| Sunday, March 29, 2009 |
| Immigration Project Reflection |
In this Immigration unit, I read the two books: The Circuit & Breaking Through written by Francisco Jimenez. I felt that this book was quite interesting because it taught me more about immigration. I wasn't exactly satisfied with my book at first. I thought that it wouldn't be as great to read 2 books, but after reading the book, I'm quite glad with my book choice. The two books weren't that boring and it gave me a new perspective on immigration. Something that I learned from the two books was how immigrants were treated and how they lived. These books show different races were treated and how that changed over time. I think that the LC process is currently fine as it is, and there wouldn't be anything that I would like to change. I think that blogging is more efficient rather than writing. I think this because when you're writing, you don't really write the whole idea down. Blogging is also more interesting because you can hear other thoughts from other students as well. The only problem with this blogging experience is that other group members would not do a blog post, which affects the other group members. I think that sometimes other people would interpret the book a different way and it is interesting to read their opinions. Sometimes they wouldn't go in depth into the book and they wouldn't understand that scene as well, which gets confusing.
It was kind of difficult for me to choose what I should do for my painting. The scene that popped into my head when I first received the assignment was when Francisco & his family got caught by the border patrol. The only problem with this scene was how to interpret it. When you first look at the painting, you wouldn't exactly know what the scene is and how it is significant to the book. The painting is more understandable if you had read the book. I felt that my painting turned out fine, and the only problem was capturing the detail in this picture. I think that I should have chose my other choice for the painting because it would've been easier and simpler to paint. I think that if I chose the other choice, my painting would look better. From this experience, I think that painting is a different way to reflection on a novel. It is a simple way to reflect on the book instead of writing about the book.
The interview process was smooth and kind of difficult. It was kind of hard to communicate with my participant because he had a busy schedule. I think that interviewing the participant 3 times made me feel like I was bothering the person a lot. It was kind of helpful because then I would have more follow-up questions the next time I had an interview. I think that 2 interviews would've been better, because through e-mail was kind of difficult for people who don't really check their email. You would have to call the person to tell them to check the e-mail, when you could have just done it over the phone. Something unique that I learned was that my participant was placed in a refugee camp in Thailand in order to America. I've always thought that you could just hop on a plane and get here, but there is a longer process in order to immigrate here. I also learned that since his father was a high-rank officer in Laos, his family was not safe and the communists felt that his father was a threat. I thought that this was interesting because things like that actually did happen and wasn't made up. His father was caught and placed in a underground camp where he was paralyzed waist-down, and barely saw sunlight for 9 years. I think that having the opportunity to interview a immigrant helped me understand immigration more. It helped me see immigration in a real point of view, in person. It wasn't through a book or through a painting, but it was coming out of a person who experienced immigration.
In conclusion, this immigration unit taught me a whole lot about immigration and gave me a whole new point of view on immigrants. I got to experience reading someone's perspective on immigration, go through an interview process, learn more about immigration on a in-person POV, and even express and reflect on a novel through art. I enjoyed this unit pretty well and it was valuable to learning. |
posted by charisse @ 3:01 PM  |
|
|
|
|
|