These past few weeks I have been able to acquire a great deal of information. I have learned that this class is a ton of work and to not leave annotations for the night before.
Going back a few weeks ago we continued to discuss The American Dream. We read two different essays that gave me a new outlook on this bizarre play. These opinionated pieces assisted me in annotating the play and furthered my understanding of Theater of the Absurd. Our class discussions opened my eyes to all the hidden details I missed the first two times reading. Just about everything in the play has a significant role. The next text we examined was How to Read Literature Like a Professor. This book was filled to the brim with repetitive information, but nonetheless useful. We learned that Foster is a large fan of Machiavelli as he was referenced in just about every chapter.
We have also been doing various activities together as a class to expand our knowledge of diction, imagery, and syntax. These have stretched and forced me to think beyond what I have done in the past. Creating examples and then immediately discussing them with the whole class helps me directly apply what I have just learned. When we began to examine AP strategies, I was a little intimidated. Those multiple choice questions are close to impossible. The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing was helpful in revising my essay. The style the book was written in makes it an easy reference when writing. Recently, we have watched Death of a Salesman which is proving to being another unique literary work. I am eager to see what this play brings to the table.
Hi Hunter,
ReplyDeleteNice review of what the class has done. What did you think of the Death of a Salesman movie? Have you noticed any differences between the book and the movie? I noticed a few minor things but nothing much. The movie seemed to do a pretty good job at staying true to the book. I am really glad we watched the movie first because some scenes in the book would not make any sense to me if we hadn’t. One thing I’ve been wondering: Willy, the father, keeps wanting to plant a garden, and I feel like that symbolizes something but I can’t tell what. Do you have any ideas on what it could mean? The topic is brought up in the story over and over again so I’m curious. Maybe we’ll cover it when we discuss the play as a class.
Hey Hunter! I'm glad someone else found those multiple choice questions challenging. It seemed like most people got them right away, but it took me way too long to finish those questions. You did a good job covering most of the things we did in class, but you might want to say something about the voice lessons or our class discussions as a whole. Also, some of the important ideas from How to Read Literature like a Professor and the Nuts and Bolts of College Writing might act as a helpful memory jogger for when you look back on this post in the future. Overall, nice job!
ReplyDeleteGood review! It was pretty short, yet it still managed to hit all of the important points. I, too, am guilty of procrastinating for the annotations until the last night. You might want to give just a little bit more personal opinion of everything, and explain it more, along with a bit more detail about our class discussions. What did you think of the AP Essay practice? Did you find it difficult? Good job, overall!
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