Small Group Discussion Blog Post

Small Group Discussion Blog Post

Notes of a Native Son

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin was a phenomenal read capturing the contempt, hardship and indignity faced by those living through the race riots of the summer of ninety three. The small group discussion on the essay was a great activity for critically analyzing the text and broadening my learning curve as a student. 

 My thinking on this essay was instantly different than normal readings because I was required to participate in a group discussion about it later. This made me want to set up more time than usual to become familiar with the story, and try and understand it my self in stead of coming to class with questions and waiting to be informed. I researched this essay on the internet searching for articles, blogs, and other cites that had more information than the text book on the essay, and on Baldwin which I usually do not have to do. I never take notes on essays and this didn't change with this essay but I did read it out loud to my self and to an audience at times to better understand it and get others input on some confusing scenes such as when the cops shoots the black soldier with the negro woman.

I read the essay multiple times because it is rather long compared to the poems we have been reading in class. I wanted to make sense of the entire essay my self for once and this required me to be able to read it out loud to my self without any mistakes. In doing this I completely understood all the written material, even if I was still unsure on the figurative and deeper meanings of the essay. I did not write a blog about the essay which made me feel as though I needed to make up for it by reading the essay even more before the discussion. I also read all the questions for the group discussion before and after reading the essay to help get a sense of what I needed to focus my attentions on. I answered all the questions in writing.

I was refreshed on my time management skills with this group discussion. To get all the parts of the project done took considerable planning, so I feel I learned how to be a better student because I was able to discover plenty of unnoticed time between other projects to focus on the assignment. I also learned that reading out loud helps me to understand better. For some reason when I read to my self I tend to think more to my self, and some how I will be thinking to my self and reading at ther same time but the only thing I remember is what I was thinking about. I will find my self a page or two into a text before realizing I have no idea what I just read. So after reading the story out loud a number of times I finally got it.

Lastly I feel that I got a better understanding of the text after the group discussion. Because we didn't have the normal class time to discuss and understand the text, I sought towards the discussion to fill in the blanks for me. Particularly I was unsure as to weather Baldwin actually hated his father or not. As it turns out, he did hate him only to avoid the pain of the relationship, which was not known to me until the discussion. After this project I feel that I understand and can remember Notes of a Native Son better than any other reading I have indulged in in this class previously. 

I think it is because of the entire process that I went through just to learn the story and help lead the class through the discussion that helped me learn. All in all the project was a good learning experience that helped test and strengthen my abilities as a student.