Immigration Project Reflection

By: Jessica Blackmon

Immigration Project Reflection

Literature Circle Books/Blogs:
My experience with the LC book was not so good, I think that it wasn’t because the author didn’t catch my attention. I wasn’t happy with my choice because I wasn’t into the book. I felt that I was just reading another book that wasn’t interesting. What I learned from my Book was that if you wait for something, the outcome will be that you won’t get that something, but if you live your life as it goes on that something will come true. My group basically understood the quotes and response that I chose and we were on the same page. In the LC process I would want to have the literature circles back, so if people at home couldn’t do their work on line they would have the opportunity to discuss the book in person. Like I said above I would want the groups to discuss in person and know more of what their saying instead of just writing some of anything on their blog. I would also like that suggestion because if someone in the group didn’t understand something in the book, they would be able to ask their group members about it. I had a few problems with the blogging experience because on some days I wasn’t able to post my quotes and responses, but if we had the lit. Circles back that would have been easier for me to complete my lit. Circle work. I definitely would say that my group members and I were on the same page about the book and the message that the author was trying to set for the reader and we all had the same interpretation of what the book was saying. I think that even though we all had different opinions we all agreed with each other about quotes, responses, the significance, and questions that we all had on our blog.

Art & Literature:
The process for me choosing what I was going to paint wasn’t hard because I was real familiar with the book and the message that it had. I felt that the painting was successful because people understood what I wanted them to in the artist statement. I think that there was a great connection with my painting and the book because I included the main parts of the story in the painting. I feel that my final product came out very successful because it was neat, there were not empty spaces, and the painting had a lot to do with the book. In my final product I think that I could have added a little more details from the book such as the woman in the book being pregnant, the father in the hospital, and maybe the actual characters being in Haiti. I also feel that the painting could have been more colorful and I wasn’t too smart with the color choices. My painting didn’t really show or tell anything about immigration and how it was used in the book, so my painting could have also incorporated a little detailing about that. During this whole process with novels and artwork I feel that I have had a great experience with combining the two. I learned a lot about mixing two subjects together to make a new product and how to make a simple piece of art by reading a book, taking that material and thinking about how to express it with a picture. I thought that this part of the project was the best because 1. You can learn so much from it, 2. You can have fun doing it, and 3. It turns out to be something so beautiful that you can keep with you forever. Overall I feel that my final product was good for what it was and what it should have been.

Interview process with Participant & Gift:
The interview process was kind of tough for me because in the beginning my participant wasn’t available, so it was hard for me to start off with the project. With the in person interview it went really smoothly because I had my questions prepared and we talked face to face with each other, so that was the easier part of the project for me to complete. I don’t think that it was necessary to have to interview the person so many times because it was wasting time to finish up other things that needed to be done. The project could have been much shorter by having the students type 30 questions and use them to interview the participant in person. I would have that rather than students have to keep talking to the participant where could just talk to them once and have their interview done, so that wouldn’t be wasting time on just one section of the project. I feel that the three different methods were good for the project, but it was a little much to do with the participants. The method that I found that was most unique to me was the in person interview because it was more to learn from first hand. I think that it was very helpful to understand what immigration was from an actual person who had the experience of immigrating to another country. I also think that it gave me more knowledge of what people had to go through to get here and why they wanted to get here. I had a good experience in completing a gift for my participant because it felt like I was giving something so special to a person that would really use this gift and appreciate it. The gift that I made for my participant was a calendar with very important dates from his country that I knew meant something to him. I made this gift so that he wouldn’t forget about his country and that he would know that he would always want to go back there one day. Overall I feel that the outcome of the gift and the interviews were successful to me because with the gift it has something important to do with and the interview gave me a lot of knowledge about an immigrant and what an immigrant is.