Habit of Mind 7
Considering human commonalities and differences
Reflection
Over
the course of the year, Mr. Rodriguez emphasized the work ethic on
comparing on contrasting societies and ideas. In order to strengthen my
comparing and contrasting skills I would have the charts that Mr.
Rodriguez assigned us next to me and fill it out after I was done
reading a section. I would skim through the section again in order to
fill out the chart, which helped me have a better understanding of what I
was reading and to pay attention to the specific examples associated
politically, economically, and socially. This skill is very helpful when
writing comparison essays, just make a simple chart and list down the
commonalities and differences. What I didn’t understand at the beginning
of the year was how I was supposed to explain and analyze the
similarities and differences. By writing comparison essays about two
distinct societies, it helped advance my knowledge and it helped display
that two different cultures can have the same political intentions and
commonalities like communism or capitalism based governments. Other ways
that helped out were forming groups during class to discuss the similarities and differences of a given society. Whatever we came
up we would share to the class and it made chapters understandable
because it was shared by our peers. PERSIAN charts were the most helpful
organizers because it would categorize the political, economic,
religious, social, intellectual, artistic, and geographical details of a
society. By splitting a PERSIAN chart in half you can also compare two
distinct societies in an organized way. Having that visually to study,
helped me do well on essays we had to write in class.
Evidence
As evidence, I chose my essay on comparing the impact of colonization in both North and Latin America. Just by reading this essay, I could tell that I was not prepared to write this essay in class. I discuss how there was a high demand for slaves to work in both areas, and the colonials thought they were superior to all the native. The commonalities of these colonial people are the cause of the racial distinctions that are later developed in history.
