Module 4: Abstracting
James Frye
Abstracting occurs when one intangible principle or tangible thing is broken down into all its aspects, and a single one of those aspects is analyzed as an entity in and of itself. Given that my topic is the idea of reflection, abstracting it requires a calling back to the previous Module’s breakdowns of my topic. By abstracting the process and entity that is reflection, we are able to set aside the big idea for the steps of it. The abstraction of my topic that I chose to represent is reflection through remembering and memory. While reflecting myself on the reading, I realized that in essence, abstraction can be understood as the “single most important thing about the room” (Root-Bernstein 90). Because reflection cannot happen without the ability to recall, it can be argued that it is the single most important idea behind my topic.
I have chosen to represent my abstraction in two forms: a photograph, and a poem.
For my photo, I took two photographs--one of me when I was a freshman in High School, and one from just a few weeks ago at my wedding. I superimposed the High School photo onto the wedding photo, in an attempt to capture a memory that I had as I was walking down the aisle with my newly wedded wife: how far I had come from my terrified-and-wedding-bashing freshman self to my married, career-and-family-driven self. Here are what they look like together, modeling the “memory:”
James Frye
Abstracting occurs when one intangible principle or tangible thing is broken down into all its aspects, and a single one of those aspects is analyzed as an entity in and of itself. Given that my topic is the idea of reflection, abstracting it requires a calling back to the previous Module’s breakdowns of my topic. By abstracting the process and entity that is reflection, we are able to set aside the big idea for the steps of it. The abstraction of my topic that I chose to represent is reflection through remembering and memory. While reflecting myself on the reading, I realized that in essence, abstraction can be understood as the “single most important thing about the room” (Root-Bernstein 90). Because reflection cannot happen without the ability to recall, it can be argued that it is the single most important idea behind my topic.
I have chosen to represent my abstraction in two forms: a photograph, and a poem.
For my photo, I took two photographs--one of me when I was a freshman in High School, and one from just a few weeks ago at my wedding. I superimposed the High School photo onto the wedding photo, in an attempt to capture a memory that I had as I was walking down the aisle with my newly wedded wife: how far I had come from my terrified-and-wedding-bashing freshman self to my married, career-and-family-driven self. Here are what they look like together, modeling the “memory:”
My poem is a textual recall of this same event/memory:
Matrimony (J. Frye, 2013)
When things robed unravel themselves
Cultivating a new desire and warmth within
You learn to become
Distant
Warmth found in comfort; Stable
As the large bold tree in the backyard
Remembering being the seed, struggling
Coming forth from the Oak
When you see the future bright before
Your eyes in the Wide-Open Meadow
Warm hand-in-hand, recalling the seed
Of fear and disbelief
You feign becoming
Distant
Often, it becomes difficult to separate ideas. Reflection is used as a tool in classrooms to narrow down ideas and refine them into something worth considering (exactly like the process of abstraction). Furthermore, the process of reflection is much the same, when examined holistically. Abstracting the concept of reflection has bestowed upon me the ability to make greater use of the content of my reflections; for example, if I were reflecting on a lesson I taught, applying the idea of abstraction to examine parts of the whole, such as student behavior, the quality of one activity, approach, and the like. I plan to teach the concept of abstraction to my students in hopes that it will help them to hone in on exactly what it is they need to say in their larger writing assignments.
Matrimony (J. Frye, 2013)
When things robed unravel themselves
Cultivating a new desire and warmth within
You learn to become
Distant
Warmth found in comfort; Stable
As the large bold tree in the backyard
Remembering being the seed, struggling
Coming forth from the Oak
When you see the future bright before
Your eyes in the Wide-Open Meadow
Warm hand-in-hand, recalling the seed
Of fear and disbelief
You feign becoming
Distant
Often, it becomes difficult to separate ideas. Reflection is used as a tool in classrooms to narrow down ideas and refine them into something worth considering (exactly like the process of abstraction). Furthermore, the process of reflection is much the same, when examined holistically. Abstracting the concept of reflection has bestowed upon me the ability to make greater use of the content of my reflections; for example, if I were reflecting on a lesson I taught, applying the idea of abstraction to examine parts of the whole, such as student behavior, the quality of one activity, approach, and the like. I plan to teach the concept of abstraction to my students in hopes that it will help them to hone in on exactly what it is they need to say in their larger writing assignments.