Meditate on the events of quarter one. How did you do in this class? What did you learn? Which of your academic skills improved? Where are you still struggling? How is the class environment? What can you do to further strengthen the learning community in our classroom? What are your goals for Q2? Basically, how did things go for you and what can you do to improve or to make things more successful for yourself and others?
When I arived in class on the first day of school I must admit that I was a bit intimidated because of the chanllenges I knew I would soon face achedemically and because I knew less than half the students in the class. However, as first quarter has gone by, I have gotten to know my piers and I feel comfortable in the class room. Achedemically I know recognize what is expected of me and I am motivated to achieve what i needed and to learn what you hve to teach me. I have learned quite a bit about thesis statements in specific and about the overall structure of essays, specifically five pararaph essays. I feel I could speek up more in class and ask questions to furthur my learning and I think this will become more and more natural as I become more comfortable in the class. I feel that I have been I god listener and this has helped me learn so far and it should continue to help.
Over all fist quarter was fairly sucessful for me and I look forward to seeing what second quarter has in store. i am prepaired to give this class my all and I hope my grade will reflect that. My goals are to get at least an A- this quarter, to learn even more about cappers and attention getters because I have had some troubles with them, and to have some fun while getting socially and achedemically comfortable in class. I think getting things in on time should be easier for me now that im less busy and I will work had to make all dead lines. I hope quarter 2 is equally if not more sucessful than quarter 1.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Thursday, November 1, 2007
There Are No Children Here
How is this novel similar to other pieces of literature (poems, novels, films) that we have studied in class?
While reading this novel I hadn't really thought of it connection to Lord of the Flies, but now that I'm done the connection is obviously evident. In Lord of the Flies the boys on the island are originally naive and self centered, and still boys at heart. However they are forced to take control and fend for themselves when they see there are no adults to help them and they themselves have to become the adults. This is similar to the way the children in There Are No Children Here grow up in their adolescence. Due to their negative and harsh surroundings the kids must stand up and find out who they are for themselves. Despite the yearning to help from their parents there isn't anything more they can do to prevent their children from growing up to fast and becoming the adults they will be for the rest of their lives, only in there teenage years. Kotlowitz said it him self, "despite all they have seen and done, they are-and we must constantly remind ourselves of this- still children" (Kotlowitz xi). They fact that they have experience much more than many who are older than them gives them a sense of maturity and it can be deceiving to those who interact with them.
Another book that I thought of while readin was Tuesday's with Morrie, even though these books have nothin in common plot wise I noticed thjat they both had many flash backs throughout the novels. In the novel Tuesdays with Morrie Mitch is a college student who admires Morrie and takes all of his avaliable lectures and classes. When he graduates he promises to keeping contact but it fails. His life proceedes and eventually his job fails and he is left uninspired in life. One day he sees Morrie on a tv interview and flies to Duluth to be reunited with his old teacher. We discover that Morrie has ASL, a disease that eats away atyour soul and slowly shuts down your body fnctions, never the less Mitch returns ever week to sit and talk with the proffessor and they re member back to the times when Morrie taught Mitch as a student. These numerous flashback is what is similar between this novel and There Are No Children Here. In Kotlowitz's novel LaJoe, the mother of the children, remebers alot about the 'projects', before they were ruined. She herself grew up as a child in the 'projects' and when she grew up se decide to stay there, despite the reckage it had become. In one section she says how when she was a girlscout she used to have her meetings in the basement of the complex, but as time went on it became a pit, groungy, ill infested, condemabhle, and compliled with loads of trash (Kotlowitz 121). LaJoe made many other references to her childhood but that one stuck out the most to me. The fact that a little girls oasis in a harsh life is now a garbage dump, so to speak, is a odd visualization. Over all these two novels are majorly relate due to their excessive flash back by the eldest and most noledgeable characters in the novels.
While reading this novel I hadn't really thought of it connection to Lord of the Flies, but now that I'm done the connection is obviously evident. In Lord of the Flies the boys on the island are originally naive and self centered, and still boys at heart. However they are forced to take control and fend for themselves when they see there are no adults to help them and they themselves have to become the adults. This is similar to the way the children in There Are No Children Here grow up in their adolescence. Due to their negative and harsh surroundings the kids must stand up and find out who they are for themselves. Despite the yearning to help from their parents there isn't anything more they can do to prevent their children from growing up to fast and becoming the adults they will be for the rest of their lives, only in there teenage years. Kotlowitz said it him self, "despite all they have seen and done, they are-and we must constantly remind ourselves of this- still children" (Kotlowitz xi). They fact that they have experience much more than many who are older than them gives them a sense of maturity and it can be deceiving to those who interact with them.
Another book that I thought of while readin was Tuesday's with Morrie, even though these books have nothin in common plot wise I noticed thjat they both had many flash backs throughout the novels. In the novel Tuesdays with Morrie Mitch is a college student who admires Morrie and takes all of his avaliable lectures and classes. When he graduates he promises to keeping contact but it fails. His life proceedes and eventually his job fails and he is left uninspired in life. One day he sees Morrie on a tv interview and flies to Duluth to be reunited with his old teacher. We discover that Morrie has ASL, a disease that eats away atyour soul and slowly shuts down your body fnctions, never the less Mitch returns ever week to sit and talk with the proffessor and they re member back to the times when Morrie taught Mitch as a student. These numerous flashback is what is similar between this novel and There Are No Children Here. In Kotlowitz's novel LaJoe, the mother of the children, remebers alot about the 'projects', before they were ruined. She herself grew up as a child in the 'projects' and when she grew up se decide to stay there, despite the reckage it had become. In one section she says how when she was a girlscout she used to have her meetings in the basement of the complex, but as time went on it became a pit, groungy, ill infested, condemabhle, and compliled with loads of trash (Kotlowitz 121). LaJoe made many other references to her childhood but that one stuck out the most to me. The fact that a little girls oasis in a harsh life is now a garbage dump, so to speak, is a odd visualization. Over all these two novels are majorly relate due to their excessive flash back by the eldest and most noledgeable characters in the novels.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
There Are No Children Here
Who are the main characters of your book? Describe their personality and what seems to motivate them.
Some other flat characters mentioned in the book so far are:
Leonardo Anderson: Other wise know as Porkchop, he is a shy quiet boy, just a few years younger than Pharoah. He is another cousin of the boys and he and Pharoah have grown to become inseparable.
James Howard: A close friend and neighbor to Lafeyette, the two boys have grown up together in 'the projects'. He is an athletic, easygoing, energetic 12 year old boy who mischievous attitude is shown through his grin.
Dede: The boys' 9 year old cousin who likes to let loose and dance to L L Cool J rap
LaJoe: Layfeyette and Pharoah's mother, she is also 6 other children. She has to work had to support the family, considering her husband only lived at home from time to time.
Paul (sr.): The father af all 8 children and the husband of LaJoe. He isn't much of a romantic and he rarely sees any of his children.
LaShawn: The oldest child of LaJoe at the age of 20, she spent some time in the big house. She also dropped out of school to become a prostitute to pay for her excessive use of drugs.
Paul (jr.): Named after his father, he is LaJoe's second oldest kid, now the age of 19. He also dropped out of school and did time for a robbery in an Indian prison.
Terence: 17 years of age, he dropped out of school, did time in jail, and was LaJoe's biggest disappointment due to his selling and experimenting with drugs.
Timothy: First of the 4 year old triplets.
Tiffany: Another triplet, who resembles Tammie a lot.
Tammie: Another triplet, who resembles Tiffany a lot.
Some other flat characters mentioned in the book so far are:
Leonardo Anderson: Other wise know as Porkchop, he is a shy quiet boy, just a few years younger than Pharoah. He is another cousin of the boys and he and Pharoah have grown to become inseparable.
James Howard: A close friend and neighbor to Lafeyette, the two boys have grown up together in 'the projects'. He is an athletic, easygoing, energetic 12 year old boy who mischievous attitude is shown through his grin.
Dede: The boys' 9 year old cousin who likes to let loose and dance to L L Cool J rap
LaJoe: Layfeyette and Pharoah's mother, she is also 6 other children. She has to work had to support the family, considering her husband only lived at home from time to time.
Paul (sr.): The father af all 8 children and the husband of LaJoe. He isn't much of a romantic and he rarely sees any of his children.
LaShawn: The oldest child of LaJoe at the age of 20, she spent some time in the big house. She also dropped out of school to become a prostitute to pay for her excessive use of drugs.
Paul (jr.): Named after his father, he is LaJoe's second oldest kid, now the age of 19. He also dropped out of school and did time for a robbery in an Indian prison.
Terence: 17 years of age, he dropped out of school, did time in jail, and was LaJoe's biggest disappointment due to his selling and experimenting with drugs.
Timothy: First of the 4 year old triplets.
Tiffany: Another triplet, who resembles Tammie a lot.
Tammie: Another triplet, who resembles Tiffany a lot.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
There Are No Children Here
What are the major struggles and conflicts that your characters encounter? How do the characters face the conflicts and how does going through these conflicts help the characters to learn more about themselves?
The most vivid struggles Pharoah and Lafeyette had to over come in the novel There Are No children Here was the potentially deadly dangers of their poverty stricken neighborhood. In these ghettos numerous gangs were threts to the citizens of this poor area of Chicago, including the children. One day when Lafeyette and his 9 year old cousin Dede are outside a sudden fight between two gangs erupts, "Suddenly, gunfire erupted. The frightened children fell to the ground. 'Hold your head down!'" (Kotlowitz 9). The fact that these children cannot help but witness the brutal actions of the gangs is heart breaking, its not their falt that they were born into such harsh and brutal situations. However, through out the novel you see the children tempted by curupt actions, yet held back by their own self consience and by the guidence of thier mother, LaJoe, who had 'failed' some of her previous children and neglected when they got into drugs, and other illegal actions. "In the late 1960s the nation's black ghettoes were filled with rage and fury, a stark contrast to the resigationand personal excesses of the late 1980s" (Kotlowitz 162). This quote just shows to what extent the 'projects' where a bad place for children to grow up. Its very hard for me to imagine the struggle LaJoe and her family percervired through inorder to survive and be contenders in the economy. I personally think their environment was hardest conflict to over come and it built their up character but allowing them to expoerience things many adults have not.
Another major conflict for Pharoah and Lafeyette through out the novel is their recognition of the racial descrimination they will have to over come not only in the present but in the future as well. The whites in America were keepiong things very segregated at the time of this novel, and it was extreamly hard for blacks to overcome these barriers, regardless of their monetary status. Major role models for blacks, such as Malcom X, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr. were being shut down and the government wasnt being fare at all. "White America seems intent on ignoring pleas for equality in the schools, in housing, and in health care. ...'Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white-separate but unequal'" (Kotlowitz 162 & 163). The agnoledgement of the terible descrimination against blacks was neglected continuously, and for Pharoah and Lafeyette, it was very difficult for them to rise above it. They got in a few arguments with cops as they grew up, mainly because they were blacks, but we see the boys slowly but surely noticing the diffenet roles of blacks and whites in their point and time.
The most vivid struggles Pharoah and Lafeyette had to over come in the novel There Are No children Here was the potentially deadly dangers of their poverty stricken neighborhood. In these ghettos numerous gangs were threts to the citizens of this poor area of Chicago, including the children. One day when Lafeyette and his 9 year old cousin Dede are outside a sudden fight between two gangs erupts, "Suddenly, gunfire erupted. The frightened children fell to the ground. 'Hold your head down!'" (Kotlowitz 9). The fact that these children cannot help but witness the brutal actions of the gangs is heart breaking, its not their falt that they were born into such harsh and brutal situations. However, through out the novel you see the children tempted by curupt actions, yet held back by their own self consience and by the guidence of thier mother, LaJoe, who had 'failed' some of her previous children and neglected when they got into drugs, and other illegal actions. "In the late 1960s the nation's black ghettoes were filled with rage and fury, a stark contrast to the resigationand personal excesses of the late 1980s" (Kotlowitz 162). This quote just shows to what extent the 'projects' where a bad place for children to grow up. Its very hard for me to imagine the struggle LaJoe and her family percervired through inorder to survive and be contenders in the economy. I personally think their environment was hardest conflict to over come and it built their up character but allowing them to expoerience things many adults have not.
Another major conflict for Pharoah and Lafeyette through out the novel is their recognition of the racial descrimination they will have to over come not only in the present but in the future as well. The whites in America were keepiong things very segregated at the time of this novel, and it was extreamly hard for blacks to overcome these barriers, regardless of their monetary status. Major role models for blacks, such as Malcom X, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr. were being shut down and the government wasnt being fare at all. "White America seems intent on ignoring pleas for equality in the schools, in housing, and in health care. ...'Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white-separate but unequal'" (Kotlowitz 162 & 163). The agnoledgement of the terible descrimination against blacks was neglected continuously, and for Pharoah and Lafeyette, it was very difficult for them to rise above it. They got in a few arguments with cops as they grew up, mainly because they were blacks, but we see the boys slowly but surely noticing the diffenet roles of blacks and whites in their point and time.
There Are No Children Here
How is this novel similar to other pieces of literature (poems, novels, films) that we have studied in class?
While reading There Are No Children Here, it reminded me of reading The Pearl my John Stienbeck in 8th grade. The Pearl is a short novel about a poor mexican family living in poverty in a bad neighborhood. They then find a large pearl in the ocean and ironically it brings them bad luck and terrible misfortune. The second part of the story isn't anything like There are no Children Here, but the setting is very similar. In the book I'm reading, the family is living in the the 'projects' of Chicago. This area used to be very nice and relativly wealthy, but then the middle-class blacks and whites moved away, leaving the area an undesireable living situation in poverty. Crime is a major problem for the family in TANCH, especially when it comes to their mailboxes on the first floor (Kotlowitz 9). Robery is also a threat for the family in TP, after discovering the large pearl, the community becomes jelous and some even try to steal the precious jewel. Overall these two stories are similar in that they are set in a poor neighborhood where he characters are just trying to get by.
Another novel that we had read and analized through out school it Warriors Don't Cry. In this novel the main characters are black highschool students who are trying to attent a white highschool in Little Rock, AR, and it is set back in a time when racial segregation in entirly different schools was compleatly normal and somewhat acceptable, by white that is. Through out the entire novel the other white students abuse the black students in horible ways such as steping on their heals til they bleed or splashing acid in their eyes. They continuously try to get the blacks to leave their white school, simply because of racial discrimination. This is similar to how Pharoah and Lafeyette feel at times, but less extreame. Life is hard for blacks in this time, but even harder for blacks in the lower class. It eventually becomes brutally evident that they are not being treated the same as whites and Pharoah thinks to himself, "the police probably don't like black children or something. The white polices don't like the black children. That's what I believe" (Kotlowitz 161). Incidence between the cops and Lafeyette arise throughout the book and increase of understanding of the extent of discrimination they are living in. These two novels are alike in their description of racial descrimination against blacks.
While reading There Are No Children Here, it reminded me of reading The Pearl my John Stienbeck in 8th grade. The Pearl is a short novel about a poor mexican family living in poverty in a bad neighborhood. They then find a large pearl in the ocean and ironically it brings them bad luck and terrible misfortune. The second part of the story isn't anything like There are no Children Here, but the setting is very similar. In the book I'm reading, the family is living in the the 'projects' of Chicago. This area used to be very nice and relativly wealthy, but then the middle-class blacks and whites moved away, leaving the area an undesireable living situation in poverty. Crime is a major problem for the family in TANCH, especially when it comes to their mailboxes on the first floor (Kotlowitz 9). Robery is also a threat for the family in TP, after discovering the large pearl, the community becomes jelous and some even try to steal the precious jewel. Overall these two stories are similar in that they are set in a poor neighborhood where he characters are just trying to get by.
Another novel that we had read and analized through out school it Warriors Don't Cry. In this novel the main characters are black highschool students who are trying to attent a white highschool in Little Rock, AR, and it is set back in a time when racial segregation in entirly different schools was compleatly normal and somewhat acceptable, by white that is. Through out the entire novel the other white students abuse the black students in horible ways such as steping on their heals til they bleed or splashing acid in their eyes. They continuously try to get the blacks to leave their white school, simply because of racial discrimination. This is similar to how Pharoah and Lafeyette feel at times, but less extreame. Life is hard for blacks in this time, but even harder for blacks in the lower class. It eventually becomes brutally evident that they are not being treated the same as whites and Pharoah thinks to himself, "the police probably don't like black children or something. The white polices don't like the black children. That's what I believe" (Kotlowitz 161). Incidence between the cops and Lafeyette arise throughout the book and increase of understanding of the extent of discrimination they are living in. These two novels are alike in their description of racial descrimination against blacks.
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