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|Class Notes / Learning Log / Textbook Notes |

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|genre |Nonfiction essay |

|Main idea |Writer’s central idea or message |

| |Directly stated or implied by factual details and personal examples and ideas author includes. |

|anecdotes |Personal examples, episodes included by author to develop the main idea. |

|Reading Skill: |Analyze sequence of events |

| | Events not always described in the same sequence they |

| |occurred. Signal words help clarify REAL sequence |

| | Ex. As when, by the time, for years |

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|Vocabulary: define through context |dialect |

| |scenario |

| |intuitive |

| |analytic |

| |hypothesis |

| |multicultural |

|author |Born 1929 (so what?) |

|(how does author’s |In China |

|Date of birth and | |

|Place of birth influence | |

|Her perspective? POV) | |

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|Always an outsider? |Lived in many places, always felt like an outsider |

| |Protagonists are usually young adults who are also outsiders. |

|Multicultural author |Draws on her Chinese heritage and husband’s Japanese heritage. |

Summary, Reflection, Analysis

|“Math After Math” is a non-fiction essay. Lensey Namioka, the author, writes using anecdotes to develop her implied Main Idea/Theme. To determine the sequence of |

|events, look for signal words because essays do not always share events in the order that they happened on purpose to develop the theme. Namioka was born in China in |

|1929 and moved to the US when she was nine years old. Her early experiences as an immigrant and her age directly influence her writing. |

|Questions/Main Ideas: |Notes: |

|Essay Background |Girls and Math |

| |N. stood out in Am. Classrooms because she was good at math. |

|Research |Are their differences between girls and boys in math performance? |

| | Elementary: girls out perform boys |

|change |High school: stats show boys start outperforming girls |

| | Boys choose math related college majors and careers. |

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|Math and After Math | |

| |1st person, in second grade |

|Imagery |“I shrank down in my seat. Math class was an absolute nightmare. The teacher scared me so much that my hands got |

|What is an abacus? |sweaty, and my fingers slipped on the abacus’ beads.” |

| |Feelings/mood |

|Why does teacher speak different dialect than | |

|what author grew up with? |Teacher spoke a different dialect. N. spoke Mandarin (dialect spoken by maj. Of Chinese) |

| |Writing the same in any dialect, no trouble in language and history where info written on board. |

| |Problems in math |

| | Had to learn abacus, still used in China, Japan and Russia. |

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| |Teachers shout out numbers for students to add or multiply |

|Personification: can ears understand? |“My ears didn’t always understand what he said, so seven for instance, sounded a lot like four.” |

| |Before this math was better subject. |

|Shift in sequence? |Years later, when emigrated to America heard an American friend recite times table |

|Shift back? |Multiplication table is shorter in Chinese than US b/c Chinese names for numbers are all one-syllable. And omit words |

| |like times and equals |

|Commutative Law |“(I learned later this was called the Commutative Law.” |

| |Father taught her to sing multiplication table because “you can remember a tune better than a string of numbers.” |

|What? |Musical notation in Chinese schools was to give numbers the diatonic scale? |

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|Shift in events…. |“and even now” no longer in second grade. |

|Shift in events |L44 “The other day…” |

| |“When I entered American schools…” |

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Summary, Reflection, Analysis: Write your own!!!

|Questions/Main Ideas: |Notes: |

|Stereotype: American |Students thought she was weird because she was a girl and good at math when she began school in 4th grade in the US. |

| |N. felt like an outsider because there weren’t many Asians in her town. |

| |Ll57-60. “How come you’re so good at math?” “why shouldn’t I be?” “you’re a girl.” |

| |“In America, apparently, it was unusual for a girl to be good at math.” |

|Stereotype: Chinese |Women handle financial matters in China including budget |

| |Ref. to Confucious’ teachings that gentlemen were above money so it was a woman’s duty to handle financial matters. |

| |(amusing since we know how important financial matters are. He/She who controls the money often controls the |

| |relationship.) |

| |Mention of movie “Dimsum” where restaurant owner takes his receipts to a woman. American friends don’t understand. N. |

| |gives an Anecdote about how her mother purchased a piece of property and although a realtor tried to purchase land from |

| |her, she kept it because it was valuable and sold it later for a profit. |

|idiom |L90 “tidy nestegg” what does this mean? |

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|Stereotype :American |L91 American husband would “hit the roof” (idiom) if his wife had done the same. “Women were supposed to be hopeless at |

| |money matters.” |

| |L99 girls were good at math in elementary but slacked off in middle and high school so that boys wouldn’t think they were |

| |weird. |

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|Who is Euclid? |Why is ref. to Euclid important? |

|Cultural influence |N was weird in middle and high school.whiz in geometry and math |

|foreshadowing |Anecdote regarding how N. loved the writing in story problems. This focus suggests that she loves the writing more than |

| |the math. (ll111-118) |

|Shift in setting |Talking about being a highschool student then flash forward to “years later” when she was a math teacher. Then flashes |

| |back to being in math class again. |

| |In college at Radcliff, only 5 students in math class compared to 20 in English. |

|stereotype |Math teacher very shy, only faced board and mumbled. |

|Stereotype: American |“unusual, unnatural, unhealthy and worst of all unattractive” for girls in US to be good in math. Boys didn’t want to |

| |date you. |

|Stereotype: Chinese |Different for N. She only dated Chinese American boys who were used to women doing math. |

|LL154-59 |Right brain was women who used their brain for poetry, art, history…. Intuitive |

| |Left brain was men who used their brain for reasoning |

| |Studies of Japanese proved this wrong. |

| |It was social pressure and training that determined which side of her brain she used. |

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If there was no class lecture this

Week, write a paragraph about what you learned and/or questions about what you didn't understand.

Topic: “Math After Math” by Lensey Namioka

Name: Shannon O’Brien

Class:English

Period/Block:

Date: 10/18/2011

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