David's ePortfolio

This is my workspace where I can do my assignments for long hours without getting interrupted.  I have a laptop in my workspace. This helps me not to get completely isolated while I’m writing. I agree that I have to fully concentrate when I work but I think it is more efficient to let myself into little distraction. I also made more legroom below my desk. I put my books towards the wall to make it as a bookrack. My lamp is useful when my roommate is sleeping and I still have some works left. I think I can organize other things on my desk to make it better. Things that are not related to the work such as wet tissues, pills, and sprays can be put away.

I think this lady’s workspace is similar with mine. She has legroom below the desk and has bookrack. In the picture the bookrack is located toward her while mine is next to me. Also the fact that things on her desk should be organized is same with me.

Collreadwrite1b

We took a literature exam when I was in high school. It was forty-five questions in total. After long hours of exam, we waited until the answer came out so we could check ours. While I was checking the answer one by one, I stopped and doubted my eyes. One answer that I was certain was judged wrong. Not only me, but other students were confused too. The question was asking which word in the passage most relates to the word ‘doctor’ in a poem. I had to read the poem first and then the passage about Greek myth came later.

Let me briefly explain about this poem. The character in the poem was mentally ill, and he meets an old doctor who had white mustache. The doctor had long white mustache and looked like he was an imagery man. There is a certain image of imagery man that comes up to people’s mind in Korea. He examined the man’s pulse and after a while asked where he came from. After that the doctor asked if the man know someone he knew. Soon the character realizes the doctor was an old friend of his father. He felt better after realizing this fact. The passage I had to connect to this poem was about Theseus Myth, a part of Greek Mythology. Theseus is trying to enter the chamber of secret through the temple of doom. In the chamber there is a beast man called ‘Minotauros’ who eats human. It is easy to get lost once you get in there. The door is only open to the ones who are attempting to get in. Theseus somehow gets in to the chamber using his prediction and instinct. He kills the beast man and gets out following through the thread he put when he came in. The words that I had to choose were ‘Theseus’, ‘Minotauros’, ‘temple of doom’, ‘Chamber of Secret’, and ‘thread’

I was puzzled when I realized I chose the wrong answer. The teacher explained the reason “The doctor in the poem can be understood as a pathway of leading thoughts about father. This explains the reason of given answer, because the purpose of Theseus is to get into the chamber of secret and the temple of doom is what makes this possible. The character in the poem could get better because the doctor reminded him of his father.”

I was not persuaded by his explanation and told him how I thought about my answer. “When I first faced this question, this is how I thought. The doctor instinctively has positive image. I can say that thinking about father contributed to saving him from his mental illness, but I cannot say that the doctor did nothing in this process. The doctor is the person who made the medication possible. If you say the ‘doctor’ connects to ‘temple of doom’, other words in the choice should connect to certain words in the poem too. The thread takes important role in the Theseus Myth, and there is no certain word in the poem that relates to this.” I further went on with my explanation. “If you interpret the purpose of the question as what saves Theseus’s life, it is harder to accept the given answer. Temple of doom is what leads him into trouble, and the thread is what saves him at last.”

After a while, both answers were admitted. A lot of students in my class including me were relieved by the news. I felt from this incident that the ability to interpret literature should not be evaluated by multiple choices exams. Each students understood the certain meaning of the words differently. Literature interpretation depends on one’s background and perception. Multiple choice exams are not the best way to judge the ability. Instead, I think the analysis of the literature can be evaluated by multiple choice exams. It is based on the facts and the answers become more clear compared to the interpretation exam. Furthermore, I think literature interpretation education should be directed toward to accepting people’s different views.

I took a literature exam when I was in high school. One of the questions was controversial around the students. There were many students who thought the given appropriate answer was wrong and I was one of them. The question was asking which word in the passage most relates to the word in a poem. The character in the poem was mentally ill, and he meets an old doctor who had white mustache. After a while the character realizes the doctor was an old friend of his father. He felt better after having long conversation with the doctor. The question connects this poem to a passage of Greek Mythology. It asked which word relates to the role of the doctor in poem in the Theseus

Myth. The answer was ‘the temple of doom’(3). The poem can be divided into three parts, which is the character(problem), the doctor and father(solution). The ‘doctor’ can be understood as a pathway of leading thoughts about ‘father’. This explains the reason of given answer, because the purpose of Theseus is to get into chamber of secret and the temple of doom is what makes this possible. However, my answer was ‘thread’(5). The doctor instinctively has positive image. Theseus finally gets out from the maze through the ‘thread’. Opinions between teachers were divided. Some said the answer was number three, while others said five. After long discussion, both answers were admitted. What I felt after this was, the literature is not made to have a standardized lesson, and you can never objectify the meaning of literature. Everyone can have their own interpretation

I was learning Chinese when I was in middle school. It was one of the mandatory subjects that I had to learn in school. I had no interest in learning Chinese at that moment, but my teacher made me realize the importance of Chinese. It was when I was preparing my speech for the mid term that I knew I had improved my speaking skills. I could never speak Mandarin before I took that class. For over three months I was following my teacher’s directions and did almost every assignment she gave to us. I learned from how to introduce my name in Chinese to explaining what a story in Chinese says. Even if I didn’t keep up with my Chinese skills, I still feel the importance of learning it again. I still remember vividly how satisfied I was after presenting the speech in front of my teacher and the classmates. If it wasn’t for the enthusiastic teacher, I could not even feel the need to learn Chinese.

I met a teacher when I was in middle school. She once took me to the “War Memorial of Korea”. The place was made for the soldiers from over 20 different countries who fought for the Korean war. Since then I started to think more about the Korean War. She recommended a book and told me to write about it. After writing, I realized that it influenced on my value system. How I looked at things changed from the past after reading the book. The title of the book “The Monsoon Season” is similar to the time when the Korean war began. No one can be free from the damage and pain it entails. The endless boredom of the rainy season is what the war shows to us. Two conflicting family in the novel reconcile after a tragic event occurs. I thought it is impossible to get over the idealogical difference between South and North Korea. However it was same that they had to go through this tragic war. It is unnecessary to conflict with same people who are only going to be harmed from the war. The difference can be overcame by the cultural homogeneity between South and North Korea. This will someday lead to the unification of Korea. If it were not for the teacher who told me about this book, I could not have made an opportunity to learn a lesson from it.

ly ill, and he meets an old doctor who had white mustache. The doctor had long white mustache and looked like he was an imagery man. He examined the man’s pulse and after a while asked where he came from. After realizing where the man came from, the doctor suddenly asked if the man know someone he knew. Soon the character realizes the doctor was an old friend of his father. He felt better after having long conversation with the doctor. The passage I had to connect to this poem was about Theseus Myth, a part of Greek Mythology. Theseus is trying to enter the chamber of secret through the temple of doom. In the chamber there is a beast man called ‘Minotauros’ and he eats human. It is easy to get lost once you get in there. The door to the chamber is not open to everyone. It is only open to the ones who are attempting to get in. Theseus somehow gets into the chamber using his prediction and instinct. He kills the beast man and gets out following through the thread he put when he came in.

 

He examined the man’s pulse and after a while asked where he came from. After that the doctor asked if the man know someone he knew. Soon the character realizes the doctor was an old friend of his father. He felt better after realizing this fact. The passage I had to connect to this poem was about Theseus Myth. Theseus is trying to enter the chamber of secret through the temple of doom. In the chamber there is a beast man called ‘Minotauros’ who eats human. The door only open to the ones who are attempting to get in, and it’s easy to get lost. He somehow gets into the chamber using his prediction and instinct. He finally kills the beast man and get his way out using thread he used to get in.

I summarized this part and put the poem and the myth into a paragraph. I tried to make other parts to take up more parts to weigh more on the lesson.

I came up with three concrete ideas for revision based on what my peers had offered. First I decided to work on explaining the general background of the literacy. Mike quoted that he wanted to know more about how they met and where this occurred for this sentence in the literacy, ‘The doctor had long white mustache and looked like he was an imagery man’. I will describe more about what ‘imagery man’ implies in this story. Also Shaylee said I may want to add why I was taking the test and which grade I was in that time. I think adding this will help readers understand more about the background.

Second, I will paraphrase a little where I’m explaining the reason of the decided answer. Shamus wanted me to paraphrase that part so it does not look too long. I wanted to introduce the readers the specific reason but I will make it shorter without deleting the essential part.

Last, I will bring more details into explaining why this lesson is so important. Mike said I can definitely expend more on this literacy lesson. I will tell more of why literature education should not be aimed for teaching stereotypical lesson. I will also explain more reasonings where there could be some questions to be asked.

 

Collreadwrite1b

I had no problem when I didn’t try to name each part I am drawing. I just focused on the shape itself and surrounding lines. Face was more successful than the hands. The features in the facial part were easier to catch than those in the hands. The relationships of lines in the hands were hard to grasp, and they looked like an abstract sketch. I first started to sketch the center of the drawing to make sure the final copy is not weighted toward one direction. Then I sketched the whole frame, dividing it into three parts. I worked on face drawing after that. At last I focused on shaping left hand which was the hardest part to draw. It seemed to have no relations with right hand so I had to draw my own lines to make it seem look alike with the original. I was fully concentrated with my work that I didn’t know how time flew. I was generally satisfied with my final work it is not one hundred percent same with the original but people will acknowledge that my sketch is the copy of Robert Muller.

I tried to read the whole chapter all at once, but I could not get the topic when I first read it.  The characters and the things happening in the story were hard to catch.  I was also overwhelmed by the amount of the reading . When I read it for the second time, I could understand general topic and how the characters are related to each other. I didn’t have to read every word to catch the connection between the passages.

Rose is describing how it was like to be in the Vocational Education. He was accidentally put into the program by the school’s mistake. The program is for the students who are in lower level. He met different types of people in the class and majority of them were troublemakers. Rose however notes that some of them had special qualities. ‘I just wanna be average’ is a quote from Rose’s classmate, and Rose did not understand it while he had to switch from Vocational Education to College Prep. He was not sure whether or not he could do well on a regular school setting. He meets an English teacher called ‘Macfarland’ and he becomes Rose’s mentor. The teacher guide Rose into finding better himself and finally lead him to college. I think the lesson he wants the reader to know is the importance of finding someone who can help find one’s potential and have positive impact on his life.