The most important parts of the class this month were annotating and discussing The American Dream. Going over every single line and making notes was tedious and took up a lot of time, but it showed me in depth how exactly the author illustrates certain themes and motifs to the reader. Discussing these things with the class also showed us me how there isn't just one interpretation of a text. The basic idea is the same, but people had slight differences in opinion over things such if Mommy made Daddy into a woman or more of a child, and why Mommy didn't open the boxed lunch Grandma made for her as a girl. Some of these opinions changed my mind, while some didn't, but it was interesting to see how everyone had a valid opinion.
I also enjoyed relating the poems and short stories about immigrants to The American Dream. Although I didn't play a major role in my group's production (I was Daddy and just agreed with Mrs. Barker the whole time), I liked thinking of how characters across texts would react to each other. The other groups in my class did a very good job at thinking of accurate and entertaining ways to show the class how the two characters would interact. I hope to do things like this more in the future.
Hi Julia! I agree with your statements about annotating. It has been interesting to see people's different view points, and how they interpret the text compared to my interpretation. To show that you are reprocessing the material you could provide an example of some different ways a passage in The American Dream could be interpreted. I also liked seeing how characters across texts react to each other, I think it helps us understand the characters better.
ReplyDeletePs. I really like the background for your blog!!
I definitely agree with what you said about annotating. It was a very tedious experience but it really helped us understand the text better. I think with something like "The American Dream", which had an absurdist quality that made it more difficult to understand, or Hamlet, which we are reading now and which uses a form of English that we are unfamiliar with, it'll help in our understanding and recognition of themes and characters better. I agree with Caroline in that you should show that you are reprocessing the information a little bit more. While you provide a summary of events, you don't really connect them with other things that you've learned. Also, I'm not sure if the expectation is to respond to everything or not, so I'd be a bit careful there. You covered a bit, but I feel like we've done more than that in class.
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, though, I liked your discussions on these topics and I really agree with you on your points.
Annotating was certainly time consuming and tedious. I have to agree, though… As much as I dragged my feet through it, it really expanded my knowledge of the play. Suddenly little lines had meaning I'd never realized, and specific phrases would repeat over and over. Drawing connections and seeing themes became much easier when I had to circle and underline every other word, and I gained a great appreciation of the deeper meanings in absurdist texts.
ReplyDeleteAs the others mentioned, I'd suggest mentioning more of our in-class activities, such as beginning to watch Death of a Salesman.