Abraham Lincoln Essay Example for Free

Abraham Lincoln Essay Poetry is written to be heard the way a song is meant to be sung. Poetry has been around for ages and enjoyed from children to adults alike. Poetry is not just words on paper that imparts data; it is much more than that. Poetry is an art form that in order to be fully understood, one has to be able to analyze read between the lines. Analyzing poetry can be a daunting task. One may have to read the poem several times with a dictionary handy, just to get an idea what the poem is about. Some poems are made of elaborate statements while only using as few words as possible. The beauty of poetry is being able to visualize what the writer is trying to communicate to the reader and putting it into their own words and scenario. â€Å"My Papa’s Waltz,† by Theodore Roethke can be interpreted in many ways. At first, it can be construed as a child writing about his alcoholic father and the pain that was inflicted on the small boy by the father’s actions. After rereading the poem, the reader can actually see that the father is frolicking about with his son, he may have had a little too much to drink, but that does not depict alcoholism nor abuse. Roethke was shattered when his father died suddenly of a heart attack, when the young man was only fifteen years old. This poem shows him reminiscing about the good times he had with father. â€Å"White Lies,† by Natasha Tretheway is a touching poem about a young girl dealing with her skin color and trying to find acceptance in a judgmental world. A reader can feel the little girl’s pain, loneliness, shame, and fear as the poem is read. Tretheway mentions colors several times in the poem, which alerts the reader on the importance of color throughout. â€Å"I could easily tell the white folk/that we lived uptown, / not in that pink and green/ shanty-fied shotgun section/ along the tracks.† (7-11) for a little girl to feel so ashamed of whom she is and where she came from is heartbreaking and Tretheway put it into perfect detail. â€Å"My Childhood-Home I See Again,† by Abraham Lincoln is a two-part poem that  deals with the issue of memory and having a sense of ourselves in relation to the past. Lincoln used descriptive words to pull the reader into his life and see what it was like for him to grow up. Lincoln wrote the poem after visiting his home of Pigeon Creek, Indiana in 1844. Twelve years after the poem was written, Abraham Lincoln was elected the sixteenth president of the United Sates. Poetry can tell a story about many things. The poet has a story to tell. How the reader interrupts that story is up to them. The reader may not get out of the poem what the poet put into it. Works Cited: My Childhood-Home I See Again-Lincoln http://potw.org/archive/potw325.html A Short Guide to Reading Poetry http://garts.latech.edu/owl/literature/poetryguide.htm Kennedy, X.J. and Gioia, Dana. Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 2nd Edition New York: Pearson Longman 2008

Personal Narrative: My Experience in AP US History Essay -- Narrative

â€Å"Your final exam will be in three parts: multiple choice, primary source analysis, and three major essays. I won’t be allowed within 2 miles of you when you take the exam.† The words of Mr. F, my AP US History teacher, reverberated between my ear drums. He either didn’t notice or didn’t seem to care: â€Å"The AP US History exam will be on a Saturday in mid May. It’s graded on a scale of 0 to 5. Zero being the lowest possible score, 5 being the highest.† A student in the front row raises her hand, interrupting our baptism by fire. Mr. F motions for her to speak. â€Å"Are you related to Stephen King?† I didn’t realize it at the time (because let’s face it, I didn’t voluntarily read anything that wasn’t a motorcycle magazine until my senior year of high school) but Mr. F bore an uncanny resemblance to the best selling suspense author. Even their eyeglasses were similar. â€Å"He’s my cousin.† the teacher nodded, pausing to recollect his thoughts. â€Å"The test is pretty simple, but it’s probably more difficult than anything you’ve taken before.† I had yet to learn the eccentricities of the oxymoron, but that fact didn’t hinder Mr. F as he grinned slyly while he mouthed the previous statement. â€Å"The Regents exams have 4 possible answers. The AP has 5, and they’re usually more difficult to discriminate between. The primary source section will be basically the same thing you run into on Regents Part 2s: political cartoons or other documents accompanied by a set of questions. The essays are probably going to be the biggest hurdle for you. You are required to write three instead of the usual one or two on a Regents exam. Like the Regents, you will be given a limited choice between essay topics to write on, and at least one of the essays will probably... ... feedback, he had to show me what the AP would think of my essay. Mr. F wasn’t flawed. The whole process was - pardon the shamelessly obvious pun - flawed (you had to see that coming since the first 2 lines of the paper). Especially after having read Peter Elbow’s book on the teacherless writing class, thinking about that year of AP US History is absolutely appalling. The whole writing process was turned on its head. It wasn’t about learning to write or how to improve writing. It was about what to do in order to pass. I can only imagine how a member of the Iroquois Nation must feel about living in 21st Century New York: join us or be left behind in poverty. Write this way. It is the only way. Indians are subhuman. Be a man: become an American. No, a real American. Write this way. It’s the only real way to write. And then again . . . maybe I just don’t like US history.

The Left Brain vs. the Right Brain

The Left Brain vs. the Right Brain: How Does This Impact Learning Over the years, schools have been teaching in the traditional way. This has proven to be successful for many students, but not all. By breaking down the brain and how each side of it processes information could make a more conducive learning environment. If both sides are maximized in the classroom, all of the students are able to excel. Which should be the goal of all schools. Before comparing the styles, knowing how the brain processes the information for different people needs to be looked at.The brain processes information by the type of information that it is. Each side of the brain will process information differently. The left side of the brain will generally process information in a linear fashion. It will take the information and put it in a line and then draw the conclusion at the end. This is a sequential type of thinking. The left brain excels at information that comes in symbols, such as math formulas. It think of things in a logical sense. It can work through a problem in the logical sequence to come to the conclusion or answer.The left brained individual does not have any issues with expressing themselves verbally. They know what they want to say, and they can say it correctly. The left brained person is grounded in the world of reality. They are able to adjust to their surroundings (Templeton, 2012). On the other hand, the right brained person is the opposite. Instead of being linear in their way of thinking, the right brained person likes to know what the result is before discussing the topic. They need to know what the â€Å"big picture† is first so that they know where they are going.The right brained individual will jump around from task to task, not doing them in a sequential order. They still complete the tasks, but they will not prioritize the tasks. Where the left brained person likes symbols, the right brained person likes to deal with things that they can touch, r eal objects. The left brain looks at things in a logical manner, the right brain does things that feel right. They will base choices off of how they feel about something. A right brained person will want to see things visually. They will make mental pictures of the things that are discussed.The right brained person may have difficulty in meeting deadlines because they want to change the things around them and are less attune to reality (Templeton, 2012). Now that the aspects of each side of the brain has been described, are we able to only function with one side of the brain? To read some of the literature that is out there on the subject, you would assume that this is what people think. If this was the case, then we would only have that side of the brain. The brain was made to work with both sides in conjunction with each other.Yet, most people will be dominate one side more than the other. Radwan (2012) list ways that a person with either side brain dominant can use the other side . For example, a person that is left brained dominant should try to refrain from using only logic to make a decision. Radwan (2012) suggest listening to music while reading. that way the right side of the brain can be active in the process. For the person that is right brained, they should try to find out as much as they can about the issue or situation. Get more details about it.They should also try using more numbers, this way the left side of the brain is working, too, according to Radwan (2012). How is the traditional way of teaching conducted? According to Novak (1998), the traditional way of teaching is where the teacher is the one with the power and responsibility, they play the role of the instructor. They teach through lectures. They will be the one that decides the curriculum and what they want the students to learn. Novak (1998) also states that the teachers are the reason that learning happens and that the students need to have the information that they are missing, give n to them.The classroom is generally set up with the desks or tables in a row with the teacher in the front of the classroom. The most important part of this process is the content and delivery of the lesson. It is believed that the student gets their knowledge through practice, which could include the note taking. This type of teaching will be competitive. (Johnson, 1991). Traditional style teaching can cause learning issues for some students. Not every person has the ability to learn this way. In a competitive arena, those that do not excel, may get left behind because they feel insignificant to the others.If they are wrong in the front of the class, they may not want to answer questions, due to the feeling of being ridiculed. This type of teaching does not take into account the creative side of the student. The student that starts to â€Å"move back into their shell†, has the potential to start to fall behind. With the traditional style, that student will have a challenge to catch up since the technique is to continue to teach, fill the student with more knowledge. Brain based teaching is a different type of teaching then the traditional way. It is geared more for the success of the student.It is broken down into three areas, before, during and after class. The before class section, which is conducted way in advance of the class, has two steps: pre-exposure and the environment. The pre-exposure has the teacher plan for those students that will need some extra help. The teacher determines how they will engage the students, making it interactive, to make them remember more of the lesson. The environment cannot always be adjusted, but when it can, the teacher will want to make the students feel safe. They will want to allow the students to sit wherever they want to.The temperature and lighting will need to be adjusted and watched to ensure it is conducive with the learning environment. (Jensen, 2005) During the class, the teacher wants to ensure that th ey engage both the mind and body. This will keep the student awake and interested in the material. The next step will be to â€Å"frame† the lesson. This step gets the student interested in the lesson. It is like a motivator for the student to learn the material. Acquisition is the next aspect that needs to be looked at. This focuses on input where the students and teacher interact and learn from each other.The teacher will want to elaborate on the topic to ensure that the learning has more detail. When the student has learned something new, time needs to be added at the end of class to reinforce the memory so that it can be recalled later. This is a very important part that is not done with traditional teaching. (Jensen, 2005) Jensen (2005) states that the after class section has two steps: â€Å"settling time and rest and review and revision. † It is believed that rather than teaching a mass amount of information, interval learning is the better way.Giving the studen ts time to allow the information to settle by giving them breaks. As time goes on, the students will start to forget the information that was taught to them. If time is set aside to review the information and revise the students knowledge, they will remember it longer. A study was conducted in Pakistan to find out which style of teaching is more productive. It was conducted in Pakistan because the only style that has ever been taught is the traditional style. Fifty students were used in the study; twenty-five were the control, traditional, and twenty-five were the experimental.All of the students were given a pre-test in physics. The scores were recorded and then they were taught in the two different styles. At the end of the study, they were given a post-test. The results showed that the students that studied under the brain based technique were able to learn and retain more compared to the students under the traditional style. (Ali, 2010) For years schools have taught using the tr aditional style of teaching. Knowing what each side of the brain processes and using that to teach students has proven to be effective.By combining the creative side with the linear side ensures that students stay interested in the material. By staying interested, they are able to learn more, and more importantly, retain more information. References Ali, R. , Hukamdad, Ghazi, S. , Shahzad, S. , & Khan, H. (2010). The Impact of Brain Based Learning on Students Academic Achievement. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research In Business, 2 (2). 542-556. Jensen, E. (2005). Teaching with the Brain in Mind. Alexandria, VA. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.Johnson D, Johnson R. (1991). Learning Together and Alone ed3. ;Allyn & Bacon, Sydney. Novak, J. (1998). Learning, Creating and Using Knowledge: Concept Maps as Facilitative Tools in Schools and Corporations; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc; New Jersey, pp 24-25. Radwan, M. (2012). Learn How To Use Both Side s of Your Brain (the Left and Right Hemisphere. Retrieved from: http://www. 2knowmyself. com/The_brain/learn_how_ use_both_sides_of_your_brain_left_right. Templeton, M. (2012). Learning Styles. Retrieved from: http://frank. mtsu. edu/~studskl/hd/ learn. html.

The Adventures of Huck Finn a Coming of Age Novel Essay...

The Adventures of Huck Finn: A Coming Of Age Novel The novel ‘The Adventures of Huck Finn by Mark Twain is a coming of age novel. Hucks maturity grows throughout the story. He first starts to show emotions toward a runaway slave, and by the end of the novel, has grown up to the point where, when Jim, the slave, is captured, Huck decides not to play games but to take it serious and rescue him the safest and most logical way. He also decides it give up playing games after his friend is shot to ensure that he would get the medical attention that he needed The first indication of Hucks growing maturity was in Chapter 15. Huck and Jim are split because of a thick fog near Cairo, their destination. After many hours, Huck finally makes his†¦show more content†¦Huck eventually rescued Jim using a simple plan. This shows that Huck is mature enough to understand that a friends life is in danger, and they need to really save him, not play around, even though his best friend is aga inst his plan. But its too blame simple; there aint nothing to it. Whats the good of the plan that aint no more trouble than that? The final sign of maturity occurs at the end of the novel when Tom and Huck are mistaken for thieves and Tom is shot. If this occurred at the beginning of the novel, Huck would have probably tried to fix it himself, making up a grand story to go along. Now, at the end of the novel, after Huck has matured, he decides to blow their cover and against Toms wishes, seek medical help. In the novel, Huck transformed from a irresponsible child to a responsible caring gentleman, which is proven in the novel by such events as when Huck feels regret for the trick he played on Jim, saving Jim, and getting medical help forShow MoreRelated The Adventures of Huck Finn: A Coming Of Age Novel Essay584 Words   |  3 Pages The Adventures of Huck Finn: A Coming Of Age Novel nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The novel ‘The Adventures of Huck Finn’ by Mark Twain is a coming of age novel. 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Throughout the story, Tom SawyersRead MoreThe Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain1375 Words   |  6 PagesBecoming Of Age It is a known fact that children struggle to become adults. The teen years are some of the most difficult, in which people are faced with new found responsibilities and authority, not to mention the years spent growing and maturing physically. Teenagers are stuck in an inbetween state where they must learn who they want to become and what they want to be when they grow older. The same is true for Huckleberry Finn, from the book â€Å"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn† by Mark Twain. This