Three Lessons We Should Learn From Children (Composition Blog) - Vy

By Vy

Vy's son, who always thinks he's a T-Rex

 We often think that children, whose souls and personalities are still incomplete, need to receive guidance from adults to grow up in the best direction. However, sometimes it is adults, who seem to have a lot of life skills, that need to learn from the simple thinking and innocent souls of children. Here are the three simplest and closest things that kids can teach us about life.

The first thing we can learn from children is carefree self-expression in a very natural and

comfortable way. Children are not afraid to be judged when they always ask thousands of

questions about everything in the world and say what they think in public. Therefore, children

can learn very quickly because they are always ready to absorb new things.

The importance of daring to dream and have big ideas without hesitation or fear is another great thing that kids can show us. When being asked what they want to be when they grow up,

children will give many answers like "a doctor who can cure all diseases," "an astronaut in

space," "a president of the whole universe," or “a Tyrannosaurus Rex!” Those big and somewhat "surreal" dreams of them best reflect their interests and personalities.

We also can learn the value of generosity and tolerance from the unconditional love and

forgiveness of innocent children. Children don't think too much, don't struggle with their self-esteem, don't scold, don't dig up old stories, and don't accuse each other. Children often quarrel, but when they have said all their frustrations, everything for them seems to have never happened.

French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote in his book, Le Petit Prince, that, "All grown-ups were once children… but only a few of them remember it." Adults, instead of chasing after busy and anxious lives, should relearn how to live like the children they used to be. Living with a child's perspective and soul will bring happiness to every single day.

Gaming (Composition Blog) - Brayan

by Brayan

An assortment of Game consoles and systems

Video games are forms of entertainment that are played and enjoyed by millions of people worldwide. These games come in numerous varieties of genres for many different platforms such as consoles, PC’s, and even on mobile devices. Whether playing single or multiplayer, or competitively or casually, gamers around the world like myself, grew up with them and enjoy them daily.

I got into video games at a young age thanks to my parents and their old SNES console. Sadly,

that SNES is now super old, outdated, and it doesn’t work anymore, but I will never forget the

memories, and fun times it gave me growing up. Ever since my parents showed me that game

console my love for video games grew with me and soon I would find another console to have

fun on.

My next console after that SNES was an Xbox 360, which was a major step up in terms of

technology and fun. During my time in school, my friends either had a PS3 or an Xbox 360, and it just so happened that more of them had an Xbox 360, so I joined them, and it was definitely worth it. I also have lots of memories with my old Xbox 360 and the times I had fun with my school friends there, but as time went on those consoles got old as well and soon new ones arrived.

When I entered middle school, I remember the release of newer consoles and the main two, were the PS4 and the Xbox One and the hype for them was crazy. I know I had an Xbox before but this time I wanted to try out the new PS4 with my friends, and it was the best decision I’ve made. Even today, my friends and I still have our PS4 consoles and play often, it feels like it was only yesterday when I got mine.

Now with the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S being the newest generation of consoles, my PS4 would be considered outdated, and it makes me sad that I would have to replace my best and most fun console for the newest gen one. During the launch of the newest generation consoles in 2020, I tried going for the PS5, but I never made it because the hype surrounding them was so massive, I always got a "sold out" message. One day I’ll upgrade to a PS5 and put my dusty PS4 to rest, but to be here, even playing games, it was thanks to all the games and consoles before this, and to my parents for introducing me to the game in the first place. 

Composition Multimedia Project - Zaida

 by Zaida

In my project I plan to address Amy S. Choi's article "What Americans Can Learn From Other Food Cultures". I chose Choi's article because I felt like I connected more with her article than the TED Talks we watched. In Choi's article, she describes that food has various meanings related to community, humanity, and more. She mentions cultural identity and how our comfort food is culturally meaningful, and I couldn’t agree more.  To connect with Choi's ideas, I made a PowerPoint showing the process of making my comfort food, which are pupusas. In the PowerPoint, I included pictures of the ingredients and steps to show the whole process of making this food, which is reflection of me and my culture. 

Composition Multimedia Project - Anllí

 by Anllí

I wanted to create something meaningful to me, something I could relate to. I believe that expressive art is the best kind of art to make. I also wanted to produce a painting with a deeper meaning than anything I had created before. This was when I deiced to use my inspiration from Ron Finley's TED talk, "A Guerrilla Gardener in South Central LA," to use in a painting. My painting is of a mother and daughter eating dinner that is entirely unhealthy for them. Eating predominantly fast food and foods high in sugars and cholesterol can lead to diseases Finley mentions in his TED talk. Many low-income people are practically eating poison which is why i want to emphasize this in a painting. Oil paint is naturally very glossy and beautiful. Using this medium can help me tell the story I would like to tell in an eerie, elegant way. Using powerpoint can also make it easier to show my steps and efforts. 

Mexican American Lit Multimedia Project - Sofi

 by Sofi

For my Multimedia Project, I decided to analyze Julia, the main character in I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. This has become one of my favorite books, and I just kept getting more surprised as I read the book. I also think that there are many ways to describe Julia because she was such a stubborn yet sensitive teenager.  I find Julia to be a very interesting character. Another reason why I decided to do the project about Julia was that Julia reminds me of my sister. Julia is a young girl who stands up for her beliefs and is determined to reach her goals no matter what others think. 

I chose to analyze Julia because of how similar she is to my sister. “Her hair is just as bad as the dress— tight, crunchy curls that remind me of a rich lady’s poodle” (Sanchez 1). This quote shows the crazy, random things Julia would think about and speak her mind about. I also chose this quote to demonstrate how passionate Julia was. “‘I’ve wanted to be a famous writer. I want to be so successful that people stop me on the street…(Sanchez 2). Even though Amá didn’t agree with Julia, Julia was passionate about being independent. Julia states, “‘I want to be a writer. I want to be independent” (Sanchez 216). Julia’s parents never understood why she wanted to leave Chicago so badly to become a writer. Ama and Apá were convinced Julia would be great living in Chicago. “‘Yes, but I want to go to the one in New York. It’s what I’ve wanted for a long time’” (Sanchez 320).

Composition Multimedia Project - Anita

 by Anita

For my Multimedia Project, I decided to try something new and do a drawing. I decided to draw a girl who represents me and to showcase her puzzle pieces. I wanted to get my friends involved, so I had each of them tell me one thing that they thought represented me and my story and used that information to fill in the puzzle pieces. My inspiration came from Chimamanda Adichie’s TedTalk, “The Danger of a Single Story.” For the drawing, I used colored pencils so that I could make changes if I needed to. I made a few aesthetic changes as I continued because it represented the uncertainty and change that I dealt with throughout the project. I did not want to use paint as I believed that would be more permanent and would hinder the ability to make any changes. I wanted to show an underlying connection that even we can change because our stories and experiences are always molding us.

I created a PowerPoint to easily display the progress of my drawing as each person filled in one of the puzzles. All the experiences we’ve had and all the cards that we’ve been dealt throughout our lives are what make us whole. As Adichie mentions, “When we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise” (18:15). Each story plays a part; therefore, a single story is dangerous because it hinders us from seeing the bigger picture. Metaphorically, this is supposed to represent how complex every individual is and that every puzzle piece is a part of their story.

The critical connection between my project and the course reading is the metaphorical connection that we are adaptable and complex. As people, we can’t be put into a "one-size fits all" and that can be said for our writing styles. There are many things that Lunsford says to include in our writing that connect to what Adichie mentions about the dangers of a single story. For example, when considering a story, we must consider its complexity and that it has multiple faces. Lunsford says, "Be open & flexible. Look at all sides of an issue. Consider fairly ideas that at first seem strange, foreign, or incorrect" (36). This ties into Adichie being judged without others getting to know her many stories and backgrounds. By remembering that we all have puzzle pieces, we can do our best to remember that there are more stories to a person than can be seen on the surface. In academics, this relates to remembering that their stance is just as important as ours, even if we don't agree with it because everyone and every issue has a level of complexity.

Lunsford also mentions the use of our own style. We are who we are, and our writing varies from person to person. She says, "style is all about making appropriate choices, choices that inevitably depend on your topic and all the elements of your rhetorical situation, especially your stance, your purpose, your genre, and your audience" (680). All of these are the puzzle pieces to always consider and never leave out when writing academically. Metaphorically, this relates to my project because it shows that everyone has puzzle pieces that add to the whole story; singularly, each part is important to include, just as each of these is important to consider in our academics.

Composition Multimedia Project - Juliet

 by Juliet

The theme of my project is the importance of taking notice of false information that spreads on social media, and how being ignorant of the things we hear without solid proof and inferring them in real life is harmful to society. In Damon Brown's TEDTalk, he states, “So how do you get the truth, or something close?” (Brown 00:01:47). People want to be seen as reliable and efficient with all they say or do. I made a short story about a child who’s struggling with the rumors of covid that she found online. This little girl who now believes that the pandemic isn’t real tries to prove it to her parents, so she can finally get out of the house. She does it by showing them what she found on the internet, only to later have her parents explain why it’s false. I will also make a PowerPoint to prove that I did put time and energy into this project by showing in the slides my thinking process of how I made the story.

The connection I made from Andrea Lunsford's chapter in Everyone's an Author, and Brown's TED Talk towards my project is to not believe everything you read on social media. Social media is a source where many speculate and brainstorm their theories of what might happen. Everyone on the internet is a “professional” and some people don’t know how crucial it is to make sure their information is accurate. “One of the best ways is to get the original news unfiltered by middlemen” said Brown (00:01:50). Although, many speculate that everything on the internet is true, especially if it looks accurate enough. “Of course, whenever you use online sources like these, it’s crucial to read defensively--checking out the information you find to be trustworthy” (Lunsford 487). Both the chapter and video inspired my project because I fell victim to this several times. One of the incidents that I remember happening to me was when I was researching on whether to get my pets spayed and neutered. I searched if it was the right thing to do and based on what I found, I decided not to. Fast forward to a couple of years later, there was a problem that happened to one of my pets and I had taken them to the vet. I explained to the veterinarian why I didn’t get them operated on sooner because of what I found out online. The doctor explains to me that everything I just said wasn’t true, and that it was the complete opposite. When I read Lunsford’s chapter 21 and watched Brown’s video on how to appropriately research data; I tried it again. Using what I learned, I found everything that the veterinarian had informed me on my last visit.

Mexican American Lit Multimedia Project - Pam

by Pam

For the Multimedia Project, I decided to share a PowerPoint of Chicano Artist Freddy Negrete, and what I learned by listening to the podcast “What’s Black and Gray and Inked All Over?” with Shereen Marisol Meraji. It became interesting to see that there was not a lot of information on Chicano Art Tattoos about representation and meaning. I have a lot of Chicano Art tattoos on my body so I thought it would be nice to show some of his art and tattoos that represent Chicano Art. There is a picture of who Freddy Negrete is and some of his work in the PowerPoint.

The art of tattoos has always been there I think that sometimes religion condemns or judges the love for tattoo art. I went back to the podcast where Mr. Negrete is introduced, and the podcast made me understand a little bit more about the art of tattooing. A person can be gifted and talented in drawing and embracing it on their bodies. I think that tattoo art should belong in Vargas's chapter on the overview of Chicano Art. The reason is that it represents who you are. A person’s tattoos have a meaning. Like Mr. Freddy Negrete mentioned there is love for family, love for religion love for your race and culture you can tattoo express who you are. Listen to the (16:18) and Mr. Negrete says it is so perfectly. Just like paintings, poems and music tattoos is another way of expressing art the only difference is in your body not on paper or a lyric.

Composition Multimedia Project - Brenda

by Brenda

In my project, I plan to address Chimamanda Adichie’s ideas she discusses in the TedTalk, “The Danger of a Single Story”. I will mainly focus on the importance of writing and reading, and how they lead to forming single stories. To Adichie, writing and reading was important to her at a very young age. Since she began to read at an early age, she developed single stories early on. In my project, I plan to incorporate what Adichie discovered through her reading. I chose to do my project about the ideas presented in Adichie’s work, because she shined a light on a topic I was not aware had a name. Therefore, I think it is important we spread Adichie’s ideas and learn more. Through her talk, she taught me the consequences single stories have and how much they impact people and places. Creating and sharing single stories can hurt people's dignity and create misunderstandings. I also decided to form my project around Adichie’s ideas as I feel it highlights another reason why reading and writing are so important. People form ideas and opinions based on what they are reading whether that be in books, reviews, or websites. It is important to be able to read multiple pieces of work and learn about people/ places to stop the idea of single stories. My project will include a painting of a girl reading who will represent a younger version of Adichie. I will incorporate the things Adichie mentioned she was reading about as a young child to visually picture what she mentioned in her talk. This represents a time in her life when she started developing single stories. I wanted to do a painting to get creative and visually allow the class to see one of the stories Adichie included in her talk. This background story was overall an important detail to her main idea regarding how dangerous single stories can be.  

Adichie’s talk starts off by giving us background information about her childhood and some insight on how she began to create single stories early on. She includes how she began to both read and write at a young age. Adichie starts off by saying “I wrote exactly the kinds of stories I was reading: all my characters were white and blue eyes, they played in the snow, they ate apples, and they talked a lot about the weather, how lovely it was the sun had come out. I had never been outside Nigeria. We didn’t have snow, we ate mangoes, and we never talked about the weather, because there was no need to” (00:45). In my painting this is exactly what I want to picture and allow the class to visually see, a young version of Adichie reading. She was reading and writing about stories which she could not connect to yet felt like she had to. Reading often opens up a new world and expands our imagination, especially as a young child learning about new things. She states, “because all I had read were books in which characters were foreign, I had become convinced that books by their very nature had to have foreigners in them and had to be about things which I could not personally identify” (01:47). Adichie was reading literature which she could not connect with, it was making her believe she must be a certain way instead of finding her own cultural voice. Adichie had created a single story about writing, due to the fact she did not have access to a variety of books dealing with literature and cultures. In her talk, Adichie says the thoughts and ideas she developed from reading as a young child demonstrate “... how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children” (01:40). It is so easy to be made to believe something and only have that single idea towards it. This was what caused Adichie to create a single idea of how she thought writing had to be. One of the quotes that stood out to me was when Adichie said single stories make “our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar” (13:53). Single stories tend to point out the differences and only tell one part of the story, just like young Adichie’s books. This idea connects with my painting as I tried to capture a young girl reading about different things, things that are completely different from her. 

Composition Multimedia Project - Camryn

by Camryn

My Multimedia Project is to address a TED talk discussed in week 7 by Damon Brown titled “How To Choose Your News." Brown points out how the information on the internet uses opinions and facts from different sources to make their way into the news and how the opportunistic reader can tell what’s being brought from experience, what's being a rumored, created from false narratives. Being told bits and pieces of a backed-up source and in denial to use the source as the information but claiming the source from themselves. Social Media is the biggest highest watchable news /entertainment/communication platform that has been a thorn in my side and using these platforms for information when sends me farther and farther down the rabbit hole of scrolling. For a year I stopped using social media because of how much time I spent a day scrolling, and while I was on hiatus it was a moment for me to break the hiatus and do the same toxic cycle all over again. My use of gaining information has no direction it was just trusting one source and not considering the other viable ones out there. 

Considering his ideas, I now put more effort into using different sources to back up any information. Analyzing the difference between what is also opinionated and factual when looking for information on incidents, events, and tragedies. Even though Damon Browns TED Talk goes over how to be more open to more than one trusted source and how to be correct with concluding their thoughts. "If everyone's a reporter then nobody is" (Brown 1:41-1:43). Understanding this quote Brown took a while to understand the text because my thought process sometimes is slow. This quote hit home because thinking on if every cell body is the same then we wouldn't be humans so getting the truth online is troubling when everyone is on the same page and understood what was said about a certain topic would pointless. “When you can't get full story read coverage from multiple outlets" (Brown 3:02-3:12). This has dawned upon me knowing that getting one viable source that agrees with you is going to be invalid to speak on it So it's better to get multiple that agree in the same way. Considering water intake for humans is substantial because, without water, our body would crumble into a goo of an unfiltered mess." newscasters and bloggers have posted updates and recordings from the midst of the chaos. Though many of these later appear in articles or broadcasts, keep in mind that these polished versions often combine the voice of the person who was there with the input of editors who weren't" (Brown 2:12-2:27). Listening to this opened my ears because anything can be twisted to the editor’s perspective.

Mexican American Lit Multimedia Project - Israel

***Viewer/Listener/Reader Discretion Advised** 

By Israel: 

This project will focus on Americo Paredes’s “The Country”. The theme will be the new settlement that the Spaniards claimed near the Rio Grande River. The project will focus and pertain to the descriptions that are written by Americo Paredes of the Nuevo Santander settlement. The media project will be of a Corrido which was the favorite form of song of the Nuevo Santander communities.

The corrido that will be composed is a representation of what people in this region loved to do. In a sense, it was their form of writing history. These ballads are important because it is perhaps the only history that was left behind by the communities. So, this project will pay respect to the corrido form and tell the story of the Nuevo Santander community with the help of Americo Paredes’s piece.

This is a relevant project to our course because Mexican Americans perhaps overpopulate the Rio Grande region. It is further implied by the Anglo-Americans that Mexican Americans have no business in the United States of America. It is a fact presented by Paredes that the Mexicans in this region were maltreated and even murdered for being in their own lands. Paredes comes to give pride and sets the record straight on the lies that have been perpetuated by the Anglo-Americans. This corrido is simply implying some of that context by Americo Paredes to portray the Nuevo Santander people with honor and not as thieves. 

Pictures of the Nuevo Santander settlement will play while I sing and play the guitar. The Nuevo Santander was colonized in 1749 by Jose Escandon, and Paredes wrote, “This was the heart of the old Spanish province of Nuevo Santander, colonized in 1749 by Jose de Escandon” (Paredes 33). In these regions people were said to be outlaws. Paredes notes that, “The Lower Rio Grande, known as the Seno Mexicano (the Mexican Hollow or Recess), was a refuge for rebellious Indians from the Spanish presidios who preferred outlawry to life under Spanish rule. Thus, at its earliest period in history, the Lower Rio Grande was inhabited by outlaws, whose principal offense was an independent spirit” (Paredes 34). The Spanish worked together with the Indians to form a community and they came together to dislike the “gringos.” Paredes writes that, “In succeeding generations, the Indians, who began as vaqueros and sheepherders for the colonists, were absorbed into the blood and the culture of the Spanish settlers. Also absorbed into the basically Spanish culture were many non-Spanish Europeans, so that on the Border one finds men who prefer Spanish to English, who sometimes talk scornfully about the “Gringos,” and who bear English, Scottish, Irish, or other non- Spanish names” (Paredes 34). 

"El Corrido De Nuevo Santander" by Israel A. De Leōn

Nuevo santander señores

Pueblo muy reconocido

Enpesado por españoles

Indios y muy queridos 

Juntos ellos laboraaban y todos bien entendidos

Aorillas del rio bravo

Ranchos, parselas y mytos 

Eran hombres muy derechos

Y por muchos  muy temidos

Selinciosos eran ellos aqui se inspira el corrido 

Con la guittara cantaban 

De su Pueblo querido

Respondian por su raza 

Por su familia los mismo

Entre varias jugadas hasta salieron bandidos 

Las carreras de caballo 

con finta de precidio

Los gallos entrenaban

Muy formal y muy destinctos

Essa gente se amaba

No entraba ningun gringo

Empesaron a llegarles 

Los gringos muy bravitos

Nuevo Santander contestaba

Y con mucho tonito 

Maten me rinches cobardes 

Yo nunca eh corrido!

Ofensas ami Pueblo 

Dicen que estamos perdidos 

Anglo-Americano como has mentido 

Mi gente es honesta

Y como tu Crimen no hemos cometido 

Varios de esos valientes 

Pues ya se han despedido 

Les gusto quemar ropa 

Y cruzarse ese rio

Dejaron muchas baladas 

Decenedientes por lo visto 

Por favor de no meterse 

Nuevo Santander me despido

Composition Multimedia Project - Zohria

 

By Zohria: 

This project was one of many that I had some trouble with. Being able to create something of my own and introducing the class to this one piece of art happens to be very overwhelming. When you look at this piece and discover different stories, I want you as the reader to understand the words instead of the photo. Do know the painting itself gives off nature and happiness but the process of when I painted this still gets to me. This painting happens to be one of four hundred I have painted free-handedly. With that being said, I painted from what was lying in my heart and spirit instead of what my mind told me to paint. I hope you enjoy this piece and the poetry that comes along with it.

During this English course, there were several subjects and readings we discussed and reflected on throughout the semester. I connected with Chimamanda Adichie’s TED Talk “The Dangers of a Single Story,” throughout the spring course. Adichie starts by telling personal stories of her life and how she managed to become a writer by reading different books and learning about the characters’ lifestyles; from speaking about the weather or simply what someone likes to drink with others (Adichie 01:17). Growing up, Adichie built her education along the way and happened to notice one thing in common along the route. Coming from a family that did not have much but had enough, she learned that her family would discuss people and events only from their point of view or only know one side of the story. As she went into college, she noticed that stories wrapped around certain characters with a white picket fence but with no acknowledgment of others within. Due to not knowing the other characters within a story or not knowing the full detail, Adichie proved to many what the danger of a single-story means. She decided to become a writer and express to readers that when they are growing, they will need to have the full story instead of a single story (Adichie 02:10). Having the full story gives more confidence to the writer and reader as you are confident within the information that is needed to be shared. In connection, I choose this certain painting for many reasons and points due to only knowing one side of the story. In the painting, you will notice different representations and meanings; however, when you simply look at the art what emotions do you have or feel. Although the painting can tell one thousand stories, all that matters is the one that happens to have a full detailed story.

Composition Multimedia Project - Vy

 

By Vy: 

I chose Shawn Achor's TEDTalk video, “The Happy Secret to Better Work,” as the theme for my Multimedia Project. The simple reason why I chose it is that I want to spread the happy and positive energy that Achor has encouraged in his speech. I have never made a complete video before, but I have tried to be able to record beautiful images which will show exactly Achor’s content so that everyone can understand my intentions. I wanted his steps to become more vivid and authentic. Hence, I choose a video slideshow form. Thereby, you, the viewers, can see that those steps are easy to do every day.

In Chapter 11 "Choosing Genres" of our coursebook, author Lunsford outlined a series of common genres that students are often exposed to at school. These are "Arguments, Analyses, Reports, Narratives, Reviews, Proposals, and Annotated Bibliographies" (Lunsford 139). Achor's presentation is a collection of many of the genres that Lunsford covered. In a twelve-minute speech, Achor used the genres like Narrative, Arguments, Analyses, and proposals. Furthermore, Achor's presentation is also a good example of chapter 35 "Writing in Multiple Modes." As Lunsford defined, the combination of "words, images, sounds, colors, animations, and videos" is a kind of "multimodal" text (Lunsford 776), and Achor's presentation had almost of those factors. In addition, in his speaking, Achor used all of the multimodal writing modes: "linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial" (Lunsford 777). It can be seen that it is very reasonable to choose Shawn Achor as the subject for my Multimedia project.

Mexican American Lit Multimedia Project - Esme

Esme chose to visit and document the various murals in Houston related to Chicanx art, identity, and history. Her explanation and project is below: 

I chose to use PowerPoint to demonstrate a few murals that are located in Downtown Houston. I think using this medium is a simple and clean way for my audience to have a visual image of the themes I chose. The themes that are talked about are: Selena Quintanilla Perez, Frida and La Virgen de Guadalupe. The three murals appealed to me when I saw them because I was able to connect text book to real life. The information from our textbooks and various readings popped up in my head as I saw the artistry. I remembered facts and stories just by observing them. I realized I might be able to offer this opportunity to others.