Blog Post 5/11

For this post, please answer ALL of the following questions. These are regarding your experience in ELA this year. Do not be afraid to critique the class - I am looking for your honest feedback, both positive and negative.

1. What was the most fun/engaging activity that you did in ELA this year? Why was it fun/engaging?

-Seminars, probably. I like discussing things with people and hearing their opinions. 

2. What was the most boring activity that you did this year? Why was it boring?

-I wasn't a huge fan of the silent poem-analyzing, but it wasn’t terrible. Well, what I’m saying is that it was nothing to write home about, but I can see its value (learning to figure out metaphors, symbols and other stuff) and how others might enjoy it.

3. What was your favorite book this year? Why?

-There were a few good ones, but I’m gonna call a tie between The Odyssey and The Great Gatsby. For the former, I just enjoy reading things related to Greek mythology (especially when it’s well-translated), and enjoyed the story and clever wordplay; for the latter, it had a solid message and really encapsulated the social issues of the 1920s. 

4. What was your least favorite book this year? Why?

-Undoubtedly The Alchemist. I don’t think I’ve ever had a more unpleasant experience reading a book.  The Personal Legends didn’t make sense and were super inconsistent- plus, half of the little religion Coelho created for the book was there solely to drive along the plot. Writing about it is already making me angry. 

5. What should I definitely keep the same for next year's ELA curriculum? Why?

-The openness of all the projects. There’s a huge range of possibilities with the system that’s in place, and students down the line should definitely be able to experience that. Even if they use almost all of their opportunities to write essays like I did.

6. What should I definitely change for next year's ELA curriculum? Why?

-ELA doesn’t have very many negative aspects, as I’ve noted previously. But, I do have one small thing that I’d like to have eliminated, and that’s the “Involving Others” standard for seminars. If someone doesn’t say anything in a seminar knowing that they’re being graded on that, it’s their funeral- not everyone else’s. Plus, asking them to talk is super awkward and comes off as super forced no matter how it’s worded. Even still, when we DO ask them to speak, its something insignificant and silly because we asked them to do it before they gathered their thoughts. We’re all in high school, and are perfectly capable of speaking for 30-ish seconds about something in a small group setting.

7. Is there anything else that you would like to tell me about your experience in ELA? If so - please put it here.

-ELA is a really well-organized class, and I always felt that what we were doing in and out of class was conducive to what we were learning. A good flow of information/ work is great to have in any class, and ELA succeeds in that respect. I'm not even going for brownie points here, that's just how da class be.

64 blog posts. Two years. It’s been a long ride! 

Journal 5/4

We have finished A Raisin in the Sun. For this blog post, you can address anything about the book that interests you, whether we have discussed in class or not.

One topic that interested me throughout reading A Raisin in the Sun is that of Lorraine Hansberry’s process of creating the book’s characters. Some of my peers suggested that each character reflected a part of her own personality, while others said that she created them to be archetypes of the black community at the time. I think that it’s a mixture of both, combined with other elements that are necessary for telling a story. For example, characters with opposing views need to exist to make interesting relationships- like George Murchison and Joseph Asagai. The things that those two characters stood for made their interactions memorable, but they also represent the paths that a minority could take in a society that didn’t embrace their culture. Another example is in Beneatha, who strives to become educated and do well for herself despite the odds stacked against her. I could see elements of Ms. Hansberry’s personality being injected into her character, as she was also an educated black woman in the mid-20th century. One could analyze and make assumptions all day, but it all comes down to this: we don’t (and will most likely never) know the author’s thought process and exact intentions, so all we can do is guess.