Jack English-Cooper
Professor Justin Lotspeich
Rhetoric 110: Written Communication
I
936 Words
9/7/2014
Personal
Letter: My Terrifying Teacher
Dear Family,
I would like to express to you all the reason why I have
not been able to learn in my library class. There is a silver lining in this
story that you all should pay attention to if you want to know how to learn
from a class where it is impossible to learn.
As many of you know, I recently switched middle schools. From
kindergarten through fourth grade, I attended a private Quaker school,
Cambridge Friends School. As you can tell from the name, there was an extremely
friendly academic environment filled with smiles, and it was a place where the
students called their teachers by their first names. Then I switched into my
city's public middle school, The Brown School. I was in for the shock of my
lifetime. I was alone in a new school where everything was different. This new
school had an old-fashion style of teaching where the teachers were strict, and
the rules were endless. We called our teachers Ms. and Mr., and we had to sing
the pledge of allegiance every morning. Sometimes we even had to sing it by
ourselves in front of the class. I had never learned the pledge of allegiance,
and was dumbfounded by the idea of singing the same song every morning. I once
dropped the flag, and was thoroughly surprised by the shock on my peer’s faces.
Despite my terror of going to a new school I was able to learn from most of my
teachers. However, there was one class where I could not expand my
intelligence: Library class.
When I first went to this class I was immensely confused.
Why was there a class dedicated to library education and what would we be
learning? To this day I can’t recall what we were supposed to learn except that
it had a great deal to do with books. I walked into my first Library Class and
sat in the front, ready to learn. When our teacher started the class I was
overwhelmed with fear.
From the start of that class and throughout the year my
teacher never smiled. Nor did she talk in a quiet reasonable voice. She was a
rather large African-American woman with purple glasses and ruby red lipstick.
She glared at all of us, and she screamed when she spoke. I vividly remember
her teeth snarling at me when I attempted to answer a question. She would whip
her arms and body around as she explained her lessons. I once asked a question,
and she answered, “I know I ain’t gotta answer something like that! Figure it
out for yourself boy!” I responded dumbly, “Ok”. She would spit and shout
phrases like “Ya’ll going to read and ya’ll going to learn”. Most of the time,
I was too afraid to raise my eyes from the table to try and make out what she
was saying.
Some of you may be arguing that this was not an
example of injustice, but merely a strict teacher. Well, I have the perfect
example of when I experienced first hand her injustice that inhibited me of
learning a lesson. When I took quizzes I normally struggled to find the answer.
After a lot of deep thinking I can figure it out, and with that moment I truly
learn the material. We were taking a quiz on a book we had just read, and as
usual I was stuck on a question. So I did my normal routine of thinking while
letting my eyes stare forward or glaze around the room, when my eyes fell on
the wrong person. I didn’t even realize that my eyes were aimed at the teacher
when she pierced the silence with the loudest scream I have ever heard, “Why
are you looking at me? The answer ain’t on me; look at your damn paper!” I was
more terrified and embarrassed than I had been my whole life. I refused to let
my eyes shift from my paper and couldn’t think of anything except for how I was
going to survive that class.
I failed the quiz and didn’t try to learn anything in that
class after that. I was so afraid of another confrontation that I kept to
myself without attempting to learn anything at all. I have no idea what we were
supposed to learn from that class. All I remember was that one quiz.
The injustice that occurred was my teacher striking terror
into my heart. She could have been a reasonable teacher and asked me nicely not
to look at her. She could have been open to my different style of thinking and
learning. Instead she scared the learning out of me. I was a nervous new
student, and her rage prevented me from being able to think clearly and learn
in her class. The silver lining is that I experienced a different form of
education. This teacher might have crossed the line, but the strict and
old-fashioned style of learning at this school was new to me, and it taught me
how to work hard and respect my teachers. This experience also taught me to
value teachers who understand that some students process information
differently. It is unfortunate that I experienced her outburst that stopped me
from learning in Library class, but at least I learned that educating yourself
requires an unafraid mind and how I process information best. So, maybe we learn
things we weren’t expecting to learn from injustices.
Sincerely,
Jack
English-Cooper
Jack English-Cooper
Professor Justin Lotspeich
Rhetoric 110: Written Communication
I
662 Words
9/7/2014
Dear Reader Letter
1) I attempted to
use as many reading strategies as I could for this letter. I think my most
successfully used strategy was pathos. Just like Douglass, I was able to fill
my essay with vivid imagery and descriptions of how terrified I was to make the
reader feel sorry for me. Logos and Ethos were more challenging for me. In the
end, my essay had some logical reasoning but not nearly as much as how much
pathos it had. I addressed ethos at the beginning when I describe my school
transition, but I feel it could have been stronger.
2)
During
my prewriting stage I brainstormed and drafted. Brainstorming worked well for
me since I was able to think about my essay wherever I was until I finally
decided upon a story. It also worked really well for me to talk to my friends,
and ask them which story they thought I should use. What didn’t work for me was
how I did not outline. That would have been helpful to organize my ideas before
I started writing. I failed to do this and jumped right into the drafting
process. The drafting process didn’t work that well for me, since my ideas were
all jumbled and I needed extra time to revise.
3)
The
writing stage was my most successful stage. I was mostly using free writing, at
first, which helped to get all my ideas down. However, it made it more difficult
during the editing process since some of the writing was confusing. Using
multiple sessions to write my essay was very effective for me. Sometimes it’s
hard for me to focus, so using this strategy helped me only write when I could
give it my full attention. What did not really work for me was attempting to
write with my notes. I tried to write with my notes from class next to me to
make sure I was writing correctly, but it just distracted me. It would have
been better to use my notes solely for the editing process.
4)
I
spent most of my time and energy in the post writing process, and almost every
thing I did was helpful. I went to the writing center and it was very
productive. I was worried about how the essay sounded, if there was enough
logos and ethos in it and if I got my point across. The tutor gave me tips on
how to make it read better. He also explained how my essay did get my point
across and how it had a sufficient amount of logos and ethos. So, the tutor
gave me a lot of help without sending me away confused on what I had to fix.
Editing and revising helped me, because once I fixed all the mistakes it
sounded much better. Reading it aloud also ensured me that it sounded perfect.
Peer editing was a huge help too. Having other people give me feedback helped
me contemplate on their advice and fix it, which made me a better writer and
made my essay more successful. Using my notes and rereading the letters on
canvas helped me ensure that I was writing in the correct style.
5)
I
felt most confident writing my personal letter. Once I read all the weekly
texts of letters, I had a good idea of what made a powerful personal letter.
Due to that I was able to write a personal letter. I truly love writing and
being creative. So, I was able to focus on my essay, and create the best piece
of writing I could.
6)
I
struggled most with the weekly texts. I was at first confused with the readings.
I had never read personal letters, so it was all knew to me. There were times
when I also got bored or distracted from the readings; thus making them harder
to overcome.
A) Well
Developed
B) Developed
C) Well
Developed
D) Well
Developed
E) Developed
F) Developed
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