Learning Investigation #2

Nicole Eulberg
February 16, 2009
Learning Objective #2
Thinking back to the kind of reading and writing I was asked to do in primary and secondary schooling, for me is easy. I remember learning how to read different short stories and become skilled at writing upper and lower case letters which eventually turned into learning cursive during my primary schooling. Secondary schooling consisted of much more writing and reading. The writing turned into essays that consisted of 3-4 pages and the reading turned into 12-20 pages a night. The change in work load was considerable but doable as well.
Going back to my primary schooling experience however, I remember also learning the “correct” and “incorrect” ways to read and write. In my second grade class, I specifically remember by teacher telling all of us that it was unacceptable to begin a sentence with the words; and, but, because, or so. Every writing activity my teacher assigned us mostly reiterated to us how wrong it was to start a sentence with any of those words and from second grade on I have always thought that if I did break that rule a sentence was incorrect. When I was taught how to read, many of my teachers stressed the importance of looking up words I do not know and going back and reading parts of a story I did not understand. Like my experience with writing, I have also kept doing the same “correct” thing since then. My primary school experienced really stressed the “right way” of doing things, whether it was reading or writing, there was only one right way to do everything which defiantly impacts how I read and write still to this day.
Transitioning into my secondary education, there was still a stress on certain aspects of both reading and writing that were the same, but there were even more additions to the “one right way” of doing reading and writing activities. My freshmen English teacher reiterated the importance of word choice when starting sentences, but also added that as writers it was inaccurate to use contractions within sentences such as don’t or aren’t, just to say a few. In reading, it was still stressed that we look up words we didn’t understand, but along with that we were to answer questions about what we read and the pages that were assigned to us to read increased as was expected. Using both the knowledge I had from my primary education as well as my gained knowledge from my secondary education, I was confident I had all the parts I needed to become an intelligent writer and a solid reader.
My teachers, I feel, taught me the “one right way” because it truly was the only correct way to write and read based on the curriculum they had to teach us. For students like me who grew up with parents who introduced us to some of these concepts before we began school. This however is not the case for some other students. Referencing back to Rose, he discusses how he felt less prepared language wise while in school. I think this is the case for many students who are not taught these concepts of reading and writing in the English culture. For example, many Hispanic students are taught to say in their language, shirt black instead of black shirt as we would see as correct in our English culture. Because the curriculum tells the teachers that the verb goes before the noun, which is what they teach in their classroom. Growing up in an English family prepared me along with other students in knowing that that is the correct way to describe something; for Rose, he feels less prepared because he did not grow up in a home where he was spoken to in this way therefore he had no previous knowledge of how to say certain things in the “correct way”. I think that Rose’s experience is very similar to those of students today and we as teachers need to figure out how to make them equally prepared so they do not start off at a different level.
Shifting into college is a huge change for all students. For me, I found that the way I write has to change based on with professor I have for a certain class. Disagreeing with a professor is nothing you put in a paper because you have to play the game and not voice your own opinion if it is not the same as the professors. If you do voice your disagreeence then be prepared to have your grade suffer. Also for my writing, it was also brought to my attention that the rules of starting a sentence with because and so etc. is not an actual rule, in fact some teachers encourage it because the words can create smooth transitions. In general I would say that conventions have not impacted me as a writer after I came to college because I almost throughout every “correct” thing I was taught. I learned that there is more than one way of doing certain things and the various ways of doing them are stressed more often then not.

Learning Investigation #1

Nicole Eulberg
February 9, 2009

Culture is a part of every person and within that culture or community a certain language is revealed. Each and every person comes from a different background which means we all differ in language and how we use it. Most people may speak English however not all people pronounce words of the English language the same nor do they use the same language in a given community setting.
I was born and raised in a white suburban town outside of Denver called Arvada. In Arvada, there was little diversity if any at all and for the most part everyone in the town spoke the same. My parents raised me to speak clearly and use various words or phrases in give situations. While speaking to my teachers throughout my schooling, I never used the word “like” as a filler and always tried to use bigger words to sound more educated. Because of my parents, and mentors over the years, I became aware of how to speak in certain situations or communities rather that helped me later on in life.
When I turned 16 I got a job working at Washington Mutual Bank as a teller. Getting hired for this job meant that the language I used to talk with my friends was no longer expectable in this community. I had to start speaking professionally while at the same time not speak over the customers head using bank terms that I learned in training. This certain community really taught me how to deal with customers and how to speak effectively to them in a way that they not only understood, but appreciated as well coming from someone at my age.
Around my friends however, it is an entirely different community. We all laugh and tell stories using the word “like” in between every other word or so. In a way sometimes I sound like a valley girl because of words that I use such as “whatever” of “Shut up”. Those words would not be considered professional in any way in my work community nor would they be expectable in a school atmosphere when communicating with teachers or my future students. My favorite community of language however is texting. Texting makes every word so much easier to say not to mention it saves you time. In my community of texting, if I was going to say “see you later “or “Love you” if would be “cu l8er” or “luv u”. The texting community uses abbreviations because it saves the texter time while writing a message. As students however, using this language when writing a paper is frowned upon and in most cases can count against you for quite a few points depending on the teacher. This again shows school is a different community in which language differs.
In just a few examples of various communities I have shown you how language is different based on a given setting in my everyday life. For me, being raised in the community I was has affected me in the aspect of when and where I use the above language and how I might sound different from someone who was raised in say an African American community or the streets of Brooklyn. A community member of my community uses these words in the above ways because it is what they grew up knowing and as stated previously, each culture is different, with it, comes the different language communities.

Memory Vignette

Nicole Eulberg
January 27, 2009
Memory Vignettes
“Error marks the place where learning begins” (Rose in the Lives on the Boundary pg.88). While growing up and still to this day, I have made many mistakes, some big, some small, and some that I think back to and say “wow really I must have not had a brain that day”. Thinking about this more, I am positive that I am not the only one who has and still does make mistakes; I am also positive that I along with many others have learned a life lesson or something about myself through making that mistake in the first place.
I agree very much with Rose’s quote because there is no such thing as a perfect person. Everyone in a way needs to fall down because if we do not we never learn how to get back up or how to not make that same mistake again. I remember when I was young, my mom and I were walking through what is now Macy’s. I loved touching everything I saw and when I say a beautiful crystal bowl, I knew I just had to touch it too. I went up to the stand and touched the rime of the bowl, in doing so I knocked it off the stand and it shattered right in front of me. My mom turned to me furiously, grabbed my hand and spanked me, not lightly, on the back side. From that point on I never touched anything in a department store again. I learned from my error and gained the knowledge of what touching crystal objects can result in.
Making mistakes is virtually unavoidable and I personally am thankful for that. Without falling and making mistakes, I would not have grown and matured into the person I am today and without future mistakes, becoming the person and the teacher I want to be could not be attained either. The people that continuously fall and learn how to pick themselves up after doing so are the people who learn the most about themselves and at the end of the day can touch others lives because they can relate to similar mistakes. For me, knowing that gives me huge inspiration to become a teacher and help coach students through the mistakes they will make. I want each of them to realize it is okay to mess up because at the end of the day that mistake will have made them a stronger person.