Part I.

Structure
1. Who is the target audience of the site? What elements of the
website helped you determine the target audience?
- The target audience of Lalita Tademys site is focused toward
student and women.
- I determined this from the biography page on her site.
2. What choices did the author make to present and structure her
portfolio identity? What concepts and/or messages does
Tademy want the reader (viewer) to understand? Explain in a
paragraph.
Lalita chose to tell her audience about who she is and how
writing became a part of her life. She also made it a point to tell us
about where she grew up and about her family roots. She paints a
picture in our heads of how where and how she was raised. In her
biography, Tademy states, Her own interest in a familys roots, and
the ongoing issues of racism and womens empowerment, led her to
focus all of her energies on her second career writing. She draws us
toward the problems that our world faces with racism and woman
empowerments, and shows us that through writing, we can bring these
problem to surface.
3. Based on your observations and analysis of Tademys online
site, do you think the format, sentence craft, and organization
effectively addresses the target audience? Explain the key
reasons that helped you develop your conclusion.
- Yes, I think that Tademys site is directed to her audience.
- She makes it a point to direct the writing of her site to the
people she wants to influence.
4. Based on the fact that your Pathway Portfolio will target and
academic audience, what ideas and options will you take away
from Tademys website to help you polish and finalize he final
draft of your portfolio? List them using bullet points.
- Spacing out my information
- Variety of sentence craft that is directed towards my target
audience
- Create a more captivating home page
o Vibrant colors
o Bold words
Part II. Content
1. List several qualities that you think make Tademy successful,
both in the corporate/working world and in the
academic/learning world.
- Highly educated
- Structured household
o Southern roots

- Passionate/dedicated
- Dream chaser
2. What support systems helped her through the challenges as a
child, student, and educated professional?
- Lalitas family helped her through the challenges she
experienced throughout her life by teaching the importance of
family roots. Living strong within her family roots allowed her
to leave the corporate world and follow her dreams into the
writing world.
3. Describe an interesting fact or observation you learned about
Ms. Tademy.
- Lalita Tademy is a very educated woman who left the
corporate world to follow her passion of writing. A lot of
people would not take the risk of leaving a corporate/working
world to follow their passion. Tademy proves to us that
following our dreams and passions is worth it in the long run.
4. Develop 2 critical thinking questions you would like to ask or
have me ask for you on the day of her presentation.
- Did you think that you accomplished all that you intended to
in the corporate world in order to leave it to follow your
passion?
- Was it an easy decision to leave the corporate world to follow
your dream of becoming a writer?
Part III. Pathway Reading Connections
1. Citizen Creek: What book or theory that we discussed for
either English 1S or 1T aligns with a key point in this book?
Explain your response in a paragraph.
In English 1S, we read the story of Fredrick Douglass, a man born
into the life of slavery. Even though he experienced all the torture and
dehumanizing effects of slavery, he still managed to become free, and
even a writer. In Citizen Creek, by Lalita Tademy, she tells the story of a
slave who had the gift of languages, and became a translator for his
Creek master. Even though he had this incredible gift, he was
wondering if it was enough to grant him his freedom. These two texts
relate to one another because even though Cow Tom had a gift of
language, and Fredrik Douglass didnt even know had to read or write,
their goal was freedom. No matter what was going on around them,
they did what they needed to do to no longer be enslaved.
2. Cane River: What book or theory that we discussed for either
English 1S or 1T aligns with a key point in this book? Explain
your response in a paragraph.
The movie The Walkout aligns with the story of Cane River. Lalita
Tademy tells the story of four women who battle injustice to achieve
greatness. They were women whose lives began in slavery, who
weathered the Civil War, and who grappled with the contradictions of

emancipation through the turbulent early years of the twentieth

century. Through it all, they fought to unite their family and forge
success on their own terms. In The Walkout we see a group of
students who are not willing to let the way that they are being treated
in school continue. Just like the four women stood up for something
they believed, so did the student of East Los Angeles. Risking anything
and everything in order to get what they wanted and more importantly,
deserved.
3. Red River: What book or theory that we discussed for either
English 1S or 1T aligns with a key point in this book? Explain
your response in a paragraph.
Reading the description of Red River, I automatically thought of
the poem I Am Joaquin by Corky Gonzales. Joaquin walks us through
history and the struggles that came along with it. At the end of the
poem, Joaquin states that he had to fight and kill for his country. He
had to stand up and do what others could not in order to keep his
home safe. In Red River, Lalita tells us the story of her family and how
they had to deal with the wreckage, push on, and build a better life
for their sons and daughters over the next seventy years. These two
texts teach me that even when it seems like everything is going wrong,
you still have the power to turn it around. Pick yourself up and keeping
moving forward, there is always more to accomplish.