I'm not going to lie - the fact that next week is the last week of the quarter is pretty weird. Time flies when you're having fun, I guess. And time definitely seems to fly in AP Lit, especially when we're discussing! I always feel like the bell cuts us off just as we reach some great realization, or when our discussion is just about to get even more energetic. It never seems like we have enough time to cover everything we want to. I'd say we should budget our time more wisely, but since our discussions never seem to have any real schedule we can't really do that.
Personally, I'm fine with not having a set schedule for discussions. I like that we get to work through things at our own pace, even if it means our discussions occasionally (frequently) get off track. Because we decide how things are paced, by the time we make a decision I usually understand it. Sometimes it seems like things are resolved a bit too quickly, though, and that I could say more. That can be a little bit frustrating, especially when people just keep talking without giving anyone else a chance to contribute. I usually just kind of jump into the conversation, but for some of the quieter people in our class I feel like that's a bit harder. I hope that as the year goes on we get better at letting everyone talk.
I'm not sure how I felt about Death of a Salesman. I liked the play, but I'm not sure I liked the order we did things in class. I think watching the movie first made the text a lot harder to annotate, since it was the first time I was actually seeing it. I also felt like we had a really short time to annotate the book, especially when compared to The American Dream, which was much shorter (and less complicated, in my opinion). I don't think my annotations were as good as they could have been, and I'll admit that I was scrambling to finish them towards the end.
One thing that I'm kind of worried about is poetry. It's not my strongest point, but in a testing situation I can usually get by. However, analyzing poetry the way we have been in class is really hard for me. I just don't see the depth in the poems, even after reading them several times. I feel like I always need someone to kind of tell me what's going on before I can even begin to analyze the poem, and that's something I certainly won't have when it comes time for the AP test. Hopefully by then I'll have strengthened my poetry-analyzing skills. I think if we continue to work with poetry throughout the year I'll feel more comfortable with it, so I'm not too worried.
I think you did well when talking about Death of a Salesman and I like how you expressed your opinion about it. I agree with you! I think this play took MUCH longer to annotate than The American Dream. But, unlike you, I think this play was easier to grasp and understand better. With that said, you left out some important things we did in class in your response. Promises like Pie Crust, My Father's Song, multiple choice distractors and question styles, and the study of forms of tragedy. (I didn't include the tragedy or multiple choice distractors either, but Ms. Holmes commented on mine and said it was something that needed to be included.) When you said it's easier for someone to point out what's going on in regards to poetry, I feel exactly the same way. When I read the poems in class, I don't know how to dig deep into it without the help of my classmates. I normally see the surface of the poem, but I can't go into depths about it. Hopefully over the next few months we'll both become successful at it on our own!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you talk about the discussions, I definitely think that it helps, especially with annotating, and understanding the meaning of whatever we are reading better. And I agree when you say that not a lot of people are able to talk, I wish that everyone had a chance because some people have great ideas but just do not get their voice heard. The annotations were a lot harder this time around, but I liked watching the movie first since I thought that it gave a grasp of the play. Knowing the ending helped see certain elements that were alluding to Willy’s death. Poetry is one thing that I know I will have to work on and I like that we work in class analyzing because I feel like it might help me. Analyzing as a class is really helpful and maybe it will become easier once the year goes on. Overall great summary!
ReplyDeleteHello Emma
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your discussion on class discussion, and I find myself sharing many similar sentiments. Personally, I somethings get the uneasy feeling that we are missing something, that something that should be discussed is not being brought up, even when I don't know what that something is.
I am sure that the uncertainties you expressed about poetry are shared by many other students. Practice makes perfect, of course, and I expect much more practice is heading our way. So I am not overly worried.
Your post could expand to mention multiple choice practice as well as connecting what you have learned to outside the class and what we learned earlier this year. I have noticed that a couple of students in our group have not done this, something that Ms. Holmes has pointed out.
Emma--I don't know how I missed commenting on this! Sorry! Your peers have already pointed out the issues that I would have identified--the skipped material and missing "connections," so I'll just address the class discussion part. The situation gets better over time as less-confident people get more comfortable, and that's already happening--and I do what I can to encourage progress--but ultimately each student has to take responsibility for participation on him- or herself, and the whole group has to take responsibility for the group dynamic.
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