immigration reflection

Literature Circle Books/ Blogs
I was not very happy with my choice of book. I didn't really like the whole storyline of it. It went back and forth from present day to back when the main character, Achak, was a child. To me, that was very confusing and hard to concentrate on. I also didn't like how long the book was, and just kept going on and on about pretty much the same things, and Achak having the same problems. Of course, the book did have a lot of good parts in it, and some heavy action parts, but most of it just felt long, and difficult to concentrate on.

I learned all about the war that happened in Africa a few years ago. I learned how hard it is for people to immigrate to America, and how long it takes for them to get used to the differences between the 2 countries. I learned a lot about the main character, Achak, who came to America from Africa, and got treated very unfairly.

If I could add anything to the LC process, I think I would keep it like how it was 1st semester. Where we met in the group, and had the vocabulary, and talked to each other in person, not just through the blogs. I didn't really mind doing the blog posts, it would have just been easier to meet in person, because I thought the book was really confusing.

I thought it was good to just find 2 quotes from the pages that you read and only write about those, instead of briefly writing about 2 quotes, but also having to explain the characters, and some vocabulary.

I liked how the other people got to comment on our blogs, because if i didn't understand something, the other people would explain it to me. Also, I liked it, because sometimes it would help you think of things a different way.

Art & Literature
I chose to make a new book cover for my book. I chose to do this because I thought that the original book cover was a little plain and boring. The book cover that i made reflected on the book, because it has the 4 main parts of the book; Africa, USA, and the main character in two different ages, when he was a little boy, and when he was all grown up.

I do feel like there was a connection made between my book cover, and the book, because I think that my book cover was completely about the book. Like I said, it had the 4 main parts of the book, and it fit with the book perfectly.

I think that my final painting came out very good. I messed up on a few places, like the main characters face, because the brush was too big, and I had a very hard time tracing the picture onto the canvas. Besides those few things, I think that it came out very neat and clean, and I was very proud of it.

I believe that my book cover was a lot better when it was colored with colored pencils, because I messed up painting quite a bit. If we could turn them in as a colored picture, not a painting, mine would be a lot better.

Interview process with participant & gift
The interview process was not very smooth for me. It was very stressful, and i got kind of nervous through out it. I had some technical problems, and I felt like i was behind the whole time. The thing I didn't like the most was interviewing on the phone, because I don't like talking on the phone, and then i had to talk to someone that I had never met before.

Like I said, I didn't mind interviewing the person. The email interview was the best, and the easiest, the in person interview was fine, but I had some problems with the computer when i was trying to have it, and the on the phone interview was very stressful, and not very fun at all.

I thought it was cool that I got to interview, and learn about a person that immigrated here from Nicaragua. I thought it was fun to learn about the cultures, and traditions in that country. These interviews did help me reflect on the curriculum that we were learning in class at that time.

I made my immigrant a scrapbook that had a lot of different things in it. I had some pages about him and his journey to America. I had some pages about Nicaragua, and America similarities and differences. I had some things he did as a child, and many more. I hope he really liked this scrapbook that I made, because I spent a lot of time on it, and I was very proud of the final products.