Week 1: Pacing Yourself
Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
In AP Literature this week we set up what will eventually be an author's study by picking out an author we want to read and read at least two of their books. But one of the most important things we did those days was pace ourselves.
Overall pacing is one of the most important things a reader can do for themselves. One of the biggest issues I have with schools in the English departments is that they often make people read at the same pace as everyone else. Now I don't have any personal issues with that, as I love reading and I will more often than not make time to read but I know not everyone has the time or the ability to read as much or as well as others.
As said by Henry David Thoreau "Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer." Essentially one can't force people to read as fast as others because some people just work differently. Because if you do, then you set them up for trouble.
Overall pacing is one of the most important things a reader can do for themselves. One of the biggest issues I have with schools in the English departments is that they often make people read at the same pace as everyone else. Now I don't have any personal issues with that, as I love reading and I will more often than not make time to read but I know not everyone has the time or the ability to read as much or as well as others.
As said by Henry David Thoreau "Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer." Essentially one can't force people to read as fast as others because some people just work differently. Because if you do, then you set them up for trouble.
Week 3: Visualization
In Ap Literature this week we worked on an presented our Summer Reading Projects. They are posters that display a visual representation of what we learned about Literature from our summe reading. Now I didn't do any summer reading so that's nice but everyne seems to had done some summer reading but everyone else seems tp have done some reading and I did learn a lot from the other groups.
From every group I learned the value of trying to connect something someone read to something visual. I'm sure it's no coincidence that by seeing a concept found in Literature expressed through a visual medium it is often easier to understand.
From every group I learned the value of trying to connect something someone read to something visual. I'm sure it's no coincidence that by seeing a concept found in Literature expressed through a visual medium it is often easier to understand.
Week 4: Poem Format
This week in AP Literature the big thing we did was go over the poem Elegy In X Parts. It was a poem that detailed the memories of one's friend who had killed himself. Although this is alleged, as this, among everything else in the poem, is unclear, as the narrator themselves admits that they don't know exactly what they remember about their friend. The big thing about this poem was its structure, as there were many things that coincided with the poem's meaning and content. It was divided into parts of twos, which emphasized a relationship between the narrator and the subject, with the final segment in the poem being only one line, as the narrator was emphasizing that he was now alone without his friend.
The big thing that this taught me was the power of the structure of a poem. This poem showed me that poems don't always have to express everything in words, as the structure of a poem can hide much (if not more) of the poem's meaning than just the words themselves.
The big thing that this taught me was the power of the structure of a poem. This poem showed me that poems don't always have to express everything in words, as the structure of a poem can hide much (if not more) of the poem's meaning than just the words themselves.
Week 5: Flaws In One's Work
There was one main thing we did in AP Lit this week. One included a self-critique of our PoW responses to the poem Elegy In X Parts.
Now I never expected mine to be good. I'm not gonna kid myself with thinking my response was a nine or something like that. I knew it was gonna be crap. But after taking a step back in looking at my response, I realized that it sucked. To be honest, it was easily one of the worst pieces I have ever written. And that's coming from a guy who's in the process of writing a book. It was short, simple, and completely lacking in any form of deep meaning. My response was basically just blazing through the poem. It was honestly a summary, not a response. And because of this I was very dissapointed in what I wrote.
What I learned from this response is that I'll have to pay a lot more attention to my responses in the future (and more specifically my descriptions in the response. So from here on out I'll be trying to inprove the descriptions of the poems that I respond to. Because if I don't then I'm not really practicing Literature am I?
Now I never expected mine to be good. I'm not gonna kid myself with thinking my response was a nine or something like that. I knew it was gonna be crap. But after taking a step back in looking at my response, I realized that it sucked. To be honest, it was easily one of the worst pieces I have ever written. And that's coming from a guy who's in the process of writing a book. It was short, simple, and completely lacking in any form of deep meaning. My response was basically just blazing through the poem. It was honestly a summary, not a response. And because of this I was very dissapointed in what I wrote.
What I learned from this response is that I'll have to pay a lot more attention to my responses in the future (and more specifically my descriptions in the response. So from here on out I'll be trying to inprove the descriptions of the poems that I respond to. Because if I don't then I'm not really practicing Literature am I?