class time 12-3-07

Well yesterday I think was productive for me. I spoke with Dr. O for most of the period about the various problems that I am having with my paper. I have found the direction that I needed and I was not able to do the key sentence exchange which apparently was not helpful for most of the class. I am kind of happy that I was not able to do that since I was frustrated enough and I did not need to feel like I was not progressing. Anyway I am continuing to write and will email Sydney, Luke, Safia and Maria my paper and see if they have a chance to give me some feedback. A paragraph or two should be sufficient. That's all for now I have to get back to writing.

progress?????? YES! I SHALL ACHIEVE

okay one, two, three, breath! Today is not a good day bad morning but let's turn it around. I desperately need to find a focus today and stop looking at other things that make my mind wonder. I need to FOCUS! I thought I knew what I was doing but I realized I don't. So today my goal is to read. I want to read about my topic and find a focus and stick with it. The more I can narrow it I feel like I will have a better handle on the paper. I will accomplish this and then I can begin writing later today. I have a date with the library and a computer. I want to find research and at the very least write a complete introduction. Yes I know that I am behind, but I was behind from the beginning because I changed my topic. Once I can read more on the subject I will also change my bib. page today. Once I do that I will be able to write more efficiently and have scholars to back up my claims, instead of what I have now which is just my opinion.

progress

Today was not as productive as I hoped it would be. I think that I am still trying to find focus and I need to really buckle down and get going. I am just finding it difficult to have a focus that works and translate it into a seminar paper. I want to focus on what the problems are with literacy and Latino students. Then I want to see what are other strategies are out there that will help Latinos achieve higher literacy rate. I have to analyze the problem with schools and with home environment.

plans for revision

I am going to revise my annotated bibliography by changing a few paragraph errors that I have. I am also going to cut out one of my books and look up others that focus on minorities and male minorities specifically. I will then try to expand my introduction.

inquiry project and article

I did not think that there was an article in Cross Talk In Comp Theory that was about my topic as a whole. However, I do think that perhaps Nancy Sommers article that deals with student writers and experienced writers could be applied. In her article she talks about the process that an student writer goes through and the process that an experienced writer goes through when revising. An experienced writer will look at the whole paper and focus on the ideas while a student writer will simply look at grammar problems. I think that this can somehow relate to my topic with the fact that experienced writers have been exposed to more advanced literature and other types of texts where as a student writer has not had the same amount of experiences with other discourse communities that perhaps an experienced writer has had. May be this cna tie into my topic but we'll see I think it might be a stretch.

Survey questions?

Here are a couple of questions that I want ot put on a survey or questionnaire.

1) Do you feel like you are a skilled writer?
2)On a scale of 1 to 5 (five being the best) how would you rate your reading level?
3)On a Scale of 1 to 5 (five being the best) how would you rate your writing?
4)Do you think that there is a correlation between reading and writing?
5)Do you think that people who read a lot are naturally better writers than people that don't read as much?

in class 10/31/07

Whom could I talk to who could provide me with information that has factness about this question?

I know a few teachers at different grade levels. I think that one teacher would be more educated on the topic. He is an English teacher for high school students; he also has a Masters Degree in reading strategies. This weekend he is going to a reading conference and I have asked to interview him on the topic. Since this topic revolves around everything he teaches and has studied I think that he will have strong opinions about the topic.

What could I read that would provide me with information that has factness about this question?

I can read articles by theorists that have opposing views on the subject. One might say that reading is directly correlated with writing while others may disagree. Perhaps there have been newspaper articles that have covered this topic, or certain researchers that have tried to tackle the correlation have written studies on the topic

What else could I do besides talk to people and read to acquire information or factness about this question? (Jolliffe 75)

I would like to observe some of the class rooms and see how reading and writing are being taught. Do teachers teach both reading and writing together or are they separate entities all together. I would also like to create a survey about the topic and see if everyday people that don’t teach composition or reading think that there is a link between the two.