Response to our multi-genre writing project

1. Tell how you decided to write this piece.
2. Tell what this piece demonstrates about your ability to write and what it says about you as a writer.
3. Write about your observations of your writing habits.

In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself, Harriet Jacobs writes about her own life using the pseudonym Linda Brent. She makes an appeal to northern white women, who would be reading her autobiography when it was first published in 1861. What is surprising about the rhetoric of this autobiography is the way in which Jacobs regularly refers to herself and to her family as property. The Oxford English Dictionary defines property as “something that belongs” and something that is “exploited” and used for the betterment of another. Enslaved people were thought of as commodity; meaning they belonged to a person as property. In her autobiography, Jacobs repeatedly refers to herself as property, yet property is the opposite of a human quality when it involves one human owning another human. The commodified human has no right to his or her own breath; everything about the person belongs to his or her master. Not only did the majority of slave masters have this outlook, but the government supported this system by law beginning in Virginia in 1659-60 (Finkelman 109). Through the years these laws were modified to the benefit of the masters to keep women and children under their complete control, which kept the system of slavery profitable after the slave trade was abolished. Jacobs repeatedly refers to herself as property to challenge her female readers to critically think about their role in the system of slavery because even though women did not have much agency at this time, they still had the right to own slaves and could thus choose how they would leverage that power. The rhetorical strategies Jacobs uses in this autobiography are designed to humanize Jacobs, shock the northern women, and provoke the readers into action regarding how they would treat their own slaves if they were in the position of a mistress.

Answers:
1. I decided to write this piece because I became very interested in the way that Jacobs used the word property throughout her narrative.
2. This piece shows my critical thinking abilities and the way that I look at the rhetorical strategies of an author. 
3. My writing habits are still elementary in nature. I am not always formal and sometimes I repeat the same word for the beginning of a sentence. There are several improvements that I can make with my writing. 

Preparing Students for College

What would we as future teachers tell students to prepare them best for college?

As a future teacher I would first start discussing college with my students when they are freshmen in high school. I would do the activity with them where they pretend to be administrators who look at student applications. In this activity each student would individually make a list of factors that they would be looking for in a student that they would like to attend their college/university. After the students make this list I would ask them to form groups where they would discuss what they wrote with the class and then we would have an open class discussion. I would like to do this activity with students who are freshman because they have time to work on the factors that they think would best qualify them for a college or university.

I would also want to emphasize in this activity that college administrators who are looking at applications have no idea who the person is behind the application, so even if someone is an excellent person that does not mean that they fully deserve to be accepted into a specific program or school. I would want students to know this early on, so that it is not a shocker to them later on.

With older students I would discuss with them the importance of AP and IB classes. I would do my best to explain what it means to have college credit and the vast amount of opportunities that having college credit allows for them.

Novel Setting

Middle of Malawi along the Lake of Malawi. Protagonist characters are camping on a medium sized hill 200 yards away from the Lake. The Sun rises from the lake side, which is what all of their tents are facing. The sun sets behind them and behind them are much larger hills -- some would call them mountains. Down to the south and a little to the right of their camp ground is a village, which is where they get all of their water. All of the local women surround this well waiting for their turn to pump water. Lots of the ladies help each other pump the water and place their containers on top of their heads. Each container is of a varying shade of what was once a vibrant yellow, red, blue and green.
As the characters walk they kick up dirt which swirls around their feet and ankles because the air is so dry. When they walk the opposite direction of the village and the well they arrive at their campsite and then if they keep on walking down the hill they will gradually make their way to the large market place. It is about three miles away from their camp. On the way to the campsite there are lots of homes -- but not the kind of home that you are probably thinking of. These homes have barely any decoration and are one room separated by a sheet. The sheet separates the sleeping area from the kitchen and eating area. These houses are also the size of most modern day North American living rooms.
The characters will remain here for three months. They will plant trees, carry water, make nsima, and swim in the lake.

Essay Prompt

Compare and contrast the first speech to Congress given by President Obama and President Trump. Make sure that you include ways that their speeches were similar and different. After analyzing their speeches include the top three topics that you would give in a speech to Congress. Why are these three topics important to you and how do your topics compare and contrast with President Obama and President Trump?

Lesson Reflection

I think that overall the lesson went well. I believe that this chapter of Reading, Writing and Rising Up is all about getting to know those in your class and from there forming a safe community where one feels comfortable participating in the class - and as we know, for learning to take place one needs to be participating. I believe that by the end of this lesson everyone knew each other better and hopefully everyone feels like this class is a safe place for them. 

I was so thankful that Allie shared about her personal high school story because it allowed for the class to reach that next level of vulnerability because Allie was so open and honest with us. 

For negative feedback about the lesson I feel that it could have been at times boring and some people may not have felt heard. If I were to do it again I would hope to give more people the opportunity to share. I also received feedback from classmates about improving transitions and not including as much writing. I totally agree with both. I always think transitions can be improved and I felt like I learned a lot from doing this lesson about what could go better next time. For the feedback on too much writing - I agreed with that too, but felt like because of what was required for the lesson I had to include lots of writing and it was one of the only ways that I could meet the 1 hour time cap.

I really loved this topic and I was so glad that I could teach a lesson on it. I believe that building a community in our classrooms is so important and is vital to student progress. I hope that my classmates enjoyed it and learned about an activity or novel that they could do or share in their classroom. 

Social Justice

I recently listened to To Kill A Mockingbird on tape and I believe that it would be a perfect book to use in a classroom when teaching about social justice/injustice. This book unpacks the injustice that a black man living in the rural south faced while participating in the criminal justice system. This man was wrongly accused because of the color of his skin and was prosecuted and was deemed guilty because his skin color. To Kill A Mockingbird was originally published in 1960, but it is very much relevant today.

This book would allow us to begin a conversation about social injustice in the classroom. To Kill A Mockingbird would be a difficult book for students to read because of how upsetting the book is and because students are likely to feel a mixture of emotions - they might personally relate to this book through Tom, Scout, the Yules, or Boo Radley. All of those characters are seeking to overcome trials and when a student relates with them, they might be experiencing those similar emotions. I believe that by introducing this text, as the first introduction a class would have to the topic of race in the classroom, would allow for students to be able to have a discussion about race in a way that would be enabling students to critically think about their views on race. Every student will come from a different background, so this whole unit would walk the line of possibly having a heated discussion -- but it is 100% necessary for there to be conversations about race in the classroom. Reading and studying To Kill A Mockingbird would allow for that kind of discussion.

Favorite Short Story

When I was asked about my favorite short story, I had no answer to give. There was no short story that immediately came to mind that I absolutely loved. The only short story that I remember reading was The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. I have read this story multiple times and find it to be so intriguing and disturbing. This story is unimaginable, which makes it that much more fun to wonder about if it were actually true or if it could actually happen. The story uses a relatable real world setting and makes it into a sci-fi fantastic world, which is one thing that I liked about the story. In this short story a young boy wakes up one morning and finds that he has transformed into a "gargantuan pest". The American public has interpreted "pest" to be a cockroach. 

In my study of The Metamorphosis I found there to be multiple ways that we, as students, could explore the story. Sometimes we came to similar conclusions, but there were a lot of times that our individual reading brought about individual ideas about the story. All of the different ideas allowed for us to unpack this short story in a very fruitful and thought provoking way. Through our own ideas we were able to discuss literary techniques such as: extended metaphor, symbolism, tone, and euphemism. 

I have not read the story in a couple years, but if I were to design an essay prompt I would ask students to critically analyze one moment in the story and to show the impact that this moment had on the entirety of the story. An example could be Gregor's relationship with his sister and how she feeds him. 

Here is a link to the short story, The Metamorphosis.