My name is Carlo Cedrix De Castro and I'm an 18 year old full-Filipino freshman currently attending CSU Sacramento. My current major is Kinesiology with hopes of becoming a P.E. teacher / coach on the side. I don't have a favorite book since I don't really read for fun anymore, but my favorite movies are "Back to the Future", "Rocky", and "21 Jump Street". I have a lot of experience with technology, but none relating to blogging; I never just did use the internet for that kind of thing.
The word that would best describe my feelings towards writing would be indifferent; it would really have to depends on what I'm writing about. Usually anything sparks my interests, but there's still a lot that I don't know.
What motivates me to be successful in college is the fear of failure: I don't want to experience it any more than I should or else I will end up on the streets. I think about it everyday: if I fail, where would i be the next day? What would I do with my life? Would it be embarrassing? Things like that stay to my thoughts. This also is part of the fact of why I'm in college. I'm here to get my degree and teaching credentials and just work as a teacher.
I grew up in a stereotypical Asian household: parents didn't support me doing sports, I was on a leash at home, and academics were emphasized. Heavily. It was so emphasized that my dad would buy encyclopedias jus to have them around the house and force their kids to look at it for at least one hour a day. This would start a chain of events that impacted my way of writing/perception of the world.
After reading that one encyclopedia many times, my dad decided to buy a whole new reading/writing material called "Hooked on Phonics". What it is is basically a learning tool/ educational card game all in one that teaches you the fundamentals of the English language and how to use it properly. This shaped my early childhood knowledge by turning me into one of those gifted students. By the time I entered the 1st grade, I was so far ahead that they forced me into the 2nd grade.
Fast-foward a couple years later, my school opens its own library and I'm able to check out books. One of the 1st books I remember reading was the Harry Potter series. I remember being so intrigued by the plot and character development of the main protagonists Harry, Ron and Hermione that I would continue reading the book series for the remaining years of my grade school days, sometimes even re-reading the installments for fun. I felt as if this greatly helped my reading/writing ability because I was getting used to reading 600+ page books and seeing a more sophisticated writing style has helped me develop my own.
In middle school, I joined a program called AVID, which is basically a college prepatory class designed to help advance you to the next level of learning. Here I learned about different writing strategies and readings such as Cornell notes and annotating; it became easier for me to understand texts that I could not before. Another thing about this program was that it introduced me to a lot of different people from different backgrounds which helped me to not be so ignorant. AVID has changed my perception of the world because it has shown me what life can be without a proper future plan and the tools needed.
In high school, I tried to find my own writing style for papers, but it wasn't until my sophomore year where I learned about one that would help me greatly throughout not only my school but my entire life. This writing style served as a guideline to how all my writings would be. I basically give analysis on every piece of evidence I provide and how it would be important to the topic I'm writing about.
Reading and writing is one of those things that are lifelong; no matter where you go, at what time, who you are with, or even what language, reading and writing will always be there. It has no barrier/line of separation. At tht moment in college, reading and writing will serve as a big role for me. If I cannot read and write well, then I will surely fail and then I'm back to the thoughts of: if I fail, where would i be the next day? What would i do with my life? Would it be embarrassing? I'm not at my prime yet though. I still have a lot to learn and polish up; my reading and writing skills aren't perfected yet.
As for reading and writing after school and in my future life, those skills will become even more important than they were in college, because now you are in the real world. There are lots of important things to read and if you don't respond well enough, you might get in a lot of trouble(i.e. fine print on a contract). I feel that after college, you should polish those skills every now and then so that you still stay fresh. There's a saying that's old but I feel that applies well in this case: "If you don't use it, you lose it."
Carlo De Castro:
ReplyDelete1. I enjoyed the tone and delivery of the project. You kept it easy and straight forward with great examples and personal entries. It captured my attention through humorous statements made about the “stereotypical Asian household” and family stereotypes in general, I could relate.
2. (a) Your project is about how your family and schooling career impacted your choice in literature and writing technique.
(b) The paper provides examples and separate topics in every paragraph that essentially relate or tie back to your thesis.
(c) You have stated influential events, experiences, books, and goals that have shaped your writing and reading life for the future.
3. An area I can see some more detail added would be your high school life just because it exposes us to large variations of writing and reading. There’s opportunity to provide more depth in your experience or titles of influential books, teachers, etc.
4. “Each of your paragraphs discusses only one idea, and everything in the paragraph is related to that specific idea.”
5. Your paper tells a story I want to read and continue reading. It holds my attention through some well-placed relatable stories about your personal life. The papers pace is fluid and not overwhelming. I felt your high school paragraph might have had some more room to expand and explain. You may be able to dive deeper with your English class experiences or any other class that may have shaped your writing and reading. You may also be able to name specific books or teachers who you hated or loved, teacher stories are the often entertaining (be them awesome teachers or lame).
1. I really liked how you made it very clear and easy for me to follow the timeline and how your reading and writing developed.
ReplyDelete2. I feel like the paper is about how reading and writing played roles in your life and how you grew as a reader and writer throughout your schooling. The paper did a very good job addressing the prompt. I feel that it almost completely fulfills the assignment requirements.
3. I think the paper could use a little more in how you will use reading and writing in your career.
4. I choose the first bullet point.
5. I feel like the essay was really well written. The only thing I would suggest changing is adding a little bit more in the conclusion of how else you plan on reading and writing helping you in the future.
1. I like the fact that the paper was very easy to read and flowed well. The most interesting thing about the paper for me is that his dad made him read the encyclopedia as a kid because that is very unusual.
ReplyDelete2. A) I think the paper is about the influence that reading as a young boy and the program AVID had with his reading and writing skills.
B)I think that he does due a very good job at addressing the points because he stated everything that he believed helped him out with his writing and reading.
C)I think that it does fulfill all the requirements of the prompt.
3. I believe that he could have gone into more depth about the AVID program and give us more of a detail on why it helped.
4. Each paragraph discusses one idea and it just sticks to that one idea.
5. I overall believe that the paper was very well written. It made it enjoyable for me to read and also made it easy for me to read. I think that the only parts that need improvement is the AVID part of it. IT was good I just think he could have gotten into more in depth and given us more examples about it. Maybe at a little more examples about Harry Potter and his youth. But other than that I think it was very well written.