One prevalent exercise we have done in the past few weeks is “mood and atmosphere”. Like any other class activity, these is always some by conflict in our class. The biggest reason is because we always feel the piece needs to be perfect. Writing, word by word, is one of the hardest things to do, especially when a certain mood needs to be established. There is always at least one person that says, “I’m not happy with this” because the process of one small piece of writing can go on and on. With so many people working together, the class kind of works as both the editors and the writers all at once. These exercises give me a whole new understanding of the difficulty authors go to to create a mood in their pieces.
Another experience we all shared in was the writing, discussing, and rewriting of “The Century Quilt” essay prompt. The last time we wrote an essay, we had all individually worked with the material beforehand, so, our understanding of the material was greater and easier to write about. But, the AP exam will ask us to analyze the poem and then write about it all at once. When writing for this essay, I did not have enough time to fully understand the poem, but because of this, I misunderstood aspects of the poem. I have always been a fast test taker, but when writing an essay I am unsure of, it quickly becomes difficult to word things and write down incomplete ideas.
I think the biggest thing I need to work on with the future essay prompts is coming up with an overall understanding of the poem first, and then picking out the pieces, like syntax, imagery, tone, etc. I always jump in too quickly and want to comment on things before I understand the poem. With the time restraint, I cannot seem to stop myself, like I normally do.
We have also finished Death of a Salesman. Coming up with a statement in class was slightly easier because we knew the process, but we still had difficulty fitting everything into one statement. I’m sure Hamlet will be just as hard or harder with so many characters’ roles to consider.
We have also been reading Hamlet, which has been enjoyable. My favorite of Shakespeare's plays are his dramas, and Hamlet is added evidence to the trend. Hamlet reminds me of the angsty hipster character in an indie film. Of course, Hamlet as a play is not really like an indie film, but Hamlet definitely exhibits the emotional consistency of the characters. Still, I think he has reason to be upset with his situation, but he is very much focused on his issues.
I am excited to look further into Ophelia's role. I still have not decided where exactly I think she is on the spectrum between understanding everything and being completely confused. I am leaning towards her being a character that has more understanding that people assume, but I am still not sure.
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteYou did a wonderful job including everything we have done in class. I agree with you about the mood and atmosphere exercises; it taught me how there are a million of ways to say the same thing. I failed on understanding “The Century Quilt”; I thought it was about how blankets bring families close together. Maybe next time try to plan your essay completely before writing it. It may take a little extra time, but with a solid outline, the essay will write itself. I wish you went deeper on your thoughts of Death of a Salesman and Hamlet. Why was it difficult to come up with a theme statement for Salesman? What are your thoughts on Hamlet so far?
Also remember to relate these posts to things outside of class
Other than that, this is a solid post!
Lindsay,
ReplyDeleteI like the way you talked about the atmosphere exercise. I really like when you mentioned that its like people are acting as the writer at the same time, and not everyone is happy. I think we can all relate to that, no matter what hour we’re in.
I also liked how you talked about the essay. I am a fast test taker, and writing an essay is hard for me because I just throw myself in without even understanding what I’m writing about, and its nice to know that I’m not the only one (however it’s a really bad habit and we should really stop.)
The only thing I wanted to add was your thoughts on Hamlet. I know that you are one to get these blog posts done really early, but it’s an important part of class that really shouldn’t be overlooked. Other than that, Mariah gave some really good advice on the essay (I think I’ll help myself to that too.)
Great job!
Lindsey,
ReplyDeleteI was not shocked by the amount of conflict in our mood and atmosphere activities, everyone interpreted the pictures differently. One person would see it a certain way, and the next person would not see it at all in that way. It was difficult to come to a concise decision on what the picture meant in the first place, and it was even harder to write a sentence that we were all happy with! As challenging as they may have been, I think the activities helped us all grow as writers. It also took me a long time to come to an understand of The Century Quilt. For me, I had enough time to come to some good conclusions about the poem, but I did not have time develop a well organized essay and complete essay. Practice like this is going to be very helpful in preparing for the AP exam. All of the ideas you added in your post were good, but there was no mention of Hamlet, which was a huge chunk of what we have done recently.