In class this week we prepared for a presentation on literature that we will soon start by reading an essay by Philip Pullman. It discussed the amounts of "story" and literature contained in a book titled His Dark Materials. I enjoyed the essay; it gave me good insight on how much literature appears in films. For example, Pullman explained that it is hard to express what is happening to characters internally in movies and used Mary's conversation with Lydia to prove the fact. While Mary was talking Lydia felt like a dark house had become light inside of her. That vision would be very hard to put into a film. I have often wondered why movies that are based off of books always seem a little off and this essay showed me why that is, it is hard to put a narrative voice inside a movie that would describe what is happening to the author internally. Also it helped me understand the difference between story and literature in books; the story part contains the plot, characters, and settings. Literature is the more complex ideas that are often, as Robert Frost says, "lost in translation" when a book is converted into a movie.
https://www.bustle.com/articles/64990-why-you-shouldnt-be-mad-if-the-movie-adaptation-of-your-favorite-book-isnt-100-percent
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This week in class we continued writing our group essays that compared the books we read over the summer to How to Read Like a Professor. I read Obasan and The Book Thief. My group was fairly productive this week; we got all our thoughts down for our main paragraphs and finished their structures. Near the end of the week, we were asked to peer review another group's essay while they did the same to ours. We were told when other people review our essays, they can find parts we didn't explain well enough, parts that we may have forgotten to add. We were also told not to worry about grammar, nitpicky mistakes.
In the past, I never liked peer editing and did not understand why it was needed. I felt there was nothing my classmates could add that I had not thought of. Also, when I edited other people's works, I focused only on grammar mistakes because I didn't want them to be offended. I was willing to fix what they wrote, but not tell them what they needed. However, this week I learned how much peer editing can benefit essays. My group was told that in one of our paragraphs, we didn't explain how the books connected to How to Read Like a Professor. I read the paragraph in question and realized they were right, we had completely neglected it. Then I read a different paragraph and realized we had done the same thing. That one comment helped us fix many major structural problems with our essay. At times we can be so absorbed in our writing that we forget to include major elements. For this reason, we need peer editing. As can be seen from my group's experience, the essays edited will benefit immensely. http://www.colby.edu/writers.center/peerediting.html In class this week, we dove into a poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson called The Eagle. After reading it for the first time, my first impression was one of an eagle swooping down to capture his prey. I was confused how anyone could see a different meaning than this. The meaning seemed so obvious. However, throughout this week as we read the poem many times, used the TP-CASTT poetry analysis to review it, and talked about questions that put the poem in a different perspective, my initial judgment of the poem changed. I started focusing on the author's choice of words more and made different assumptions after learning the author's point of view and studying the structure of the stanzas in greater detail. I learned to look for contrasting points in both paragraphs and realized how large and open the first stanza was, only to become confined and depressing a sentence later. It was amazing that both places seemed worlds apart, even though one was only a glance away from the other.
On Friday, we put all our thoughts together for a final question and essay on this poem. After thinking about all I learned this week, I finally decided that the meaning of the poem was that of a prideful man who finally broke under the pressure of constantly being noble and great. When he realized he could stand no more, he chose to fall rather than sit down and humiliate himself. My initial judgment of the poem scraped only its surface. I focused on what I read, not of the poems literary devices. Knowing this helped me recognize how much we learned this week about analyzing poems. Hopefully, next time I’ll have a more open mind to the deeper meaning. http://classroom.synonym.com/benefits-reading-poems-3849.html This week in AP Literature and Composition, we started dusting off the cobwebs from summer by starting our portfolios, listening to some inspiring poems, and picking SSR novels. In addition, we learned how to review poems, watched a video on that described what literature was, and talked about how we got to where we are now. To understand those specific concepts, we discussed them. For some people, myself included, commenting in a classroom filled with people can be hard. To share what one is thinking on a new subject sounds intimidating. However, comments can be one of the most important tools in a classroom. They have helped me learn things I didn't know before, sparked thoughts that intrigue me to look deeper into topics, and allow students to become more involved. When teachers ask for their students comments, it allows them to participate in the learning process, which helps them remember the lesson. I felt like my participation in the discussions was lacking this week. I would talk with the people at my table, but unless asked, would not share with the class. I was not opposed to commenting, I just felt like what I had to say did not need to be said, or that someone else could say it better than I could. In these upcoming weeks and months I want to gain the confidence to willingly speak out about what I know and questions I have at any and all opportunities I see. By doing this, I will hopefully come to understand the topics we discuss to a greater extent than I ever have before. http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/10-benefits-of-getting-students-to-participate-in-classroom-discussions/ |
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April 2017
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