Walker, Barrett

Walker's article had some great points in it however the one that caught my attention the most was how any idea can turn into a big idea. Small ideas such as who is going to win the national championship game is a small idea. But when you start to explain yourself it turns into a big idea. With these big ideas it causes everyone to become a critical thinker. Becoming a critical thinker brings great help to people such as students because it helps them in their daily activities at school. This big ideas help them answer questions in class, help talk with peers about the class, talk to the teacher about the subject matter, and allows everyone to interact with everyone.

One thing that I partly disagreed with in Walker's article is the whole big idea thing. To me it causes me to sometimes over think things that are really quite simple. When Walker lists the questions that should be asked in the classroom some of them may make it really hard to explain something as simple as theme in novel. Also some of the questions that should be asked are contradictory to me such as "be broad and umbrella-like" and then "be distinct and substantial".



Before I read this article by Barrett I had no clue how to explain connotation or denotation when I saw it. After reading this article it is easier for me to explain. Once looking at a piece of art work, an advertisement, or any source of media, connotation of the artwork is another meaning for what you see that normally is deeper thinking. Just like in the first example of the spaghetti ad the connotation of it was that the brand name "Panzani" makes the consumer feel like they are eating food that is very Italian. On the other hand, denotation is what is supposed to be the meaning expressed by what is seen.

One thing I did not like about this article was it was somewhat hard for me to follow because Barrett moved from idea to idea pretty fast to me. It took me a few times to read some parts here and there to really understand what he was trying to explain.