Written Task TKaM

January 13th, 1930

Maycomb's School
Malders Street
Monroeville

Dear Director,

I am writing to you, to inform you about my daughter Jean Louise's entering to school, and ask you some concerns she has, so she is more confident when she goes to school the first day. She doesn't know how to write well yet, so I will express her ideas throughout the letter.

First of all, she wants to learn. She wants to know about how much she will learn. She is excited about it. I always call her to come to read the newspaper with me. I teach her to read while we read together, so now that she will go to school, she feels ready and has some confidence. Also, our housekeeper Calpurnia teaches her how to write a little. They don't really get along very well, but she does learn independent of the fights they have. At this age, she would be considered incredibly smart, given that kids her age barely know how to read.

The thing is that she may know too much. This concern is mine. I feel like she may get bored about school and the don't want to come anymore. As a lawyer that was raised here, I know how school is and I know how the children are, which brings me to another point. The Ewells. This kids may be too dangerous and aggressive. They are a family that lives in Maycomb and tend to be sort of mean. From what I know, they have a kid called Burris and he will be attending school with my daughter. Jem, my son, has told me that Burris has failed like three consecutive years, given that they only come the first day of school, and then they never come again. If you could speak with the teachers Jean Louise may have, get together with them, and warn her about this people, that would calm me down a lot.

Jean Louise is really looking forward to going to school. She has never looked forward more to anything in her life. I always see her on the tree house she has, looking over at the school yard, spying on the children at school. She tells me that she likes to just stare and learn their games and to follow her brother Jem's red jacket through the yard, him sharing his misfortunes and secrets with his friends. She is nervous but excited to join all those conversations and games she sees in the yard. She wanted to know if school really is like she has seen when she is at the treehouse. To know if everything is as fun and delightful as she sees. I've told her that school really is fun, but she wants to hear it from someone like you. Someone who has the authority you have. That would calm her a lot.

The last thing we both wanted to ask you is about the teachers. Jem has told us that the teachers are introducing a new way of teaching called the "Dewey Decimal System". WE wanted to know what that is about.

Also, Jean Louise is concerned because of what her brother has told her. The punishment kids get when they behave incorrectly, which is patting the palm of their hands with a ruler. "This aggression should stop, how could kids let themselves get hit by their teacher" she says. But this is not her major concern. Jem has told her that her soon-to-be-proffesor is  a tacky mean teacher. That she doesn't like kids that know more than others. She says she has to be the one who teaches and no one else. The Dewey Decimal System, I believe from what I've heard, was her idea. So knowing how she is as a teacher, her system doesn't really give me  a sense of confidence.

I don't know anything about other teachers, but maybe you could speak with them about being more sensible with our kids. They are just six years old and just started to grow. This would help us a lot and also if you could explain that new teaching method that would be fantastic.

In conclusion, I want you to take into consideration the school's teaching method, as well as answering Jean Louise's questions about school. But more so, I want you to assure me that my daughter will be completely safe while going to school.

I thank you in advance for listening to us. As a parent I just desire the best for my daughter. Her worries about school are common and related to how much she wants to go, even more now that she got interested in that Boo Radley's story. She wants to learn about that, and about that ramshackle house of theirs. She thinks school all get her the answers she wants.

Well, that's just part of their childhood, right?

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon.

 Sincerely,             

Atticus Finch

Rationale TKaM Written Task

This written task relates to my study of the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird". As it also relates to the structure of a formal letter. In this text, I considered the part one of the book and took the position of a character to express a specific tone, the anxiousness.
The anxiousness of a dad and her daughter for the first day at school.
I have learned about african american context in the U.S. at the 1930's. About racism and segregation of black people.
I have written a formal letter because it can express feelings, given that I can take some character's positions and include her and his experiences through the novel.
My letter tries to show and express a character's situation. This way I can show my understanding of the text and vocabulary, while also using what I have learned in this english course.
This written task about Scout and Atticus Finch, explains their concerns and anxiousness that they feel, while intending to look authentically, given the use of context and vocabulary from the time. This makes for a better understanding of the reader. It also appeals to emotions, however it also includes facts form the book, so it makes for a more complete text.

Question3 Task TKaM

In the book, Atticus tells Scout and Jem, "Don't fool yourselves - it's all adding up and one of these days we're going to pay the bill for it. I hope it's not in your children's time." 

The bill that he refers to stands for the consequence white people will have to deal with, given that they discriminated coloured people at the time. 

One of the consequences is that a completely equal society is no longer possible. the reason being that the discrimination created hate in between both races. And as the biggest coloured people representant once said: "Hate begets hate." This means that if we keep hating each other it will mean that we'll be stuck in an endless loop of hate. People will keep going against each other because of the hate that remains. The trust between races is a hard bond to recover.

These conflicts drove us apart from each other, to a point where the older generation has no chance to recover their bond. However, our new generation is more open-minded and thinks in a different way. Nowadays teenagers share with each other independently of their races.

In conclusion, the troubles we had in the past, even though it makes it harder for us to be reunited as one , made us visualise how the worst case scenario would be like and also in a way made our bond even stronger between races.

Response

This is an advertisement text from the Antigua & Barbuda Islands. It's objective being to persuade the reader to take a vacation on the islands. As it is located om the internet, it can use different features and techniques to persuade the reader, such as the background color, the images and the structure on how it's written.

Even before the actual text, there are words set in colour above the text. These words emphasize the words "beaches", "luxury", "Antigua" and "Barbuda". So the reader would actually relate all these words. Comparing beaches and luxury to Antigua & Barbuda.

At first, the ad tells us about the big island, Antigua. It emphasizes tha amount of beaches and entertainments there are, so everyone could seem to enjoy the stay on the island. It also contrast that it is achievable by anyone. It says there are places to stay for famous and rich people, as well as places that are cheaper in which usually the sailors stay. The fact that it uses numbers (such as 365 beaches and 108 square miles) gives the feeling of variety and size. People would relate that to the island being exclusive, however with a lot of variety for enterntainment and touring purposes.

The text also mentions the historical landmarks on te island, rederring to elements like the British Navy and so.

When the text starts to mention the other island, Barbuda, it says it's totally different, therefore there is more variety for people to enjoy and activities for every different liking. It says it's wild and barely inhabited, giving us the sense of adventure.

At last instance, there are activities offshore, so even if you don't like being in the island, there are activities you would enjoy.

FOA Reflection

The main focus of my Oral Activity, was analyzing a speech, while identifying rhetorical figures and persuasive techniques involved throughout the speech, which is what we have been studying on the course. While analyzing the speech, we first explained the context and the we proceeded with analysis, so the audience could have an idea of what the speech is about.
While preparing this presentation, I learned to pay more attention to little details in texts, given that in the speech almost every word represents something important, and every phrase is said for a reason, being a metaphor or just a simple emotional phrase. In our performance we were somewhat nervous because we were the first ones to present, but we knew that we would be taking this pressure off of us, so we wanted to present inmediately. Our structure was solid, the audience got interersted in our speech, and they also seemed to be interested in our presentation about it so I believe we accoplished our objective. I personally think that I could work on my pronunciation and I should really try using certain props to make the presentation more interesting. While on the Analysis I will work more on the little details that I've been talking about, because they are the reason why the speech gets to the audience and the heart of our presentation.

Reading comprehension

1.- Pan African is a term that relates to people form all African countries and is usually used as a reference to the Pan Africanism, which is an ideology that tries to conceal the unity of the African country. This concept is important because it reaches to all people so they feel identified with this term, which unifies them.
2.-  idk

3.- Thao Mbeki was deputy president when Mandela was the president of South Africa. He was the first chairperson-in-office of the Commonwealth of Nations. Mbeki reduced the unemployment of the population and raised the country's economy by 4.5% per year during his term.
4.-
Repetition: I have seen the corruption(...). I have seen concrete expression(...).  This repetition contrasts the idea he is trying to conceal. He is trying to show people hat he knows what is really going on.
Allusion: "(...) to remind ourselves of the Latin saying: Gloria est consequenda- Glory must be sought after. ". He not only advocates a phrase that makes him sound smart, but the phrase has the purpose to create a feeling on the people, by alluding a concrete famous phrase.
Metaphor (figurative speech): "My body has frozen in our frosts(...)". He is alluding to having lived through the weather of Africa.

This rethorical devices really complements the speech, giving it more authority and giving it the ability to reach the audience, appealing to Ethos and Pathos, as well as Logos.

A Deconstructed Ad

 

This is a Name Calling ad, targeting the McDonald´s brand. As an image is worth a thousand words, the massive space that this fat Ronald McDonald is using atracts the customer´s view in a matter of seconds, which is crucial to contrast the point that the picture is trying to achieve. The slogan is the traditional one from McDonalds, "I´m loving it", which in this case is not used because of it´s catchiness, but because it uses a phrase said by the brand, which is now being used to tell people the fact that "they are loving the unhealthy food". This ad has no copy, given that the only and central text is te one we just mentioned. As this is not an ad directly from McDonalds but a name calling ad, the brand signature  wouldn´t exist. However everyone can refer to McDonalds given the classic clown and the colors, as well as the slogan. A rethorical device used is the allusion, given that they are referring to McDonalds famous "I´m loving it", using it against them.

Procrastination refers to the practice of carrying out less urgent tasks in preference to more urgent ones, posponing tasks. This is another good example for name calling ads, given that it targets the famous social media Facebook. The image is simple and concrete, so people could relate it inmediately to Facebook, creating a more direct message to the viewer. The slogan is not taken in count, but the text says "procrastination" instead of "Facebook", which stands for people who probably uses too much Facebook, being characterized by being apathetic and laid-back, there the term procrastination. Copy is again inexistent, as well as the signature, because it obviously isn´t an ad directly from the brand, but an ad that represents a critic to the social network.