The biggest thing I took away from this week was that you can be selective when it comes to literature and art. I have always thought that I should be able to understand every piece of literature. I thought it was my job to make sure the work spoke to me and if I was not completely immersed by this highly acclaimed novel then I was not an educated enough reader. I was the same way with art. I have seen all these great paintings, only a handful in person, but only one or two really stuck out to me. The rest left me wondering why in the word this was considered a masterpiece. People would talk about being mesmerized by all these works of art and it left me puzzled, for I have never had that special connection to one specific painting although a few had stood out to me. I learned this week that it is okay if I haven't experienced some life-changing art or literature, as long as I keep an open mind and continue to seek out art galleries and literature instead of dessert reading. The key isn't to put pressure on these kind of moments, they will come unexpected and you won't know why. Just got to let it naturally happen and not fight against nor force it. Allowing your imagination to flow and a story to be created is what makes it so amazing.
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Group Essays may sound great to some people because it means less work for them, and at first I was thinking it would be kind of nice too and not as stressful on me. However; the only downside of a group essay is that we all had very different perspectives as we read our three books and we all have our unique writing style and voice. While having variety can be awesome and make a piece of writing more dynamic, it can be difficult to accomplish and won't sound consistent throughout if you don't blend the styles successfully. It has forces all of the group members to be firm in what they want to say and to defend their reasoning, as well as coaxes a little flexibility into people. Not every idea you have is going to be the best fit in order to accomplish the team's goal and working as a team exposes everyone to something new. I have had mixed feelings about the group essay since I do not like confrontation and usually try to avoid stepping on people's toes, especially when it comes to writing because I am not the most confident in it. This setting requires you to be confident in order to make inputs and help your team out. I definitely grew as a writer and also used the "fake it 'til you make it" strategy and pretended to know what I was talking about and was very open to criticism. This week our main focus was working on our summer reading group essay and analyzing the Eagle poem. We began the week reading the Eagle poem closely and discussing it at our table groups. It was interesting to see how everyone at my group interpreted the poem a different way, some saw the eagle as a strong leader of a country and another thought it was a very depressing poem about suicide. Exchanging our ideas helped me to look at the poem differently and having to take a stand a defend what I thought about the poem caused me to read it differently. Instead of trying to tear the poem apart or figure out what it was supposed to mean, I just let my mind go in the direction the poem was taking me. Each day we had a different question to answer about the structure and word usage or imagery which really helped me further analyze the poem after I had already established the basis of what it meant to me the first day. Reading the poem over a course of few days gave the work more meaning and became more than just an assignment. When we wrote our essay about it on Friday, I barely had a second paragraph and almost no conclusion. I had so much to say about the poem which surprised me and I did not plan accordingly as I was timing out my essay. Besides not having enough time to finish and revise my essay I am still pleased with how it went because of how deeply I felt that I understood the poem by the end of the week. We worked on quite a bit more than just the poem such as a creative writing, our group essays and some SSR time but the poem really stood out because I have never felt so confident about the analyzation of a poem. I'm really starting to like poetry! (not that I didn't before, I just have a new appreciation). First week of school is officially over and I can honestly say that AP Lit is my favorite class on my schedule. We started everyday with a poem which introduced us to our study of poetry this trimester. I have already learned to look at poems in a new way, I was reminded to enjoy the poem and not just try to pick it apart for its' meaning. I was also reminded that although I didn’t consider myself to be a writer, that I really am one. I disregarded the fact that writing in a journal, texting and emailing; are all forms of writing. I thought in order to be a writer you must be an author of novels or poems, but I’m really an author of my own story in all different formats each day. I was very nervous for English this year because it has never been my strong suit but realizing that I hold all the potential to be a great writer is making me excited for the year. Learning to push past the barriers of embarrassment or fear of failure will be my biggest obstacle this year. Something that I think will help me break those barriers are quick writes which have been proven useful in this process. The quick write we did this week was amazing, we just got to spit out all the thoughts in our head and hold nothing back. I love that, nothing gets in the way of the creative process, it keeps me from over thinking everything I do. |
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March 2017
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