If these items tell of the American dream, then they also tell of the country’s broken immigration system.

Read the prompt and student examples. Consider how Muhammed’s HRL Framework applies to this assignment. Then, write a 300-400 word response reflecting on what you learned about how using mentor texts in the classroom can strengthen students writing. And, in particular, in what ways did this assignment (3 items) develop students‘ identity, skills, intellect, and criticality?   Writing Prompt Using Ramos’ article (847 words) as a mentor text, write an essay that examines a societal issue through the lens of three items. Include facts or statistics as necessary. Include (an) image(s). Show your reader how the items are connected to each other and the bigger issue.   Immigration A plane ticket. A test. A gavel If these items tell of the American dream, then they also tell of the country’s broken immigration system.

Their existence represents the journey thousands go through every year. The journey seems to make the immigration process impossible. A system built against people coming to this very country. Was this system really built to protect the country? Or to prevent those who want to be part of it? Either way, naturalization in America is a faulty arrangement. Following the Reagan campaign, the border enforcement between Mexico and the U.S. was strengthened. However, this faulty idea has led to the giant mess that is immigration in America The Plane Ticket Upon President Trump’s campaign, the building of a border wall along the Mexico-U.S. border has become a hot topic. According to the president, the border wall will reduce the amount of Mexican immigrants in this country. But our dear president failed to take into account one small factor- planes can go over walls. Up to 40% of undocumented immigrants came to the United States in planes. So not only do most immigrants come to the U.S. over planes, but building a border wall may very well be counterintuitive, and possibly increase the amount of immigrants in the country. Circular flow between the two countries allows for workers to come for the day and later go back to their homes in Mexico. But with increased border enforcement, immigrants have started settling in America since it became more difficult to cross between the two countries. This has led to the number of undocumented immigrants to skyrocket by 248%. The Test Proven time and again, most Americans would never be able to pass the U.S. citizenship test. The U.S, citizenship test is an exam immigrants are mandated to take in the process of naturalization.

It asks everything from when the constitution was signed to why there’s thirteen stripes on the flag. Why is it important for immigrants to answer these unnecessarily specific questions while most Americans can’t? Only 36% of Americans surveyed would actually pass this test. Most might call the lack of knowledge of American history an embarrassment. However, is the average American uninformed or is this test just filled with questions to make it harder to become an American citizen? The Gavel In all of the US there is only 57 immigration courts and 350 immigration judges This has caused the insane disaster that are U.S. immigration courts. Underfunding from the U.S. government for these courts has created a huge pileup of almost 500,000 immigration cases. The real hitter is that unlike other judges Unlike regular judges, immigration judges can get fired if they don’t work fast enough.

It can be assumed that this insane backlog in the immigration system strongly urges judges to deport citizens The Plane ticket. The Test. The Gavel. For some lucky ones, these items represent how they achieved their American dream. But for most, they represent America’s unfair naturalization system College Debt A stethoscope. A dollar bill. A hamburger. If we go to college, then chances are that we would get into debt. Today in society, people are expected to go to college and get into careers that are in high demand like engineering or medicine. If we don’t, then we pretty much “failed”- in the eyes of society. These people that don’t to college usually are working in places like McDonalds or Walmart. However, because many people are applying to colleges, there are more people in debt. Why does society expect people to college? Why do people criticize others working in places like McDonalds? Why is college debt a big issue? The statistics on college debt is mind boggling. According to Forbes, about 44.7 million Americans have student loan debt. There is about $1.57 trillion dollars in total U.S. student loan debt. This not only may affect us, but it also might affect the economy of the U.S. The Stethoscope In the U.S, the economy is slowly shifting into the tertiary and quaternary sector which are service and research based jobs. Meaning that jobs such as doctors, engineers, and registered nurses (RN), are in high demand. Society expects us to take these high skilled jobs. When people think of high skilled jobs, they think of doctors and when they think of doctors, they think of stethoscopes. But in order to become a doctor, one would have to go to college for 4 years and then medical school for like 7 years. The thing is, college and specialty schools aren’t easy and cheap. According to CollegeAtlas, 56% of people who start a 4 year college dropout by year 6.

One of the most cited reasons why most of these people dropout is that they can’t balance family, job, and school. College is not for everybody and is hard. The Dollar Bill When people think of college, they’d usually think of the money a person can make if they have a associates or bachelors. Many would expect people with degrees to make at least $50,000 – most of the time they do. But what they don’t think about is the cost. According to Forbes, the tuition to get into college is increasing every year. This may not seem that bad because it seems that everything in this country is increasing in price but this gets worse. As of 2018, more than 42 million student loan borrowers have student loan debt of $100,000 or less. With student loan debt this big, people that graduate would have to prioritize paying loans. If they do this, they wouldn’t be able to buy things such as houses or cars. The Hamburger When people get out of high school, society expects them to go to college. If you don’t and end up working at a place like Walmart or McDonalds, you’ll be seen as a failure in their eyes. Others want to see people to succeed but the reality is that college isn’t for everyone. Many people dropout of college because they can’t handle the work and expectations college has for them. Some may on the other hand may thrive-but they will still have to face a large amount of college debt. The Stethoscope. The Dollar Bill. The Hamburger. What do these things have in common?

The fact that they can cause college debt. Heart Disease A Cheeseburger,A Coke, and a Car. For many this may be a typical lunch or meal. But within that oily burger, there is a darker side. According to the CDC Heart disease has been the leading cause of death in America for the past 80 years. 610,000 Americans die of Heart Disease-that’s one in four deaths. Despite this Heart Disease has had little to know media coverage other than by medical professionals. Have we become desensitized to Heart Disease? This problem has far reaching consequences reaching into every household in America. In addition to this, our reliance on electronics to complete our daily task have reduced our physical to a dangerous amount. Heart disease has become the silent killer. Cheeseburger The Cheeseburger -the epitome of American culture. Purportedly it was invented when a young Lionel Sternburger experimentally dropped a slab of American cheese on a sizzling hamburger. Companies have made the Cheeseburger as accessible as gasoline.Unfortunately many low income families who either cannot afford to access or pay for healthier foods often resort to going to fast food chains. A albeit great tasting cheeseburger can have severe health effects. In just one Mcdonalds Double cheeseburger, contains 1,035g of salt. This is 43% of a person daily recommended intake a day! Consuming such a high volume of salt can put you at risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke, and most importantly of all Heart Disease.

Car The car undeniably is one of the greatest inventions ever made. The Ford Model T the brainchild of Henry Ford helped connect states and countries. In spite of that have we become too reliant on cars to get around? Studies show that as a country we on average walk less than other developed nations. According to a New York Times article by (Tara Parker-Pope) “The study tracked the steps of 1,136 adults around the United States who wore pedometers for two days in 2003. The results were compared to similar pedometer studies in Switzerland, Australia and Japan. The data collected showed that Americans, on average, took 5,117 steps a day, far short of the averages in western Australia (9,695 steps), Switzerland (9,650 steps) and Japan (7,168 steps). The findings were published in the October issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.”   Another student example, A chain. A strap. A bandana. If the clothes that we wear make people discriminate us then this is very disappointing that we still have worry what people think of the things we wear. Kids in schools have very descriptive dress codes of things that can’t they wear that have people thinking that they are in gangs or they are from the ghetto. Which necessarily the things you wear doesn’t mean you are. Do people really think that what we wear means that we have to be associated with violence? How do people think that makes us feel when they express that they are afraid of us because of what we wear?

Chain As I walk around school and see people wearing chain necklaces, what comes to my mind is not a criminal, I see it as an accessory. On the other hand there are people out there who will think the opposite and try to stay away from those people. Here at Bonita Vista High School the dress guidelines of wearing chains is that you can’t wear wallet or waist chains, large heavy metal chains etc. It shows “violence” because that stuff can be considered as gang attire. Also you can’t wear gang attire clothes because it initially is considered to promote fear. There have been some bad effects with wearing chains can lead to a skin condition called contact dermatitis. It is an immune reaction to certain materials when they come in contact to the skin. The skin can become red and swollen, sometimes in severe cases the rash can spread further on the body from where it started Strap Seeing that us girls are seen to “have” to wear a bra, it’s like a must have or people will go crazy if we don’t . If I look around school and I see what kind of shirts girls are wearing and I see that they are wearing a tank top your typically going to see their bra strap and the tank top strap. Most schools are very strict on showing straps, which I think should be looked at again because I feel that us girls should not get in trouble for showing our shoulders or our straps of any kind. To think that we have to cover up our shoulders because our straps our showing is ridiculous and we should not have to worry about it. We are not allowed to show up to school with no bra on, and if we are wearing a shirt with straps that are not covering enough we are obligated to wear something to cover up.

I heard a story about a girl who went to school with no bra but she put something on her nippels to cover them up, and she got called to the office to get dress coded for not wearing a bra and they made her jump up and down to check if she was wearing a bra. I think that is so unnecessary and uncomfortable to be asked to jump up and down when you are not wearing a bra but u still put something on to cover up. Bandana If you walk around and see someone wear a bandana, doesn’t matter how they are wearing it, do you immediately think that they are in a gang or they are going to harm you? Personally that is not even the first thought that comes to my head. The thought that comes to my head is that they are accerising or adding something to there outfit, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are in a gang. I feel that people are afraid of people if they dress a certain way. For many years so many different people have been wearing bandanas. Bandanas have been around for 200 years, meaning that so many people have been wearing them. The chain. The strap. The bandana. The things we wear shouldn’t discriminate us.