Areli Jaimes English 1101-10 Ms.

Muesing December 5, 2013

Electronic Portfolio Reflection

Writing to me has always been a struggle. It takes me a long time to get started because I always have no idea how to start a paper. Writing within an English course has and always will be my biggest challenge. Do I dislike it, no however, I do not consider it to be my strongest writing area. Overall, my writing literacy is diverse by which I mean, it incorporates a wide variety of writing. I have written papers for every science field, chemistry, biology, physics, and many more. As well as writings such as a history research report, or even last year an anthropology report. Needless to say my ability to write has a wide range of topics. With my literacy paper it explains my steps through life in my learning how to read and write. Both from a typical student in school and a unique viewpoint that of which through a Mexican second generation student. As it says in my paper being literate, especially in a Latino household it meant a lot more. It meant you had a upper hand on everyone else that could not speak the language but, also had a responsibility to help those who could not speak to learn. It also shows the different influences in my life growing up that shaped me into the literate student I am today. From my morning cartoons to my high school science teacher they all were an enjoyable part of my life.

With my oral literacy paper I told my familys story. However, I also tried to portray and tell the struggle of every immigrant in this country. Especially, during these times with the highly controversial deferred action that President Obama ordered for undocumented students to gain legal status to go to school. Through this paper I hope that each person that reads it gains a better awareness and understanding of why immigrants come here and by telling my fathers story I feel like it painted a much better picture. The digital literacy was more a free response to various articles dealing with new technologies and their effect on writing literacy today. It ranged from simple tools as the pencil to the new world of texting and how it affects students writing today. In the responses I gave my opinion on each article and how I felt about each idea. The group science project journals were quick concise summaries of sources I used to put together my PowerPoint. My part in the project was Chemistry based and a lot of my research and sources were about the chemical building of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. Through these sources and project I tried to portray myself as a literate scientific mind which is one of my themes in my portfolio. The project itself was put together quite well and in a timely manner however, due to time restraint we were not able to present it like we had planned. Considering the circumstances I believe we did a good job and I am happy with the overall results. With my science group reflection paper it was meant to reflect on what I learned, liked and disliked about our project. The project was well put together, our group worked well together just as stated before the time restraint was a huge setback on our presentation. In my oral reflection paper it highlights the key points that I tried to get across to the reader about who I am as a person and as well the current struggle that immigrants face. It is evident that I believe strongly in getting stories like my fathers out into the public because they

allow people who are unaware of the realities that these people go through to just have a mere chance at a decent living. With this story and others I attempt to battle these stereotypes and show the world the truth and maybe then people will see it is not even about illegal or legal immigration it is about doing the right thing for your fellow man. The digital group reflection highlighted the main points that I observed while recording our video. That everyone has a different idea of literacy and that each persons own experience helps to shape them and also if allowed to shape another person. Each one of us had come from a different background and had a different idea of what it meant to be literate. Overall, the project was enjoyable and it provided a nice little variety of different literacy experiences. In my history report of the Guatemalan Revolution it was a first attempt at writing a professional historical paper. Although, it was my first time I enjoyed it, but again after I finally got past the introduction. The paper highlights three key points that had lead up to the revolution which I had deemed the most important through my individual research. This paper is meant to show my expanding literacy into becoming a good historical writer. With it being a first paper I feel strong about but it could definitely use improvement which will come with more practice. With my two laboratory reports in chemistry they are meant to show my ability as a scientist to communicate effectively experimental results. Both of these reports were by far the hardest papers to write all year. What made them hard was the detail that was required and certain order things need to be put in. I had experience writing scientific papers, but never in my life had encountered reports like this. Although, they do not seem like much these two papers are my trophies of the year because as the first two I wrote in college I received perfect scores on each one.

This year in English I learned a lot not just about writing and reading but also about others and their experiences in the English language. I enjoyed this class very much and it brought a greater awareness to what it truly means to be a literate person in todays society. That all forms of literature today are still shaping and being by and with society. That each persons own experience overall helps shape a communities experience and communities together the world. With this portfolio I hope you learned a little bit more about my writings throughout the year and my experiences in the English language.