Reflections on First Semester

1) Choice reading gives me a lot of freedom in choosing the books I would like to read. It brings more fun to just reading and enjoying the plot, characters, and themes. I would like to bring back some of the designated choice-book club reading time at the beginning of the hour. 

However, I really like group readings as I get to listen to other’s interpretations of the book and compile them with my own analysis to create a broader understanding. As a singular reader of a choice book, I am worried that I’ll miss an essential or different perspective of the story, motifs, or symbolism. I loved our discussions on Fences: its symbolism, its reflections on American history and current events. 

4) In past classes, I have never written blog posts before. This was my first time! The creativity to express not only in words is liberating. I like adding photos, graphs, and videos.🎨🎞 I enjoy writing blogs because I think we don’t write enough personal narrative style pieces in English anymore; it is usually literary criticism/analysis type essays. I feel that there is less pressure to follow deep into rhetorical strategies and more emphasis to include anecdotes and thoughts about the world we live in. Writing blogs also help sort out my thoughts onto paper(or onto a Google Doc) :)

5) I prefer Harkness discussions compared to Socratic Seminars. There is a looming pressure to talk three times in Socratic Seminars, so everyone fights to enter the conversation. It becomes more about fulfilling a requirement than the actual topics discussed. 

6) I want to read more. With college applications this semester, I didn’t get a lot of time to read books for the AP test. I’m setting a goal to read The Glass Menagerie this month. I started reading today, and the first monologue is super interesting; the idea of a memory play to describe the past is a unique narration style.