Coming off of the activity this Friday where we reviewed material about trends over time in literature, it is very clear to me why we need to do posts like this. Reprocessing the information we learn in class and using it independently helps to solidify it in our minds, and if we put a good effort into it then it'll increase the amount of time we remember the things we learn.
Looking at essay questions together and breaking it apart helped me to understand the immense importance of answering the question that is asked--something Obama and Romney clearly don't care about when "answering" questions in their debates. It really is a great example of language that avoids answering the question; if an essay doesn't seem to be directly addressing what is asked, it probably isn't doing so.
Beginning our reading of The American Dream by Edward Albee was also a big step, as it is the first longer that we will closely read in this class. When I first read it, it was almost disorienting, like the first time you take off on an airplane. Above all, I was just confused, as there wasn't really anything logical happening, but there were some humorous moments. As I've only read it once, my understanding will deepen in the future, but at the moment almost all of my understanding of the play comes from the analyses that we read in class.
All of the allusion work that we did and the different critical lenses was a lot of information that I took in during a short time, so I probably need to review this. I plan to try to force myself to adopt a routine which reinforces the things that I have learned already in this class, since I would really like to become a better reader and writer as a result of taking this class.
Looking at essay questions together and breaking it apart helped me to understand the immense importance of answering the question that is asked--something Obama and Romney clearly don't care about when "answering" questions in their debates. It really is a great example of language that avoids answering the question; if an essay doesn't seem to be directly addressing what is asked, it probably isn't doing so.
Beginning our reading of The American Dream by Edward Albee was also a big step, as it is the first longer that we will closely read in this class. When I first read it, it was almost disorienting, like the first time you take off on an airplane. Above all, I was just confused, as there wasn't really anything logical happening, but there were some humorous moments. As I've only read it once, my understanding will deepen in the future, but at the moment almost all of my understanding of the play comes from the analyses that we read in class.
All of the allusion work that we did and the different critical lenses was a lot of information that I took in during a short time, so I probably need to review this. I plan to try to force myself to adopt a routine which reinforces the things that I have learned already in this class, since I would really like to become a better reader and writer as a result of taking this class.
Chris, your post is very good. I agree with all of the things you have said about this class. I like what you said about the American Dream and how it is extremely confusing the first time through. I too got all of my understanding of the novel from the intense discussions we had in class. Also, I like your idea of creating a routine to reinforce all of the ideas we learn in class such as the different time periods. There is a lot of information we learn over short periods of time and retaining it all can be very hard.
ReplyDeleteThe essay prompt we did in class helped me to realize that although it seems rather obvious to answer the question, it could easily happen if you are under pressure and just want to finish with enough time. I didn't understand very much on the first read of the American Dream either, but that's why we do close readings I guess. Now, I understand it very well, and I hope my level of understanding will increase that much for the American Dream. Although it makes a lot more sense with the first read, I feel like there is still a lot of information I missed.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I liked how you addressed the importance of writing the course material responses... I never thought of doing that. You did a good job of reviewing the information, and also mentioning what you planned to do. I agree that reading The American Dream was a big step in our class, and I liked your comparison to getting off an airplane - really disorienting at first. Overall, a good post.
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