Northeastern First-Year Writing (Sec 72)

After the discussion we had in class I was really excited to read the rest of the book Between You and Me . The format of the story is so interesting because it is a letter to his son, rather than a book addressing an unknown audience. It makes it the story so intimate but you also sort of feel like you are being invasive while reading it at the same time. The book somewhat reads like a speech that you would hear at graduation or from someone at a TED talk. Both of which are normally meant to be read as very powerful and backed by a strong lesson or meaning. This story addresses Americas racial history and current civil rights crises. Coates attempts to answer why America is the way it is when it comes to racial issues and how we got to this place through this narrative. Coates describes a fault in American life, which is that we believe that everyone can achieve the American dream when in reality this is not true. As we discussed in class, the people that built the nation are shut out...

I hate glasses.  I love glasses. It’s a very complicated relationship for me. There are lots of reasons for my mixed feelings about them, and all of my feelings only pertain to when I am wearing glasses. Of all of the reasons I hate wearing glasses, the absolute inconvenience takes the cake as the most annoying aspect.  Whenever it rains while I have my glasses on, they get all wet and then I can’t see anything. They also slip down my nose whenever I do anything mildly active.  My glasses frames in particular are very hard for me to see when I don’t have them on, so blind searches occur often. To avoid these issues, I wear contacts frequently, but those have all of their own downsides.  Whether that we drying out, or one falling out, or forgetting to remove them before bed, my contacts are just as annoying as my glasses.   Buying new frames for my glasses every couple of years has always proved to be a drama filled ordeal.  I first needed glas...

The discussion that we had in class on Friday about the novel, Between The World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates made me think a lot after class about what we were talking about. I think that by Coates addressing his son, it brings a sense of intimacy that I don't think would be there otherwise if he was talking to someone else or if he was not addressing anyone at all. I think that by talking to his son, he will want to teach him important lessons and stories from his past that his son can learn from. Not only did the discussion we had in class on Friday make me think about the topics he was addressing, but also by the questions he was asking throughout the text. I think that by sharing personal stories, it helps not only make the reader have a better view on the situation, but also for the reader to understand more where he is coming from and really be able to understand the emotions that he is having while writing this and looking back on his past. Coates brings up a lot of interes...

This week I went to see a participant and winner of the show survivor, Parvati Shallow speak. I admit that I didn't know who she was, but my friend asked me to go. She has been on the show survivor a couple of times has even won it before. I was a little confused about what to expect from her. I had no clue what she was going to be talking about. The ticket said it was going to be a keynote speech about how college is similar to survivor. I was curious to see how she was gonna spin that because the similarities between a game show where you are dropped on a deserted island where you are forced to compete physically and psychologically vs an overpriced university where you spend 80% of your time studying, 15% drunk, and 5% sleeping, aren't extremely apparent to me. The main point she made was how important it is to do what you want to do, regardless of fear of judgment and fear of rejection. She mentioned her five values to live by which were courage, adventure, love, empathy,...

After last weeks discussion, the biggest takeaway I had was about the reading. I understand the whole idea of reparations and that they have been used in the past, but pertaining to the idea of slavery and that it happened so far in the past, who actually receives the reparations and who becomes punished for the things that have happened? It is a hard topic because there is no one alive who was involved in the events that did occur. Also, for the people who lost their lives during that time due to slavery, how do you repay that? But also for that lifetime of suffering - how do you even repay that? Money? Because I am positive that the number of people who suffered from this will never be equal to an amount of money. Also for what happened after slavery. The amount of discrimination and racism that lives on today - how can one receive reparations for that? The difference in treatment today is obviously way better, but the amount of racism that still lives on after everyone has been give...

  For this week still, I did not have much to say. For the EMK today, I just helped the students focusing on writing their essay and they even do not have any questions for their essay to ask me so most of the time the only thing I can do is just sit there doing nothing. Also, sometimes they even just talked with each other without doing their work so I really miss the boy I taught and met the first time in class.   Still, that is not my topic for today. As we talked about racism and about the right of Black and white people last week in class, I am here to connect this with one event this week- the memorial meeting of Kobe Bryant this Monday on 2/24. For Kobe, he is one of the best players in the for no doubt and also for true he is a black man. However, there is really no connection between the color of skin and greatness. For Kobe, he will always be in my heart and it really doesn't matter if he is black or not. People all call him Black Mamba does not mean they think...

I had never read anything by Coates prior to the article, “The Case for Reparations,” and his book, Between the World and Me .  As I read through his book, I am finding that his tone and voice are very unique.  For starters, I haven’t read many books written with second person point of view, so this is interesting to me.  I think the fact that it is sort of a letter to his son makes it very special and more personal. I have enjoyed reading this book because it is very eye opening and I feel as if I am getting more educated and informed on topics that I haven’t learned a lot about.   Coatses’s writing is engaging to me because I think his word choice and the way he presents ideas is very thought-provoking.  As I was reading through his book, Between the World and Me , I started to see some of the things we had been talking about in class come through his writing.  I saw some of his sponsors of literacy and some of the literacy he acquired through h...

I also had an experience where the student I was tutoring didn't need much help, and I kind of didn't know what to do.  I knew it seemed as though I was hovering, but I would help when she needed after she wrote a paragraph.  This time during the session, I had a similar situation, but instead of sitting waiting for him to need help, I brought my book and read that until he had a question. I think it really helped the atmosphere so that he didn't feel as though I was hovering over him, and I wasn't awkwardly sitting next to him.

1. I cannot even begin to understand how you could write two papers on a book you skimmed. It is clear that you are getting so much more out of the book this time around, but it baffles me that you could write anything without reading it closely. Power to you! 2. I also really connected with the quote you pulled. I think I go back and forth from being street smart and not. I also feel that I have a tendency to be too nice which can get me into trouble. 3. You are an appropriately nice. Keep it up :)

My visit to the BTU was very fulfilling and eye opening, today. To begin the session, the writing mentors discussed the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. Immediately, I felt that this lesson was one that I could take and apply to my teaching, but also apply to my own life. I think that I use a fixed mindset statement as a way of providing myself with a staring point. However, I didn’t realize until this lesson that by framing something very simply, “I am not good/good at _____”, reflects a fixed mindset and actually is not objective. In fact, it negatively frames my position and taints how I proceed. Following this preliminary discussion, the other volunteers and I sat in on a fifth grade writing lesson. The lesson focused on how to develop sentence fluency and edit “fine” sentences into strong sentences. The teacher started with a run-on sentence that had a lot of good information but was disjointed. To give structure to what could be arranged, she marked o...

After my last time at EMK, I was a bit nervous going into today because I was afraid I wouldn't be helpful enough. However, my experience today was completely different than the last time and it helped me realize not all the students may need help or want help all the time and that's okay. I worked with a very focused and hard-working girl and at first she was hesitant to ask for help so I kind of just sat trying to keep myself busy with twisting a pen in my hands. Every once in a while I would ask how she was doing and let her know that I was there to help in any way. For the first thirty minutes she worked silently and diligently. I am always stuck not knowing what to do in these instances because I know if it were me being seated with a tutor it would be weird having them just sit there staring off and awaiting me to say something. So today I decided to keep myself busy by grabbing a pen and drawing in hopes that it would make her more comfortable but would not give her the ...

 Even though I am completely and utterly heartbroken that I will not be attending classes during the week of spring break… I am still so excited for spring break, and here’s why. I have not seen my grandparents since before leaving for Ireland. They live in Florida during the winter, while I live in New Jersey. I did not have time to visit them during the essentially week-long winter break. Over spring break I will be visiting my grandparents in beautiful Boca Raton, Florida, the land of the Jewish grandparents. You see, my grandparents are not your average Brooklyn-Yiddish grandparents. They are much more interesting than that. My grandma is the most perfectly over-the-top retired actress ever. Paired with my artist grandfather, who no one in my family (except maybe my grandma), has seen without a mustache. They are one of the most interesting couples ever. In addition to their bright personalities, they have the most perfect Brooklyn accents ever, let me add that their names ...

I found the conversation around the end of English class on Friday rather stimulating. I liked the end of the discussion when we started to get into the book because it was more of an open conversation and I personally found that more interesting. I really liked Maddie's point of how race is defined. I do not want to speak for her but I remember Maddie asking along the lines as to why in America we refer to all black and brown people as African American almost immediately. I remember Maddie saying that there are black people in Fiji and how they are form Fiji just because they are black and American doesn't automatically make them African American. I found her insight very valid and insightful. It gave me a lot to think about.  When Professor Stockman asked the difference between calling someone African American or Italian American etc it prompted a lot of questions in my head. While I know that the history of the country has been practicing either De Jure or De Facto segrega...

This weekend while I was studying for my biology test I had a very traumatic experience. It was definitely quite a “college” experience. My roommate and I were sitting at our dining table doing homework. I was sitting across from her facing the windows and she was facing our main door. It was quiet for about an hour until she randomly shrieked. I was so confused. She jumped up on her chair and told me she saw a mouse. So, being as dramatic as I am, I jumped up on my chair screaming at the top of my lungs. One of my biggest fears is rodents, which is funny since most are more scared of humans than humans are of them. However, I am definitely more scared of them than I should be. When I heard there was a mouse so many thoughts went through my mind. I know that they carry a lot of diseases since my mom always talks about those diseases. Also, for biology, I was just reading about toxoplasmosis. Rats are the intermediate hosts of this disease. Although rats and mice aren’t the same, I asso...

It's February. Notably one of my favorite months of the year. Part of the reason being that this month includes my birthday. The other being that it's Black History Month. I was inspired to write this blog post about BHM because there is only 1 week left of February. Not only this, but I believe it also ties in well with the book we are reading, "Between the World and Me." I find this reading to be interesting because there are parts of it I feel as though I can actually relate to. Living everyday life as a minority definitely allows you to breathe, sleep, and eat in "perspective." As in - I have my eyes constantly open to the world around me and also how the world views myself, a minority. One section of the book that caught my attention was a small detail relating to when Coates mentioned books supplied by his father, Paul, a research librarian at Howard University. My brother goes to Howard University and to this day, takes every opportunity he can get ...

The works of T a-Nehisi Coates  that we are currently reading discussing have very different tones,  and yet discuss very similar topics. One obvious reason for this is that "A Case for Reparations" is a long article, whereas Between the World and Me is a novel. "A Case for Reparations" does its best to incorporate all of the major thematic elements that need to be brought up in the argument for giving out reparations, but there are so many things that could be said. So while Coates does a fantastic job discussing important points—like how reparations are not a new idea, and there are people still being affected by racism today—he paints an even more clear picture in his novel. Because it is a novel, he has time to expand upon individual experiences, and go deeper into what kinds of things happen in black neighborhoods in his lifetime. His novel also does things that the article wasn't meant to do, because it is written in second person. While the article give...

I was scrolling through a few Snapchat stories on my phone before going to bed a few nights ago when I stumbled upon a Snapchat episode called 'While Black'.  Since we were reading about the history of racism in America, I thought it would be helpful to watch the episode.  The episode revolved around the N-word and who can say it.  It's one of the most controversial words in the entire English language because of its history.  Thousands of black people used to be lynched to those words, yet some people are still confused about whether it's okay to say it and who can say it.  This word keeps being used and abused by everybody around the world.  If somebody who is black says the word then it means friend, however, if anybody else says the same word it means something different.  Many black people that were interviewed in the episode all had the same consensus that it's never okay to say the word because of its implications and how it makes certain people...

At first glance, I assumed “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates would outline a plan for reparations based on slavery and the suffering that black people have endured for hundreds of years, and to a certain extent, that was true. Based on my reading and the discussions of the article in class, it primarily described how reparations are a difficult issue and the experiences that have led up to why they should be established and basic ideas of where they could be focused on. However, one part of the article stood out for me beyond anything else that was said: the last section. Instead of ending the article with “An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the certain sins of the future. More important than any single check cut to any African American, the payment of reparations would represent America’s maturation out of the childhood myth of its innocence into a wisdom worthy of its founders.”, a very well-crafted conclu...

This is not the first time that I will be reading Between the World and Me. It was one of the many books that I had to read for my AP English class my junior year. We were given four months to read the books. Unlike the other books that we had to read for class, we were told to read the book on our own. This means that we were not told to read to a certain page by a certain day. Instead, we could read it at any pace we wanted, as long as we finished it by the end of the four months. While we had this assignment, we were also reading another book. For this one, we were told to finish a certain number of pages by a certain day. Because we were reading this book and my personality in general, I did not start reading Between the World and Me until two days before it was due. Since it was due so soon and I am such a slow reader, I ended up skimming the book and not actually getting very much from it. I got the general idea of the book, enough to write two essays about; however, every time...

I have a strong love for concerts. Music is something I have always valued because through it, emotions are conveyed, messages are spread, and happiness results. The unifying factor of songs are what make them so impactful. This is my favorite part of going to a concert. The idea behind everyone coming together as one (despite differences, or backgrounds), but instead to listen and simply enjoy music. I find it satisfying that I have more than 10 different playlists on my phone, each for a different mood I may be in. I add on often to all of these playlists so that they stay updated. First is my "feels" playlist which contains around 450 songs. These songs are usually emotion-based. Artists within this playlist (to name a few) include: Adele, Jaymes Young, and Billie Eilish. Next is my "party bus" playlist which contains hype/party songs and lots of rap artists. Third is "TU" which stands for turn up and has songs with Cardi B and City Girls. Then, there i...

Why do people eat meat? In my ethics class, we have gone into a great debate on why people eat meat. The teacher is vegetarian and asked the class to give him a morally sound reason for eating meat. He wants to eat meat, but he cannot, in good conscience, eat meat without feeling guilty. Many people brought up the tradition of eating meat. His face lit up like a kid in a candy bar. You see, it is his job to make you feel as though nothing is right or wrong, he questions why any of your morals are the way they are and he makes you question the world completely. Back to the story. He then started talking about the tradition of slavery and asked why that was wrong if it was tradition. Obviously, he knows it's wrong, but he pinpointed the aspect in the argument that he thought was weak. This topic was dropped. Any topic brought up after this, he had a rebuttal. He has exhausted all of the ideas related to the morality of eating meat. He then delved deep into why he, personally, was ...

I really relate to the still learning from my time in Greece. I am still trying to get a hold of what it means to smile because it happened. I guess I am still honing a narrative that helps me do that...

Reading about the history of racism in America and how it is profoundly intertwined in today’s society was something I was familiar with, but had no idea to what extent and in what ways this is true. Additionally, I had never read such a thorough contemplation on how to begin to make reparations and heal as an entire country, and what that looked like in other areas of the world. Before I go further, I think this is such an important paper and I could analyze it for a lifetime. I found the German/Israel reparation process to be extremely interesting. I was so surprised by how the majority of Germans felt that they did not owe the Jews anything and how an extremely small fraction of the German population felt guilty. I think that in a situation like this, I would not necessarily feel that I was responsible for the holocaust in that I didn’t have a hand in making orders or causing direct harm, but that as a human I feel very badly. My feeling badly would be in part because I th...

Throughout high school, I used peer review for almost every paper I wrote, whether it was required or not. Typically, we would write a rough draft for class, and you would swap papers with another student in the class, and they were given a rubric of what they should look for in your essay. The rubric was helpful because it gave the reviewer an exact checklist of what they should be looking for in the essays, and provided different ways in which the student could offer ideas to the essay they are reviewing. This method was both effective and ineffective. Those students who actually felt like working hard that day and really looked to help give constructive criticism on your essay were extremely helpful to my writing process. However, some students were very unwilling to work hard to help give me constructive criticism that was actually useful, which was pretty detrimental to my writing process. I rely very heavily on peer review so that I can know whether or not my writing makes sense ...

At my old high school, peer review was pretty common. In class, assuming our teachers assigned 10 writing assignments per year, they would make us do a peer review at least 3-4 times. It was also very common to find students going to the writing center. Our writing center consists of both English teachers and chosen students. There, people were given advice on how to improve their papers. In my friend group, I usually would try to get my assignment done at least three hours before it was due so that one of my friends could read it over and give me notes. As you can see, peer review has always been a big part of my writing career. Despite this, I have found that it is more useful for mechanical issues instead of conceptual ones. This is probably because most people, especially students, find it very hard to see past the mechanical issues. That is exactly what I do when I’m doing a peer review. I find it very difficult to focus on the content itself because I don’t really know exactly wh...

It is Presidents' Day this week, so I do not have much to say about our EMK tutoring since they had a holiday also. So instead of talking about the clever cute boy with me in my tutoring, the peer review we had last week can be my topic this week. Before when I was in high school, we had lots of peer review, but most of the time I thought it as the waste of my time since for peer review every time we just chatted something else and did not talk much about our essays as no one really cares what we are talking about. However, after entering college, I became more mature and try to be responsible for every class I take. So this time it was so beneficial for both me and KK after our peer review. Based on reviewing her essay, it makes me learned a lot as her points have been expressed so well. Instead of just using one point, KK used several points to tell the story and also she used two citations from both Donald Murray’s “All writing is Autobiography” and Brandt’s definition o...

This past weekend was President's weekend which meant more opportunity for procrastination, sleep, and trying not to think about all things school. However, it also meant I would have to fill up more time with excess distractions because even though I am almost two months in, I still find myself missing home whenever my mind has time to wander. My family has always been pretty tightly knit and many of my favorite weekly activities included hanging out with my mom whether it be talking during car rides, going to the mall, or getting boba we always seemed to have so much to talk about. I am the youngest of three daughters and in high school I was practically an only child because both of my sisters were in college/working, so when they would come home it would always be a party. Family dinners were filled with laughter, sisterly roasting sessions, and a hearty amount of dad jokes. All of these moments made me that much more attached to my home. So anyway, back to president's we...

After having peer review, I have found the process very helpful. I think that I was able to receive interesting feedback that I would not have considered myself. I really love how parts of my essay that  I was struggling with could be brought to the attention of the person editing my paper and they could provide suggestions on how to make it better. My essay was pretty personal and it was one of the first times that I have had written anything like that before. I really enjoyed writing it, as the words were able to flow smoothly and I enjoyed writing about the early difficulties I had when first starting to read and write. I was nervous when I heard that the partners for peer review would be chosen randomly, but it actually worked out very well. I think by having someone who did not know me the best, actually helped me improve my essay to be the best that it could be. Not only did I enjoy receiving feedback on my essay, but I also really enjoyed peer reviewing my partner’s essay. ...

 I can write about anything right now. Normally Id write about the readings or about my time tutoring at EMK or about what we talked about in class or just about whatever the prompt is. This week, however, I havent started the long reading yet, EMK was on school break, we spent the whole week editing, and there is no prompt (that I am aware of). This means I can write about absolutely anything. I am trying to think about anything of significance that has happened to me in the past week. I started my Job at a restaurant at the prudential center. My parents came up from NJ to visit me. I went to class and did homework. I watched the movie Shutter Island with Leonardo DiCaprio. Nothing in itself extremely intriguing or compelling enough to write an entire blog post about.  I do have to say that the visit from my parents has me feeling very nostalgic. Especially last night when I forced myself to go to bed early, I found my mind racing about the past. We have been in Boston fo...

I personally have found it rather difficult to start my revision process. I think I had a message in my head and the way I wrote it I felt like I conveyed it pretty well. But, I guess in a way my message got lost in translation and while I understand where it's faults are I just don't know exactly where to pick it apart which is kind of a struggle and kind of annoying because I just want to get the revision process done and over with. I feel like so much change is expected of me from my revision which is nice but it is also just not that easy. I do not want to like fail at the revision process which sounds weird because I don't know if there is a way to necessarily fail at the revision process but also I do not want to not revise it right. It sounds weird but that's where my brain is at. I guess one of my bigger issues is trying to convey my struggles of bilingualism and how hard it is without it becoming a full on rant. Personally I feel like if you are not bilingual y...

Last week, my tutoring experience at the Edward M. Kennedy school was quite different from the prior week. We worked with Dr. Wender’s 12th grade English class. They just completed a Black Writers unit and were preparing to write. Their goal was to pick two readings and compare and contrast them. Our goal was to help them brainstorm, pick a theme,  and prepare to write. When we arrived, I sat down at a table with a group of three students. One of the boys at the table immediately struck up a conversation with me. He was so interested in my life at Northeastern, partly because he was also about to become a college student. He asked me about my dorm, how the food was, and even if there were parties. When he asked the last question, I tried to brush it off because I knew I shouldn't answer that question. I answered all the other questions besides that one. He told me about how it totally slipped his mind to apply to Northeastern, but that he applied to his dream school. He still hasn’...