Howdy readers,

This week in ASTU 100 we mainly discussed the topic of citation. We did this by relating the material in our textbook to that of the work done by Farhart Shahzad in her study of the connection between remembering and learning in The Role of Interpretative Communities in Remembering and Learning. Personally I found this week’s concepts of citation quite intimidating, as I have never experienced referencing in such a sophisticated light. Initially, I was taken back by the idea that this level of writing and research is what will be expected of me as I take on the challenge of university. For example, the first assigned reading of Shahzad was only three pages and I had a particularly hard time even comprehending the subject. Thank god my class contains such intelligent thinkers along with a brilliant professor (;) to help clear up the understanding of the material for me through group discussion. I found “Noting for Gist” (Giltrow, Gooding, Burgoyne, Sawatsky, 2014, p. 31) especially helpful when attempting to summarize pieces of the article in language that I could personally interpret. I used this tool and after an embarrassing amount of time (4 hours) I was finally able to not only grasp the ideals that Shahzad was explaining, but relate to her overall study of remembering. I specifically found correlation with Shahzad’s methodology when she asked ninety-nine students how they remembered the War on Terror. This caused me to reflect on my past, and how I remember learning about the attacks of 9/11; while considering what interpretative communities (Shahzad, 2011) I may have been subject to.

I recall 9/11 surprisingly well for being only five years old at the time. My parents were very disturbed over what they were watching on the news, but I couldn’t wrap my head around why because they didn’t want me to be exposed to such content, so young. However, probably several months after the attacks I received one of those cardboard paged, picture books for children from my grandmother; and it was about the attacks on 9/11. I only vividly remember one picture from the entire book and it was a colorfully drawn depiction of the iconic image of the second plane making contact as the previous tower was still smoking. As a child this was astonishing to me, and not being the global citizen I am today (lol) I though that this incident had taken place in my own city of Calgary. Obviously later on in elementary school I learned about where the attacks took place in more detail, but throughout my childhood this one historic image that my grandma passed down to me stands out in my memory more than anything else.

Through reading Shahzad’s research I was able to identify my grandmother as the most influential source in my interpretative community (Shahzad, 2011). I was able to further my understanding on an important moment in history at such a young age, through one powerful drawing.

Thank you for listening!

Giltrow, Janet et al.. Academic Writing: An Introduction, 3rd edition. Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2014. Print.

Shahzad, Farhat. “The Role of Interpretative Communities in Remembering and Learning.” Canadian Journal of Education 34.3 (2011): 301-316. Web. ProQuest. 1 Sept. 2014