Journal 5 Post

                A portion of Rose’s fourth chapter particularly resonates with me. He describes how some of his out-of-classroom experiences informed his academics. During his job cleaning and repairing the building in which he lived, he would come across random personal items that had been discarded or lost. These items would remind him of poetry: “I would hold the earring or the scarf or the page of someone’s diary, and familiar longings and distant lyrics and musical cadences would reify into an image at the center of a poem” (74). This reaction to everyday features reminded me of my experiences during the fall semester of 2011, when I was taking Jody’s English Learners in the US course. We were required to keep a journal for our field notes, and whatever other outside notes we found relevant. Although some of my observances were stretched pretty far to relate to the subject matter at hand, many of my notes were very thought-provoking and meaningful to me.

                While listening to my music outside of class, sometimes I would hear a lyric that stuck out as describing or illuminating a certain concept in class. I particularly enjoyed noticing these musical nuances because music is such a huge part of my life, and it was special to understand an educational concept through the lens of a lyric of a song that I love. I would also go visit my former high, middle, and elementary schools, and discovered many illuminating examples of the ideas that we covered in class. For example, in class we would discuss the concept of Standard English as being the normalized and mandated language used in schools; then in my former middle school’s library I saw posters that emphasized this point.