and Captain Underpants. I guess I liked these because they were fictional, and the characters would do things that I couldn’t, so I saw it as an escape from the real world. But eventually this enjoyment would come to an end. Fourth grade was where I first started to stop enjoying my reading. I would fill my reading log in and just skim the pages or read the back so I could have a general understand of what the book was about. Even though my teacher never really checked up on me to see if I was doing the readings or not my reading level didn’t decline. I got away with not doing the work and moved on to the next year.  

Once I got to the fifth grade, I really didn’t like reading at all. This wasn’t because I couldn’t read or anything of that sort. It was because the books I was required to read started to have less and less pictures in them. For me personally I took this as some more work to do. I liked the pictures because they helped me envision what was going on in the story. It helped with my imagination and believing that some things in the story might actually be possible. That wasn’t the only reason why I chose not to read though. I did get lazy and decide that I only wanted to read books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and ridiculous books like that. My teacher eventually banned us from counting those books to our reading hours. By then I had almost given up completely. It eventually got to the point where I wouldn’t read books and just lied and said I did. I was in need of some big help if I was to ever like reading again. 

My teacher eventually caught on so one day she sat me down and asked me what things interested me. I don’t really remember what I said I did and didn’t like but she told me stay where I was and returned a few minutes later with a book in her hand. This book was titled the Lightning Thief. I still remembered when I first saw the book. I was confused because I thought the cover looked boring and I didn’t want to read it at all. This was a series about a boy who was a demi-god and had to return Zeus’s thunderbolt back to Mount Olympus in order to save the world. I ended up falling in love with the series and I was so happy I had found it. I think it was because I felt like I could personally relate to the character since he was from New York City just like me.  

If I’m being honest, my opinion on reading itself didn’t change. But I knew that if I found a book that I liked or a character I could relate to then I wouldn’t mind reading at all. I learned to be more open when reading and not give up on a book after the first 10 pages. Of course, there would occasionally be a book that I didn’t like but I’m glad my teacher sat me down that day and showed me how to appreciate reading again.

By the time I got to high school I didn’t really read much at all. Readings would get assigned and I would just let the book collect dust or just read the SparkNotes to get by in the class. Once I reached my senior year, I was able to choose my English class. I noticed that there was a class with the title Sports Heroes. This class immediately called my name. Sports was always something I could relate to and I figured that if I took this class then I would be able to understand the characters situations and relate to them. The class was also with one of my favorite teachers so that was a bonus. I ended up doing the best I had ever done in English. I never missed a reading assignment, I got 100’s on all the reading quizzes and I even got an A on the final paper. This taught me many things. First, I knew that I was capable of doing all the work in any English class and that I needed to take this mindset into my future classes. It also reminded me that if I were to find something that I liked reading then I would be successful. I am glad I took that class because from then on, I tried to put that same effort in all my classes, and it helped me a ton.

Once I got to the fifth grade, I really didn’t like reading at all. This wasn’t because I couldn’t read or anything of that sort. It was because the books I was required to read started to have less and less pictures in them. For me personally I took this as some more work to do. I liked the pictures because they helped me envision what was going on in the story. It eventually got to the point where I wouldn’t read books and just lied and said I did. My teacher eventually caught on so one day she sat me down and asked me what I liked. I don’t really remember what I said I didn’t like but she eventually came back with The Lightning Thief.  I still remembered when I first saw the book. I was confused because I thought the cover looked boring and I didn’t want to read it at all. This was a series about a boy who was a demi-god and had to return Zeus’s thunderbolt back to Mount Olympus in order to save the world. I ended up falling in love with the series and I was so happy I had found it. I think it was because I felt like I could personally relate to the character since he was from New York City just like me. From then on, my opinion on reading itself didn’t change. But I knew that if I found a book that I liked then I wouldn’t mind reading at all. 

When I heard Angela Davis was coming to campus, I knew she’d bring many of her beliefs and opinions with her. I was excited to see where she would take her talk and what specific ideas she would mention throughout. She mentioned a lot of the history during the early to mid 1900’s and the struggles that she as well as countless other had to endure. She also did not fail to mention about how Dr. Martin Luther King gave a speech on our campus many years ago. I wish that I attended UNE during that time because who knows the things he talked about and the stories he shared that day of his personal trials and tribulations. Angela did not fail to mention the positive ways in which our country has moved forward since the segregation period. She talked about how our country currently has more women in congress than ever before and how she personally saw this change happen over her lifetime. Angela went even more in depth on Women’s rights and when talking she said some quotes that interested me. One was “we shouldn’t say black lives matter, we should say all lives matter.” Personally, I know many that wouldn’t agree with this quote. This is because they feel that minorities, Blacks and Hispanics in particular, are targeted and not put into the same situations for success as others receive. While I don’t disagree with what Angela said I do believe that sometimes it is harder to be successful in my shoes than it is for some of my other friends. Another thing Angela mentioned was that people who go to prison become more violent when in prison. I once read somewhere that it costs more to keep an individual in prison than to send a youngin to school. I think we should shift our focus from all about keeping the country “safe” to educating our young citizens. The more educated we are as a people to more we can continue to walk in the right direction. I am thankful that I got to witness such a great speech and I hope we can continue to bring individual such as Angela Davis back on campus.