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2018 Midterm1
(assignment) |
LITR 4340
American Immigrant Literature Model Assignments |
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Kirstyn Bullington
Paying Attention To Detail
Reading this web highlight really helped me to understand how to
approach this midterm. When our class was discussing the midterm I honestly felt
overwhelmed and had some extreme anxiety. I didn’t know how to put my ideas onto
paper in a way that expressed my learning process. Also, meeting with the
instructor and having him encourage me to do the optional approach helped as
well, and it gave me a bit more insight int how to write this paper. All three
of these essays that I have reviewed have helped me to explore the different
approaches to writing this midterm.
I first noticed Culture Clash.
First, I noticed that the writer went from the optional approach: to describe
your learning process while talking about immigrants and minorities. His
introduction sets the stage for what will be an explanation as to what he hopes
to have learned, what he has learned, and his honesty as to what he doesn’t know
or understand. I enjoyed how the writer went through the stages of the immigrant
narrative, and directly relating to the required text readings. “To help us
understand the immigrant experience we can refer back to the five stages.” The
writer explained in great detail the stages of the immigrant narrative, and the
implications of each stage. His strongest paragraph has to be when he introduces
the model minority, and uses “What Color Would You Like Ma’am?” As his textual
evidence. This short story exemplifies the model minority. Thien is the
representation of working hard, taking advantage of economic and educational
opportunities, and feeling the pressures to be successful. Austin not only
connected Thien to the model minority, but related his entire family to the
model minority. Every family member played his or her part and it contributed to
fall in line with the dominant culture.
Another approach to this
midterm was to contrast and compare the immigrant and minority story. In “To be
or not to be” I took interest in the idea of the writer writing about the family
dynamics within these narratives. Obviously, he takes a look at the comparison
of these two narratives, but it is insightful to read about the family dynamics.
“Dominant culture puts a wedge between togetherness and family within the
minority and immigrant narratives.” I didn’t pick up on that point while reading
the text, but reading this essay I totally could see how the dominant culture
could put a wedge in family. This paper was well written and hit every objective
within the paper. The writer includes short stories that connect assimilation to
the stabilization of family within the minority narrative. Family is a sense of
peace, comfort, and a sense of culture. However, the dominant culture seek to
put a wedge within this narrative because of its disconnectedness.
At the end of this midterm is the research report. In Krista
Harvey’s research report she inquires about a topic that will help be a better
teacher and understand her students. I too chose an author in hopes that it
would make me a better leader, and teacher. Kristin’s ideas for research topic
encouraged me to pick a topic that would help to better me in the future.
Learning and researching about an author makes it personal. Taking the time to
research about the writer, and research about their narrative often shows
readers why they write about certain topics. Kristin’s research report was clear
and to the point.
In conclusion, looking at both the first part
of the midterm and the research report helped to gather what information that I
needed to develop a detailed midterm. Each paper presented within the court
website provided great information and entail on the immigrant narrative.
Looking at each of these papers has allowed to understand what a successful
midterm looks like. Another thing that I learned looking at each of these papers
is the preparation that is needed to write an outstanding paper. Reading the
texts more than once, taking detailed notes, class participation, and answering
each discussion question. Doing the work will help to make the midterm a less
daunting task.
