Socratic Seminar- "Everyday Use" 11-4-15

Eunice de Leon

4A

11-4-15

Socratic Seminar "Everyday Use"

During the Socratic Seminar some of the vocabulary that was used was the word portrayed- actor represents or play that part of someone on film, I was familiar with this word and the dictionary helped me somewhat but after hearing how Brandon used the word during the Socratic seminar by saying that Dee's mother "portrayed herself as dependent but also Independent." Oppression- unjust treatment. The dictionary provided me with only one meaning and I thought the word oppression only had one way of being used but after having the Socratic seminar and people using the word oppression to describe how people were oppressed in the time period of "Everyday Use" I now understand that there can be other meanings to words. Joanna used the word coincide which means to occur during the same time but she used the word to compare the time periods and the women's character, by saying that Dee's decision were based on the time period. This example helped me better understand the word based on how Joanna used coincide.

A technique that was used a lot during the Socratic seminar was reflecting on what the blanket meant. Another technique that we used to comprehend the text was using evidence from the story on why Dee changed her name and her life, because to comprehend Dee we needed to re-read the text and brake down the meaning of her words. Brandon used his sister as an example to explain why Maggie was smiling when her mom gave her the quilt instead of Dee. The example used was comparing how still children feel a sense of pride when they get something first than their older sibling. A good technique that was used by Brandon was him using other stories for example Jury of Her Peers to compare the time periods of how people lived.
As I looked back to the video, I did okay in the Socratic seminar but what I could fix is getting more into detail with my answers and fully develop my thoughts because my answers could be confusing. I was not fully prepared for this Socratic seminar. As a group we preformed well and helped each other out when we got stuck and tried to involve other students that did not speak, but the camera played a role in people not speaking because they got nervous when the light and camera were on them. 

In my imaginary essay for "Everyday use," I would used the strategies used during the Socratic Seminar for example we used the time period to form opinion on why Dee made the decisions she did, other strategies we used were reflecting on text we better understand a question and using personal experiences to make a point .If I wrote an imaginary essay the main points I would express is the time period because we learned that much of the decisions made by Dee correlated with the time period and Dee trying to move on to current trends. Another point I would express is the quilt, this was a topic that was talked about a lot because this was the main issue with Dee's mother and her daughters because she had to figure out who had the best interest in the quilt and which daughter would add more to the quilt. I understand why "Maggie smiled" when she got the quilt at the end, when something that is passed down by generations is usually given to the older sibling first, its like when I got my phone before my sister, she was upset but my parents chose by who would be more responsible, this is just like how Dee's mother made her decision.