Linking Academic and Personal Experience 3

The third transcript relates personal experience to academic content.

I read Brenda Alvarez’s essay. Brenda is from Chicago she is half-Mexican and Puerto Rican. She wrote about how her mother treated her differently because she was mixed, calling her a “Cabroncita Puertorriquena” (little Puerto Rican asshole). I can relate to this because when I was little my parents treated me differently…
(American student posting, 2005)

This is a very good example of a student linking academic content to personal experience and by doing so developing a greater understanding of the academic subject matter. Indeed, this is the beginning of the practice of the academic skill of referencing.

Thus, students in the project were not only engaged in academic socialization; they were also gradually indicating a shift in their identity – from one that is challenged to one that actively participates in the academy's practices. It is the ability to make this shift in identity that determines student success to a large extent.