Ethnography Mapping

My group (Farrah, Stefani, and I) met at the Atkins Library to start our ethnography project. We decided that we are doing our project on relationships: boyfriend and girlfriends and friendships. We started by talking about some things that we’d liked to focus on: the difference between relationships on and off campus. For our off campus location we chose the U Walk apartments, and for our on campus location we chose the courtyard between Sanford and Moore Hall. We also wrote down a couple of interview questions we might ask at a different time. They’re on my daybook picture.

<------my daybooking beforehand<----my map of the courtyard

 

After leaving the library, we went to the courtyard to observe some relationships. We didn’t have too much luck because it kind of was an awkward time, 10 am. But we noticed a couple holding hands, and some groups of friends walking together.

Next time we will have to go at a better hour because they're really wasn't anyone around.

Then we went over to U Walk and we watched some friends hang out, a couple outside holding hands, some people were playing volleyball, and one guy was on his porch listening to music.

                                               We were able to watch a couple talk.

 

So that sums it up, next time in the courtyard we will have to go at a better time.

 

This is Literacy?

What location should I choose? Somewhere far from where I am now? Or somewhere I can walk to in 2 minutes? I choose the closest one. So I chose the courtyard in the center of Sanford & Moore Hall. (I’m in Sanford(: ) Everyday there is something different happening here. People are constantly outside, talking, passing out flyers, eating, everything.

Some of artisticness for you're own personal enjoyment.

 

La di da da di da da. Music. I find it interesting to see what type of music people like… usually rap around here. While I was working on this project, there happened to be some guys rapping along to one of their songs. Singing, rapping, rhyming, whatever you want to call it, allows people to express their literacy in a different way other than simply speaking or writing. It’s a creative way to talk about feelings and emotions. Music can be an outlet for some people. Like in the video Lacy played for us about Youth Roots. Those kids used their music as their own form of self-expression.

Red flags. 1, 2, 3, 4 red flags. But what are they for? I’ve noticed them before around campus. Ahhhh, they bring awareness for abuse against women. That makes sense. Things like these flags are literacy in the form of awareness. If you read these flags once, the next time you see them you already know what they represent, which then causes you to notice them more and more around campus. Then I told my parents and friends that it’s Violence Against Women Month. This type of literacy is like a chain reaction. It’s a cool way of learning something new!

Frat guys. We all know one. And know they are everywhere. Always promoting something. This time they are promoting their Second Annual Monster Mash party. It costs money to go to the party so I’m not sure if they’re trying to donate money to something or just being a little selfish but in any case their flyers are a form of literacy. Maybe it’s not educational literacy, but hey, literacy’s literacy right?

This actually makes me wonder, what really defines literacy if anything can be considered literacy?

Three 3 Musketeers

Saturday Night. I have three 3 Musketeers. Jealous? I’m cozy at home, on our big brown couch with my fuzzy socks on. My Saturday night couldn’t be more appealing. It’s moments like these that I try to cherish. My dorm room bed has nothin’ on this couch! I love Three Musketeers.

Okay so today I am not going to reflect on something in my daybook. I’m gonna try to switch it up and try something a little different. Life is boring if you always do the same things.

This past Thursday I had to write a midterm essay for US History. We weren’t told what the essay would be on. We only knew it had to be 4-5 pages and needed to include a reference from something we’ve read in the class in each paragraph. Did I mention we only had an hour to write this essay?

So I decide to just study as much as I can. There’s really not that much a person can study for an essay exam. I looked through all the main ideas we talked about over the first half of the semester and just jammed my head with information. But this reflection is less about the actual essay and more about the idea of timed essays, so let me get to that.

Basically, I think timed essays are ridiculous. What does it prove to teachers??? I had to rush through the whole thing and it probably sounded like crap. It probably made zero sense and my main ideas were not clear or made any sense at all. So what’s the point? Yea, okay it shows that we are actually learning something but there’s no way I’m going to be able to remember a billion examples we read, especially without knowing the topic of the essay beforehand. I can’t grasp my mind around it. If we go home and write the essay, it’s going to sound better, it’s going to have better grammar, our ideas will be clearly stated, plus it’ll be typed! I am officially anti timed essays. Hopefully I passed the stupid thing.

And for those who are as unfortunate as I am, here’s a few tips:

http://www.stonybrook.edu/commcms/writrhet/for_students/strategies.html

http://www.csun.edu/~hflrc006/strategies.html

 

Midterm Blog!

Midterm time!

So my group chose Dr. Seuss’s Hooray for Diffendoofer Day as our literacy narrative example. Maybe it’s not the most intellectual book, but Dr. Seuss was a smart guy and he always had meaning behind his children’s rhymes - which I like about him and his writing style.

 

 

We documented our journey of finding the book via a slideshow. http://snack.to/bunaom9t

So here’s how our search began:

We arrived at Atkins Library approximately at 9:30 am on Tuesday October 2, 2012. Everyone but me was early, so I met my group members, Nikki, Michael, and Bryan on the second floor where they had already gotten their laptops out. I sat down and we began browsing the Atkins search engine online. I was brainstorming on what type of writings could be easy to write about…at first poetry came to mind. So we started talking about some popular poetry that could be used and BAM! It hit me. Dr. Seuss. Who doesn’t love Dr. Seuss???? So we searched online and found a couple of Seuss books in the library. So we picked a random one just so we could find the Seuss section. We took a picture of the Call number and Bryan and I were up first to search for the book (we didn’t want to leave or carry our stuff around so we took turns).

 

Like I said before, our group was on the second floor. And to be honest, Bryan and I didn’t get how the library was organized –it’s confusing. So we started on that floor until we realized it was nowhere to be found. Without wasting any more time, we went downstairs to the reception desk and asked the ladies where we should look for the Seuss books. They told us to go up the 5^th floor in the Juvenile Collections section. So Bryan and I searched for the elevator, and headed up. We walked up and down a few aisles for a good 20 minutes and then gave up. There were simply way too many books. So we went back down to the second floor back to Michael and Nikki.

Then it was their turn. So Bryan and I just hung out while they were gone. They came back about 15 minutes later with a Dr. Seuss book! Dr. Seuss’s Hooray for Diffendoofer Day to be exact! So we read the book and talked about how it relates to our lives. Then I attempted to write like Dr. Seuss in my Daybook and was unsuccessful - I ran out of rhyming words. Nothing rhymes with enemies…at least I tried.

Here's a picture of the page I wrote about:

My daybook writing:

 

Overall, it was a pretty fun time in the library. I like the idea of searching for a literacy narrative on our own. It wasn’t easy, but after we found it, we felt pretty accomplished. Dr. Seuss was an interesting man, and I like how you he can make a children’s book but with so much meaning behind his words. It’s sneaky, but impressive.