Prewriting Blog #2

For my second essay I think I will write about the second prompt. I found the Jib Fowles' piece on the "Fifteen Appeals" very interesting. Advertising has always been very intriguing to me. I've looked and thought about for many different perspectives. You can't help but think or talk about it because its everywhere and whether you think your influenced or not you are, because its all around us and subconsciously our minds take in the information even when we don't know it. If you think about it advertising is everywhere and everything. Commercials, movies, music, even celebrities and their lifestyles. But i think the interesting part of advertising is the controversial part obviously: how far they take advertising and how they market it to different ages, sexes, and races. It is so funny to see how the McDonald's commercials advertise toys to little kids and the fun atmosphere that you will experience when you go there. As a kid growing up in the 90's I remember always thinking about "Mickey D's" and the only two thoughts that popped in my head were Playplace and Happy meal toy. And of course it makes it easy on the parents because its a affordable lunch as well as a built in babysitter. Two birds with one stone. I want to read into the "15 Appeals" more and find the connections from the "Appeals" to how the Fast Food industry advertise today.

Reading Blog #4

Student

My name is Dorian. I attend school at Sierra College. This semester is my third semester there. I live with my dad, mom, two little sisters, and little brother. We live in Roseville, California. My parents own their own financial services business, Primerica. I work at Target Greatland as an instock/salesfloor team member. I make 8.25 an hour and the most expensive things I own are my phone, iPod, and laptop.

Pre-writing Blog #1

For my essay I am going to answer the second prompt. It a little easier for me to talk about this topic because my parents are currently living out the idea of the American dream with their business. For me the idea of am American Dream is being able to become whatever you want to become. People from all over the world live their whole life wishing they could just have a little of what Americans have today. The idea that you are responsible for what you can become and how successful of unsuccessful you are. No one to hold you back or say its illegal for you to succeed.
I believe that the American dream very much exist. Its just that our society has become so lazy that it takes a special person to actually achieve the dream. People have become so complacent where they are at that they settle for the situation they are in and don't strive for what they really want.
We really do have two concepts of the American Dream. One is what Schlosser describes which is the big corporate industries making huge amounts of profit all over the world. And then there is the reality of the dream where you could never get anywhere in corporate unless you start a business of your own.

Reading #3

To me the "idea of being an American" is having the freedoms that many other countries don't. I think its hard for me to understand the idea of being American because that's all I've ever known, but I've talked to people who have been to other countries and say how much they appreciate living here.
Being American means having the freedom to start from nothing and become successful. I also think that part of being America is being able to take advantage of the freedoms we exercise everyday. I couldn't ever imagine being told what to eat, how to dress, and what I couldn't do day after day.
It just so happens that my grandparents, mom, and I were in a somewhat "heated" discussion on who the next President should be right before I wrote this blog. My Grandparents who are in their early sixties are adamant about voting for McCain. However, my mom and I want to vote for Obama. I think that the ideas of "being American" and the direction of our country are completely different from mine. My grandparents believe that McCain should take office because he has been in war and has seen it as a primary source.
I think that America has been steered in the same (wrong) direction for almost eight years. I believe that if Obama goes into office he of course won't be able to change the country in one term, but he could start getting the wheels turned in the right direction, towards change.
A democratic society to me is a society that has the ability to choose how they run their country, who runs their country, and what's right for their country. I think that the previous generation has the same concept of what a democracy is I just think that my generation believes that our country is growing farther and farther away from the idea of a democracy.
America and the idea of democracy are completely intertwined. There would be no America without democracy. It's the foundation America was built on but sadly it's the same foundation that I believe is crumbling. People come here and depend on the democratic society we have today.

Reading Blog #2

I believe that "thinking critically" is when you search not only for the surface information but when you dig deeper and use the surface text to interpret what the writer is saying. When you think critically you also have to read the text and annotate it to get an interpretation. You have to go through multiple processes and read the text more than once. Once you do that you can see the whole picture and really understand the meaning the writer was trying to get across.

When I think of critical thinking in a traditional "banking" class I think of the students reading the text and then the teacher telling the students what the writer was trying to say. The student doesn't really come up with any opinions on the text on his or her own. When this happens there is only one interpretation getting across and may not be how or what every student thinks of the text. When this happens the level of critical thinking is shallow because the student is writing on someone elses opinion and can't add much depth to their response because they didn't come up with it on their own in the first place.

In a non-traditional classroom is think it is just the opposite. The students come up with their own ideas and opinions and elaborate on them. They use certain processes from any previous background information that they knew, to reading and analyzing the text, and then finally using their own perspective to understand the writer's standpoint. No one answer is the same, or right or wrong.

I think that teachers might be a little resistant to a more non-traditional classroom its harder to grade students on their opinions as opposed to one right answer or analysis. I think the student would be more resistant because it requires you to think a lot more in a non-traditional class. And because critical thinking involves different processes it also take more time and effort for the student to get their answer.