Describe your topic.
My topic is reading. Any and all types of reading. It also includes getting others interested in reading. In a way I want to link my previous ideas to this one. Communication: all reading materials attempt to communicate a message, and idea, a story. Learning about animal cruelty: get my hands on articles, understand the concepts thoroughly, get involved somehow.
Explain how you came to be interested in your topic and why you care about it so much.
Reading has always been something immense in my life. As a child, my mom would always read me a bed time story, I basically asked and forced her to read to me until I could do it on my own. Reading was literally my life. (Past tense because I no longer have the liberty to read as much as I would like.) I could read a Harry Potter book in one sitting, I sped through that series, and eagerly searched for others like it, getting a hold of texts such as The Series of Unfortunate Events, or the Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath series, and the list goes on and on, and continues to grow. Reading has always been an interest, hindered only by the "free" time I have available.
My other two sub-topics came about because I have always had an interest in helping. Communication, mostly an interest in sign language came about when I was unable to understand a woman asking me and my friend bus times. My mind searched for a way to understand but I couldn't , but my inability led me to my first attempt to learn ASL. As mentioned in a previous post, I have failed multiple times, second and third attempts being sparked by the TV show "Switched at Birth." The fourth attempt was sparked by this class, although I have failed again. I care because I want to be able to understand, I want to be able to help, and in some way I want to make it up to that woman who probably missed the bus that day.
My second sub-topic is learning about animal cruelty and finding a way to help, I care about this because of the fact that I had an odd pet at age 11. At this age I was given the responsibility of caring for a Dorking chicken that I named Katalina. (I have no idea why I chose this name.) I don't exactly remember what I was searching for online, but I came across undercover, factory farming, animal cruelty videos. Well, my love for my chicken led me to keep searching, but my love for one animal soon turned to a love for all animals that are simply meant to be eaten, or that are used for some other product.
Predict how learning about this topic will enrich your life and provide value for learners and others in your community who read/see what you do.
How doesn't reading enrich my life? It builds vocabulary, it allows the reader to exercise the brain, it aids the reader in reading and comprehending faster. Not reading hinders the brain and its capacities. Reading has already enriched my life, it aided my learning of a second language, English, and it continued to help me in learning. I honestly don't know what my project completely is, all I know is that I want to read. And I also know that one of my goals has always been to start a reading program at my local library, getting kids into reading at a young age, encouraging them to read more difficult, larger, and more intellectual books.
My other two topics would show the value about learning or reading up on something. If I continue to attempt to learn sign language, I could possibly show its value through work that I do. Sign language would allow us to tear down another barrier. Doing research and posting information about animal cruelty will aid in educating my fellow classmates and others in what really occurs in farms, even the so-called free range farms. But the information I post is not to force or gross people out into being vegetarian or even vegan, rather for them to truly look at the company they purchase their meat, eggs, etc. from.
List the academic disciplines and/or skills the topic requires (for example, game development requires an understanding of psychology, math, coding, literature, music, history/social studies, and many others).
Skills required: Reading does not require any skills except for the desire to read and the ability to understand and follow a story line. All other knowledge and skills will only come in useful, for example, music (rhythm for poetry), historical/social studies (historical allusions, also valuable when reading articles), psychology (understanding character thoughts/actions).
Map out how you will begin learning about your topic (it's OK if you don't have a formal plan yet-- in fact, learning how to make a plan in this area may well be your first step).
I wanted to start off with a book that Dr. Preston recommended, being unable to get ahold of the book I began to simply read - so far I have only read three books,
The Fault in Our Stars, and
Water for Elephants, and
Angela's Ashes. Regarding the second part of my masterpiece, I hope to speak to the librarian at my local library to see whether I could start a Saturday reading program or something similar. Maybe throughout this process a book club could be started. Maybe this will include writing as well or tutoring small children (I kind of just want to aid my community in educating our children and younger generations.)
Regarding my other two topics: Communication (sign language) - pick up where I left off and continue to learn, try to get my friend or someone to learn with me.
Learning about animal cruelty (meat, poultry, food items) - Look for recent news, articles, videos on the topic, cover the entire topic, post on it.
*find a way to combine and bring all this together in one presentation type of thing
Describe the resources you will need (wave the magic wand I just handed you and imagine for a moment that time, money and access are not obstacles. Who do you want to meet? What materials do you need? What types of experiences will you seek?).
Materials that I need are books, articles, poems, reading material meant to be intellectual, materials meant to entertain, materials meant to stir one emotion from the reader, I need a variety of reading materials. But for that I have the public library and other such resources. The experience I seek the most is just being able to immerse myself in the world of reading as I once did as a kid. I want to create those same experiences for other children, show them the wonders of a novel and the messages hidden in a poem..
I will attempt to seek only positive experiences, but I would also like to experience anything negative that comes along with any of my topics. In example, if I could, I would convey my own research or undercover investigation regarding animals, which would not be a pleasant experience.
Who I want to meet - anyone related to any of my topics, ex: anti-animal cruelty spokesman, authors (I met four authors once, not any I knew, but I met them at an "Author Go Round"), sign language teachers (contact the ones at Righetti and others not from Righetti), etc.
Consider which tools you will use to tell your story. Will you continue posting on your course blog? Will you start a new blog, and if you do, will it be on Blogger, or WordPress, or Tumblr, or another platform? Will you use other media and collaborative tools to curate, remix, and share your learning? Do you have ideas about what would be cool but you're not sure what's out there?
Course blog. It seems like the most sensible choice. I don't really know how I will present what I am doing, but I am going to be reading a lot, hopefully, and it will be knowledge I want to share with my classmates without having them look somewhere other than the blog I already have. It seems easier to continue on my current blog and keep a tab (like I already do) for my masterpiece work. Although I do hope that I can create a remix of some sort, I will figure out a way to include images, videos, etc. to show my thoughts and share my story with reading.
It is also much simpler to post my findings and information on animal cruelty and such on my course blog.
For the sub-topic of communication + sign language, I hope to post videos of my progress onto this here same course blog. Videos of songs in sign language, videos of me giving lessons, videos of SIGN LANGUAGE.
I kind of rambled on these questions and seemed to go off-topic a lot, but I expressed my thoughts and ideas, and that was the point, right?
