Immigration Project Reflection

Literature Circle Books/Blogs:

My experience with my Lit Circle Book was a good one, because my choice, A Long Way Gone, was a good one. I was happy that I got my first choice for my Lit Circle Book, because the synopsis made the book sound very interesting and educational. I am glad to say that I am still very pleased with my choice because Ishmael Beah's (Author and Former Child Soldier) story was very interesting. From reading A Long Way Gone, I learned that there was a very violent civil war in Sierra Leone that lasted many years, and that during those years many innocent civilians were killed. I learned that both the RUF and the Army of Sierra Leone used children as soldiers.
In order to improve the Lit Circle process, I would make student come up with 2 vocabulary words each week and then have them create sentences for each. I think adding a vocabulary component would help with understanding another person's culture, especially in the Immigration Lit Circle. I think vocabulary would be very beneficial because it would be informative and educational. I liked blogging more than I liked writing on paper because my hands started to hurt when I wrote for a long time on paper. I also liked working on the computer because it helped expose me to new technology. I never had problems with Blogger and the blogging experience because we used it all last year for Lit Circles that were similar to the ones this year. I learned that there are many views about a book, and that people often look at the book in many different ways. I learned that people’s experiences and understandings influence the way they see the book.

Art & Literature:

As soon as I saw the painting Scream on the computer, I wanted to make my painting as similar to the real one as possible. I thought that if I just tweaked a few things, it would be just as the autobiography described it. I feel like there will be an obvious connection between the art piece and the book A long Way Gone, but you need to have read the book to see it. I think someone who has never read this book would have a lot harder time finding the similarities between the two. I think the final product of my painting turned out okay. I think the drafts before it, which were made of colored pencil, turned out better because I found it easier to control the details with colored pencil. I think my final turned out as good as it could have. I think this because my painting skills are not that good, and I should have tried to put a bit more detail into the trees and bushes along the banks of the river. I think more practice with my paintbrush would have helped enhance the final product. I think if there were more colors of paints to use, it would have made the painting go a bit easier. It would have made the painting a bit easier because I would not have to create colors over and over again, and not remember how I used to make them. This learning exercise was helpful because I usually just think of books with words, but in this case I thought of books with both words and pictures, which brought a better and deeper understanding of the autobiography to my mind.

Interview Process with Participant:

I think the interview process went well, although I was very nervous at times. It was pretty difficult, even though I knew my questions and I knew the participant and I tried my best to try and make the interview as casual as possible. The fact that we were required to interview the participant three different times was a bit overwhelming at first, but as soon as the first interview was finished I had started to realize how the project was going to work. I learned many things from each interview, but I learned in the first interview that Sunder was only eight years old when he came to America. I learned in the second interview that Sunder's family was originally from Tamil Nadu. In the third interview, I learned that Sunder used to be vegetarian, but after a while in America, he started eating meat. Interviewing an actual immigrant to this country gave me a first hand idea of why many immigrants came to America. It is one thing learning on a power point about push and pull factors, but it is something else to hear from someone who actually came because of those factors.