Senior Seminar Research Ideas

For my senior seminar research paper a number of ideas come to mind when thinking about what I should write about. My first idea would be to write about my life. Even though I'm still young my life has so many stories and so many twist and turns to it. I would hope that my life would be inspirational to some as well as change other peoples lives. My plan would be to make this book and autobiography but in someways turn it into a creative writing peace. I as this because some things that has gone on in my life I do not know if I'm ready to share it will the world yet to this is where creative writing would come in.
My second idea is to write about how schools in general should stop standardized testing, this is not a good way of testing the true knowledge of student. For myself I know that I never did well on standardized testing mainly because I would always get so nervous and end up not focusing correctly. Also I believe that their is no real way of preparing for these test, it not as if you can have a study guide to what ill be on the test. Students also tend to not preform their best when they have to sit there for a long period of time testing. I would like to personally inform everyone and hope that my ideas would change someones mind because I am a student myself and having gone through these test and realizing that I do not do my best on these test either.
My third idea would be to write about how children who were abused, these incidents effect them throughout their whole lives. I did a research on abused children as adults and found out some really interesting facts. Girls especially who were abused tend to end up in abusive relationships as adults. Also have self confident issues, depression, and sometimes treat their children the way that they were treated when they were younger. I believe that would should push children who were abused to attend serious therapy sessions because the pain and hurt really does follow these individuals throughout their whole lives. We sometimes see people's outside appearance and think that everything is great in their lives because they appear to be happy. Not knowing that deep down they are hurting and have a lot of issues. I plan on trying to come up with a plan to better the lives of those who were once abused so they can live a happy and normal live just like everyone else.

Autobiography of a Face:Lucy Grealy

I feel that the purpose for Lucy Grealy writing this book was to inform people on all the trails of her life that she faced as a child growing up. She spent most of her young years fighting her cancer and undergoing many surgeries. Due to all of the surgeries she not only faced the pain from fighting cancer but the pain from feeling ugly and getting teased by her peers. Grealy, in my opinion wants to make sure that people no matter what you see on the outside when people appear to be fine that in reality words hurt and everyone wants to be loved and feel pretty.
The process that was taken by Grealy to write this book was living. the book tells her life story and the things she had to go through while living with cancer and looking differently from everyone else. I believe that Grealy first had to come to grips that this is her reality and had to feel comfortable with sharing to the world her inside feelings and secrets. she has to share her insecurities by writing the book and had to be comfortable with doing so.
Grealy's methods and sources consisted of herself. This  is an autobiography so Grealy did not have to seek for outside help to tell her life story.

Alice and Wonderland

In the fourth grade study of Alice and Wonderland I believe that this piece of writing is the approach that I as a teacher would take with my students. In the reading it is literacy and visual literacy. The piece by Nicole Stringman was to me more so of an interview rather than a story. Stringman would ask Monica Edinger the fourth grade teacher a question about what methods she used for allow her students to understand the story and she would then reply.
The methods that Edinger used is proof that students who have literacy troubles can still learn and grasp the information that is being taught. As a future educator I am learning that you can not just have one way of teaching and expect that everyone of your students will learn this way. Every child has a unique way of understanding material and as a teacher you should accomodate to it to assure that each child does their best.

 Most students who have trouble reading are usually really sussesful in other subjects. Reality is you need reading skills to get through life, so as an educator it is your job to find some way to allow students to understand the readings. The way Edinger allows the students to engage in Alice and Wonderland proves that reading can be fun to everyone just in different forms of reading.
During this piece of reading the context and format was interview.Stingman would ask a question and Edinger would reply in detail. both participants were really into what was being ask and what was being answered. I believe that both particpant were very into the conversation.
As a future teacher I plan on getting every one of my studnet involved in what I am teaching. I like how Edinger allowed the students to draw up pictures and make puppets of the story. To me the confirmed that the students understood what was being taught

Moreno

The main purpose of Moreno's Essay was to highlight how much of a difference race, cultural background, and different languages can affect the classroom. Secondly how even students from an upper social class can be affected by being more than one culture. Students on a daily basis go into the classroom and create a sense of individuality due to what fits them in their world around them. When I read reading such as these it makes me more aware of how are schools systems really do not adjust the learning curriculum for multicultural students who are just coming into a new environment. As future educators we have incorporate in our classrooms and embrace all of the different cultures that will be in our classroom.

Moreno touches on how language and writing is so essential because no matter what race or culture this is how humans communicate with each other. As teachers we need to realize this and really stress it in our classroom because parents send their children to school to learn, and they trust you as a teacher to give them the best education possible to succeed in life. In Moreno James Balwin makes a comment such as, we have to undo much of the wrong doing that was done in history for minorities. I never really thought about that until I read this. As far back as i can remember if you were anything other than a "white American" your education was little to none. Minorities still today do not always receive the best education due to lots of reasons but we as educators need to be the ones now to make a difference. Most students who come to school are ashamed because they feel like they do not know as much as the others. We have to make it our jobs to really enforce reading and writing to help them further advance.

In my opinion no matter what race, background, gender, or social class you may be from everyone deserves the best education and should be able to read and write just as good as any other student. I would use the "Social Constructivist Approach" in my classroom. By doing so you can learn the background of students so you somewhat know what you are getting yourselves into. Before the school year started or maybe on the first day of school as homework I would send home an “About Me Sheet" the students would be asked to fill out with parents. By going about this approach you can ask detailed questions that sometimes some would be offended by.