Our Shakespearean Theory project was the main focus of this week in AP Lit. We spent each day (except for the snow day Monday) watching our movies, either Macbeth or King Lear, and then taking Cornell notes on them. My group was looking at a feminist criticism in Macbeth. We watched a more modern version of Macbeth, that seemed to take place around the 1940’s. I found looking at the IMDd for the movie was helpful infiguring out who was playing what charcter. The actors in the movie conveyed the emotion of Shakespeare's play very well. Sense I was looking at how women were perceived in the play and how plot of the play was formed because of women characters, I was mostly watching Lady Macbeth. She was a very dark character and pretty scary at times. I think the movie was actually scary overall… although I get scared really easily. I think it was a good idea to watch the movie before we read the play in Shakespearean English, that way we had, at least, a small grasp of the plot. The actors in the movie did speak in Shakespearean English, but after a while it got easier to understand, and add subtitles was very helpful. I’m hoping by the end of this project I’ll be able to spell Shakespeare correctly without any autocorrect! This week we also did our normal creative writing and reading our books. My book for the 6 weeks is Wuthering Heights. The beginning was slow, and it was difficult to understand, but as I read on, I got used to the dialect of the characters and the plot got much more interesting. I’ll probably finish over break!
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I began this week excited to start the Shakespearean Critical theory project, but that excitement soon ended. This project was supposed to be fun and interesting, but now has become a major source of anxiety and stress. I am worried and saddened by the lack of work ethic in my group. I fear that sense I contributed ¾ of the work this week, I will be expected to continue taking on this workload and do all the work for two of my group members. This week we took notes on our specific theories by answering questions revolving around the origins and elements of the theory. My group picked to do a feminist criticism. I’m glad we did this, that way we know what to look for and how to analyze it when watching our Shakespearean play. Sense I answered 4 of 6 questions, I’m more confident in being able to do this. I guess that’s the good side of doing all the work. We also spend time analyzing two sonnets. One was written by Shakespeare and the other by Shelley. Both revolved around the idea of living on after death. Shakespeare’s said that you live on through your soul, and Shelley’s was through other people’s memories of you. Analysing poems are really hard for me. I don’t understand why Shakespeare or any poet just doesn’t say what they are trying to say. Why does it have to be a puzzle. If they wanted to get a message across, the easiest way to do it would be just saying it directly with no intricate metaphors that take 30 minutes to decipher. We began the new trimester by setting up our new individual reading projects and looking at a sample AP test. Our new assignment for our individual reading will revolve around two books that relate and answer a question or query. This week we came up with our query and submitted a book proposal. I think this will be a cool assignment because everyone has a different topic of interest and it will be interesting to see how everyone's presentations turn out in the end. I picked The Great Gatsby and Wuthering Heights for my two books. Both were on the AP test many times, so I thought these would be good books to read. I also found them intriguing, so I chose a question that would go along with both of them. Although I don’t like presenting at all, the Pecha Kucha style of presentations sounded new and different to me, so I am not so apprehensive. Plus, we can have notes to read off of during our speech and that makes me feel better. The sample multiple choice AP test we took this week made me aware of how much work I need to put into my reading comprehension skills. Out of 55 questions I only got 30 right! I’m glad we did this assignment because now I know what kind of questions to expect if I take the test in the Spring. I realized that when I am taking these types of tests that I should just go with my gut and not think so hard about the questions. Multiple times during the test I changed my answer, when it turned out I actually had it right in the first place. So, I should stop second guessing and putting so much pressure on myself. ap lit multiple choice test guideThe main focus of this week was to build on our ideas of tragedy that we had formed last week. To do this watched a Ted Talk on success, read Oedipus Rex, analyzed an essay. Afterward we wrote a blog post on them all.
The Ted Talk was from Alain de Botton, and he touched on topics such as the “snobbery” of society, perception of success, and connection tragedy to success. Even though we were watching the Ted Talk to look for tragedy, I think I learned a little about how I view my own success too. Before this year I pictured success as my parents would: PhD, family, comfortable living, etc.. But now that I am beginning the stage in my life where I decided my future, I’m realizing that I would not be completely happy the way my parents are. So, my idea of success was not my own. I think this tied into what de Botton was saying. If you are not successful, then you’re a tragic failure. But in order to be completely successful, you need to be successful in your own eyes, not others, or else you will be dissatisfied. We also wrote blogs about Oedipus. My blog on it explains how I analyzed the tragedy in the story, and also how it relates back to the other things we have talked about in our tragedy unit so far. I enjoyed reading the story in class instead of on our own, having Mr. S’s input on the tragic situation was helping in developing my own ideas. I also liked the new version of note taking we learned, called Cornell Notes. This was beneficial in keeping my thoughts organized. This week I was able to analyze the topics we discussed well enough to write my tragedy blogs, however my mind was somewhere else. You can probably guess that the results of the presidential election have upset me and have occupied my mind quite a bit. Hopefully this tragedy doesn't continue to dominate my thoughts for much longer. This week we started a new project on tragedy. We focused on figuring out what a tragedy is by reading about it online and reading a short essay. After defining tragedy in our own words, we made our first blog post. My blog was about how tragedy is different in real life than portrayed in literature. I wrote about how tragedy is a dramatic story revolving around human suffering, and how human suffering is often different in the real world. I also wrote about the different forms tragedies can come in and how they are used to provoke emotional responses in the reader or listener. At the end of our “What is Tragedy?” projects we will be writing a philosophical, opinion essay on tragedy. One activity we did this week was on forming an opinion on the Dakota Access Pipeline. This activity was to prepare us to be able to back up our opinions with facts, instead of just a ‘because” anwser. I had a lot of fun with this activity. Although I didn’t say much, it was interesting to see how other people felt about the situation and how their opinions differed from mine. I feel like there are environmental hazards to take into consideration about the pipeline, but overall this protest is about how the U.S. government continually infringes upon native american rights and does not respect them at all. Overall, I think this was a good activity because it’s on a topic we were all somewhat familiar with and could easily form an opinion on. Five out of five days this week were spent on our presentations. On Monday and Tuesday Isra and I went over our presentation and Wednesday we presented in front of the class. I really do not enjoy public speaking, I get super nervous and light headed when ever I do it. BUT I thought our presentation went super well and I’m actually proud of myself. Before we went I was kind of freaking out, but when I actually got up there, I thought I was calm and I said everything I needed to say. I did two whole slides completely on my own and conveyed my message pretty well. Overall I thought our presentation delivery was pretty good, but the actual presentation itself I think was really great. We used a lot of pictures to capture the audience's attention and tried to make it as visually pleasing as possible. Isra and I also worked really hard on getting all our information for our stories and answering our big question. Of course we could still improve, but now I know where I am at presenting. There was something I found really interesting about another group's presentation, though it’s not really on topic of The Elements of Fiction. So, Isra and I did Humor for one of our elements. We chose the stories “Rape Fantasies” and “The Drunkard.” Another group of all boys chose the same exact stories as us, but their presentation was much different. The thing I thought was the most different was how they decided to talk about “Rape Fantasies.” I guess the way they spoke about the story, and rape in general, was much more “proper” than how we chose the covered it. And the reason for this is think is because they were all guys reading a story about women talking about rape. Personally, I think women view rape differently than men do. I know sexual assault is a constant worry for all women, but guys don’t really fear that (from my understanding). I don’t know, I just found that kind of interesting. How to make an effective PresentationMake an awesome presentationA lot of learning went on this week. When reflecting on the past few days, I realized that I may not have been directing taught very much, but I was pushed in a direction by Mr. S that allowed me to continue to learn on my own.
The bulk of the week was used to finish up our What Is Literature presentations, but of course we had reading time and our creative writings too. The main thing Isra and I had to work on was answering our “big question” and answering the “so what?” question on our project. The easiest BQ was our fantasy question: “What are the elements of fantasy?” But for humor it was a little more complicated. Basically, our question was asking how humor contributes the the significance of the story. We really had to think about this one. To me, and Isra, I think, humor is used for a couple of things: make difficult topics easier to express, create a really deep emotion, and prove sometime of truth about society. On of our stories, “Rape Fantasies” really shows the first one. Rape is obviously awful, but the story talks about it in a humorous way and makes the reader reflect on it more. I think literature in the most basic sense, is works that continue to be relevant and memorable. Pride and Prejudice is still super relevant right now even though it was written 200 years ago. And in 200 years if Harry Potter is relevant, people will be calling it literature too. BUT the reason that these stories stay relevant is because they contain the elements of fiction. They don’t have to have all of them, but some. A lot of powerful pieces of work contain most of them. It’s how the author uses these elements to make the reader think, feel, and keep them intrigued. All the elements make it memorable! This week in AP Lit we worked on a couple of things: finish creative writing, write 4o minute essay, and work on What is Literature project. Throughout the marking period we have being do a creative writing for about 15 minutes once or twice a week. I tend to not write for the prompt Mr. S gives us, mostly because I’m never inspired by them. So, instead I write about whatever comes to my mind. This week we took what we wrote and revised it. I think most people are afraid to share what they wrote, but I don’t mind. Most of the things I wrote were kind of ranty, but I’m happy to share my opinions. My 40 minute essay was on Pride and Prejudice. I absolutely loved my book! Honestly, one of my top 10 favorites. And because I liked the book so much, I think it was easier to write my essay, although I was in a bit of a time-crunch. The essay prompt I chose had to do with how societies standards for how certain classes of people act alienates people. This prompt fit perfectly with P&P’s theme. Most of the week was taken up by working on our What is Literature project. Isra and I finished reading about Fantasy last week, and this week we read and made notes on the short story “The Most Dangerous Game.” We both thought the story was intriguing and suspenseful. Definitely has some impossible elements in it. benefits of creative writingFantasY vs fictionThis week was pretty unconventional as it was interrupted with a two hour delay, a school cancelation, and a substitute teacher. These factors made it harder to grasp the main focuses of the week.
The poem we explicated this week was “Bright Star” by John Keats. In class we discussed apostrophes and who we identify with in the poem. The apostrophe makes the poem more personalized and adds emotion to it. The apostrophe in this case was the bright star and even possibly the speakers love. The other part we talked about was who we personally relate to in the poem: the star, the speaker, or the speaker's love. I know I am not the speaker or speakers love, so I said I identified with the star. We did our PoW on Friday, but it was much harder to write this week because I didn't fully comprehend the meaning of the poem. I understood that the speaker was admiring the star and then his love, but why? We also worked on our “What is Literature?” projects. To be honest, I feel somewhat confused about the assignment. Like, what are we supposed to be doing? How long is our presentation? How many books do we read? Do we talk about the books in our presentation? Anyway, Isra, my partner, and I choose to talk about humor and fantasy. So far all we have done is read about fantasy. I read that fantasy, a story that is entirely impossible, is used to illuminate truths of human experiences. I also read that it uses symbolism and allegories to highlight the true meaning of the story. I am hoping we aren't behind on this project! I have been really enjoying the conversations we are having in class this week. This week we’ve been discussing the poem “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” by Emily Dickinson. I enjoy the analytical process Mr. S has us go through to explicate the poem. We looked at all the elements of the poem and talked about our interpretations. My group concluded that it was about someone's descent into insanity. We also discussed the different categories imagery has and how it relates to the three members of a poem: author, speaker, and reader. As I was looking for different types of imagery in the poem, I realized that it was missing a specific one that is normally always there: visual imagery. Though, I didn't quite understand the importance of its absence. Mr. S explained that visual imagery is missing because even though the reader can visualize the scene, the speaker can not. After reviewing the poem all week, we wrote for 40 minutes about the poem. The prompt said to explain how the author conveys the meaning of the poem. Allowing myself to see other interpretations and listen to other people's ideas made the prompt easier. I think I did much better than last time! My ideas were more formulated and backed up by examples. Our other focus this week was on what literature actually is. We talked about the difference between a story and literature and found the story in a painting. Mr. S wanted us to see how art connects to literature. We I think about art, I include poetry as a type of art, but after this week I will include all literature. Just like an artist use different angles, colors, and techniques, authors use literary devices to create a deeper meaning in their art. I believe that's the difference between a story and literature. Literature isn’t always straightforward, it has hidden agendas and often has a lesson to learn. literature vs mainstream novels |
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March 2017
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