Pencillage

Culebra, Puerto Rico. It's incredible to think that I've lived all my life in Puerto Rico but have never visited the islands off the east coast (Culebra and Vieques). So I thought of uploading several pictures that will remind me of that amazing weekend I spent on that small island off the east coast of Puerto Rico... Culebra. It was my first time going to Culebra and I'd heard several stories of how early you have to get to Fajardo to get to the Ferry Terminal. We weren't able to get tickets in advance so we left Rio Piedras around 5:30am with hopes that we would get there early enough for tickets since it was the Friday after Thanksgiving so crowds could likely be flocking to Culebra for the long weekend. Luckily, we got there early enough to get tickets and got on the ferry. View from the ferry window. We got off the ferry and stepping into Culebra for the first time was a surreal experience. I was still in Puerto Rico but after the ho...

Written for a Writing about Literature course. ~*~*~           What we have been taught as we learn to read, our culture, our traditions and even our personal experiences shapes the way we approach and interpret any story, poem, novel, play or literary text we come across. As a result of this, the reader virtually takes over the literary text by adding new meanings that the author most likely did not initially intend to give. Alternatively, Peter Rabinowitz, in “Actual Reader and Authorial Reader”, claims that we should also know how to read objectively, keeping in mind the author’s initial intent. I argue, however, that what ultimately determines how we read depends on our own experiences as subjective individuals.           Annette Kolodny, in her essay “Dancing through the Minefield”, reveals that when reading Paradise Lost she was aware that she did not agree with issues brought up in the text, but at the same time she had ...

Originally written on Thursday, March 3, 2011. ~*~*~ Throughout the years the teaching of English in Puerto Rico has been shadowed by the language policy the government has implemented and the attitudes of Puerto Ricans towards the language itself. Spanish has been main language of Puerto Rico for more than 500 years since the Spanish colonization and remains the native language of the majority of Puerto Ricans. Even though English was not unknown before 1898 with the takeover of the U.S. of the island, the language was forcibly introduced and put into contact with Spanish from this time on. Any attempts towards shading a favorable light to the English language or the teaching of it in Puerto Rico as a useful skill and tool for professional and personal improvement have been clouded by chaotic language policies, partisan politics and negative views of the language as an imposition rather than a learning opportunity. The first efforts to Americanize Puerto Ricans aft...

Originally written   on Thursday, January 20, 2011. Written for a Teaching of English course. ~*~*~ Visiting classrooms and getting a firsthand look at what goes on in Puerto Rican schools provides us, education students, with the realties we will all face as teachers. I'd like to present here two somewhat extreme cases with which the English teacher can find themselves in when teaching in Puerto Rico. The schools that I will compare will be the University High School (UHS) and the public middle school, Dr. José Celso Barbosa. The classes that are described are both 9th grade, although I also mention experiences I had when visiting 10th and 11th grade classes. I will describe the reading strategies used, reading materials, integration of technology and other disciplines into the English classroom as well student interaction, participation and dynamics. All these will be described in order to show how they all help promote (or not help promote?) students’ English language gr...