project web- me myself and i

                                                            Me, myself, and I
There are varieties of ways that people gain knowledge. The primary ways are visual, auditory, and hands on. Throughout the time that I’ve been in school I have noticed that I am more of a visual learner. The main components that help me understand the subject more are things like graphs, charts, or power points. On the grounds of English I have taken to account that by looking at literature from multiple perspectives for example, 1st person, 3rd person, and oddly enough portraying the character as if I was them, has helped drastically in understanding the concept or the meaning behind what I’m reading. There are many forms and shapes English takes, there are poems, short stories, articles and the list can go on and on. Each of these forms takes time and effort to actually understand what the writer is trying to convey like a hidden message, or simply understanding the moral to be learned. From my experience taking the university course English 114 a/b I have acknowledged what I struggle and my fears are, when it comes to writing. In the year I have been in that course I can say that I have learned more about English than I have learned in the past 12 years of school. The different approaches and exercises taken in English 114 b/a has helped me understand and analyze literature better.



I was born and raised here in Los angles in the city of Northridge. Though being born here in the US, my culture and the way I was raised was as if I was in the country of Mexico. I am a first generation American and my parents both are  from Mexico. Both my parents have struggle all their lives to learn English so when I was being raised Spanish was my first language. I was a fluent Spanish speaker growing up but my parents never took the time to teach me how to read or write it. I knew what letters looked like and I knew how to make their shapes but the sounds they made were a whole new take for me. When I started school in kindergarten I was in a whole new ball park it wasn’t just drawing and coloring, it was listening to stories and spelling simple words, I felt like I was in the Bermuda triangle, lost would be the best word to describe my struggles. Because of the lack of experience speaking and writing English formally joining school, I  was always behind and getting low marks in English throughout my elementary school years. I always excelled in the other fields, especially math. I even won the multiplication bee in 5th grade. That did not cover or make up for English. Being raised in an all-Spanish speaking family set me apart from the other “normal” kids.

Coming from a Hispanic household everyone knows that in order to be heard one must have the loudest voice. I’m the middle child in my family so I have always been too myself, shy, and quite, making it hard to express my opinions and get my point across in my family. When writing an essay you must find a way to engage your audience, I never had a chance to do so in my personal life so how can it be easier for me writing ? This course helped me find  the true origins of where my struggles developed. Discovering where I developed my struggle, has helped me  focus more on what needs to be fixed when Im writing. I’m fighting to become a better writer each day and I have seen improvements so far.

my partners in crime.

High school for me was more about having fun rather than focusing on school. I use to sneak into the auditorium with all my friends and grab the tables and chairs that were used in assembly and make a “skate park” non schalant about it and skate all day and ditch all my classes. This was quite a norm for us and it’s not even the worst I did in high school. I never did my homework, studied for any test, and ditched quit frequently but somehow I managed to graduate with honors and a GPA above a 3.5. The best way I can describe my English department in my school is Nazi. All my English teachers had a way of teaching and the things they taught what was right. It didn’t matter if you had a different approach and got the same answer as they did, it would be wrong. All they would teach was read a book, quiz after, and watch the real life movie of it. I never felt engaged in any English class in high school. Coming here to csun has changed my views about English. Demonstrating that it is not all about reading a book.

 Teachers have developed different strategies to teach their students. I find it very difficult when a teacher just reads off the text book and expects you to know and understand the material. The reason I have become a better writer within these two semesters was because of the different exercises we were instructed to do. It wasn’t just about reading anymore it was about bringing yourself and interests you had to help you understand and analyze the topic. I never thought I would be drawing in English class. One of the exercises that helped me the most was in the first semester. We had an assignment where we picked any work and analyze it. I choose to do this assignment on a song that I like by Confide- Now or Never.

Lyrics from CONFIDE- NOW or Never( the song i choose)

From that song I was instructed to bring the lyrics and break it down to its roots and understand what the song was about. Doing so what I understood I drew on a paper making a collage. Another assignment that was out of norm in an English class was to bring 5 things that meant the most to you and for each write a paragraph about it. In each paragraph we described what we liked about it, how it looks, and the meaning behind it. After I was done with this assignment I realized how great my paragraph were because of the knowledge I had prior to writing. By far the most important exercise in this course was this exercise called “A Rock”.

 We basically picked out a random rock and wrote about it. We describe how it felt, how it smelled, its shape, its color, etc. The moral behind this exercise was to drill into our head that when we are struggling to write we can tell ourselves every time “If I can write about a rock, I can write about anything.” There are plenty more exercises that helped me develop my writing but these are the most important ones to me. They all were so different from what I was used to in previous English classes but yet so easy to get accomplished because of the things that were incorporated.

Doing different exercises in English has helped me understand and analyze literature better. I have gained and acquired more knowledge than I have ever before. I can never stand outside in public and not think about how we analyzed places in this course. I have a better understanding of where my struggles began from, with  that I will focus more on what needs improvement. I have reached a stepping stone in my life and I believe I have everything I need to take the next step.