Essay 3 Possible Approaches

Essay 3 Possible Approaches

Access and/or barriers to college: is or should college be for everyone? What does one gain, or lose, depending on your answer? (Gee, Fortin, Ungar, Scheuer) College should be for the ones who feel it is right for them. It isn’t about class (Ungar’s quote to support this). If they don’t go they could be losing access to discourses (Gee and Fortin). The discourses they would lose access to are important, they would lose citizenship (Scheuer) and critical thinking (Maybe…

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Neusner Questions 11/5

Neusner Questions 11/5

What according to Neusner is a major and what is its role in the university? Evaluate his criteria for choosing a major. How do these criteria relate to the author’s assertion in another publication that “we in universities have a single purpose: to open minds to new ideas”? According to Neusner, a major is the subject or area a student learns with special emphasis. Its role in the university is it defines the power a department has in an institution. Neusner’s criteria…

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Ungar Questions 10/31

Ungar Questions 10/31

Summarize in a few sentences the seven misperceptions that Sanford Ungar discusses. These, of course, are all things that “they say” – and that he uses to launch what he wants to say. How does calling them “misperceptions” affect the way you read his argument? Would you read it any differently if he instead called them “common assumptions”? The seven misperceptions Ungar discusses seem to be the opposing points to getting a liberal arts education. They include, liberal arts being…

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10/24/18 5 Minute Wrap-Up

10/24/18 5 Minute Wrap-Up

To edit my essay I am going to re-organize my introduction paragraph to make my thesis more recognizable and I will do local edits for grammar and MLA format. I also think I need to explore the ‘why does it matter?’ part of my essay. I feel like I mentioned it in my thesis but didn’t really explain it and go as far as I’d like to with it.

Essay 2 Possible Approaches

Essay 2 Possible Approaches

Gee and Newstok both address an idea of apprenticeship and imitation in their pieces, and Newstok’s ideas are complimentary to Gee’s. In Newstok’s article “How to Read Like Shakespeare” he explains his reserves with modern schooling and eventually explains what he thinks is lacking. One of those concepts is apprenticeship which he explains requires “an exacting, collaborative environment, with guidance from people who knew more than you did.” (Newstok). To me, this is the same idea that Gee has when explaining how…

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Pages 13-17 Gee Reading Log

Pages 13-17 Gee Reading Log

Explain Gee’s concept of “filtering” (15) and how it impacts primary Discourse acquisition. Why do some people more than others just seem to “get” reading, or find it easy to master dominant secondary Discourses? Gee’s concept of filtering is a process where aspects of secondary Discourses are filtered into a primary Discourse. It represents a transfer of features that allows a child to practice secondary Discourses while learning their primary. Some people, according to Gee, find it easier to master…

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Gee and Fortin Response

Gee and Fortin Response

  What is happening in that school is what gee talks about in theory- They don’t have the same “middle-class-like” school and so they can’t get that apprenticeship in the discourse and can’t learn it later- this is a “gate” The quote is twofold- 1. The school is unequipped for ‘middle class like’ learning because of how cold and crappy it is 2. They are excluded from a ‘good’ – such as a middle class like school- because their parents…

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Pages 9-13 Gee Reading Log

Pages 9-13 Gee Reading Log

Gee offers two controversial “theorems” that follow from his new, social definition of literacy. (9-11). Paraphrase or put these theorems into your own words, then explain in what way(s) they might be “unsettling.” Gee’s first theorem states that Discourses are not like languages in that you can’t have a partial understanding of them. Gee says that “You are either in it or you’re not” (9). This can be unsettling because I think it might make individuals feel insecure, that they…

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Pages 7-9 Gee Reading Log

Pages 7-9 Gee Reading Log

Using direct quotation and or paraphrase, explain the difference between primary and secondary Discourses. What are some examples (e.g. special ways of talking) of your own primary Discourse? Gee divides secondary Discourses into “dominant” and “non-dominant Discourses” (8) and explains that our “mastery” or fluency in any Discourse depends on “the extent to which we are given access” to the institutions associated with them. What for Gee is at stake in our ability to master a dominant secondary Discourse? What…

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Pages 5-7 Gee Reading Log

Pages 5-7 Gee Reading Log

Graff and Birkenstein explain that most writers (certainly of academic essays) are responding to what others have said, and they tell us to look for what motivates these writers. By entering a conversation, according to them, a writer has to represent what’s been said and move beyond it in some way. So, what are some of the views Gee responds to? Remember, he may name them explicitly; they may sometimes be implied, or they may be “something ‘nobody has talked…

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