PORTFOLIO ASSIGNMENT By: Hope Bledsoe March 26, 2012 ELED 3151: Teaching of Language Arts and Writing

TABLE OF CONTENTS  Language Awareness  Ruining a Poem  Varieties of English  Reading as a Writer

If language was a web and I had the choice of being a spider or a fly, I would consider myself a spider. The spider can use all the parts of the web. It has also connected all the parts and able to keep it attached. The spider is the web master. As for a fly, it will get stuck in one area of the web and destroy an entire area. Language Awareness

Ruining a Poem Don’t be afeared to try coffee. A fixin’ of slap flannel cake and coffee are delicious. People shouldn’t be agin coffee. Dreckly after you drank it, you will be fixin’ to never stop! Don’t be afraid to try coffee. A serving of complete pancakes and coffee are delicious. People shouldn’t be against coffee. After after you drink it, you will be getting ready to never stop! The Standard English is more effective because it is what is being taught in todays school systems. It is easier to understand and more common to students today. I believe the Appalachian English is more interesting because this is the language still being spoken today. It is interesting to learn what unique words that are still in the English language. When I speak quickly at times, my words come out very country and this dialect reminds me of it.

Varieties of English: King James Version: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Text Messaging: U sld not lie 2 ur neighbor. Slang: Yo, don’t be goin’ round frontin to my homeboy aight!

Varieties of English Continued While changing the King James Version of the tenth commandment to slang and text messaging was simple. Today, people do not talk the way people did a long time ago. When reading the bible, I take it seriously but when reading a text message and hearing people talk in slang, it doesn’t seem serious to me. People take texts the wrong way all the time causing arguments and bad situations. Texting is also shortened and changed to quickly get it done. To me slang is not formal and every word means something different. Changing this commandment to two different types of text did not necessarily change but definitely looks different and not as formal. Approaching the three kinds of versions to audiences, many would take it as a joke unless it was the King James version.

Reading as a Writer To improve my writing I would like to not repeat myself multiple times because readers get bored if the same thing is said more than one time. I would also like to improve my punctuation and grammar usage. When reading others work, I notice these couple of things right away. It will make your paper sound better and make more sense if you use the correct grammar and not try to make it lengthy. Making sure I write out the name of a person, place or thing instead of just “that” makes a paper more descriptive. There are many things I would like to improve about my writing, but it is very difficult to be a perfect writer and not make a mistake. It depends on the person and something you think is a masterpiece, may not to an audience.

Overview The portfolio assignment was interesting to me. It was a fun and different way to engage our knowledge about writing and language. I felt it was most challenging to complete the Varieties of English activity because it was difficult trying to translate the King James version into slang and text messaging. There are different varieties of language and trying to change a statement into something I am not familiar with took time for me to figure out. Overall, this activity kept me engaged and prompted me to think about how people see language, writing, and literacy in many different ways.