Project 2

In this project I studied the importance of literacy. I began my project by interviewing two individuals about their experiences with literacy. I interviewed Nikki Ma, a freshman student in the University of Houston Downtown. I then interviewed Melissa Salazar a older relative of my who is currently attending Houston Community College. In their interviews they had interesting stories on how literacy changed both there lives. Working from the narratives of their experience with literacy, I argue that they both grew stronger while trying to be the best in what there life experiences brought them through.

Interview with Nikki Ma

By Cristian Moralez.

Today I interviewed my current classmate Nikki Ma , a former student at the University of Houston Downtown and her perspective and life experience in literacy.Within the begging, she said it was her teachers who really taught her how to read and write and thanks to her it really exposed her to language. She had also mentioned that she didn't like to read a lot as a child but as a teenager began to enjoy reading comic books and anything not related school books. While growing up, Nikki didn't really enjoy reading or writing, but rather ed enjoyed sports. She also mentioned that her parents had some sort of education but not really finished all. Another thing that Nikki mentioned was the transition from text book to Online reading was really important. From china to USA, textbooks declination was really present when Nikki started going to school in the U.S. She says that over in her native country online resources weren't used as much.

Interview With Relative

By Cristian Moralez

Today, I interviewed my cousin and her life experiences with reading and writing. To my cousin she leaned how to read and write at age 5 because of her positive teachers that thought her the importance of reading and writing. She not only enjoyed reading and writing. But also enjoyed reading the book "Standing against the wind", which talked about a shy independent girl who is a hard worker, and in some way has always reflected back on her. Along with the teacher, Television also played an enormous role in her literacy development because television replaced the books she never had back at her home therefor seeing the television was her main source of learning how to read and write.

Interview Analysis

By Cristian Moralez'

Cristian Moralez

English 1302

Dr. Dimmick

Tuesday, Thursday

Interviews Analysis

Knowing how to read and write is not just a temporary skill, it’s a life-long tool everyone needs to know in order to compete and fit in today’s society. From learning your alphabets to doing five pages essays, a writer grows their roots as soon as it’s put inside a classroom and starts to learn with a teacher. These scenarios not only happen in America, but around the world and then sometimes shared in an interview among peers in a College classroom. A similar scenario happened to me, in my English 1302 class at the University of Houston Downtown. I was told to interview a current class mate and a relative about their past experiences with literature. My interviewers were my cousin and Nikki Ma, who both shared with me there different life experiences with literacy who surprisingly would be categorized in what Scribner and Young Kendall articles, would call “literacy as the state of power and grace”.

My first interviewer was my classmate Nikki Ma. In Ma’s interview about literacy she mentioned how in the beginning in her early life a teacher was the most important person to teach her how to read and write. Nikki, since in early age really didn’t enjoy reading school related books but did enjoy to read novels that she would get from either library or a book store. Nikki also stated that in her home country China, teachers most often used to teach through text book only. For Ma, textbook assignments would most often replace teachers talking do to the fact that they didn’t have to say nothing new because everything was on the text books. This practice for Ma, was way better because she felt that she learned better comprehension by being able to work independent and at her own pace. But this all changed when she arrived to the Unites States.

Nikki moved to the United States at the age of ten and since then has only received public education. For Nikki her literacy transition wasn’t a big problem because she said that at school in China, they had already showed her how to speak and write the English language. Although the settings were different, Nikki didn’t feel anything different until she got in touch with the ability to obtain an electronic device. Just ten months after their arrival to the country, Ma family bought a laptop so that they could be in touch with their relatives in China.

As a result of obtaining a laptop, Ma felt empowered by the use of it. Nikki was able to browse the web, chat with her friends and use many popular social media website that were trending at that time. This resulted very beneficial for Nikki because she used the easier way to communicate with her friends and family, two important groups that Nikki loves to be with. Along with this, Nikki’s literacy practices from back then to know is very impressive. Nikki mentioned that in her middle school and high school years, the text books which were really important to her because of her old traditions of learning in China were being replaced with laptops and tablets. She said that majority of her high school experience, she left reading hours from textbooks to just skimming through websites in her MacBook; which her school provided her with. The MacBook for Nikki was like a digital textbook that she said made it easier to type notes, essays and letter for friends. As a result of this new culture, Nikki Ma has demonstrated high interests in working within the technology field in the future. Nikki said that as the society becomes more technological advanced she sees the importance to work in the field of technology.

In my second interview, I interviewed my older Cousin Melissa who had a more similar perspective with Nikki, but stood out more to have literacy as the understanding in the state of grace. For my Cousin (similar to Nikki Ma) teachers and school were the places in which both learned the importance of literacy. Teachers were there to teach them how to read and write and it was up to them to do their best in it. From the contrary of Nikki way of learning, my cousins teacher in America was more of active teacher. My cousin started to learn how to read and write by having the story read out loud with a tape recorder and from there she would follow the stories paste. She also mentioned that the way she learned to write was by just looking at other readings, books or subtitles. As a result of her teachers, my cousin grew a great love for reading, but more for writing because she loved the feeling of havening her ideas written in a book. Her love for writing would grew so much that it lead her to buy a diary and have her writing in it every single day. Unfortunately since in early age, my cousin really didn’t have any reading materials at home because I believe her parents really didn’t care in the belief of higher education; do to the fact that they were uneducated and had no importance to learn how to read and write. In the contrary, they did provide her with a television set. My cousin said that in her family a television was far more entertaining than any book. Therefor she would only learn better by watching more television. Educational cartoons and programs, like PBS kids and other TV shows like “Dora the Exploradora”, were there to teach her how to read, count and spell.

To my cousin, being the third oldest of eight siblings was really noticeable and therefor made her almost like the second mom of the family. She was always told that as the oldest she would have to take care of her younger brothers and sisters, who would sometimes; cut time off of what she would like to do, which was writing in her diary. As a result of this, most of the time she would take her little brothers to the library so that they too can also entertain themselves. To Melissa, going to the library was the only way to free her from here annoying brothers and sisters. Although Melissa hated babysitting she would have to take care of her siblings because that’s was what her parents always asked of her. In the positive side of going to library, she managed to help - her younger relatives with literacy, by helping them read and write. This not surprisingly lead all of them became more literate and had better test scores and ability to comprehend literacy. Melissa said that as one of the oldest, she had to be responsible and therefor knew that she needed to set a positive role model for her siblings. Melissa also described that her life experiences were somewhat related to the book “Standing against the Wind, by Traci L. Jones”, who’s main character Patricia Williams, shared almost identical life experiences of a young high school girl who acts to mature for her age. Yes, it was true my cousin had a lot of issues controlling her little brothers and siblings, but she knew that by reading to her siblings, she had find a way to find a state of grace in both her brothers and sisters. Sadly, today my cousin is much older and has now lost her interest in reading because now she’s overloading reading college level textbook, but still doesn’t give up on her dream to one day manage an important business.

In conclusion, I believe both my interviewers, Nikki Ma and my cousin had both very fascinating life experiences within literacy that has lead them today to have an idea of what they want to do in their future.

Reflection

1. My argument in this paper is how tradition mixed with literacy can change someone and there perspectives in life or literacy as a state of power.

2. I chose this topic because more relative to my interviewers literacy experiences.

3. I first started with Niki Ma, because she was very interesting in her interview.

4. I believe my strengths would be telling a strong story of how literacy changed the lives of these two ladies and weaknesses would be not going to much into detail.

5. The most difficult part of this project would be using different transitions words to describe the sames persons ideas.

6.The interview recording was the most helpful because I received an easier tool to write the narrative.

7. I hope my project can help other readers understand two talented ladies perspectives on literacy and from there be happy to hear their story.

8. My most wanted audience would be my interviewers because I wish they would like the way I wrote there life story.