Self Reflection Essay

In the classes I teach to non-native Spanish speakers, students whose Spanish skills are unequal to their English ones oftentimes decline to participate in class, inhibited by insecurity. Although Jacob had privately confessed to me that he struggled with such insecurities as well, they never stopped him from regularly discussing with his classmates topics as linguistically demanding as poetry analysis, U.S. foreign policy, and gender theory. Nor did they prevent me and the class from getting to know Jacob's intellectual sophistication, sense of humor, tact, and likeability, which are personality traits very dependent on nuance and which more often than not withdraw when the possessor must communicate extemporaneously in a second language.

Hays (2008) discussed privilege and biases based on culture and how these privileges and biases can affect a therapist’s work. Having a healthy understanding of self-identity can help understand the role of privilege and biases. In order to help self-reflect, Hays (2008) presented the ADDRESSING model which includes age, disability (born with), disability (acquired), religion, ethnicity/race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, indigenous status, nationality, and gender. This ADDRESSING model will be applied in this paper.

As Zentella has studied within these three families, she finds an assortment of variation, even in individuals that come from the same family. The author argues that children coming from similar backstories range differently in their expertise in the language of their immigrated parents and the standard language of their residency. She concludes that because each family’s outlook on learning a second language and each individual’s preference challenges one another, one’s ability to learn a second language varies as well; there is no solid explanation as to why some people from the same background are more advanced in Spanish rather than English, and vice versa. Most people would not have taken into account of all the different contributions that this author describes, including gender, social preference, location, and personal beliefs. The common person would assume that acquiring a second language is possible for these families because they are surrounded by it, and that they would be able to maintain both their primary and secondary language. However, the author does analyze the contrasting opinion through observing the differences found in her study. She finds that the development of each person greatly varies to where each has different learning abilities and preferences. Where they live, whom they are in contact with, gender, and even their own personal behavior affects their unique growth. Since all have varying opinions, their decisions and values are placed accordingly to their own desire; in conclusion, these are all major factors in how people’s language skills

While I appreciated that one of my peers provided feedback on my work, I feel that the feedback that was provided did not fulfill the assignment. My peer did not provide detailed feedback on my paper that could be adequately incorporated in my review and revisions. Most of the information that was provided as feedback were simply statements that reiterated what the prompt question was. Please see the below feedback provided to me by my peer.

I highly agree with this sentence, self-reflecting is difficult. I am working on self-reflecting and how understanding myself will help me understand others. Self-reflecting can affect people in a positive or in a negative way. I have to learn to pull and highlight all the positive aspects of what a self-reflection emerge, with out fixating on the fear or the negative. Most of us are thirsty individuals that want immediate ratification and reward. We seek a quick buzz without wanting to work hard and without the hangover. We all want the answers and we all want help, but we do not want to help others succeed. I say most and I say we, because it is hard to say I. We all want to fit

The areas of productiveness in this session for me included the paraphrasing and minimal encouragers. Throughout this session I felt that my paraphrasing was clear and concise. It allowed the client to think about what he had said, while being able to provide me with feedback and allowed for the conversation to flow naturally.

Greg, Hammill (2005). FDU Magazine Online: Mixing and Managing Four Generations of Employees. [online]. Last accessed on 5 May 2014 at: http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/05ws/generations.htm

The students’ linguistic background is 100% Spanish speaking and most of them are considered linguistically proficient in their native language. Although most of them do not present any difficulty speaking conversational Spanish, some of them present some inconsistencies at the time to use academic language.

| |the intellectual conversation of topics that were discussed. I also enjoyed the learning |

On Sunday, December 3, 2017, I delivered my first oral presentation on Janette, a peer in my Communicating Effectively course at Manhattanville College. The objective of the project was to familiarize yourself with a classmate, ask/answer questions provided by Professor Brosnan, and then share the knowledge you gained about the individual in a two-minute presentation. The presentation was required to introduce the classmate, what graduate program they are pursuing, why he/she is in the program, their long-term career goal(s), current occupation, favorite class, and an interesting fun fact. The oral presentations were done in the classroom without any visual aid, allowing you to use notes if preferred. By analyzing my 1 minute and 25 second presentation using the “7 Step Presentation Process” I uncovered my strengths and weaknesses as a presenter.

In eighth grade, when I chose to enroll in Spanish One, I had no idea that it would develop into a lifelong admiration for the language and culture. During my Sophomore year over Christmas, my family travelled to Valle De Bravo, Mexico. Unfortunately, I was unable to interact with anyone due to my limited Spanish knowledge, prompting me to study more rigorously the following school year. On our next visit, I returned to Mexico with an additional year of knowledge, eager to test my fluency. Whether it were a taxi driver, farmer, or vendor, I would attempt to carry on a conversation with anyone willing to talk. Even though I fumbled with words and struggled at times to understand, I was determined to improve my speaking skills. Through my discussions,

The College of Charleston was my preferred college out of the colleges I applied to. A majority of the time this was a good choice. Then there are times when part of me thinks attending a different college would have been a better idea. Then again, it is only the first semester of my freshman year. Freshman year has a handful of requirements for classes, including the First Year Experience and the seminar that goes with it and many other general education courses. There were a good many choices to choose from for my First Year Experience class and The Gullah Community: Ethnographic Research in Gender and Identity was the one that stood out to me the most.

Even though this class was a requirement for my nursing school, I was interested in getting to know more about my health and how to live a healthy life. After the first analysis, I had several goals and things I wanted to achieve personally, however, the three most important ones were my water intake, eating healthy which includes eating more vegetables and more protein foods since my actual intake was below the recommended intake and finally exercising more to keep fit and strong. Exercising has always been a problem for me because I always think am healthy because of my size and weight, but I have had several incidences where I have been told by my doctor to exercise, so this class was an eye opener for me since I read a lot about exercise but was feeling lazy to start and kept procrastinating.

Upon entering high school, I didn’t initially believe my Spanish class would become as meaningful as it is. Having a Spanish mother tongue, I naively conclude then that there wasn't much else I could learn about the subject. However, my teacher, whom I've had for the past four years, enlightened me of the abstract

Teaching moves Ms. Rodriguez makes to support her multilingual students: She begins with a narrative story about yesterday’s work, She uses a visual cue to remind students of the writing she demonstrated yesterday, She provides a verbal demonstration for her students, modeling English syntax, Her tone is inclusive, and she talks to her students like fellow writers, She writes about a Spanish-language television show that most of her children know and watch, She points to each word and has the children read with her, demonstrating concepts of print that are significant for children learning to read in English, She asks students to turn and talk to their partners, which provides her multilingual student the opportunity to try out their ideas with a partner before speaking to the whole group, She models her writing and writes in Spanish, which validates the majority of her students’ language(s), She checks for understanding, She verbalizes the internal question that children can ask themselves when they complete their writing.