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How does the practice of synthesis with additional research help you to be a better reader?

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How does the practice of synthesis with additional research help you to be a better reader?

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The practice of synthesis with additional research helps one to be a better reader due to the fact that such allows one to have a better understanding and have the ability to sense patterns in similar writings. When researching for additional information, such gives the reader another perspective of what is happening in the story. An example of this is in the story, Once Upon a Time, where knowing that the author wrote the story before the end of Apartheid, giving the reader the perspective that the main characters in the story were the white people, with their higher power, fear of others based on their different upbringings. With one learning this information, they could use it in other writings about the same topic, picking up the pattern and the perspectives usually unseen.

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Describe several different strategies you used before, during, and after reading; explain which ones you found most helpful; and identify specific steps that you can use to improve as a reader.

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Describe several different strategies you used before, during, and after reading; explain which ones you found most helpful; and identify specific steps that you can use to improve as a reader.

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Strategies I mainly used for reading are recalling prior knowledge, visualization and rereading the text. When reading the first sentence of Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady, I saw that there was King Arthur, so I was able to use my prior knowledge from movies and the Seven Deadly Sins for more context. Visualization was used when reading Lamb to The Slaughter, where I was able to visualize Mary in the dining room as Patrick entered the house, giving a better image of what was happening. For most of the stories, I had to reread them since I did not really understand what was happening with the first run-through but the more I read it, the more I understood a tiny bit more, with Once Upon a Time being an example of such. I found these strategies useful because the strategies that I use are rather limited and I just go into reading without much thought behind it. Due to this, I could improve as a reader by trying to predict what will happen next before reading and during reading to have a bit more information of what I am reading. Moreover, I could read more to gain experience with different styles of writing since I barely read much other than manga, which would allow me to learn more strategies to improve understanding.

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What did this research reveal to you about the short story? What were some of the connections that you made to the stories? What were some realizations that you had?

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What did this research reveal to you about the short story? What were some of the connections that you made to the stories? What were some realizations that you had?

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The research revealed that the short story a representation of the near end of Apartheid. “It was not possible to insure the house, the swimming pool, or the car against riot damage. There were riots, but these were outside the city, where people of another colour were quartered.” (Gordimer, 2), shows that the story could have been represented from the white people’s point of view, where they could have feared other races due to their upbringing. As they were talking about riots, it shows the point where the non-white races with less power at the time were fighting to reclaim their rights. “But to please her—for he loved her very much and buses were being burned, cars stoned, and schoolchildren shot by the police in those quarters out of sight and hearing of the suburb” (Gordimer, 2), such representing the fact that while they felt that they were being protected, the police were simply fending off the riots to follow the government’s ideology. This shows that although both sides simply wanted to live life peacefully, perspective could change the outcome of such.

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How did this unit help you to better understand the stories as a whole? Consider your initial impressions of the story and the thoughts you had about it after completing the Tasks. (I am not sure…)

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How did this unit help you to better understand the stories as a whole? Consider your initial impressions of the story and the thoughts you had about it after completing the Tasks. (I am not sure…)

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This unit helped me to better understand the stories as a whole due to the fact that it was able to give additional perspectives on things, and proving that additional information in the story has a sizable effect. For example, with Appointment with Love, the question about the story, Of Human Bondage where he stuck to the book showed how he was able to struggle with her during his times of suffering. Prior to the questions, I believe I had skipped over it, thinking as he was simply holding a book. Also with Lamb to the Slaughter, the video was able to prove that my visualization was wrong in a sense of the scenery, enhancing what I had already known.

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How can analyzing a story help us to better understand what we read? Consider the elements that make up a story-the ones you were expected to find.

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How can analyzing a story help us to better understand what we read? Consider the elements that make up a story-the ones you were expected to find.

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Analyzing a story helps the reader to better understand what they are reading since it allows the reader to find important information that they probably would have missed. Some of these cases could give a better understanding of how the characters felt in the moment such as in Appointment with Love, on the second page, where it says that he felt split in two. This feeling shows how down he was as he saw the supposed person he was waiting for not meeting his desired expectations. Analyzing a story could also help the reader find hints of foreshadowing, which could be shown in Sir Gawain and The Loathly Lady. Such is where they were unable to find anyone to respond to the dark knight’s question, which makes the reader think that there needed to be someone special because it was in a fairy tale type of setting.

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Stories are important because they allow one to pass on a message in a way that others would remember more than by someone simply telling them. When the author writes a story, a message is usually shown in the story such as with, Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady, where it was to not judge a book by their cover and Appointment With Love, where it was to stay true to what you believe. By presenting a deeper message in a story, they would be able to tell the reader the surface level information, giving the reader different messages than the author would be thinking. They could also inspire and encourage others to do things that they could not believe they could do, like learning how to make a cake from the book they had read.

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How does trauma in a young person’s life alter their perception of the world around them? 

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How does trauma in a young person’s life alter their perception of the world around them? 

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In Lamb to the Slaughter, trauma had altered a young person’s perception of the world by making Mary feel like she needed to hide away from her actions instead of accepting them. At the beginning of the story, “Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband to come home from work.” [...] “There was a slow smiling air about her, and about everything she did.” (Dahl, 1), one could say that Mary was excited for Patrick to come home, as she stayed home while he went to work. The excitement could be perceived by her slow smiling air, since such was prior to her learning about the divorce. This all changed from happiness into fear when she had hit Patrick in the back of the head, where she only looked to hide her actions. The trauma caused her to think in a manner than she previously had, which could be represented by, “It was extraordinary, now, how clear her mind became all of a sudden. She began thinking very fast. As the wife of a detective, she knew quite well what the penalty would be. That was fine. It made no difference to her.” (Dahl, 3) In this situation, she had adapted to her situation, even though she had known the penalty and could have owned up to her mistake and went to prison, she decided to evade. Such leading to her arrest in the video version, where she tried to do the same thing but doing such probably gave her a worse sentence. As the trauma had changed Mary from a person who loved her husband into a person who wanted to hide her actions, she had become hooked on the feeling of success.