Formal Review of English 100

My reading and writing practices were not changed alot during English 100. When I would write papers before this class I usually made an outline, then my rough draft, then I would write my final draft. Which is the same process I used in this class. I think I have become a better writer because my papers are alot better structured now that I got help making an outline of where everything should go in my paper, even though there isnt just one correct way to do it, this helped me alot. The blog has made me try to write more thoroughly because when we write on here we have to look back and correct our mistakes becuase it doesn't correct them for us, and also we had to write 250 words every time so that made me think of more things I could write about or make something that I did write about more detailed. I liked having the blog in this reading and writing course because doing our homework on this is alot easier than having to print something off every time we have class, and it wasn't due until midnight of that day, so if we forgot to do something we could still get it done that day after class. The blog is similar to a journal because you can write anything you want, and feelings you have and then your teacher will respond to it. Which would be the same if we were to write a journal and then turn it in to our teacher.

Self Evaluation Task Three

My task three paper was about how I disagreed with Leon Botstein about how he thinks kids should graduate at age 16 and I think kids should not graduate at that age. The thesis of my paper was to show why kids should not graduate at age 16, that they need those two more years to fully get everything they needed to out of their high school career and make them prepared to start life as an adult. The main points I made in my paper were, kids might be starting puberty at younger ages but that does not mean they are maturing faster mentally. Kids are not ready to graduate at age 16. They will miss out on alot of things that the last two years of high school are needed for, and some things that are just enjoyable that I think every kid should get to experiance. The most helpful advice I recieved when we did peer evaluations would be that I need to start providing more detail in my writing and make there be a picture in the person reading my writings head. I wrote two drafts of this paper. I wrote my rough draft and then my final draft. I also made an outline before i started to write my rough draft. I think making an outline for this paper really helped me with the structure of my paper. I think I would of included more details and more factual evidence if I was to re-write this paper. I am most pleased with the argument I provide for this paper, I think i had alot of good reasons why kids shouldn't graduate at age 16.

(PAper start)

Savanna McClain

Ms. Chastain

English 100

12/6/10

Education and Learning

            When I was a kid, learning how to read and write was no big deal to me. I thought it was actually fun to be able to write down words that had meanings, and put words together to make sentences and stories. Every chance I got I would be writing in my diary or reading an interesting book. I wrote in my diary quite often. Although my handwriting wasn’t so great at that age, I still loved to write. When I was in second grade I started reading chapter books. My favorite author was Judy Blume. I liked her books because they were interesting to me as a kid, with a lot of detail and pictures. When I was in elementary school I loved to get homework. I liked the way it made me feel like an older kid who gets homework all the time. I started getting older and going to middle school. The older I got, the less and less I enjoyed reading and writing. In sixth grade I started this program at my new school called, reading counts. This program is on the computer and it is a test you have to take that is ten questions long, over the book you signed up with your English teacher. All the students would take a lexile level test before the year started to determine how many points the books we had to read would be. Each book in the library had a number in the inside top left corner that said how many points the books were worth. To pass your reading counts test you would have to get a seven out of ten or better.

            In the story, “The Lonely, Good Company of Books”, written by Richard Rodriguez, he tells us about how his parents only read when they had to. “For both my parents, however, reading was something done out of necessity and as quickly as possible” (232). His parents could both speak English and Spanish. They just didn’t see why people would spend so much time on reading books when they could be getting work done. He tells us that every chance he got he would try to read. He had private classes with the nun every day after school for almost six months to practice reading. He loved to read and he began to get better and better. His mother didn’t understand why he liked to read so much. “…Was so much reading even healthy for a boy?” (234). His mother didn’t think it was necessary for him to be reading books all the time when he could be helping her with chores around the house instead.

#2 on Refections on Reading and Writing

Douglass' efforts to learn were amazing in my opinion. I think it is very awesome that he didn't want to be a "stupid" slave like all the rest of his kind of people. I think that Douglass was very independent and he didn't want to be a slave for life so he started trying to learn a little at a time. He was so exited any chance he got to pick up a newspaper or a book and start to read. Although Douglass' masters didnt want him to learn to read or write and when they would see him with a book or newspaper they would immediatly take it away from him, he still proceeded to try to learn more behind their back. Douglass would do anything he could to learn more about reading and writing. He wanted to learn new words every chance he got. When I was younger, starting in kindergarten, I loved learning new words and loved reading books. I loved to write. I would sit in class and write notes to all my friends and when we had assignments to write new words I always went over and above the requirements. Everyday we had a new word we would learn. We would learn the definition of the word and the spelling of it. At the end of the week we would have to make sentences using each word we learned that week. Me and Douglass are similar becuase he enjoyed learning and writing just like I did when I was younger.

Past Experiances with Reading and Writing

When I was in second grade I started writing more and more words in class. I loved to sit there and write notes to my friends or make cards for someones birthday. I loved to read as well I could read all day and all night. I was only in second grade though so the books I read were short and had alot of pictures. When I was that young all I did was stay home so I always read. I kept a journal for a long time when i was younger and I wrote everyday, almost. As I got older i started to not like reading and writing as much. I always wanted to go to my friends house or play video games with my brother instead of reading. When i was in sixth grade i moved to Smithville. This school was alot different than the one i used to go to. My old one was a lot bigger and a lot more people. They had this program called reading counts. This was a program where we took a test to see what our lexile level was at reading, and then we got a number of how many points the book we read had to be. My lexile level in 6th grade was 10. In high school we had to do it as well except depending on the class you were in the number of points were different. It got all the way up to 18 points each semester we had to do. After you read the book you have to take a test on the computer over the book to see if you really read it. The tests were ten questions. If you got 7 or more right you passed. I think this is why I dont like to read as much as i used to.

(the only way i can save my paper is on here) :)

Savanna McClain

Ms. Chastain

English 100

11/12/10

Task Three Paper

            When I finally turned 16 years old I got my license and thought I was so cool I could drive on my own now! I hated waking up every day bright and early to go to school. I hated school in general and I could not wait to graduate so I could sleep in and do whatever I wanted. At age 16, I was not nearly mature enough to graduate high school and become an adult with responsibilities. My parents paid for everything I had. I had no idea what I would have to do when I became an adult and lived on my own. In the story “Let Teenagers Try Adulthood,” by Leon Botstein, he explains how kids are maturing at earlier ages in this generation and how it would be a good idea to get rid of secondary education and have kids graduating high school at age 16 instead of 18. He also focuses on the topic of how too much time is spent wasted in high school or middle school, when the kids could be learning valuable information , such as how to be an adult and how to live on your own.

            In Botstein’s essay he tells us the facts about how kids are hitting puberty at younger ages then they used to. He tells us that therefore, kids are maturing faster as well. I disagree with Botstein’s ideas here. I don’t believe children are maturing faster because look at all the violence and crimes you see in the world today, a lot of it is dumb kids who don’t even have a clue as to what something could do to their future when they are doing it. For example, kids doing drugs at younger ages, and having sex at younger ages, they need to grow up and learn what is wrong and right before they become adults and raise a kid of their own, when they have no idea how to raise a kid. Girls are becoming pregnant at much younger ages than they used to and they don’t know how to care for a baby, so most times we see the grandmother of the baby taking care of that child and the mother going out and being a “kid”.  “At 16, young Americans are prepared to be taken seriously and to develop the motivations and interests that will serve them well in adult life” (207). I agree that at age 16 kids are being prepared to become adults, meaning they are just learning what things are going to be like and what responsibilities they might have as an adult. They are still learning that and haven’t become fully aware yet what obstacles or tasks they might face in their future.

            When you are 16 years old, you really aren’t focused on anything besides your friends, what you are going to do this coming weekend, or how your hair looks that day. Children need all four years of high school so they can learn more about the real world and becoming an adult and have two more years in high school to prepare for the years ahead of them. High school gives you many opportunities that some kids may not have because they are unable to go to high school for some reason. For instance, Prom was the most fun part of my high school career, besides volleyball, and Friday night football games. I am glad I got the opportunity to do such things in high school and a kid would be missing out on so many things if they graduated at 16 rather than 18. I think every kid should get to experience the things I got to experience in high school.

            I started working at an oil changing place when I was 16 years old and I could finally drive.  Most kids don’t want to work at 16, they want their parents to pay for everything for them, because they are still kids. At 16 you don’t want to grow up yet, you don’t want to have to pay your own cell phone bill or car insurance. Too often we see people pressuring kids into growing up faster and becoming adults sooner. I think if we didn’t pressure so many kids into growing up there would be a lot less low self-esteem, less crime and violence. Everyone else got to be a kid for 18 years, so why can’t kids be kids now days? We need to let them live their lives before everything starts becoming harder and more stressful for them, because the real world isn’t easy.

            To be an adult means to have responsibilities, professionalism, good work ethics, be able to take care of yourself, and be able to handle things the right way in times of trouble. You are going to have responsibilities such as, taking care of your kid if you have one, feeding yourself, paying your cell phone bill, light bill, gas bill, car insurance, and so much more. When you become an adult you need to have good work ethics because the economy is very rough, and it is very hard for people to find a decent job. Besides, if you don’t have a good work ethic then it would be nearly impossible for you to get a job because everyone is fighting for a good job. When you are an adult, you handle things a lot differently than you do when you are a 16 years old. For example, if someone was to hit your car and you are 16 and you just got this new car, you would most likely respond the wrong way and cuss someone out and yell at them. Whereas if you were an adult and this situation happened then the right thing to do would be to act calmly and collectively and gather the persons’ insurance information and then get on with your day. A 16 year olds brain works differently than an adult’s brain works. There are some very smart 16 year old kids out there but I still think they need the extra two years of high school until they are 18 years old to graduate. In my junior and senior year of high school I learned a lot of stuff I didn’t know as a 16 year old. “Most thoughtful young people suffer the high school environment in silence and in their junior and senior years mark time waiting for college to begin” (206). This is because kids choose not to get involved with their school and choose not to do anything so they want to leave and go to college as soon as they can. This quote is the opposite for me, I didn’t want to leave yet and become an adult, and I didn’t want college to start because I knew it was going to be a lot harder than high school and a lot more work I would have to do.

            “We should entirely abandon the concept of the middle school and junior high school” (206). My middle school was sixth grade through eighth grade. If schools were to get rid of middle school altogether kids would be more likely to not succeed in my opinion. I don’t think it is a good idea at all because if you are going straight from elementary school to being in a school with all older kids, high school, then you are going to be shy and be in silence a lot more. You would be less likely to get involved with sports and such things.  

            I have changed a lot personally since I was 16 years old, to now, when I am 18 years old. I have matured a lot since I was 16 and I have learned so many things that you have to be prepared for in the adult world. I believe that I am still probably not ready to live on my own and pay all of my bills, but that just goes to show that I was a lot less ready to become an adult at age 16. I think Botstein has a few good examples as to why kids should graduate at 16 but overall, they should stay in high school until age 18 and then they can become adults and decide how they are going to live the rest of their lives.

Savanna McClain

Ms. Chastain

English 100

11/12/10

Works Cited Page

Botstein, Leon. "Let Teenagers Try Adulthood." Introduction to College Writing. Boston: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2010: 205-208. Print

Task Three Refection

I have chosen to do my task three assignment on "Let Teenagers Try Adulthood" by Leon Botstein. I think that this is in some ways a good thing but in real life in my opinion this would not be good for our society at all. In Botsteins essay I feel as if he is just trying to make kids grow up faster. He wants to have kids graduate high school at age 16, and cancel out the whole middle school process. I think that having kids in graduating at age 16 wouldn't be a good thing because there are older people at college that are more mature and came to college to get away from the high school drama. I also think that if the u.s. got rid of middle school and had kids graduating and becoming adults at age 16 there would be alot more violence and crime. At age 16, I know I was definitely not mature enough to be thrown out into the world and go to college and get a job and start providing for myself and making my own decisions. Age 18 is a good age to become an adult in my opinion. Botstein says that high school has cliques and groups of people based on what they look like or how good at sports they are, but that is everywhere you go, there will always be certain people that get along with eachother and not so well with other people. I used to be a freshman in highschool and all I wanted was to get out of there and be in the real world. As high school went on I began to have more and more fun as I got involved with things, like sports. If I would of graduated at age 16 I wouldn't of got to experiance things that high school lets you expericance, like prom and football games for example.