Blog 4: Stern/Evans

Jessica Stern's writing was very intense and hard to read. This woman has been through many horrible things in her life time and now she is comfortable visiting with terrorist, which is strange to hear. In the excerpt of Denial, we find out that her and her sister were raped at young age by a stranger. Her sister was able to get through the incident and move on with her life, but for Jessica it was not that easy. She sought the help from a therapist who diagnosed her with post traumatic stress disorder. After she found out her diagnosis, she decided not to let the rape incident control her life anymore. She wanted to go inside the minds of people who hurt others and that is why she chose terrorism as her topic of choice. Many people will not understand why she is not scared to go to terrorist camps, but she explains that since she has been through so many horrible things before, the emotion of fear does not set in. Instead she finds fear in situations that are not fearful to many, such as shopping malls and large crowds. 

I believe that Stern's methodology is autobiographical because she is explaining to us the events that are happening her life in the past and present. She tells us why she is writing her work and the answers to why she does certain things in her everyday life. I believe she does this because many people have been asking her "why this?" and "why that?", so she wanted the world to hear her story.

Evans'chapter on autobiography apply to Jessica's writing because Evans states that an autbiography needs to make a reader feel the emotion of what the writer is talking about. The reader needs to be able to react to the piece emotionally in order to understand it. I believe that in Stern's piece, there were some parts that I did not even want to read because I was upset for what this woman and her sister had to go through in their lives. Stern really put emotion into her piece and that is why I feel that her work applies to Evan's chapter.

Ideas and questions for my Research project

My research topic is on childrens' proficicany level in reading and writing skills. I am going to ask my Coorperating teacher in my junior field to give me information on the children that might be a part of my study. A research question that I have in mind is: What factors cause a child's reading level to be low and what are factors that cause them to high? It is still a work in progress, but I feel by learning this information, it will help me in my future an educator.

Research Project Ideas

For my research project,I would like to find out why children perform on different grade levels. For example, a child is in grade 3 but is performing at a 1st grade reading and math levels. I would go into factors such as learning disabilities, behavorial problem, and mental disabilities. I would mainly observe my 3 grade class for my Junior Field. There, I will ask my cooperating teacher if there are any children with IEPs or 504s. Then I will observe those children and see the differences between their work and the other children's work. Then I will observe the students who are performing on lower grade level that do not have any disabilities, and see why at they performing that low.

Research Methods for English Studies by: Gabriele Griffin, Chapter 1: Research Methods for English Studies: An Introduction

This chapter was an introduction of different research methods and skills that will be explained throughout the book. The chapter started out by giving us alittle history about research methods. It explained that back in the 1980s, research was what you did, and what you can hope to find in books. As time went on, research methods and skills grew into that they are today.

While reading this chapter, I was interested in the fact that author gave us the distinction between research skills, methods, and methodologies. The chapter explained how research skills are techniques; methods are how you carry out the research; and methodologies are concerned with perspectives you bring to your work. I felt that this information about the skills and methods was important to learn because later on I can use this as reference.

As the chapter went on, I learned more about that is going to happen in future chapters. Again, I feel that this chapter was important to read because I was able to prepare myself for the rest of the book. I enjoyed reading this chapter and I look foward to reading more.