Sunday, October 27, 2013
Our Class #2
Some more AP lit!!
Well here we are guys! Making it through the wonderful class of AP lit. Poetry has never been one of my strong suits and hopefully will become easier so it's probably very helpful that we are analyzing some as a class.
Promises Like Pie-Crust: At first when I read through the poem I had no idea what it was about. The language was kind of confusing for me and I just didn't understand what the meaning was at all. Than when we started to go through STIFS and DIDLS it started to come together. We started to come up with what the stanzas meant as a class and then I understood that it was about a relationship and what the speaker was trying to say. I think that the discussions are really helpful because than we have twenty people to bounce around ideas instead of just one or two if we analyzed the poem alone. It's also really helpful to create one theme as a group because than we can discuss it and make sure that it satisfied everybody's opinion.
Death of a Salesman: When we started watching the movie I really wasn't excited. I knew that after we did the close reading I would like the writing and the meaning of the play but I was scared that I really wouldn't like the story. After we saw the movie I was still a bit concerned, Willy was so hard to understand throughout the movie that I didn't like him very much. The other thing about the movie was that it was so depressing, I know it is a tragedy but it was just so sad.
After I did the close reading I felt a little bit better about it. I was still upset with Willy and Biff because through the whole thing they were so rude to each other and moody. But when you actually read the story you understand that the movie didn't give the book justice, Miller put so much thought into the play that reading it wasn't as boring and depressing as I thought it would be. As we read criticisms in class and discuss the meaning I do appreciate the play and actually like that we are reading it. We read essays regarding whether the book was a tragedy or not, I think that it is. I think that the definition of tragedy can change over time just like other things do too. I think it's the fall of a character and it does provoke emotion in the reader. So yes in my opinion it should be a tragedy.
AP test: We have also been practicing multiple choice questions for the test and writing short essays from prompts so overall I'm really glad that we are doing it because I need all the practice I can get.
P.S. still not invited to AP facebook.
Love you class!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Kate! I'm not sure this is the right place to complain about the AP Facebook problem, because a complaint here might not get any action--maybe mention it in class? Great job covering the material and reflecting on its significance to you--I would like to see a bit more synthesis of material across the course and connecting of the material to experiences (academic and otherwise) from outside of this course.
ReplyDeleteKate,
ReplyDeleteYou did a good job summarizing about what happened so far and your opinion on it. I agree with you about poetry not being your strong suit. It has never and probably never will be my strong suit. Maybe looking up poems and analyzing them as extra practice could be beneficial for you for the AP exam. Do you know any other ways to practice poetry? For promises like a pie crust, what exactly about the language was confusing? I agree that discussing as a class has been helpful in deciphering the poem. I had a general idea about what the poem was talking about based on personal experiences but I could not find the connection towards the stanzas until we started talking as a class about it. Even after discussing it as a class, what other questions do you have about the poem?
About the Death of The Salesman, it did not occur to me that the movie did not give the book justice. After reading what you said, I agree that some movies lack the ability to convey the true feelings of the characters well. But even after reading the books, the characters seem to annoy me even more. After the reading the book, how exactly did your feelings change? What specific examples in the book made you change your feelings? Also, what is your definition of the tragedy in the book since over time the definition of tragedy has changed depending on other people's perception of it.
When we were doing the AP multiple choice, do you think that you did better or worst than last time and what do you think the cause of that may be?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGreat job! You included a wide variety of material and offered a very personal response. I agree that watching the movie was an interesting experience, but in my opinion, I don't think that it did not do justice to the play. However, I do think that the close reading was much more interesting as I noticed certain motifs and ideas that I didn't see in the movie. Did you find the flashback scenes to be more clear in the book or in the movie? Have you been able to relate anything in AP back to other lit classes or texts that you've read? I am also glad that we have continued our test prep, and I look forward to not doing so badly on them some day in the future.
ReplyDelete