Comments for Each of My Partner's Blogs

Due to technical difficulties, all of the comments I have posted on my partner's blog have continuously disappeared. Both my partner and I have made several attempts to attach them to his blogs, with no success. Therefore, I have decided to create this blog, where I have inserted all of my comments on each of his blogs throughout the six weeks of our blog apprenticeship.

Hope you enjoy my comments and we both apologize for the inconvenience.

Week 1 of Blog Apprenticeship
Matt,

I think you did a very nice job introducing the content-area text which you are reading. Your introduction was informative, clear, organized, and concise. It was very easy for me to follow and comprehend.

I particularly like how you provided background knowledge concerning the events of the text. This truly helps me, as a person who is less knowledgeable about these historical events, understand the context of the text.

Week 2 of Blog Apprenticeship
Matt,

Thank you for sharing your preferred reading strategies. I believe that this may help me better understand how to approach and successfully read through a text in your content-area. I also believe visualization is a great reading strategy. Imagery is very important to much of the literature in my content-area. Many times the authors of English Language Arts related texts attempt to create the image for the reader with their words. I can see how visualization can be useful when reading historical texts as well. It is probably easier to understand the historical event by envisioning the scene, the time period, the figures, and the people.

The photos you have incorporated into you blog this week have truly helped me envision the events which you are reading about in your text, especially the action photos, such as the honor guard for RFK’s funeral; the photo entitled “Beginning of Clash,” which depicts the police on one side and the protesters on the other (this picture is truly symbolic); the photo entitled “Wide Shot of Chaos Outside of Convention,” which is an amazing overhead shot of the convention; and the photo entitled “Infamous Photo of Violence,” which is the most telling photo. I believe the last photo really captures the essence of the text.

My favorite part of your blog this week was how you provided some background knowledge for each photo which you included. I found this very useful and fascinating. I feel more prepared to read this text. I am also excited to do so.


Week 3 of Blog Apprenticeship
Matt,

By reading your blogs over the past three weeks, I have gained a new appreciation for the visualization while reading technique. Prior to these blogs, I may have underestimated the value of creating images in one’s mind during reading. I can now see how creating and connecting images to the words on the page could bring the text to life. This is an especially important strategy for dependent readers to learn and develop. I plan to encourage all of my future students to create their own mental pictures in connection with the words they read on the page.

Lastly, I would like to say that I appreciate how you made connections between past events and events of present day. I feel that those connections are very useful to me. I do not believe I would have been able to make those same connections myself due to lack of prior knowledge concerning these historical events.

Week 4 of Blog Apprenticeship
Matt,

I found it interesting to see a different approach to reading the text than my own, by reading about your reading process and your interpretation of parts of the text. It was especially interesting to gain the perspective of someone who specializes in a different discipline.

I particularly like how you continuously made personal connections between the text and your life throughout your reading in order to make sense of the text.

It was also interesting how you had difficulty visualizing certain scenes. Since this is your preferred strategy, I imagine this must have been a challenge and may have brought you out of your comfort zone.

Week 5 of Blog Apprenticeship
Matt,

I like how you continuously made personal connections to the characters throughout your reading. I believe that this is always a good reading strategy in the literature of my discipline because it tends to make a text more interesting and engaging when you develop empathy for the characters.

I also like when you discussed how the author uses food to demonstrate Tita’s emotions. I believe you were describing symbolism, which is a key literary element, as the author of this text seems to use food as a symbol throughout the book.

One of my favorite moments of this blog was when you connected your discipline to the text. This demonstrates that in reality all disciplines are interrelated and connected.

Week 6 of Blog Apprenticeship
Matt,

I think it is interesting and useful how you have continued to make connections to your discipline. This demonstrates that as readers we try to remain in our own comfort zones, even as we read texts from outside of our content-area. We tend to make sense of the things we do not understand by connecting them to things which we do already understand. I believe this also relates to prior knowledge.

I also observed that you have not used visualization as much while reading this text, compared to when you were reading the text from your own content-are. I wonder why this is so.
I found it both funny and amusing that you began to side with Tita and called Pedro a jerk. This demonstrates the connection you have developed with Tita’s character and the empathy you have developed for her.

Great job with both of the texts!