One of the assignments that I’m
most proud of is the second Hamlet character post. I really captured the
essence of Hamlet’s character in this post because it mirrors his self-hatred
that he spewed in his soliloquy in Act 2. My favorite lines are “Actors of
Hollywood have more valor than I do. Players of the 1600s have more emotional
connection to the loss of loved ones than I do” because I paralleled what
Hamlet addressed in his soliloquy (the fact that the players could garner more
emotion than him) with the movie trailer and came up with a similar line that
he may have uttered in response. I embedded the quotes into my sentences well
which allowed me to create a mixture of what Hamlet said and my own input to
create a realistic reaction he would have had to seeing the Taken trailer. One thing that I could
have done better was the introduction/background information. I needed to make
sure the reader knew the plot of the movie, but I feel like I could have
incorporated my character’s voice into it better to provide for a smoother
transition into the rest of the blog post.
I learned to compare and contrast
quotes from different sources as I compared Hamlet’s cowardly inaction to
Bryan’s heroic actions. After this post I found it easier to write blog post #5
where I had to perform a similar task. Comparing quotes from the song with
quotes from the play was much easier after I did basically the same thing with
the second blog post.
Another blog post that I really
like is the creative project one. I wanted to do something with food for my
project because of the major theme of hunger in The Life of Pi (plus I’m always looking for an excuse to eat food),
and I thought of a really good way to do this while addressing complexity and
deeper meanings of the text. I also wrote a very clear and concise thesis for
this project and included quotations from the book that related closely to both
my thesis and the brownie cookies themselves. The most important thing about
this project, however, was that I learned to write theses better as a result. I
went in after school for help on my thesis writing and it really showed in my
project which I was very happy with.
My participation in class changed
for the better over the course of the trimester. At first I was really unsure
with my abilities and a little afraid of being wrong in my analysis of
literature which hindered my ability to search the deeper meanings of pieces.
As the trimester progressed, though, things began to click and I became more
comfortable contributing in class.
The last half of the trimester I
found myself contributing to almost every class discussion. For example, when
we were discussing the use of metaphysical conceit in John Donne’s Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God I
pointed out the irony in the author’s description of God’s actions as they
seemed to have connotations of lust, yet still described the author’s desire
for chastity (“Nor ever chast, except you ravish me” (Donne)). I actively
engaged in the conversation and left class feeling a lot more comfortable with
the poem.
One of my goals for the trimester
was to improve my multiple choice scores on AP practice tests. We took a
practice test in the beginning of the trimester and I performed less than
desirably (I got 59% of the questions correct) and set some goals for
improvement. My first goal was to score at least a 70% on a multiple choice
test at the end of first trimester by practicing my skills throughout the tri.
This trimester (in addition to writing multiple choice questions in class and taking
another practice exam in class) I practiced my multiple choice skills on an AP
test I found online. I think it was the culmination of all of these steps that
led to me reaching my goal of a 70% on the multiple choice we took at the end
of the trimester. I think with more practice in the B section of the course I
will become even more comfortable with this section of the exam and I will be
able to reach my 85% goal.
Another one of my goals was to be
able to analyze poetry more effectively. I remember in the beginning of the trimester
I had trouble even comprehending the meaning of some pomes so I made it my goal
to read and analyze a couple poems (especially ones from older time periods) per
week so that by the end of the course I could have the ability to read and
analyze a piece of poetry in less than five minutes. I included a specific time
in my goal because come May I will be under strict time restraints when reading
pieces and answering questions about them. At first I would just read a poem
and try to understand the basic meaning, but as I practiced, I started to piece
together techniques the poets used to create that meaning, even in pieces of
writing from older time periods. In this section’s final exam, for example,
there were some questions about a Shakespearean sonnet on how Shakespeare
shaped the meaning. I ended up only missing a couple questions in this section
which is far better than the beginning of the trimester when I couldn’t even
decipher what the authors were trying to portray. I do have a lot of room for
improvement, though, as the poem at the end of the test didn’t go as well…but I
have no worries! I haven’t reached my goal yet, but I will continue to practice
poetry analysis and I expect to be able to consistently read and analyze a poem
in less than five minutes by the end of second trimester.
No comments:
Post a Comment