Social Awareness Project

Devon Forrester

Class 810

    ELA Social Awareness Project

   Writings included in this packet :

• Original poem responding to stop and frisk
• Interview with a pre kindergarten teacher
• Reading response about some social issues in "The Shining" by Stephen King

        

 

   In this packet, you will find several pieces of literature pertaining to modern day social issues. Among these, you will find an exclusive with a universal pre kindergarten teacher. Also, there is a reading response to Stephen King's "The Shining", but more specifically about the social issues in the book. There is also an original poem included in this packet as well as a brief summary of it.

   Original Poem

     Stop and frisk,

Why take the risk?

You'll never know who you're checking

Until you're being he heckled

Through the ranks you'll be trekking

With embarrassment you'll be freckled

What are these "field inquiries"?

It feels all miry, one wrong step and you're stuck.

If you check the wrong person

you may end up dead,

So why make such a bold move,

by moving ahead?

 The problem this poem was written about is stop and frisk. Although this problem isn't widely broadcasted anymore on the news, this is still very apparent in New York City. The process I went through to write this poem was quite simple. Besides the rhymes, I had an easy time creating the poem. Furthermore, I believe that this poem shows that my opinion is quite negative regarding stop and frisk.

Interview with Aimee Ortiz (my mother)

 -What is your job?

I am a universal pre kindergarten teacher's assistant.

 -How does your job benefit society?

I assist in the process of educating children from a young age

 -If you could change a law pertaining to your job, what would it be?

Because the DOE makes the decisions for the pre kindergarten at my school, I  would like to be able to teach all of my students in a larger group as opposed to small groups, because I believe students learn better in large groups, as they are able to listen to other children's opinions, comments and questions.

 -What's your favorite part of this job?

Watching the children develop and really understand what I teach them.

     Social Issues Reading Response for "The Shining" by Stephen King

     In Stephen King's "The Shining", there are many social issues that are hinted at. For example, the main character, Jack is a recovering alcoholic with a dark past. As a result of this Jack makes many poor decisions early in his life. I would like to focus on Jack's alcohol problem.

 In "The Shining", alcohol is shown as a very negative thing. For example, Jack does many things that came close to murder. One quote to support this would be when he hits a bike while driving home drunk with a friend of his. Jack only realizes that he hit someone after the bike had gone up the windshield of the car. As a result of this and many more incidents, Jack later becomes sober, but is then forced to return to his comfort of alcohol.

 This makes me think that alcohol is a very bad thing, and makes me want to avoid it at all costs. What makes me think this even more, is when Jack’s old memories come back to haunt him. For example, Jack is reminded multiple times about when he broke Danny’s arm out of frustration while he was an alcoholic. Because of this, I don’t want to become unnecessarily violent and inflict harm on others. This book really makes Jack seem to be a negative person when he was an alcoholic and makes me want to steer clear of alcohol when I become older.

Work cited

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/03/is-stop-and-frisk-worth-it/358644/.