Reflection

Ramon Chavez

03/31/09

Immigration Project Reflection

Immigration Project Reflection

Part 1

My experience with the Lit circle was not all that great, I was confused in some part but otherwise it is a really well written book, I enjoyed it very much. I had some trouble with the commenting and the posting of the responses because of technical problems. I was not necessary ecstatic about my book but I didn’t hate it. I was happy to have been assigned this book because it really tells a lot about the human nature like what people can and will do to another living person without think of their past or what a person might be going through.

Well there were a lot of significant events and scenes that occurred in my book but I think Ill go with the one I chose for my painting, the scene I had chosen was at the very beginning, the scene included the main character, Valentino, and 3 other characters. The scene starts out with valentine opening the door when he hears a knock, once he opens it he finds a lady with a red dress in his front steps, she ask him if she can use his telephone because her car broke down, he tries to close the door, but she puts her foot in the way and ask him again this time he lets her in right away she locks herself in the bathroom with the telephone, while distracted her accomplice comes from behind and hits Valentino. The book I read is what is the what by Dave Eggers. I learned that my group sometimes have difficulties understanding one another because we didn’t have like set chapters and so I was confused.

I feel that if I had finished on time and showed to Ms. Abbassi, I would have found out that many people were doing scenes of him in Africa, so I had to recreate the drafts to fit when he was in America. I think that was the only difficulty I experienced during the draft process and the painting process. I think that overall my painting was really good because I had some really good examples to base it off of, I also included parts from one of my prior homes. I was surprised how well the actual sidewalk and grass came out because I thought it was going to be a lot messier than it was.

I personally like the Lit Circle groups better when we had to write them instead of having to do it on the blogs because it just make the whole process much harder that it has to be, I would add teachers know where everyone is at or if they have any difficulties. I would also take out the character analysis because it really isn’t needed or you could just have them focus on the reactions to what the characters do.

Part 2

I had originally had chosen a scene from when the main character in his home town when the rebels had decided to attack the shops and kill innocent people all for no reason. I had drawn some buildings on fire, and I also people dead and an helicopter. I had to change my scene because since it took in Sudan allot of people were already doing scenes there. My new scene included Valentino in America when he was opening the door to see a last in a red dress in his front steps. I had originally for my 3 sketches had chosen the book cover, the scene that struck me and my last one had been a interpretation of the scream.

I think the connection in between my painting and my book might be a little hard to understand unless you look at it carefully, my painting is very deceiving. I think for me the connection was really clear and it was easy to understand.

I feel that my final product of my painting turned out really well except for the fact that there 1 or 2 things here and there that I could have fixed if I had taken more time and been a bit more careful. I think otherwise my final product of my painting turned out really well because it did look realistic the colors complemented each other and so did the scheme. I think the interpertation of Edwards’s hopper summertime is really shown in my painting.

I think that taking more time and bit more careful it would have turned out better.

I learned that quality and punctuality are really important life skills because with out them ones work will never go anywhere and neither will the maker go anywhere. I have been told the quality is better than quantity.

Part 3

Well, the interview process was a bit shaky from the beginning especially because the person I was supposed to interview was always busy, or couldn’t meet. So I was forced to conduct almost the whole project through email and when I did sent it to her she took a while to respond. The process was difficult because we had trouble with the communication part of the project.

I thought that the overall idea was really good but I think that it would had been easier if the person had been more accessible or if there had been a planed meeting schedule so we could have done it without all those difficulties. I also liked the idea of doing the 3 different methods because it was a really cool way of finding out the information like hearing them or seeing them and getting to get closer to them.

Well from the first interview I learned that she has a very interesting first impression of the U.S, she said, USA a big country, with lots of open space and rural areas – a contrast to Hong Kong which is a large city but very crowded with a high population and not much open space. People seemed wasteful – they drive large cars that use a lot of gas (in Hong Kong, most people use public transport like bus, taxis, underground trains), they use a lot of disposable things like paper ware. There are many overweight people, and portions of food are huge – most Chinese people tend to be thin and when we eat, we typically share two or three dishes. But the country is generally very clean and well organized. For the second interview I learned the necessary items, like where she was born when and what states she’s lived in. For the third interview I learned that more personal information like her favorite music, if she’s married or if she has any children.