This week in AP lit was very "figure it out on your own." As opposed to normal lectures, we were able to get into the groups with our essay partners and do our work in the way we wanted to. Mr. Schoenborn allowed us to come up with ideas for outlining and discussion on our own, which in my opinion helps me in the long run because boss's or college professors are not very invasive, they don't care how you do it just as long as you get it done. My group discussed the books and our different opinions of them. For example some of the group members thought that both novels, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and The Fall, contained people with two different perspectives colliding. I found that when I read the books, the listener was silent and we could only tell what they were thinking or their movements by what the storyteller told us. There wasn't any colliding, they both had civil meals. Being able to disagree and find a common ground is hard but we did find a way to reword the essay so that it didn't sound too biased towards one idea or the other. I feel like myself and my group were able to contribute viable information. Though there was not a specific leader in our group I think we all had characteristics or leaders. Everybody had something to say and this opened me up to different ways of looking at things. What they said about the characters different perspectives is not wrong, I just didn't look at the novel in that light, so it gives me new ideas as well. Overall I think this week was beneficial for long term success.
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This week in AP Literature we spent a lot of time dissecting a poem and working with groups to write an essay. I learned to look at a piece of writing from many different perspectives. The class studied how some of the expressions used in "The Eagle" affected the reader as well as the pattern of the poem and the stanzas. From this activity I grasped that there are many different things an author can do to influence the meaning of a piece they create. This will help we write the comparative essay. Now I will look for certain words that are used that may convey a bigger or deeper meaning than I thought they had before.
Aside from gaining understanding in respect of how to analyze writing, I also learned that people may interpret things differently. For example, each group in class had to share an idea they had about a section of "The Eagle" and what they said may have differed from what I said, but that is okay. Mr. Schoenborn said that he would be learning things just like us and I could tell from his facial expressions that as people shared their ideas there might have been some he hadn't thought of so he had to process them. This encouraged me to not be scared to share what I picked up from a story. Many poems and creative pieces are not set in stone, and I think that is the beauty of them. I find that I am better able to open my mind to the understanding of writing if I hear my peers share. I think I learned a lot this week as far as analyzing goes, understand that a single word can change an entire line. Is focusing on a poem and writing an essay on it something we will do throughout the year? I find it increasingly beneficial to be able to practice so that I am thoroughly prepared for the actual essay. Until then I will continue to read great poems and analyze them. This week in my Literature class I learned a wide variety of things. Though they were not things that directly pertain to the curriculum they did teach me a lot about the class that I am taking. Some main ideas we developed and talked about this week were: being comfortable in class, appreciation for written art and understanding each other better. For the first idea, Mr. Schoenborn told us all to get up, walk outside, and on a piece of paper write down what got us into taking this class. After everyone had three things written down the entire class sat down in a circle and shared one thing about themselves. We all clapped once after someone shared, indicating that we heard them and understood. There was definitely a lot of interaction and that will help myself and my peers to communicate. I learned that this is a very open and supportive environment through some of this activity. The second idea, appreciation for art, was demonstrated by listening to spoken word and reading poems everyday. It opens us up to different types of writing and poets. Finally we were told to create a website and a page within it describing who we are as a reader and a writer. After we all completed the assignment our peers read what we wrote. This helped me to figure out more about my classmates and for me, helped me connect to some of them. I even learned some things about myself by writing out who I am as a read and a writer. We were able to learn all these things through being physically and mentally engaged in the class. Overall I feel that all of these ideas and experiments helped us to get used to our surroundings and get us in the mindset needed for AP Literature. I would like to know if getting in a sort of Socratic seminar circle is something we will do often. I feel that my participation was adequate and that I fully understand the ideas previously mentioned. Though I do need to learn how to be more open with sharing. Something I'm sure will improve. |
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April 2017
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