Reading Ten Years: Note-taking, Conceptual Mapping, and Comparing - Essay Example

Reading Ten Years: Note-taking, Conceptual Mapping, and Comparing/Contrasting From 1968 to 1978, several events in San Francisco reflected radical shifts in social, economic, political, cultural, and gender ideologies. A number of my relatives recounted times in their youth, when they participated in the civil rights movement of this decade. Uncle George remembers when he supported the protest against the eviction of elderly Filipino residents, who lived in the International Hotel. He told me: “I felt it. The feeling of giving everything you’ve got to a country that chooses to abandon you, when you need them the most. These were our war veterans. People worked hard to build the nation, but they were thrown out like rats.” He stressed: “We lost the hotel, but we gained a deeper hunger and drive for social justice.” The story of the International Hotel is only one of the numerous essays in Ten Years That Shook the City. In this book, Chris Carlsson compiled articles that illustrated the diverse fibers that interconnected community struggles and movements in San Francisco. These essays supported the main argument that the shaking of the times came from the clash between the oppressors and the oppressed, wherein the latter found their voice and actively opposed their marginalized conditions. General collegiate readers need to develop reading strategies that will help them engage this text, because of the complex concepts and issues they discussed, especially when illustrating changing ideological beliefs and exploring the tensions among conflicting social and racial groups. Multi-lingual students, especially non-native speakers, may need help in understanding the text’s political, economic, social, and gender assumptions, biases, and aspirations. This paper proposes several reading strategies that will help readers understand the main points of the essays, the evidence they use, and how they are connected to one another. It asks readers to read each article three times, with each reading following specific reading practices. In order to fully understand and appreciate the themes and main points of Ten Years That Shook the City, I recommend a three-stage reading process that starts with taking notes of the purposes of each paragraph and identifying questions about vocabulary and concepts in the first reading, summarizing and analyzing points and claims for the second reading through concept mapping, and comparing and contrasting selected essays to determine primary similarities and differences in beliefs, goals and means of achieving them, themes, and experiences during this ten-year period. The first reading is the most difficult part, because it gives an initial glimpse into the individual experiences of each writer. These writers have diverse beliefs, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, and aspirations, and these factors affect how they write, why they write, and what they write about, or not write about. For readers to attain a fulfilling first reading, it is recommended that they read and take notes at the same time. For their notes, students should determine the purpose of each paragraph, including its topic sentence, evidence (if included), and goal. In the essay of Chris Carlsson, “Shaken, AND Stirred,” the first paragraph summarizes the role of the decade in driving widespread local and national social changes. The purpose of the paragraph is to explain the context of the essays. Moreover, it shows the primary argument that these struggles represent the foundation of the civil rights movement. In the article, “Filipino Americans in the Decade of the International Hotel,” Estella Habal describes the struggles of Filipino Americans, as several of their elderly people were evicted from the International Hotel. The first paragraph explains the setting and portrays the background of the primary stakeholders of the eviction: the elderly Filipinos, who served as workers in the agricultural industry, provided services to residents, and fought during World War II. The paragraph is saying that these people were individuals who contributed to their economy and to the history of the United States, but they were being evicted without any consideration for their welfare. In the essay “On Strike! We're Gonna Shut It Down,” by Margaret Leahy, the first paragraph establishes her personal background. It gives readers an idea of who she is and the socio-economic circumstances of her times. The purpose of the paragraph is to explain the forces that shaped her experiences and identity. For the first reading, it is also important to identify new words, concepts, and events that are unfamiliar to students, and to find their meaning in dictionaries and other resources. This practice will help readers understand these words and how the writers used them. For instance, in “Shaken, AND Stirred,” the concept of “contrarian culture” deserves further study (Carlsson 9). Contrarians, based on my research, are people who oppose majority thinking and decisions. In “Shaken, AND Stirred,” the contrarians were composed of people living in the margins, predominantly the working class, whom, according to Carlsson, the ruling class wanted to control and to oppress. In “Filipino Americans in the Decade of the International Hotel,” “anti-miscegenation laws” outlawed interracial marriages and other intimate relationships (Habal 126). “On Strike! We're Gonna Shut It Down” used the phrase “apolitical ivory tower” (Leahy 18). After doing some research, it refers to a sheltered or isolated place, specifically isolated from the political discussions of Vietnam War, in this case. Historical events and organizations that readers are not familiar with should also be researched. The research should included both positive and negative comments on these organizations, so the readers become well-informed of conflicting issues and opinions and avoided being too biased for one idea only. After the second reading, students should summarize the essays and identify main points and supporting evidence. Concept mapping will be useful in dissecting the claims and themes of each writer and how they supported it. For instance, in “Shaken, AND Stirred,” the main point that I identified is social injustice. The causes, based on the article, are market-driven ideology and its supporters, as well as intensified global market competition. The outcomes are social injustice in different forms, such as eviction of the poor and the elderly, suspension or termination of civil rights leaders and activists, and assassination of activist leaders and supporters. In “Filipino Americans in the Decade of the International Hotel,” resisting decolonization is its main argument. Its roots are the understanding of the connection between the plight of the older Filipinos and the aspirations of the younger Filipinos for a strong racial identity, and the resurgence of opposition to colonizing forces. The outcomes were greater solidarity among the proletariat and the reinforcement of communist ideology among the participants. In “On Strike! We're Gonna Shut It Down,” the theme of racial equality is prominent. The roots of racial inequality were unfair recruitment and promotion practices for minority teachers and poor affirmative action practices that can increase the population minority students. After several strikes and sit-ins, the outcomes were student and faculty diversity. The third reading requires further analysis through the comparison-and-contrast approach. Students should read these essays again and identify similarities in beliefs, goals and means of achieving them, themes, and experiences during this ten-year period. In both “Filipino Americans in the Decade of the International Hotel” and “On Strike! We're Gonna Shut It Down,” one of the main themes is interracial community involvement. Even when they have different scenarios, writers showed that people from different racial groups worked together in fighting for their civil rights and freedoms. Also, all of these articles believed in civic engagement with leftist political orientations, although Carlsson also provides examples from other political ideologies, such as cultural radicalism. In addition, by summarizing the different essays, Carlsson shows that political activists used the arts, literature, and music to express their arguments and to gain mass involvement. In addition, these three essays asserted that these events jumpstarted widespread legislative and political changes. Carlsson admits that after the late 1970s, the leftist movement lost its former power and influence, although other forms of activism flourished. For him, present forms of activism can trace its roots to the 1960s and 1970s, and Ten Years That Shook the City offers diverse viewpoints from the activists that catapulted succeeding civil rights movements. After applying these reading strategies, it is hoped that readers can have a deeper appreciation of the text. As a whole, from these reading strategies, I learned that during this time, disadvantaged groups learned that they had human rights and that these basic rights should be the basis of their civil freedoms. Civil freedoms gave them the right to speech and demonstration. These rights opened their eyes to the idea that they should not be content with oppressive social and workplace beliefs and systems. It offered them the opportunity to improve their conditions. It was also a time when the oppressed united and forgot gender, racial, age, social class, and color lines. Together, they shook the system that bound their hands and feet. Together, they shouted from the margins and told the world that they exist, and they will thrive as human beings with civil rights and freedoms. Ten Years That Shook the City contains interesting essays that talk about individual experiences, where each writer offered a piece of their lives and analysis in understanding key events in the history of San Francisco. This paper suggests three reading stages to help engage the text. Note taking can prepare students for the new concepts and issues that they have to tackle. Summarizing and concept mapping will help them check their understanding of the text and develop a more insightful approach to analyzing themes and concepts. Comparing and contrasting will assist them in knowing the strands that bind these essays. These strategies can help students to not feel shaken and daunted by the complex concepts and events in these articles. These reading approaches are meant to open students to different possibilities of reading the text and relating it to their personal experiences as students in a modern world, where similar and new forms of social justice exist. Works Cited Carlsson, Chris. “Shaken, AND Stirred.” Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-1978 : A Reclaiming San Francisco. Ed. Chris Carlsson. San Francisco: City Lights Foundation, 2011. 9-14. Print. Habal, Estella. “Filipino Americans in the Decade of the International Hotel.” Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-1978: A Reclaiming San Francisco. Ed. Chris Carlsson. San Francisco: City Lights Foundation, 2011. 126-38. Print. Leahy, Margaret. “On Strike! We're Gonna Shut It Down.” Ten Years That Shook the City: San Francisco 1968-1978: A Reclaiming San Francisco. Ed. Chris Carlsson. San Francisco: City Lights Foundation, 2011. 15-28. Print. Read More