Lori's Final Portfolio

Jamie's Final Portfolio

Quetta's Final Portfolio

Meegan'sFinalPortfolio

Kaylene's Final Portfolio

Tarah's portfolio

Stefanie's Portfolio

Brandy's Final Portfolio

Jim's Portfolio

Tracee's Portfolio

Jenny's Final Portfolio

Caylen's Portfolio

Megan's Portfolio

Vickie's Portfolio

Vanessa's Final Portfolio

****Blogger****

One of my favorite blogs was the first one we wrote. It was about ''Daystar'', ''A pair of Silk Stockings'', and ''Why I Want a Wife.'' I really related to all three of these writings in different ways and I really appreciated the comments that people gave supporting my interpretations and expanding on them. When writing about ''Daystar'' I said, "To me, 'building a palace' means she is imagining a different life...building a different life in her mind...one that doesn't involve taking care of children." My blog also touches on my own mother and how seeing her take care of five children really allowed me to have a good understanding of this story and to appreciate the mother being tired and frustrated.

In ''A Pair of Silk Stockings'' I really focused on the power that the stockings had on the mother and the way they caused her to completely abort her initial intentions and to focus completely on herself. I really enjoyed Jim's comment, "The touch woke a side of her she apparently had not allowed out in a long time." It really summed up what I was trying to say in one line and it was good to know that someone understood what I was talking about.

In ''Why I Want a Wife'' I talked about how I really pictured a man even though I knew a woman was writing it. I really liked Megan's comment, "I think that, especially then and the centuries before, men expected that from a wife, but I also think that men today expect it as well. It just takes an intelligent and strong woman to say 'I don't think so.'" I am glad that she pointed this out. I sort of focused on how women weren't expected to do these things, but she pointed out that, in fact, there still are some high expectations of women today and the power to diminish those expectations lies within the idividual woman.

I also really enjoyed the blogs about ''The Yellow Wallpaper'' and ''The Thirty-Eighth Year.'' I really enjoyed the fact that my classmates were able to consider a new point of view after reading my blogs. In ''The Yellow Wallpaper'' I said, "It seemed as though the rips in the wallpaper and the worn spot around the wallpaper and the knawing on the bedposts were all things she had done, but had not realized it. To her it was the woman in the wallpaper that was doing this, when all along she was the woman in the wallpaper." I really liked Megan's comment on this because I was able to help her realize something that she had not initially considered. She said, "I really liked your take on 'The Yellow Wall-paper.' I hadn't thought about her almost having a split personality, and doing those things to the room without knowing it." I always appreciated it when my classmates pointed something out that I had not thought of, so it just made me feel like I was also contributing when my thoughts were able to this for them.

One blog that really established a great point was Tarah's blog on ''Daystar.'' She said, "The poem made me think that while the mother is stressed and busy, she wouldn't have it any other way." I was very happy that she pointed this out. This was a story that people had mixed views on, and my view was more toward the side of her being a tired mother who just needed a short escape. Others thought she wanted out completely and forever. I liked Tarah's take on it because I really don't think that she would trade her life in for anything and I think that maybe her blog helped people to consider the story in a different way.

In Brandy's blog about the ''The Notebook'' she focused on the line "Behind every great love is a great story." As much as I love this movie and as many times as I have watched it, this line has never stuck out to me. After this line was brought to my attention, I realized the truth in the line. In the comment I posted in response to her blog, I said, "I love the reality of this line and how the reality is shown throughout the movie." I also said, "... I feel that sometimes we are mislead in entertainment and in society about how love should be." By pointing out that there is a story behind every love, and then illustrating the ups and downs of it throughout the movie, a very realistic idea of love is portrayed. I think it is very important to show the amount of work that love takes and I believe that this movie does a great job of that.

****Collage****

My narrative collage depicts the importance of the role of a father in the life of his daughter. It was inspired in part by ''Seventeen Syllables'' by Hisaye Yamamoto and even more so by my own personal experience with this situation. This collage is based on a serious issue in our culture today that is just recently being recognized. I focused on the issue of a girl growing up in a home with fighting parents which eventually leads to divorce and an absent father who has turned to alcohol for his escape. I tried to show the effects that this has on a girls self esteem and self respect. I want to illustrate the need for a strong man in a girl’s life for her whole life. When a girl does not have a strong father figure in her life, she will turn to other males to fill that void and will thrive off of male attention and acceptance. Before long the girl’s happiness and self worth lies solely in the amount of attention she gets from males and the amount of love and acceptance she can get from them; to obtain this attention and acceptance, the girl submits to physical relationships and never finds what she is seeking. This sometimes leads to promiscuity which leads to pregnancy in many cases, in which I provided statistics for in my collage. This narrative was inspired by Seventeen Syllables by Hisaye Yamamoto. I initially wanted to show how adult relationships affect the child’s interpretation of love. I ended up expanding on that and focusing on this more specific issue. It is also a personal issue for me. I was a young child when my parents were divorced and my self esteem really suffered as I struggled to find that love that I was missing and to fill that void my father had left. I think it is so important for people, especially men, to recognize this issue and to become active to prevent their daughters from falling into a life of pain and confusion.

****Exploratory Paper****

My paper is about ''The Revolt of 'Mother.''' I initially had a very simplistic reaction to this story, but I was very surprised by the ending. Even so, I was not able to fully understand my surprise until we talked about the story in class. I was surprised at the weakness that came out in Adoniram as well as at the strength that Sarah seemed to have. After class discussion and re-reading the text, I was really able to get deeper into the text and notice many references to Sarah's strength and to understand that the change we saw in Adoniram was meant to be a surprise so it would have a big impact on the reader. Because my initial opinion did not include many of the things that I came to realize, I expanded on, and further developed my interpretation of the story rather than changed my opinion on it.

I focused on the question of whether or not Sarah knew how Adoniram would react to her moving into the barn. A passage from my paper addresses the issue:

"The question was raised in discussion about whether or not Sarah knew how Adoniram would react. From one standpoint, she very well could have known. One strong argument for this is the way she was so calm when it was time for her husband to return. The entire town, the workers and her children were all nervous and anxious to see how Adoniram would react, but Sarah stayed calm, went about her business and had dinner ready for her husband when he arrived. On the other hand, there are many references to providence throughout the story, all or most all of which I have already mentioned. It could also be seen as Sarah being a very faithful woman and dependent on the Lord to take care of things. She referred to Adoniram being called away as a blessing from the Lord, as previously quoted, so she may have placed her trust in the Lord which kept her calm upon his return."

I went on to say that I think it is a combination of both her knowing her husband and trusting the Lord. I also pointed out how Adoniram seemed to change from a very strong character to a weak one:

"All throughout the story I had seen him as this big, burly man who was strong and stubborn, but in the end he is described as “thin and sinewy (40)” and begins to weep and basically tells Sarah he will do for her what she asks of him."

One thing about Sarah that I thought it was important to note was how her strength was sort of hidden throughout the text and was not something that I realized until I read the ending of the story. When re-reading the text I noticed many passages which hinted at her strenth:

"Sarah finishes the argument by saying ‘Father, you come here. Sarah Penn stood in the door like a queen; she held her head as if it bore a crown; there was that patience which makes authority royal in her voice. Adoniram went.'"

Another example is in the passage, "'but her eyes, fixed upon the old man, looked as if the meekness had been the result of her own will, never of the will of another.' It really made me realize that as obedient and committed wife as she was, all that she did was done because she chose to do it. Sarah seemed to be the stereotypical housewife of the time and she was, but I really enjoy that her meekness is pointed out to be her own choice and that no one is forcing her to fill that role Through class discussion, I realized that this was a great indicator of the personal strength of Sarah."

I really enjoyed writing this paper because I was forced to really consider different views and ideas, which is something that I have never had to do before. It gave me a new appreciation for literature and has really helped me to think more deeply about things and not just in terms of literature.

Final Portfolios

Your Final Portfolio will simply be an updating and refining of your Midterm Portfolio. Here are some things to consider as you revise:

• Which blog entries from the second part of class best illustrate the discoveries you made/issues you grappled with in the last two weeks of class? (You should have a total of at least 9 blog entries; try to choose 3-4 that best represent your thinking.)

• Which collage best represents a moment of learning for you? What specifically did you learn?

• Which paper best represents your ability to grapple with a text? What specifically did you do in the paper to demonstrate your ability to think through multiple perspectives, including the significance of those perspectives?

• Have you used each of your own texts just as you would use a literary text to illustrate your points? In other words, your portfolio should be a demonstration of how your work has met the course intentions. Just as you need to refer to specific parts of a literary text and show how a textual reference (including quotations) supports the point you are making in a paper, so you need in your portfolio to refer me to specific parts of your work and to tell me what those parts illustrate.