Reflection #1
Week one was quite an adventure one, but I'm glad it’s done and that I am moving on to week two. I accomplished a lot this week and I am finally starting to understand more and more of what I need to do. I did all the tests and found them helpful. The tests made it easier to understand what each chapter was about. I did miss a few questions but fixed them quickly. I took notes on what I missed and they were helpful in correcting my mistakes. I appreciate that the exercises helped me understand what I got wrong and it made taking notes a bit easier. Once I understood that I needed to put all the exercises into one document. I added the attachments and combined everything to the weebly website, which I enjoyed learning how to do.
Reflection #2
Reflection #2
This week I learned and enjoyed, mostly from the textbook, about cartoons. I never understood the meaning behind cartoons. “A cartoon strips a situation down to its essential elements, and the careful reader must piece these elements together to make connections...” (Spears 95). This quote explains why cartoons are important and helps our further understanding of the piece. I am still learning more about the concept behind cartoons and learning to understand the underline meaning. I have found the more I read them, the more I end of understanding.
I am really excited for this upcoming week because I get to go in depth with my service learning project. This week, I have learned more about my issue and the organization I chose. I chose this particular issue, nursing home abuse and neglect, because my grandma is in a nursing home and gets great care but I have heard many situations where the residents do not always get what they care they deserve. The needs for my grandma and the facility she is in do matter. There are many patients who need around the clock care including my grandma. I am doing research and finding statistics on how much nursing home patients are abused and neglected. I am learning a lot just by observing and interacting with the patients. I am glad I picked this organization as I know they could use the help and it is enjoyable to be around and help my grandma.
This week I learned and enjoyed, mostly from the textbook, about cartoons. I never understood the meaning behind cartoons. “A cartoon strips a situation down to its essential elements, and the careful reader must piece these elements together to make connections...” (Spears 95). This quote explains why cartoons are important and helps our further understanding of the piece. I am still learning more about the concept behind cartoons and learning to understand the underline meaning. I have found the more I read them, the more I end of understanding.
I am really excited for this upcoming week because I get to go in depth with my service learning project. This week, I have learned more about my issue and the organization I chose. I chose this particular issue, nursing home abuse and neglect, because my grandma is in a nursing home and gets great care but I have heard many situations where the residents do not always get what they care they deserve. The needs for my grandma and the facility she is in do matter. There are many patients who need around the clock care including my grandma. I am doing research and finding statistics on how much nursing home patients are abused and neglected. I am learning a lot just by observing and interacting with the patients. I am glad I picked this organization as I know they could use the help and it is enjoyable to be around and help my grandma.
Reflection #3
Reflection #3
The third week was definitely my favorite week so far in this journey. I have learned much through the textbook, my organization as well as the speeches. First, in the textbook I have learned about advertisements, editorials, and language in writing. I enjoyed reading about advertisements the most because it was interesting how they can be so misleading to people. For example, if you go only by the ad for a nursing home, you have no idea if it has great care or not. “The advertiser uses flattery and transfer and a questionable cause-effect relationship to entice the consumer to accept an implied claim: If you use this product, you will miraculously be endowed with the same appeal that the model enjoys” (Spears 390). We can easily be influenced by an advertisement without researching it before buying it.
I also learned a lot about editorials; I found a great deal of them in politics. I read that they are well researched but are usually biased towards a specific side and convince us to follow in that direction. In this chapter, I realized Language in writing is in our everyday life. I learned that allusions are in writing to help us critical readers understand what the author is trying to convey. The organization I’m working with has been great so far, the people there are very helpful and answer any questions I may have. I decided what I really want to do there is participate in activities with my grandma but also with patients who don’t have anyone visit them. I noticed and also was told, that very few have people come visit them in the home. When I heard that, it truly broke my heart and I knew that is where I wanted to help and serve that community. It has been fun so far and I am excited to get to know more of the patients. This week the speeches were actually fun and I enjoyed listening to them. My favorite was the first one on Lou Gehrig. Reading the article and listening to a little of the speech was interesting and I had a new perspective. I am motivated when I hear about athletes that are part of a community outside their sport. I believe it encourages others to go out into the community and serve. Exploring media was very interesting and I ended up learning quite a bit more than I expected. I never researched editorials, or advertisements I just knew they were always there. Reviewing them helped me in learning more on my issue. What’s important when viewing media is to give credit where it’s due, they did the work and they deserve the credit when it is used. This week was fun and I learned a lot about media, my organization, and famous people. I’m excited to learn more during the last week of this course.
The third week was definitely my favorite week so far in this journey. I have learned much through the textbook, my organization as well as the speeches. First, in the textbook I have learned about advertisements, editorials, and language in writing. I enjoyed reading about advertisements the most because it was interesting how they can be so misleading to people. For example, if you go only by the ad for a nursing home, you have no idea if it has great care or not. “The advertiser uses flattery and transfer and a questionable cause-effect relationship to entice the consumer to accept an implied claim: If you use this product, you will miraculously be endowed with the same appeal that the model enjoys” (Spears 390). We can easily be influenced by an advertisement without researching it before buying it.
I also learned a lot about editorials; I found a great deal of them in politics. I read that they are well researched but are usually biased towards a specific side and convince us to follow in that direction. In this chapter, I realized Language in writing is in our everyday life. I learned that allusions are in writing to help us critical readers understand what the author is trying to convey. The organization I’m working with has been great so far, the people there are very helpful and answer any questions I may have. I decided what I really want to do there is participate in activities with my grandma but also with patients who don’t have anyone visit them. I noticed and also was told, that very few have people come visit them in the home. When I heard that, it truly broke my heart and I knew that is where I wanted to help and serve that community. It has been fun so far and I am excited to get to know more of the patients. This week the speeches were actually fun and I enjoyed listening to them. My favorite was the first one on Lou Gehrig. Reading the article and listening to a little of the speech was interesting and I had a new perspective. I am motivated when I hear about athletes that are part of a community outside their sport. I believe it encourages others to go out into the community and serve. Exploring media was very interesting and I ended up learning quite a bit more than I expected. I never researched editorials, or advertisements I just knew they were always there. Reviewing them helped me in learning more on my issue. What’s important when viewing media is to give credit where it’s due, they did the work and they deserve the credit when it is used. This week was fun and I learned a lot about media, my organization, and famous people. I’m excited to learn more during the last week of this course.
Final Reflection
Reflecting on the past four weeks of this course was definitely bumpy at times but I did learn many things on analyzing arguments. First, learning about the significance of how valid your data and graphs are. It is hard knowing if what you found is 100% true and not biased at all. There are many ads, articles, cartoons, photographs that infer certain appeals, and want us to choose the side they are implying us to believe in. But also, as critical readers we must be careful that what we infer is tied with evidence, and we are not mislead by their argument (Spears 81). I think now after learning more and researching on how to understand arguments I am more aware of what a valid argument is. Now looking back, I realize that many writers try to persuade you and confuse you on their own behalf. Especially looking at ads, cartoons and photographs; they all try to convince you of something with not always using words to imply it. The tool I found the most useful was having many examples. I found that if I had examples that proved the point I was trying to convey, it would be less confusing and make more sense. The examples I found in the book that I have displayed in my other reflections helped me convey my argument. I also found that I needed to be more specific in my writing because what I am trying to say is not always assumed by the audience. I have to have facts, examples, and statistics showing and proving my argument.
The service learning project was fun and I am glad I got the opportunity to serve. Serving to me is something everyone needs to experience, giving to others is a better feeling than giving to yourself. I got to serve with the elderly and it was a great experience. When I first went in the nursing home and asked if I could serve there, they were not sure of what I could do but when I suggested that I play games with the residents they could not have been more thrilled. I was told by the director that most of the residents do not have any family or friend to visit them. I wanted those residents to feel loved when I came in and when I played with them. For those few visits I wanted their attitudes to change. I got many comments on how happy they were after I visited, they loved the attention I gave them. I found out the more attention they got, the happier they become. I definitely want to go back and serve, make the residents feel happy again.
The service learning project was fun and I am glad I got the opportunity to serve. Serving to me is something everyone needs to experience, giving to others is a better feeling than giving to yourself. I got to serve with the elderly and it was a great experience. When I first went in the nursing home and asked if I could serve there, they were not sure of what I could do but when I suggested that I play games with the residents they could not have been more thrilled. I was told by the director that most of the residents do not have any family or friend to visit them. I wanted those residents to feel loved when I came in and when I played with them. For those few visits I wanted their attitudes to change. I got many comments on how happy they were after I visited, they loved the attention I gave them. I found out the more attention they got, the happier they become. I definitely want to go back and serve, make the residents feel happy again.
