finding-quotes-for-influence-on-self-paragraph.doc

1. We began the class by completing the oral reading of an essay the students read individually. (Often, reading a story out loud with the intended emphasis and emotion can change a person’s understanding or appreciation of a piece of literature. While the students had read the essay themselves recently, reading it aloud changed its meaning for some and made it more understandable what mood the author clearly had through their writing.) We highlighted several sentences that could be possibly used as references or quotes to integrate into an essay in this unit.
2. Students were given a thesis writing activity yesterday. This was due today.
3. Students were given a new assignment to find five suitable quotes that would be relevant in a discussion on the significance of outside influences in an individual’s perception of “self”. They were to find these quotes using any of the literature we have taken in this B30 course to date. Once they had their five quotes, they were to choose one of them and write a formal body paragraph with a properly integrated quote with the same topic focus – the influence of others on an individual’s sense of “self”. This assignment (the 5 quotes and 1 paragraph) is due typed on Friday.

1. Students will soon have to submit an essay sample to the School Division. This class was given so students could focus on a topic of choice for them to write their essay on. Many used their time wisely, others will find it difficult completing in the time given.

1. The students are going to participate in a benchmark writing project this week. We looked at several essays, written by last year’s grade ten students from several Saskatchewan schools, and highlighted their openning sentences, their thesis statements, their topic sentences, and summary ones as well.
2. We also looked at the use of transition phrases in the essays written as well.

1. Students began by reviewing what we did yesterday in understanding better the process to create a thesis statement. Students were to create for themselves their own topic sentences for the given essay question and then comprise a thesis statement to match their topic sentences.

2. After twenty-five minutes, we moved on to look again at some of the poems students would have read during the individual assignment they recently completed.

   

   
   Understand this carefully: that an individual who lived in a vaccum, where there was no influence whatsoever from the outside, would grow up having no real understanding of who they were or how they should feel about themselves. It is only when we exist with others, whether it be neighbours, parents, friends, media influences, the specific country you live in and the values they have set, whatever the case may be, you see reflections of yourself that give you a sense of your identity. When you do something good or bad, something else gives you that sense. You are encouraged by a teacher for a good grade so that encourages your belief that you are smart or good at something. You make a mistake and hurt a friend and the feedback you get from your peers is negative so that contributes to your awareness that you’re not the perfect friend. Our understanding of who we are Comes to us from the feedback we get from the society and surroundings we have.Now, understand that for every author of one of the pieces of literature we have read, each of them is seeking an answer to what makes them who they are. Their ancestry’s history, like in “The Past”, is a part of how they became who they are. Their confusion over who they should identify with, either their French colonizers or their Teuton culture, like in the poem “I Am An Alien of Africa and Everywhere, influences them. In the poem “An Introduction, the author seems very critical of anyone else’s expectation of who she should become. She can be anything she likes but is told to “fit in” and choose a language to speak in.  The identity you have and your understanding of who you are comes from the feedback you have gotten from your surroundings. For many students in our class, your identity and who you are is not an important subject right now in your life, but consider the possibility that at some point in your life, you may look back and wonder where you came from and how you became the individual you are.We looked at the poems titled: “I Am An Alien of Africa and Everywhere”, “An Introduction”, and “The Past”. The focus of our discussion was to:

1.  
   1. look to see how the poem adds to the discussion of other sources influencing an individual’s sense of ‘self’
   2. look for quotes that could be used easily in an essay paragraph for the dept. exam