november 29

• This past week  we read and studied "Dover Beach".

• We seperated into two large groups and broke down the underlying meaing of the poem.

• In my group I read the poem out loud, this was my contribution to the group, along with a few spit-balled comments here and there.

• No comments this week.

November 21st

We read and analyzed My Last Duchess.

We went into detail of the poem and about how the duke saw his wife as a object to own and show off rather than truly love her.

An insight that I saw was that when the poem is discussed with others it can be cast in a whole new light.  Reading it once or twice by myself won't let me get a firm understanding of the poem as a whole.

I benefit from reading and discussing these poems in class. It helps me understand what the poet is trying to say.

November 7th

This past week we talked about poetry and took some notes on it.  We also read a poem by Robert Frost.

Our main idea that was significant in our discussions this week was the way in which Frost wrote his poem; by using the imaginary and reality.

I learned a lot about poetry.  I honestly have had no to little education on the fundamentals of poetry so it's nice to understand it a little bit better.

I have no questions or comments this week.

November 7th

This past week we talked about poetry and took some notes on it.  We also read a poem by Robert Frost.

Our main idea that was significant in our discussions this week was the way in which Frost wrote his poem; by using the imagery and reality.

I learned a lot about poetry.  Poerty for me is just a hard subject but the discussions have helped me tremendously. 

I have no questions or comments this week.

October 31st

• This past week we worked on multiple choice questions and how they might be worded on the AP exam.
• The discussions included the process of grading the questions, the percentages of how much an single question affects our grade, how the questions are formatted, and how the answers are generally produced. 
• My insight was that I got a feel for how the questions are put to the us and gave me a better understanding of them.
• I thought it was good how we took a look on what might be on the AP exam. 

october 24th

This past week we were assigned groups to fully analyze A Raisin in the Sun on our groups website.

The main ideas that we discussed in class involved just how to work in a group. TEAM WORK

The main insights I contributed were analyzing the characters and giving reviews on performances based on the play.

The group work was very beneficial and not as stressful as I thought

October 10th

We have been reading "A Raisin In The Sun".

We talked about the characters from the play and discussed their traits and behavior as we see in the story.

Chris Dunn and I presesnted Walter's veiw of Bennie.

I heard many different views of each character and I don't think anybody is wrong.  There can be many ways to describe a character.

october 3rd

We read the poems "Harlem" and "Market Economy" and we also started reading "A Raisin in the Sun".

We broke up into groups and talked about the "American Dream".  What it is and how to achieve it.  We also discussed the symblism in the 2 poems we read.

One thought I had was how difficult it is to achieve the "American Dream".  We all want the perfect life but it seems impossible to get.

There was so much symbolism in those 2 poems, amazing.

Diary entry

It just never seems to get any better.  Everyday I tell myself "tomorrow will better" or "this will all be over soon".  I don't know why I convince myself of these lies.  All I want to do is go to school where I can receive a great education like the white kids, or be on the white bus.  All this hate and violence is killing me.  I just want to get away from it all.  Our school is so run down and old that it could fall down on us any day.  All I think about is just getting to go home.  On my way home from school today I was basically interrogated by the white police officers for no reason.  They teased me and called me names.  What did I ever do to them? Nothing!  Why can't they just accept me for who I am?  When I get home, it's no different than being at school.  Our home is in the same condition.  It's so hard, day after day, worrying about if we will have food on the table.  Why does the color of our skin matter so much? 

September 12th

This week, we discussed "Araby" and performed a close reading on the text. We also read the short story "The Lottery" and examined allusions and examined the text as a class.

We performed our own close readings and interpretations of the short story "Araby" and used DIDLS to help understand the reading better. Through reading "The Lottery" we also performed our own CQC's on the story and discussed allusions and our interpretations of the text with the class.

I realized that you might not notice everything about a story you can. Reading and doing CQC's as you read can help you better understand the story and makes you pay attention more to details. Also, the author doesn't always state a reason for everything in the story, like in "The Lottery." There is no clearly stated reason for the lottery but through examination of the text, we can make our own interpretations and opinions.

 I would really like to sit down with the Author of "The Lottery" and ask her about her inspirations for the short story.

AP Lit Close- Reading

The word I would use to describe the diction of this story is usage.  The words the author uses aids in the characterization and the tone of this work.  It sets a dark, gloomy setting.  These words also provide good imagery, and Personally, I can create this setting in my mind.  The street, the weather, and the kids, I can picture this with no problems.  The last sentence kind of threw out that dark mood, and provides us with the narrator’s change of mood from dark to light.

The last sentences of this passage throw me off.  He uses the words dark and brown-clad figure and it gives me this eerie feeling that something bad is going to happen.  Looking past these words, you remember that the narrator is admiring this wonderful woman that he is border-line obsessed with.  So it’s not a dark situation, but rather an enlightening one for the narrator because he is trying to win over this woman.

september 7th

We read "Araby" by James Joyce, and discussed meanings and applications of the text.

I shared that I thought the book had a lot of hidden evidence to fully understand the story.

We took notes on the story and answered questions from the book.

We also turned in a biblical allusions assignment on our blog, I chose a blog that alluded to how God created the world and how we got different types of people.

Week of August 29th

We covered our first short story, "Little Things", this week.  Also, we compared "little things" to Solomon in the bible.

We really picked apart "Little Things"  by going through a set of questions.  The questions didn't have a right or wrong answer but it was fun to see everyone debate on what they thought was the right answer.

Going through "Little Things" the way we did helped me personally, become better at really analyzing literature thoroughly.

I still wish that short story would have continued on just a little bit so it gave some closure, but I realize that's what the other wants.

Allusion

1)http://www.allanbevere.com/2008_09_01_archive.html
2) This cartoon is just adding a little humor to how God created the world as he is adding a different kinds of people.
3)Genesis 1-2
4)I think the author of this cartoon is using the idea of creation to just have a little fun.  He doesn't intend to make fun of creation but rather, shows god made the Earth.

Week of August 22

We covered the history and elements of a short story.

Discussed the Main elements of a short story (Character,Setting, Plot, Theme, Point of Veiw) through presentations given by the class.

I presented how to find and state a theme in my groups powerpoint.

I thought last week was very productive.

Week of August 15th

We discussed our pictures for HTRLLP.  We also wrote a AP Lit Free response question.

We went over a rubric for Timed writing and Free Response questions.

Adam Williams and I presented our Drawings for our chapters of "How to read Lit.....Professor"

I thought going through the rubrics was very helpful.  I had never gone through that before and it really helped me.

Week of August 8th

We covered ideas over "How to Read Literature like a professor.

We just went over the main ideas of HTRLP.

The only thing I remember I did during class was answer a few questions, and made some jokes.

I don't have any questions or comments.