Project by: Ricky Castillo (10th Grade), Z Fluger (10th Grade)
Project Advisor: Calvin W.
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): James French, Pat Higgiston

Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?

After reading “Sometimes America” by Raquel Salas Rivera I found myself connecting on a personal level with the writing as a person who identifies as Latino. I was pulled into the poem and the complexity of it. I wanted more and more to explore the different meanings that Rivera was trying to portray. While analyzing their writing I felt like I really understood what Rivera was facing and the relationship and attitude they had towards America. I have never read a poem that has resonated with me like this and has so much complexity to it. I hoped to learn about the writerly choices that Rivera used and the different ideas they were developing when writing their poems. I hoped to take on these ideas and use them in my own inspired poem and relate to the ideas of race, insecurities, along with assimilation of language and culture.

Reflection (Ricky):

At the beginning of Trimester 1 in American Literature we read various poems but on that stood out to me was Raquel Salas Rivera’s poem, “Sometimes America”, which talked about Rivera’s adaptation to a new environment and how being Puerto Rican affected that. I wanted to explore more of their work and thought an honors project would be perfect to do just that. The project started off with reading random poems by Rivera and then we focused on debt in Puerto Rico. The book, ‘The Tertiary”, was perfect for outlining the impact the US had on Puerto Rico related to debt and mistreatment. After finishing the book/poem we focused on writing a poem based on different writerly choices used in Rivera’s poem. After finishing the poem we went into in-depth analyzation fo both poems and connecting them in different ways. I set out to just read various poems by Rivera but the book helped focus on one thing, Puerticos debt. I learned about how to look closely at poetry and expand that understanding through outside research of unknown topics with that poem. I also learned the ease that came with writing the poem when given certain criteria to follow.

Evidence:

Honors Project Poster Draft

The Tertiary Notes – Rivera

Puerto Rico History – Honours Project

Analyzation of both Poems

Describe at least one powerful learning moment that you’ve had while working on this project. What made it powerful? What was the context for this learning? What was comfortable about this context? What if anything pushed you a bit (or maybe a lot) outside of your comfort zone? What lessons can you take from this experience that might help you in other parts of your learning life? If this learning took place in a manner that feels really different from your daily school experience, how might you seek to make your school learning more like your honors project experience?

• I have learned that discrimination and racism have affected all people in many different ways. One example is the event that occurred with the three men in Baltimore who were falsely convicted for a murder in 1983 only to be released this year, 2019. Learning about this event really impacted me because of the way the officers and government officials just apologize for this mistake. I could relate to this situation where one discriminates against me cause I’m Latino and just apologizes afterward. I am then expected to move on, to be patient with the school and when it came to talking to this student. I outline my frustration in needing to be patient, at the end of my poem when I say, “I am supposed to wait… / Wait for people to be better, to be open, to be careful… / I am supposed to pray in silence! / I am supposed to move on…… / But I can’t….I can’t”. Learning about the debt crisis in Puerto Rico and looking at interviews after interviews with Puerto Ricans who are impacted by this crisis pushed me out of my comfort zone by forcing me to look at my past confrontation with struggles like these. When looking back at Rivera’s work in “The Tertiary” I noticed the different phrases and words that represent hope and the need for this. Rivera uses the hope that these Puerto Ricans have of leaving their debt and attempting to have a better life. Throughout their poem, I see the positives and negatives of this hope, ultimately desiring to have this feeling in life of never giving up, just like these Puerto Ricans. I feel that just by reading poetry and performing poetry in an elaborate way, could inspire people and produce this “hope” in a school environment.

Reflection (Z):

Z Fluger-Analyzation of the Tertraity In our first meeting after reading the first section of the book Calvin, Ricky, and I were talking about how all encompassing and huge an issue like the debt crisis is. This feeling of an issue being bigger than one can comprehend. Learning more about poetic technique through this piece really felt like a crash course in expressing how a massively systemic and bureaucratic issue affects someone personally. To be completely honest, before this project I knew very little about the Puerto Rican debt crisis, beyond that after hurricane Maria there were things limiting reconstruction. It was really wild to read and realizes my ignorance to something as massive as PDC (Puerto Rican debt crisis). When reading about what happens to people when they are lost in a systematic failure it made me reevaluate the ways that I see systems around me starting to fail. In terms of the actual completion of the project I learned alot about keeping up on work dates and working around other peoples schedules. This kind of super conversational and in depth work really worked for deepening my understanding, and so reapplying that to my normal academic life would be very useful.

UPDATES:

Dates of Meetings: (October 4th, 11th, 18th)

We have so far met October 4th, 11th, and the 18th. I met with Calvin the first week to map out the details of the project and I want to have accomplished. When meeting I learned that Z Fluger in the 10th Grade held similar interests to mine in relation to the work of Rivera. I learned that working with someone else helped to understand the complexity of Raquel Rivera’s poems. So Z was added to the project and we then met on the 11th. We first delved into Rivera’s poetry, not focusing on a particular topic and on the 18th discussed our findings and understanding from the poems. We then planned to meet on November 1st to work on the next steps.

The poems we looked at are in this link: (Rivera Poems).

Dates of Meetings: (November 1st, 15th, 22nd)

These weeks were crucial for the establishing point of our honors project. We decided to choose the book, “The Tertiary”, which talks about the debt problem in Puerto Rico and the partial blame the falls upon the US for this problem. Rivera also talks about their identity and how that has been shaped by them being Puerto Rican and living in America. We read the first chapter of the Poem/Book, “The Debt Production Process”, for the 1st of November. When reading the chapter we took notes of the writerly choices and of the topics discussed to better understand the chapter. We also learned that we were having difficulties completely understanding the debt crisis. So for the 15th, we did thorough research on the history of Puerto Rico and the situation of debt there. For the 15th we also read the second chapter after having some background information. Annotating helped us get ready for the writing of our own inspired poem and analyzation of Rivera’s work. For the 22nd we had the chapters done and discussed any questions we had along with the next steps for the final part of our project.

Dates of Meetings: (December 2nd, 13th) (December 16th – Final Shaping of Project)

The 2nd was when a draft for the poem would be done and we would critique each other’s work. The 13th was when the final draft for the poem would be and we would check in with each other to see if we are making connections between Rivera’s work and our own. Our schedule did become a little confusing and messy but we managed to push through to the starting of the analyzation of our Poem and Rivera’s poem.We read aloud our poems on the 13th and explained our reasoning for each choice to prepare us for the reflection part of the project. December 16th would be the date that we would flush out our project and check everything off the list.

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PROJECT PROPOSAL:

Critical thinking, creativity, citizenship and courage are essential LREI learning values. Explain how you’ll draw on at least one of these values to complete your proposed project?

I hope to draw on critical thinking and creativity to complete my proposed project. I want to use critical thinking when I approach all of Rivera’s different pieces of writing and when analyzing the choices Rivera makes. I also want to use critical thinking when looking at Rivera’s background and history to get a better insight into what they write. I also wish to use creativity in this project. I had a few ideas on how I could incorporate creativity but when looking at the many complex topics Rivera brings up in this poem in particular (Sometimes America) I want to relate some of those topics in my own writing because of how it relates to me personally and how it shapes our world. I also wish to use similar writing choices that Rivera used to convey my writing better. To incorporate all of this I will this creativity in writing my own inspired poem.

What is your proposed outcome? How will you be able to demonstrate successful completion of this Project? How do you plan to share your learnings with the larger LREI community (e.g., exhibit of work, poster of learnings, performance, etc.)?

My proposed outcome will be an analytical reflection of many of Rivera’s pieces outlining the writerly choices they made and the reasoning behind many of the different things they write. I also want to outline the feelings that Rivera has towards America and different topics including racism, sexism, stereotypes, religion and assimilation. I will demonstrate my completion of this project with a poem including many of these topics from a perspective that could be my own or a specific group of people. I will also be writing an analytic reflection that will relate to the poem. I plan to share this with the LREI community through a coffee house or working with Lit Mag.

Please provide a general outline that indicates your work plan for the trimester? What are some of the key project benchmarks (i.e., goals that will help to ensure that you finish the project)?

The first step I would like to take is spending 1-2 weeks thoroughly annotating and analyzing some of Rivera’s work and finding differences, connections and similarities. I want to then spend another 2-3 weeks working on my analytical reflection. Lastly if completed successfully I wish to start writing my poem leaving the remainder of the trimester to edit and rework any corrections needed.

When do you plan on meeting?
TBD