Richard Andrade

Brian Adler
#3638 English 100
5 October 2014

School is not my favorite place to be. If it was for me school did not have to exist but there
is a lot you learn in school so I cant complain. My first real English class that I remember being
in and doing real work was second grade. Mr. Murphy was his name and he would make us
learn things by making a catchy song. It made learning a lot more interesting. Thats when I
started to like going to school and actually learn. Growing up I was a pretty smart kid and had
potential to over shine in school. Once I got to middle school I was well prepared for school but
the only bad thing is that I was getting lazy. I made it through all my classes with a B average
in middle school so I was still in good rhythm. My freshman year as a high school student was
awesome I read about 22 books in the whole year. I was so intrigued in books because it was
like watching TV in your head. I learned that words were as powerful as a gunshot to your
heart. I started to critically think everything I would do. In Critical Thinking by Bell Hooks he
describes how thinking about things fully shows us how to understand how life works. For
example, The heartbeat of critical thinking is the longing to know-to understand how life
works.(Hooks) This quote shows how the main point of critical thinking helps us define the
world and how it works.

I can say that I started to critically think in 9th grade. I would question a lot of things and
understand my surroundings. As Bell Hooks says Thinking is an action. In order to fully think
you need brain power. Students need to enjoy the process of thinking in order to understand
what they are working with. I hate studying because it takes effort from your head to critically
think about the material in order for it to stay in your head.
Imagine there are muscles in your brain pumping iron to think hard. We do not become
critical thinkers right away there is a process and the first thing to do is embrace and find the
joy in thinking. First they must learn to embrace the joy and power of thinking
itself.(Hooks)This quote shows that we have to think about thinking in order to love thinking.
In simpler terms, critical thinking involves first discovering who, what, when, where and how
of things-finding the answers to those eternal questions(Hooks) This quote shows how
answering questions you do not know how to answer increase knowledge.
Having an open mind is crucial when critically thinking. You cannot be bias because then
you are not thinking you are criticizing. Keeping an open mind is an essential requirement of
critical thinking.(Hooks) In my senior English class Ms.Gullo, my teacher would make a group
discussion and makes us critically think about the certain topic. This would give initiative to my
peers to follow up with an argument which would make class fun because you had to hear out
your peers give their opinion which are critical thoughts.
My experiences educationally from middle school to the end of high school and start of college
I know I am a student with a fixed mind-set. In the fixed mind-set, students care first and
foremost about how theyll be judged: smart or not smart. This was me my senior year when I

had trigonometry. Before I entered the classroom I told myself if I was smart enough to be in
this class. I told myself that if I caught on with the material I would try my best to do well in this
class and I could not catch on some juniors had the class with me and they were doing just fine
answering questions that I could not even understand so up I gave up. I was scared that people
where going to make fun of me if I didnt get what everyone else understood.
I was very lazy in that class because he would give a lot of homework and I did not
understand anything. They are also afraid of effort because effort makes them feel dumb.
They believe that if you have the ability, you shouldnt need effort, that ability should bring
success all by itself.(Dweck) This quote is totally me in my math classes. I thought to myself If
the juniors can do it so can I, but that I never put in the effort to actually get the material.
Words would stab me like daggers in my brain. This reminded me of the freedom writers book.
The Students came in with a fixed mind-set and left with a growth mind-set. They all cared
about learning and how literacy and language can change the perspective of how things work.
In The Perils and Promises of Praise, by Carol S. Dweck she explains how students have
certain mind-sets that can either hurt them in the long run or make them aware of what is
causing student dysfunction. Students with a growth mind-set have a higher possibility to do in
better in class and in school period. Students with a fixed mind-set have a tendency to consider
cheating.they decrease their efforts and consider cheating.(Dweck). This is probably a chunk
of students that have a fixed mind-set.It ignites their intelligence and causes it t grow. In the
face of failure, these students escalate their efforts and look for new learning
strategies.(Dweck) This quote shows how students with a growth mind-set dont let a little
confusion stop them from achieving an answer.

Language believe it or not has more power than actions sometimes. When the say stick
and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me is false because words can be so
punishing like getting punched in the face. It goes without saying, then, that language is also a
political instrument, means, and proof of power. This quote shows how language can make a
person sound more educated as in used in politics. Our president has to know how work with
words in order to have control over certain circumstances. People evolve a language in order
to describe and thus control their circumstances, or in order to be submerged by a reality that
they cannot articulate. This means that words can control situations that can be hard to
articulate. Just to show how powerful language is.
In If Black English Isnt a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is? James Baldwin explains how
language can be a powerful tool. For example language can change the mood in a room. Two
people can be arguing and someone pulls out with a smart comment people act all surprised
and get intrigued about what that person said.
Language can bring cultures and people together. With the power that words have people
can learn new things. For example slaves were not taught to read and write because white
people new giving them the ability to r3ead and write would learn about what is going on and
find out they are being used which cause them to fight for their rights.
Literacy and language has a big load of power. Language has enough power to cause
change. For example Martin Luther King Jr. exposed the black community to racism and slavery
with words. This changed the world greatly black people became slave free. Do not

underestimate language of any kind. It teaches us a lot of things that can be effective for us
later on.