Desmond Goodman-Ahearn Testimonio & Portfolio by Desmond Thomas Goodman-Ahearn https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw An interactive guide to my LATINX ENGL 102 writing, learning, and reflection. en-us 2022-04-05 18:38:15 UTC 2025-10-22 06:27:03 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f32b.png Video Introduction desmondtga1 https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2138819294 2022-04-11 07:51:46 UTC https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2138819294 First Papeltio Guardado desmondtga1 https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147327915 “Unit 1 was challenging for me because it was a type of writing I have basically no experience with. I have not had to do a place profile with sensory details before. I don’t have much experience with sensory details because I did not read very many novels when I was younger and still don’t. The whole time I was writing my essay I felt like it was pretentious and incoherent. This made it very hard to write. I would just think of it as an exercise in using sensory details to get through it. For unit 2 I want to procrastinate less. I feel more confident about the assignments in the second unit. I think I will be able to use the technology.”

I believe this papelito relates to course goal 5A. This course goal is about narrating the writing process which I did in this papelito. The main focus of this papelito is reflecting on what it was like to do the first assignment. This was safe kept because I was openly expressing how I was not very happy with my final product for unit 1. I wrote in this papelito that I do not have very much experience with this genre and was unsure how to navigate it. That was probably why I was so unsure about if I was producing good work the whole time. I wanted to share this one because I feel that it was one where I did the most self reflection. 




]]> 2022-04-18 18:01:55 UTC https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147327915 Second Papeltio Guardado desmondtga1 https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147329134 “This semester I have been keeping a todo list of my assignments to stay organized and have an Idea of the order I should do them in. I have been getting better at not procrastinating my assignments. A habit I need to work on is that when I get home I will look at my phone or watch tv before working on my assignments. For me this is a problem because I get sucked into what I am doing and don't start my assignments until later in the night. It causes me to be up late and either compromise on sleep or wake up late.”

This papelito was one of the first ones I wrote in the semester. When I wrote it I was thinking about how I could set myself up for success this semester. The prompt was about reflecting on study habits and how to improve them. I wrote about how I have an issue starting my work when I get home. One strategy I used this semester and last semester was to delete apps like Instagram off my phone and games off my computer when I need to focus. Doing this allowed me to be more focused and productive. This is related to the theme of safeguarding because I was reflecting on a weakness that I have. This relates most to course goal 5A. I think creating a productive writing environment is critical to the writing process. 


]]> 2022-04-18 18:02:51 UTC https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147329134 Third Papeltio Guardado desmondtga1 https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147330805 “Being a white male comes with a lot of privileges. I notice at work some customers, especially older ones, will not listen to and try to argue when a woman is explaining a policy to them. But as soon as a man comes over and repeats the same thing to them they will understand. Another privilege I can think of is being born to white, middle class, college educated parents. I think that people who are well off financially should use their extra money to support people who are less fortunate. An idea I have is that I can donate my extra money to mutual aid efforts.”

In this papelito I reflected on what privileges I have in my life. I wrote that being a white middle-class male comes with privileges. I wrote about what I think people who enjoy privileges should do to help others. This Papelito relates to course goal 8d. It proposes ways we can use our privilege to serve others and work towards justice. I think that it relates to the theme of being safeguarded because admitting privileges and advantages is something that is hard for a lot of people. Privileges are often hard to identify. Admitting them is difficult; many feel as though it discredits their achievements. 


]]> 2022-04-18 18:04:05 UTC https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147330805 U1A1 desmondtga1 https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147334907

Unit one was challenging for me at first because It was my first time writing about a place in that style. The purpose of U1A1 was to write down observations and inferences for places to potentially write about. I had never done this type of work before. I did not have much of an idea of what I should have been observing. I think where I messed up was trying to come up with an idea for a story before writing down observations. I should have done the observations first by writing down as much information as possible, then seeing what narrative makes the most sense.]]> 2022-04-18 18:07:03 UTC https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147334907 U2A2 desmondtga1 https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147336061 The purpose of this assignment was to gather sources and information for the unit 2 story maps. The story map I made is about the possible causes of out-of-control housing prices. A lot of the research I was doing was looking at other people's takes on the housing market. In my story map I did not give only one reason for housing prices. I included a few commonly cited causes for why housing is becoming increasingly more unaffordable and out of reach for many people. I wrote about the consequences of those prices and how they affect people. The writing convention this gave me the most practice was citing sources and creating a bibliography. I used MLA for my citations. Knowing how to research and then cite that research is very important in academic writing.

]]> 2022-04-18 18:07:59 UTC https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147336061 U2A3 desmondtga1 https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147337522 For U2A3 we were to create a draft of our story maps. I made my story map about housing prices. For the draft, I wanted to focus on getting all the information onto the page. I was less concerned about formatting. The model text that I chose was “The US - Mexico Border” by Alexis Milton, Rachel Steiner, and Vanesa Mercado Diaz. What I chose to model from this piece was its format. Just like the mentor text I had a story map with data related to the issue, written text, and images. A strategy I have found that works for me is to worry less about how the information is organized and more concerned with getting it on paper. I find that this strategy helps me procrastinate drafts less.]]> 2022-04-18 18:09:07 UTC https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147337522 U2A4 desmondtga1 https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147339208 I find having another set of eyes on my work to be the most helpful part of the revision process. Another part of the workshopping process I find helpful is to be able to look at the work other students have done. When I was looking at Nigel's story map I saw him use some of the features of the story maps website that I did not think to use. When I made my revisions I used some of those elements. The main changes I made to my work were related to formatting. I added headers to each of the sections to better organize my thoughts. I also fixed the mistakes I made with my parenthetical citations. My first year at the U of A helped me understand just how helpful it is to have my work peer reviewed. In the future I am going to try to get another set of eyes on my work whenever possible.]]> 2022-04-18 18:10:24 UTC https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2147339208 My Testimonio desmondtga1 https://padlet.com/desmondtga1/a3an2h05vtygl8zw/wish/2161866904 My name is Desmond Goodman-Ahearn. I have lived in Tucson since I was just a few months old. What stood out to me the most from this class was learning about the history of Tucson. It made me relaize how little I actually knew about the history of Tucson, especially concerning its history with gentrification. I knew about the phenomenon of gentrification but I was not aware of its extent in Tucson. It was very impactful to me to read pieces like Lydia Otero’s More Than an Address on the Map, a chapter from her book In the Shadows of the Freeway. The story explains how the construction of the free way personally affected her family as well as the rest of her community. It was also very insightful to hear Lydia Otero talk about the destruction of La Calle in her C-Span interview. La Calle was a neighborhood in downtown Tucson home to a large minority population. Most of the residents of this neighborhood were renters who were displaced when La Calle was destroyed to build the Tucson convention center. In order to justify leveling it there was an effort to falsely lead the public to believe that La Calle was a run down slum plagued with crime. Taking this class has helped me understand the significance of events like this as well as the importance of preserving stories of them to prevent future injustice.

I feel I have definitely improved as a writer from taking Latinx English 101 & 102. I am much more comfortable sharing my work with my peers than I was in August. I remember doing the first few discussion board posts and having them take me forever because the idea of having my work be public was making me over think my responses. As the school year went on I got more used to my work being seen by others. Now I don’t get hung up on the idea that other people will see my work and am much more confidant.

A concept that was new to me is the process of looking at model texts as part of the writing process. Model texts are very important for me when I am writing in a new genre. When I was creating my story map it was very helpful for me to see examples of other story maps such as: “The US - Mexico Border.” by Rachel Steiner and Alexis Milton. I liked the way they integrated the interactive map as well as images into an article and tried to mimic it.

My first year of college has definitely got me to be more comfortable with writing, especially with changing my writing style for different rhetorical situations.


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