santamariachristin News

Response to Other Blogs

Christina Santamaria — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 06:31:31 GMT

After reading Austin's blog on religion, I told myself "I couldn't agree more!" It was great to see someone with the same opinions that I have. After have that taboo discussion in class, it made me realized that that was what i could write for my risk paper. I feel that out of all the papers that we had to write, the risk paper is the best one. We really got to write down our opinions, and the more risky it was, the higher grade we would get. Other topics for our other essays is what I had always written about all throughout school. There has probably been a total of 2 times where i got to write what i want without guidlines.

Text for the Day -The Essay

Christina Santamaria — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 06:12:23 GMT

a. A short literary composition on a single subject, usually presenting the personal view of the author.

My Old Man-Hemingway

Christina Santamaria — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 05:38:12 GMT

"When they get started, they don't leave a guy nothing."

Writing the summary paper for this story was quite hard. Hemmingway's style of writing is quite difficult to comprehend. Because I couldn't fully understand what went on in the story, I didn't like it. I read it so many times and still didn't get it. Mr. Lovas said that everytime there was an a pause of conversation between two characters, it was significant. I caught all the pauses, but I had NO idea what it symbolized or why it was significant. Back to why I chose this quote. I believe it means that once a person gets caught up in doing something whether it was good or bad, there will be bad consequences. That person will be left nothing.

Browsing Tour

Christina Santamaria — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 05:35:57 GMT

Today in class, we took a little trip to the Learning Center for our research project. Mr Lovas showed us around the library to get us familiar with the place so we can easily look for books on our research topic. I thought it was somewhat useful. I already knew about where the periodicals were and where the microfilm was. I knew where the encyclopedias were because I have researched for topics in the library before. The only thing I thought was useful was the....now that I think of it, there wasn't anything new that I learned. If I were to have any questions on researching my topic, I would ask the librarian, that's what they're there for. I didn't think the tour was a good use of time. We could have spent more time talking to our groups about our topic, because the topics were confusing from the start.

Poetry Speaker-Elmaz Abinader

Christina Santamaria — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 02:57:38 GMT

On Wednesday, February 11, 2004, our class went to hear Elmaz Abinader, an Arab-American writer, poet and performance artist that was a guest speaker at De Anza. When I first heard that we were going to see a guest poet, I wasn't very interested. I've never gone to any of these kinds of events, but I'm glad I got to expierence this one. It's not that I'm an ABSOLUTE fan of poems and stories, I've come to appreciated the art of performance literature. Elmaz's stories were quite touching, because she talks of the war in Iraq and the troubles that the little boy goes through. Out of her two performances i enjoyed the first one. I guess I like short stories because they're not for interpretation like poems are. Next time there's a guest speaker i'll actually consider going. :-)

FINALLY!

Christina Santamaria — Tue, 24 Feb 2004 05:14:46 GMT

I've finally got my computer to work. There was problem after problem after problem, I wanted to throw my computer out my window. Now that its finally fixed, I can post all the blogs that I had written on paper. Here you go!

Text for the Day-4

Christina Santamaria — Tue, 24 Feb 2004 05:12:52 GMT

"That sounded right, and the more he thought about it the more right it sounded. Schools teach you to imitate. If you don't imitate what the teacher wants you get a bad grade."

-Robert Persig, The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, 1974

This quote could never be more right. All my life I have had teachers that made their students do it the teacher's way. The answers to test questions have to be exactly what the teacher is looking for or points will be taken away. The teachers intentions may be for the betterment of students but other teachers just want to make the answers detailed so they could take points away. I had a teacher intentially make questions extremely hard so there would not be that many A's in the class, that teacher admitted to it, too. It wasn't until I went to college did i get a little of the freedom to do as i please, in school at least. We don't have to read, we don't have to turn in the homework, we don't even have to come to class. But there are still teachers/professors out there that want it done they're way, and I guess we'll just have to listen to them, because they're the one who has the ultimate decision of making or breaking your GPA.

Text for the Day 3

Christina Santamaria — Tue, 24 Feb 2004 05:12:43 GMT

"In working through the stages of reading, interpretation, and criticism, we move from a submission to textual authority in reading, through a sharing of textual power in interpretation, toward an assertion of power through opposition in criticism. "

-Robert Scholes, Textual Power, Yale University Press, 1985

I believe that it is essential that the reader learn about the auther before one ones their novel. It definitely helps the reader understand where the author is coming from. Learning about where the auther was born, where they lived, during what time period did they live in, what major events did this author go throught defines the authors style. And from that we will be able to understand the author a little bit better. I'm not saying that we should find out every little detail about the authors life, but to read a little biography, to get the jist of the author we'll be able to figure out what the author's message in their novels is. Only then can we criticise the author and state our opinions. Without doing so, we make have no argument to back up our criticism which will make us look ignorant. This concept not only applies to english but to life as well. It sounds cliche but we should not judge a person by the way they look without getting to know the person. There's a little lesson of life for you guys. :-)

The Yogurt Model

Christina Santamaria — Tue, 24 Feb 2004 05:12:32 GMT

-"The group "takes off" and functions at a new and higher level. There is a great new force for learning and satisfaction"

-Peter Elbow, Writing without Teachers, Oxford University Press, 1973

After reading the yogurt model, I immediately thought of my English AP Literature class I took last year in high school. The discussions we had in class were dictated by the teacher and everyone was forced to participate or they would lose points. But it wasn't until towards the end of the year where the class would hold the discussions and the teacher would just sit there. That was when i found the discussions to be more interesting. We had finally gotten comfortable with each other and we were able to talk freely without the fear of the teacher judging what we had to say. I believe that the yogurt model is a great way to engage with your classmates and to enhance our communication skills. If we didn't have discussions no one would be able to voice their opinion, and life would get pretty boring that way.

Indian Camp

Christina Santamaria — Tue, 24 Feb 2004 05:12:07 GMT

This story was one of the first story's I read in the book In Our Time, and my first impression was that it would be fairly easy to read. Boy, was I wrong. I guess I liked the story Indian Camp because it was an easy story to understand. Another story about a boy coming of age and seeing the realities of life. The details of the story appealed to me, because there were many authors that i have read (which aren't many) that were afraid to go to the gruesome details of death. The fact that the son witnessed the birth of the baby, then witnessing the suicide of the father, immediately threw the boy into this world of adulthood. I liked the fact that Hemingway realistically showed what happened during that time. Maybe I'm being bias, and I like the story because I have some Native American in my blood. Hemingway's style of writing was one it took getting used to. I had read For Whom the Bells Toll and at the end of the story I was finally able to understand what he wrote. But then I guess I "lost" my understanding of his style and it took getting used to again.

A Soldier's Home

Christina Santamaria — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 22:39:59 GMT

"But the world they were in was not the world he was in."

Like most soldier stories I've heard they all come home a different person. The community that he came home to has changed in his eyes and he views everything differently. Other soldiers have moved on but the soldier has greatly been affected by the war. He now wants to lead a simple life. But the conflict with his mother keeps him from that. She wants him to move on, get a wife and a job. He wants a life were he doesn't have to worry about everything. His incapability of moving on has lead him into a life of lonliness and misery. He now spends his time looking at maps and atlases trying to make sense of where he was during the war. His soul has been stripped during the war and he just wants to find answers about his expierence about at war.