A Letter to Myself

Dear Melanie,

                On February 11, 2011, you will get in a very serious car accident on your way home from Christian’s party. Bailey will drive you both to and from the party in her Jeep Liberty. Everything will be going well at first, but to everyone’s surprise, Christian will come up and punch Kyle in the face. At first you’ll think he’s kidding, but he’s not. After a few seconds, it will happen a 2^nd time. This is when you, Kyle, and Bailey will all realize that Christian is really serious. Understandably, Bailey will quickly want to leave so that it doesn’t get worse. She forces Kyle to leave the party and get in his car to go home. When you get into Bailey’s jeep, she’ll start crying hysterically. She’ll begin driving back to your house and when she gets to the corner of 28 Mile Road and Vandyke, she’ll turn left and a car will hit the driver’s side and the Jeep will roll bumper to bumper and finally land upside down against a pole. You both fall to the ceiling and get out quickly and wait for the ambulance to get there. Then, Dad will pick you up and you will go home with him and then Mom will take you to the hospital. On your way to the hospital, your neck will start to hurt and you’ll realize that your whole body aches.

                There are so many ways you can prevent all of this from happening. First, you could obviously just not go to the party, but if you don’t want to miss out then you could call Mom and have her pick you up rather than go home with Bailey. But since it will be so late at night, she might be sleeping so you would still need to get a ride with Bailey. Second, since Bailey will be crying so hard, you should tell her to pull over until she calms down. Since you can’t control her actions, if Bailey doesn’t listen then the accident is still going to happen. After it happens, remember what you learned in Medical First Response, you aren’t supposed to get out of the car when you’re in an accident; you’re supposed to wait for help. This way, if you have a neck injury, you won’t make it worse. You have a concussion though, and you’re going to have a hard time thinking clearly. If you decide to get out of the car anyways, then go to the hospital in the ambulance rather than getting a ride with Mom. You won’t think you need to go to the hospital because you won’t feel pain right away because of the adrenaline rush. But on your way to the hospital, you’ll realize your neck is in severe pain and you can’t turn it. It’s safer to go in the ambulance so your neck can be stabilized. There are so many different ways to handle the situation to prevent the problems you could have in the future. Just remember to calm down and to stop and think.

Love,

Melanie

Reflection of Redesign Essay

Going into this assignment, at first I had a hard time finding an advertisement because with most advertisements I couldn’t think of a way to redirect them toward a different audience. I eventually found a Popchips advertisement in Seventeen that I felt was pretty easy to redirect. After that, I felt pretty confident. I had an idea of what I was going to do and I thought it would be easy to write. Once I started writing my rough draft, though, I lost that confidence. I couldn’t seem to elaborate on my thoughts in order to make the essay long enough. I didn’t know how to go in enough detail about the use of rhetoric either. It was very helpful and when we were in class and we came up to the professor one by one with questions. It helped me organize my essay more and understand how pathos, ethos, and logos were used in the original ad. I still was never able to make the essay long enough. When I came up with my idea for the redesign, I just pictured it in my head. Unfortunately, my first idea was already an advertisement created by the Popchips company so I had to change it. That was inconvenient because I really liked my first choice and thought it was a good advertisement. Clearly it was, since it was used by the company itself. I still liked my new idea but I don’t think it was as good as the first. I really liked that this assignment was very different than any writing assignment I’ve done before. I got to use my creative side, which is one of my strong points. It was easy for me to picture the advertisement in my head and recreate it on paper but it was just a little bit more difficult to get down on paper. If I got a second chance to write this essay, I start my rough draft by elaborating on the use of rhetoric so that my paper was long enough so that I wouldn’t have lost points. Unfortunately, losing points on the final draft was going to happen either way because I couldn’t think of enough detail to stretch it out to 5 pages. Either way, I felt like I learned more about the use of rhetoric and how to use them in visual literacy, rather than novels.

Nissan Leaf Commercial

Some major ideologies communicated in the Nissan Leaf commercial were saving the environment and friendship. The ice caps in the beginning of the commercial were melting, which represented global warming. A polar bear living in this environment traveled across the world to hug a man who was using a vehicle that didn’t use gas. It was like he was thanking him for caring about the environment and helping delay global warming. The intended audience of this argument was anyone looking for a brand new car that could be interested in vehicles that are good for the environment. To appeal to this specific audience, advertisement is trying to make the audience feel moved by this commercial. I believe this is a dominant hegemonic commercial. I strongly agree with people doing whatever they can to stop global warming. I think it’s important to care about the earth and to do any little thing we can to contribute to help save our environment. I think many people would agree with me and would be moved by this commercial and it could potentially sway them and they may consider buying a car like this.

"Reading with Dad" Process Memo

            At first when writing my literacy timeline, I had a really hard time remembering details from my childhood. It wasn’t as hard thinking about when I was a little older, but a lot of literacy development happens at such a young age that it’s hard to remember that far. A lot of my memories were just things that my parents told me about. I had no idea what I would use as my theme because I felt like after reading the literacy narratives in our book that compared to those authors I was just an average girl with nothing interesting to write about my literacy development. At first, I wasn’t really looking forward to this paper because I couldn’t really connect. But after a while I was able to come up with some memories with my dad and then I realized that I had so much to say about literacy development. It might not be as interesting as some of narratives in our book, but not everyone experiences unique childhoods. I became a little more excited about the paper when I realized my dad would be my theme. Once I started coming up with ideas, I couldn’t stop. I tried to write a timeline but I couldn’t keep the memories in order at first. It was easier for me to just keep writing them down and worry about putting them in order later. I liked this paper because before this I had never realized how much my father contributed to my literacy development. It shows how important family is to me and how much they affected me throughout my life.

            Now that I had a theme, I thought writing my narrative would be easy. It really wasn’t, though. I wrote down everything from my timeline and tried to include details but it only was a page and a half. I really felt like there wasn’t anything else to say. I didn’t want to come to class without a complete paper so I gave it to both of my parents to review and they were a huge help. They highlighted every sentence that didn’t give enough detail and they helped with any grammar problems. They also contributed by using asterisks at the bottom and writing more memories that I didn’t remember on my own. This way, when I did the peer review, my peers hardly had anything to say and it made me feel so much more confident about my paper. They still did find a few things though, and they gave me great criticism and it just made my narrative that much better.

When preparing for the video during the peer review session, it was very helpful when my partner picked out fifteen sentences for my video because it was nice to see it from another person’s point of view. I had already picked out a few sentences myself and this way I could combine both of our sentences to make a great video. Even though combined we had more than fifteen sentences, when I was making the video they didn’t sound as good as I had thought. I didn’t have very many slides at first and it was hard to cut down the sentences to 52 characters per slide without cutting the sentences in weird places. When choosing images, I was very disappointed when I couldn’t find any pictures of me reading with my dad when I was little. It made it a lot harder to make my video personal because I had more pictures of book covers and less pictures of my own family. It was also hard to find a song that was for a father and a daughter that wasn’t a wedding song. But I thought my song choice fit quite well in the end. It was a father singing to his daughter about her growing up. Since my video started from me being very young and ended with me now, I thought this was a perfect fit.

            I think I did a very good job on my literacy narrative and my Animoto slideshow. I put a lot of effort in and I took a lot of time to make it as good as it could be. After watching my video again and looking at my classmates comments, I’m still very satisfied with my video. They agreed that it would have been nice to include a picture of my father and I reading so I’m disappointed that I couldn’t find one to include. I wish I would have just taken a current one but I still don’t think that would have been what I’m looking for. Overall, I’m proud of my hard work and I hope my grade reflects that.

Virginia Heffernan's "Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade"

                Virginia Heffernan wants the reader to remember one number: 65%. According to Cathy N. Davidson, these are the chances that today’s grade-school children will do work that hasn’t been invented yet.  She says that even a lot of current digital-age careers will be old by then. She believes it’s time to redesign education. Davidson says we are ignoring the cognitive skills that grade-school kids are they’re developing on their own. Most importantly, people above 40 need to stop disapproving of the digital-age. For example, many professors are wondering why the papers their students turn in are terrible. They need to take a look at their students’ online blogs; they have less errors, plagiarism and better prose than their classroom assignments. The classroom needs to teach the array of complex skills involving digital literacy. All of these ideas are from Davidson’s book “Now You See It” and Heffernan really encourages people to read it.

                I believe my teachers in elementary, middle, and high school could have better prepared me for the tech requirements in college by having more online work. I would suggest to them that they should have utilized technology a lot more; using smartboards weren’t enough. They needed to use technology that was interactive with the students, not just for themselves. They should have posted online assignments on moodle or blackboard. They also should have taught us how to use wordle, prezi, animoto, etc.

                I am also anticipating using a lot of technology in my chosen career field. I am aspiring to be a doctor. I may not know what my specialty will be, but I know that I could use many different types of technology. For example, I could use computers, x-ray machines, electronic medical records, laser surgery, and many more different types that aren’t even invented yet. I believe Oakland will do a good job of preparing me for any of this because Oakland has a medical school and I think OU would want to prepare students for its’ own medical programs.

                I feel that I write equally as well in a blog, email, or paper. It just depends on how I feel about the topic I’m writing on. If I love the topic, I tend to write much better than if I’m just forced to write about something I have no opinion on.

                If I were a teacher, I would utilize as much technology that is available to me. I know that technology changes, but if we’re constantly trying different technology then it will be so much easier to adapt to future technology.

                Lastly, I think the tone of Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade was very persuasive. I strongly agree with Heffernan’s and Davidson’s opinions on moving toward the digital-age. It is so important to utilize all technology around you and constantly be learning new things. The world is constantly changing around us and it is necessary to adapt to changes. Some people are unable to adapt and it makes using technology so much more difficult for them. I believe we should prepare our future generations for anything that could be thrown at them.

My Literacy Timeline

Before I started school: I began talking at a very young age and I spoke full paragraphs right away. I had a huge imagination and lots of imaginary friends.

Kindergarten: My dad always read books to my brothers and I at night. We loved all the Shel Silverstein poems and I remember loving “Goodnight Moon” and “Love You Forever.” My dad has inspired me a lot when it comes to reading.

1^st grade: I read more on my own, but my dad continued to read to me because I loved it so much. As I got older, he would read stories and he’d change the words to make them funnier. All through elementary school, my dad would take me to book fairs and I would buy tons of new books.

2^nd grade: I would read ALL the time. I remember being one of the only kids in my grade that was allowed to read the books in the older kids section at my elementary school. I felt so smart.

3^rd grade: Over the summer my mom’s best friend lent me 100 books. Some were long and some were short but I was so proud of myself for finishing all of them by the end of the summer.

4th-7^th grade: I continued to love reading, but as I started getting older I read much less and I began reading just what was required for school.

8^th grade: Really started to read magazines like “Seventeen” and “People”

9^th grade: I had pneumonia and read all the “Twilight” books that were out in less than a week. This was the first time in quite a while that I read any books on my own.

10^th grade: Don’t remember reading much at all.

11^th grade: Read for AP Lit and hated every book except “The Color Purple.” “Crime and Punishment” was a nightmare.

12^th grade: Read “The Hunger Games” and any required books for AP English. My dad started recommending books to me and vice versa.

1^st year at OU: Over the summer I read 50 Shades of Gray and the sequels. I absolutely loved them and I highly recommend them!! Since I started school, though, I’ve only read required books and I haven’t had a lot of time to read on my own.

"Superman and Me" By Sherman Alexie

To summarize, "Superman and Me," was about Sherman Alexie. He was a Spokone indian living on the Spokone Indian Reservation in eastern Washington State. His family was considered middle class on the reservation, but considered poor by society's standards. His father loved books, which influenced Sherman Alexie's love of reading. He taught himself how to read at an early age, which made him an outcast on the reservation. He didn't let that stop him, though, and now writes novels, short stories, and poems. He also visits the schools on reservations as much as possible. It is his goal to encourage the children to read and write creatively, just as he did when he was a young boy.
Sherman Alexie's literacy narrative really drew me in. I can connect to his love of reading because I have always loved books. I especially loved books when I was young, so I can understand that he taught himself to read at an early age. I think it was much more important to Alexie, though, because he didn't care what anyone thought about him. He knew he would be judged and treated as an outcast, but reading was important to him and nothing else mattered. I really admire that and it was very inspiring.