Marlene Lawston

Unit 2 Reflection

            To be visually literate, one must be able to use analytical skills to interpret and extrapolate from an image or images. Images are created for a variety of reasons and these analytical skills allow for a story to be told or a message to be obtained from whatever image is being analyzed. For example, in the analysis essay I was able to predict the age of the girl in the painting based on details in the image, “[n]ear the mirror away from the girl is a doll fallen over, and close to the girl by her feet are cosmetic items such as a brush and lipstick. This indicates that the girl has lost interest in the doll and is more concerned with the beautification items, and that she is at the critical time in her life when she is transitioning to a young woman.” This interpretation of the details in the painting became important in further analysis. Many messages and stories are conveyed through images, such a warning signs, artwork, or photographs portraying breaking news stories; visual literacy is important because it allows people to understand the meaning of these different types of images, whether they are to convey a philosophical message or to send out a warning.

            During this unit, my visual literacy skills were improved as I practiced new methods of analysis such as “10 on 1,” and applied the significance of “binaries” to my chosen image. “10 on 1” is a method of analysis which focuses on performing a lot of analysis on a small detail of a work of art or literature; it triggered an important “aha” moment with regards to my analysis essay. In the image I analyzed, The Girl at the Mirror, I focused on the significance of a small detail in the painting, the magazine in the girl’s lap which featured the portrait of a beautiful women. I did research on this aspect of the painting and learned that the woman in the magazine was the popular movie star of the time period – Jane Russel. Further research led me to find that the artist who painted The Girl at the Mirror, Norman Rockwell, regretted the decision of painting the star in and did not think that movie stars were good role models for young women and girls. This research combined with analysis, led to the discovery of significant meaning of the magazine in the girl’s lap, “the girl has her hair up in an elaborate hairstyle that is similar to the movie star’s hair in the magazine…the girl is trying to look like Jane Russell but her facial expression shows that she is sad as a result of what she sees in the mirror. [I]t shows a girl who is clearly pretty, but yet unhappy with how she looks because she does not look like the famous movie star.” Additionally, finding binaries in the image proved to be valuable. For example, the binary of light and darkness was used when writing about the contrast in the girl’s pure white clothing versus the darkness around her; the light and darkness had a parallel relationship to the girl’s purity versus the unhappiness that comparison to unrealistic beauty standards brings.

            This essay was influenced by my younger self. At first when I was informed of the assignment, I was unsure of what image I would choose to analyze, however, after watching the Miss Representation documentary, I remembered a significant childhood experience and knew right away that I would like to analyze The Girl at the Mirror. I remembered visiting the Norman Rockwell Museum with my mother and seeing this painting. I always remembered how sad the pretty girl looked in the picture because she was comparing herself to someone else. 

Visual for Essay

The Girl at the Mirror by Norman Rockwell
March 6, 1954

1. This image, painted by Norman Rockwell, appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in the 1950's. During this decade, beautiful women and girls were normally painted with blank but pleasant facial expressions and beautiful props. Norman Rockwell painted females much differently than his contemporaries; he was known for showing the true  "experience of women in America." Although this image was painted in the fifties,it is timeless as it carries a strong message regarding the manner in which young women come to view how they should appear.

2. Almost the entire image is dark except for the girl in the center. She is the focus of the painting. She is looking at herself in the mirror with a sad expression on her face; in her lap is a magazine with the face of a popular actress at the time, Jane Russell. Tossed away from the girl is a doll and next to her are cosmetic items such as a brush and lipstick. Her hair is in an elaborate up-do, similar to the hair of the woman in the magazine picture. Around the mirror that she is looking at herself in is complete darkness.

3. The girl in the image seems to be comparing her appearance to the appearance of the movie star pictured in the magazine in her lap, she even has her hair in a similar hairstyle to the movie star. She has tossed aside her doll and the objects that are closer to her are cosmetics - symbolizing the transition from a girl to an adolescent. The mirror is surrounded by darkness but the darkness has not touched the girl. This could be indicating that what the girl sees as her reflection is not what she wants to see or that the mere act of this girl comparing herself to the woman in the magazine is bad. It could also be showing that since she is still a girl and not an adolescent, she has not yet been harmed by the negative effects of self-objectification.

This painting is very different from other paintings of the same time period that depicted women contemplating their appearances. Most paintings showed women admiring themselves in the mirror and decorated with elaborate clothing and jewelry. In this painting the girl looks unhappy and is wearing a simple white slip, quite the opposite. This suggests that Rockwell believes women in society struggle with their appearances from a young age and are not the "peppy" and "perfect" housewives that were so commonly depicted.

More Images for Analysis

Images for Analysis

'

Redesigned Syllabus

Syracuse University

WRT 105, Practices of Academic Writing

Fall 2015

Instructor: Mrs. Amber Desimony

Course Credits: 3

Room C244

Contact: adesimoy@niskyschools.org

Course Description and Rationale

WRT 105 is an introduction to academic writing.  In this class, you will write, revise, edit and reflect on your writing with the support of the teacher. You will engage critically with the opinions and voices of others as you develop a greater understanding of how your writing can have an effect on yourself and your environment. In addition, you will have regular opportunities to write and to reflect on your development as a writer. The course will engage you in analysis and argument, practices that are interdependent and that carry across academic disciplinary lines and into professional and civic writing.

Analysis, as Rosenwasser and Stephen claim in Writing Analytically 7th edition, “is a form of detective work that typically pursues something puzzling, something you are seeking to understand rather than something you believe you already have the answers to. Analysis finds questions where there seemed not to be any, and it makes connections that might not have been evident at first. Analysis is, then, more than just a set of skills: it is a frame of mind, an attitude toward experience” (2-3). Analysis skills are important because they can be applied to many aspects of life. This class will help you to further develop your analysis skills through literature, writing, and reflection.

Argument involves inquiry and analysis and engages others in ongoing conversations about topics of common concern. In addition to being persuasive, arguments can be a means of sharing information, posing important questions, or even raising consciousness about issues. In this class, evidence for your arguments will come from analysis, from discussion with others, from your personal experience, and from research. You will also learn that arguments are dependent on the situation at hand: that is, they look, sound, and persuade differently depending on audience, purpose, genre and context.[1]   

   WRT 105 Learning Outcomes and Goals

1.       Writing as Situated Process
Students will practice a range of invention and revision strategies appropriate to various writing situations.

2.      Writing with Sources

Students will be introduced to primary and secondary research, utilize various library resources, evaluate sources, and synthesize and apply research in accordance with citation, genre conventions and ethical standards.

3.      Writing as Rhetorical Action

Students will gain knowledge of rhetorical principles and practice addressing different audiences and situations.

4.      
Writing as Academic Practice

Students will build their familiarity with values, strategies, and conventions related to a range of academic contexts and disciplinary conversations.

5.      Writing as Social Practice

Students will analyze, reflect on, and practice the dynamic use of language in diverse contexts and recognize issues of power, difference and materiality.

Unit 1 Reflection

Unit 1 Reflection Blog Post

Marlene Lawston

The academic style of writing has a number of components. One component involves the structure of the writing piece; in an academic style essay there must be an introductory paragraph, body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. A second component is academic tone, which is formal and succinct. These two components of academic writing have been taught to us [students] starting at a young age.  In WRT 105, my understanding of academic writing style was improved as we were introduced to two new components of academic writing, the ideas of abstract thought and referencing the literature of other authors. Abstract thought is the newest component of academic writing. With this component, the topics that are written about are often nonconcrete and complex, requiring us to form theories and claims instead of simply agreeing or disagreeing with an idea or a piece of literature. This is more challenging because it requires a thorough understanding of the topic at hand and it goes against human instinct, which is to immediately “take a side.”  Referencing literature was also an important component that we previously had brief exposure to. This component, however, was important for this assignment because it was useful as evidence to support our claims and it demonstrated a thorough comprehension of the literature from class.

In addition to academic writing, we blogged. This type of writing was new to me because it has different conventions than academic writing. For example, in academic writing, the authors typically write in the third person to hold a formal tone while in blogging, it is very common for the author to write in the first person and colloquially. Also, blogging does not require the writing structure that academic writing does and authors have more freedom when it comes to structuring their piece.

            In March 2015, I attended the three day National Youth Service-Learning conference in Washington DC with fellow volunteers from Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital. A major theme of this conference was “Education Inequity.” All of the students in my group were from fairly affluent areas and went to good high schools such as Niskayuna, Bethlehem and Shaker. When students and teachers from all over the Nation spoke at the conference about the negative impact of students sitting in a classroom and being lectured to all day, we did not really understand what they were talking about because we had always viewed education as liberating, not oppressive and discouraging to the student. This is why The Banking System of Education and Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work stood out to me as we progressed through the unit. They both included numerous impactful quotations that were important in shaping my claim such as in Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, when the teacher of “working class” students said “Simple punctuation is all they'll ever use.”  These two pieces of literature completely changed the way I view the education system. Before, I did not realize the complexity of the issue; I thought it was simple, as long as an individual could stay in school and receive an education, they had a high chance of being successful in life. I thought that the main obstacles they would encounter would be outside of school and that education could only benefit them. When I read about how the banking system of education can in fact be oppressive and how the type of education children receive is based directly on the circumstances of their birth, I realized that my point of view on the education system was skewed.  This is when I had the idea to incorporate into my claim that the “American Dream” is not attainable for some because education opportunities are very unequal across the United States, and even when there is access to education, it can be discouraging to the student and turn them away from the path to the American Dream.

Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work

Blog Post #2

Marlene Lawston

Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work

In this activity, the students were split into two groups that were assigned heads or tails on a coin. The coin was tossed. This toss determined the treatment of each group - we had no input. My group was immediately scolded and told to straighten out our desks and face forward by one teacher, while the other group was given apple cider and donuts. Next, my group was handed out “common core” worksheets and told to memorize the definitions of all the words. Whenever we asked a question, we were treated disrespectfully by the teacher who just said “learn the words, you are going to be tested on them.” Meanwhile, the other group was being treated with respect by the teacher and asked how they would like to go about learning the definitions of the words that needed to be memorized. It was really hard to sit there and watch the other group be treated so well while we were being yelled at; we were especially jealous of the snacks. If school was actually like this, I would definitely not want to go and would be much less motivated. These differences between the environments of the two groups in the activity are similar to the differences between the environments in the working class schools versus the more affluent schools. The group I was in represented the “working class” schools. In the working class schools, the children were “told to copy the steps as notes. These notes are to be studied,” instead of discussing the material and understanding it. Similarly, my group was handed a packet of material and told to memorize it all for a test with no explanation. The other group represented the more affluent school type such as the “affluent professional” or “executive elite” schools. In the affluent schools, the teacher really wanted the students to have a thorough understanding of the material. For example, in the professional elite school the teacher said “It is not enough to get these right on tests; you must use what you learn [in grammar classes] in your written and oral work. I will grade you on that.” Correspondingly, the other group was being asked how they wanted to learn the words in a way that would help them really comprehend each word and be able to use them. The most frustrating part is that we (the students) had no control over which group we were put in as a coin was flipped to decide this factor. This represents how in real life, children do not get to choose whether they attend a working class or affluent school because they are born into an education system based on their parents’ job and location. This system is not fair for the students because it is a form of education that insidiously educates students in a way that makes it more difficult for them to change social classes. By not giving students equal education opportunities, the entire idea of the “American dream” is nearly impossible

This American Life: Harper High School, Part One

Blog Post #1

Marlene Lawston

This American Life: Harper High School, Part One

This podcast is set at Harper High School in Chicago and the surrounding neighborhood. In the past year, 29 students have been shot in this neighborhood. The podcast shows the struggle of the High School to keep its students safe amidst the dangerous neighborhood around the school. In addition, it reveals how different the educational environment is of the students who attend inner city schools compared to the educational environment experienced by the majority of American students. Almost all of the students at Harper High School are affiliated with gangs. Gang affiliation is dependent solely on what block the student lives on; there is no special “initiation.” As a police officer put it “gangs can’t be avoided.” These gangs are a major cause of the shootings that occur. Shootings occur for big and small reasons -  a majority of them occur as some type of retaliation. To “survive,” the students live by three rules: never walk alone, never walk with someone else, never walk on the sidewalk. Never walk alone because you become a target; never walk with other people because it will make you more affiliated with their gang, and walk in the streets not sidewalk so that no one sneaks up on you and attacks you. In October during the school’s pep rally for homecoming, rumors of another shooting in the neighborhood were confirmed. The faculty of the school worked on figuring out how this person’s death would affect the students by mapping out which gang he was affiliated with, who his relatives were in the school, and which gang shot him. Due to fear of retaliation, the students affiliated with the gangs in this situation were sent home and there were doubts about whether or not Harper High School would be able to have its homecoming game and dance.