INTERSECTIONALITY AND PERSPECTIVE PROJECT: We started this unit by doing identity maps and "unfair project". For the identity maps, we wrote our names in the middle of a piece of paper and then created a web with words that we use to identify ourselves. On another identity web, we created it using stereotypes that we have heard about ourselves. The next part of this project was learning about different lenses in which we can view people and literature. The six that we learned about are: Critical Race Theory, Psychoanalysis, Postcolonialism, Queer Theory, Feminist Theory, and Reader Response Theory. During this whole process, we read many different articles by James Baldwin and Gloria Anzaldua and then participated in a socratic seminar about these readings. We also watched Chimamanda Adiche's TED Talk, a single story, and saw the documentary I am Not Your Negro. 

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SERIAL PODCAST

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BOOK CLUB BOOKS: I read the book Homegoing for my bookclub book. This novel follows the lives of the descendants of one Asante woman, Maame. It starts with her two daughters, who do not know each other. It then goes through all of their family. LITERARY DEVICES THAT AUTHOR USES.Through this experience I learned a lot about close reading and how to carefully analyze a piece of literature. While I was reading my book I was trying my best to look at it through a postcolonial lens. Post colonialism studies what happens when colonizers move into a colony and change the way that things are run and the way that people act. 

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OVERVIEW OF OUR PROJECT: The next step in our project was to start our empathy interviews. We chose people in our communities who we thought would have an interesting story to tell. The goal of these interviews was to see the ways in which people in our communities connect. I interviewed a business woman who is the mother of one-year-old quadruplets and a woman who has lived in the same neighborhood for over 50 years. We combined the interviews with b-roll and a voiceover explaining the connections we found between the people we interviewed. 

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CRITICAL LENS ESSAY: For our critical lens essays, we each read a book club book and then decided on a lens in which to read it. I chose the postcolonial lens. I thought that there was a lot to be recognized in Homegoing that aligned with what the postcolonial theory is. We then started drafting our essay. We started with a thesis and continued from there. KEEP TALKING ABOUT PROCESS. 

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SELF-REFLECTION: Over the course of the semester I have really grown as a person and as a student, and I think the perspective project was part of the reason. I really enjoyed watching the TED Talk a danger of a single story and it made me more aware of the fact that I wasn't always listening to all sides of a story. This was super important for me to recognize. Now I try to be more open and listen to all sides of a story rather than just one. I think the that the Serial unit tied in perfectly with what we have been focusing on all semester. In this podcast series, its really important to listen all the way through as each side of the case has very valid arguments. If you only listened to the first podcast you may automatically think that Adnan was innocent. On the other hand, if you only listened to episode 8, you may automatically think that Adnan is guilty.