Oh my how long it's been since I've written a blog, which is partially excusable and partially just an act of laze on my part. Either way, it's long over due that I share my learning, growth, and struggles as an AP Lit student this second trimester.
  
  Let's start in a far far away time... November! We'd just wrapped up our philosophical reflections. I was really proud of the paper I produced and the amount of work I'd put into it. I worked hard on my blog posts, which made writing the paper slightly easier. This being said when I began this paper I had horrible writers block. I recall sitting at my computer with the cursor blinking with nothing more than "Philosophical Reflection" written at the top for a good hour or more. It was horrendous how long it took me to really connect the "what" with the "how". "What" being what I had to say and what I'd learned, "how" being how to actually convey this newfound knowledge. I was stumped.... completely haulted. That's an uncomfortable feeling for me because generally I know what I want, how to get it, and when it'll be mine. For example, if I want to hang out with Ryan I have to do the dishes and clean the entryway before mom gets home at 5. Easy peasy! No "hour or more of doing nothing, knowing what I need to do but being to lost to do it" shenanigans! I hope that with the current paper we're writing about Shakespeare's King Lear that I can expand on my ideas easier because I've written a much larger amount since starting the reflection long ago. Writing seems to be like singing in the aspect that if you neglect your talent, it will go away. It's not like a bike you just pick up and ride, it's much more sophisticated and requires far more attention than I've ever given it before. Going forward into the next marking period I hope for a couple things; fluency, clarity, and the ability to be concise. With that in mind I'm moving on the next subject, our Poems of the Week.

    This marking period we've begun to explore the intricacies of writing an FRQ on not one, but two poems! We've had to analyze two poems and somehow draw similarities between style, tone, and theme. This isn't my strong suit at all. I like to be as thorough as I can while writing, and 40 minutes for one poem is something I'd just gotten good at. Now two?!? Too much, that's what. But really, in all actuality, it's something I really don't grasp in my arsenal at this moment. What I find the most challenging about writing the double POW is the fact that you have to be thinking about both poems and how they relate/differ. You may have a great break through about one poem, but it's nothing like the other and ends up leading you down a 15 minute path to no where. I wish there was an easier way to do pre-writing for this exercise. I think this could help me because it would allow me to make sure the ideas in my paper are cohesive. I'd like to see an AP sample of a 9 scoring double poem explication, and really I'd love to know how long it took them. Would it be worth it to spend a hour on one essay to make is decent and risk rushing the others, or have 2 nice essays and one that's a rushed pile of literary fail? I'd like to further explore that question as school goes on.

    In the latter half of this marking period we formed lit. groups and began exploring King Lear/Macbeth. I chose to study King Lear due to my prior involvement in the schools production of Macbeth. While watching King Lear I was confused about the plot line as it unfolded. Shakespeare sure did make it hard to follow if you even so much as blinked. While watching, taking Cornell notes helped me keep focused on our chosen lens. Without the notes I probably wouldn't have stayed engaged through an already confusing play. The notes have not only helped my group identify specific scenes to apply our theory to, they've also given us a rough plot outline to draw from. I enjoy the group I'm working with on this project. I'm working with new people and it's refreshing to gain new perspectives. Working with different people has allowed me to see new writing and learning styles. It's also let me see how hard working all of my peers really are, and how our collaborative hard work can really pay off. Over the snow day of Wednesday 15 I wrote a lot for this paper at Kaya and focused on trying to find all of the write way to explain our theory. Freud had vast ideas, so as a group we paired it down to what we wanted to apply. Now I'm facing that challenge once more as I pair down the intro/critical theory explanation onto something that relates to what Veronica will be writing in the other paragraphs. I'm really impressed with our group paper this time around! Veronica and I figured out a great way to make our paper cohesive yet has allowed us to work independently of each other. Figuring this out is a huge educational leap because that first go around my group wasn't very collaborative, mostly because I think we hadn't found our bearings. 

That being said, there are days where I feel like I still haven't found my bearings in anything! Sometimes I stare at a screen trying to write and nothing happens. Other days I overflow with thoughts and ideas. Is this normal? I think, for the most part, yes. My mind works in shifts, on and off. It flickers back and forth, but when it's on... It's GOOD!

Here's hoping for more on days in the weeks to come.
Thanks for reading,
Annie.

                 These past two weeks have been nuts! After homecoming I thought things would slow down, but the end if the marking period just swept clear through. This blog post is a bit of a hodgepodge between weeks 6 and 7, so though it lacks continuity it makes up for in content.
                Studying the Elements of Lit as a culminating project for the 6-weeks was nice because it gave us a very focused vision as we finished up, and it allowed me to know I had breathing room for deadlines. With the stress of the deadlines for all my classes and the passing of a dear friend, it was nice to have a class I knew what was happening. I really liked the other students presenting and learning from my peers. I enjoyed how Bre pointed out how the band made a song about one of their short stories. It tied back into our summer reading and the fact that all works come from something before it. I don't know if she noticed that, but I caught the connection. It was also an easy way to scope out who would be good to work with on another project if the time came. Team work isn't for everyone, and at times I'm one of th
                My creative writing for the 6 weeks unveiled a talent, and almost a budding passion, I have for the poetic art of the haiku. I started writing a few on the Sunday after our 5th week. What I thought would be 100 words tops turned into 600 words of 5-7-5 poems. Some were quirky, some about love, and some about emotion. I like this style and would like to maybe organize them someday into a flow that almost tells a story. That could be something for a less stress filled trimester though.
                Lastly, I'd like to thank you for your compassion over the last week or so. I've been head-over-heels in stress, but your class has been able to provide some ease and stability to my hectic lifestyle. Writing when you feel a lot of emotion is difficult, so to know due dates were flexible was a large weight off of my back.

These past two weeks have been filled with a plethora of learning and stress. I've been absent a lot which makes these RL blogs difficult. This blog post is mainly about our PoW because I made such a huge connection with it.
                 The poem of the week Bright Star was one I connected with on an extremely deep level, and is my favorite PoW thus far. Keats really presented such amazing layers that gave the text true life even at multiple levels. I enjoyed that I could connect to the poem at the aspect of all three presented levels; The Star, The Man, and His Lover. This allowed me to feel the poem, which isn't something I've been able to do with our poems of the past. The essay was difficult at first, but the longer I sat the greater the connection I made. I'm eager to revise this essay, because I truly feel confident about the response I gave. Though it came on slow, it felt like my ideas had solid standing because I thoroughly understood how to connect with the text. Making this textual connection made to prompt easier too, even though it wasn't and idea I'd thought too terribly much about in class.
    I feel that the idea of growth is really beginning to show in my writing. I'm becoming more flexible and the weekly essay has helped me to think on my toes as a young student in all classrooms. Writing is really not something you can escape, and even beyond writing you still have to clearly form your thoughts in order to really be heard in this society. That's something I see more and more in myself as time marches on. 
I leave you with a video of the interview of actors in a film called "Bright Star", a film about John Keats and his life. If you go to 2:22 you can see the actor who played Keats give his opinion of Keats as a man. It's very reflective of the poem, and if the time permit in my life I'd love to watch this movie.

                    Though I was absent much of this week, I still feel as though I grew as a student. Reading the Miss America article really opened up my mind to how much our nation has yet to grow. Our class discussion was very insightful, and I feel as though talking about world issues like this actually helps us grow as readers. In this day and age, many students lack the ability to critically read the news and focus on what articles are asking them, and what they are presenting to us besides just a piece of paper. By doing the AoW on relevant topics, I feel we are more prepared to be active citizens in our world. When I'm 25 I'll know how to pick up the paper and actually digest and discuss the news.
                    Another aspect of our AoW I've benefitted from is the cross-curriculum opportunity it provides. In our AP Gov class we're assigned 2 academic writings to do each marking period. These are short responses to articles in publications like The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times that we relate to either personally or with the subject we're covering in class. By doing the AoW in AP Lit, I've had great ease in conveying my thoughts about what I've read and Mr. Hicks noted the promise my writing shows. This news was really pleasing. Being an honors student you hope that the hard work you do will show in other areas too. It's nice to know it does!
                    Going forward I have high expectations for myself as a writer. I plan to really utilize exercises like out AoW and PoW to hone in on skills that have gone untapped until now. Reflecting on my weeks work really brings things to the larger picture, and that it I'm a blossoming learner.
                    I leave you with a video where teachers from many subject matter discuss cross-curricular activities and their pros and cons. Enjoy!
                    

What is Literature? 
That's the question our class has been called upon to ask. My group chose "Characterization" and "Point of View" to focus heavily upon. To me, characters are pivotal to a story. Without a decent set of main characters, what is your reader going to take intrigue in? Reading the Characterization excerpt given, I realized I knew more about it than I'd originally thought. Most of it was things we mentioned in H. English 10, such as "flat" vs. "dynamic" characters. I'm thankful for this prior experience, and hope that it will help me with this project.
     Unlike Characterization, I know very little about the element "Point of View". Though it sets the mood for the story, it's not an element I'd ever really taken into consideration. Through my close read of the PoV excerpt I learned quite a bit, and I'm glad we close this in our group. A lot of what we learn in school tends to feel like rehashing old ideas until we know them so well, it stops feeling like learning and more like busy work. By choosing our own elements to focus on, it gives us a little more control over our learning. This to me feels similar to what you hear of peers doing in college. You're given guidelines but not exact instructions, allowing you to seek out the knowledge you need to gain. I'm excited to learn in an environment like this because it's what I've been seeking out most of high school. I hope to learn more about PoV as time goes on, and really explore the connections I can find.
     Point of view was a big role in our "Poem of the Week." Langston Hughes gives us a poem where the speaker is talking about his parents, and his unresolved feelings as to his own fate. I loved explicating the poem this week because I was able to uncover the underlying story the speaker was telling. Poetry isn't always an easy concept for me to grasp, so this week when I finally did I was pleased with myself. I'd recently watched "The Butler" and I really connected the two pieces. Both the speaker and the butler share a mixed past, and to me that helped me reach the conclusion of slavery perhaps being a subject. When you're little we always tried to make "Text to Text, Text to Self, Text to World" connections in order to better comprehend our works. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it still worked at age 17 as well at age 7. This to me showed how education is truly a full circle process.
 

Attached: I found a YouTube video from a teacher who explained PoV through a lecture/doodle format. This was neat and engaging, so I found it worth the share.

Week 2 of this course came with lessons of understanding. This past week I feel we learned how to, through our own exploration, deeply understand text and what it has to offer. Using the reflection part of our note books, we took a brief moment to think on ideas we'd covered through the week. Giving just a short blurb of what you thought helped solidify our learning. With both the AoW and the PoW we learned that through close reads and explication we could seek deeper understanding and begin to ask questions that would (hopefully) provide us with thought provoking answers. We shared some of our ideas with the class in small groups and as a whole, which I liked. This, for me, kept last weeks idea of communication at the forefront. Through communicating ideas that we've gathered with close reads, I think our ideas were more focused and had more gravity to them. By continuing the exercise of close reads on our own with "Reading the Story" we were able to have lively class discussion on what distinguishes literature from commercial fiction. I feel that our class came to the conclusion that literature vs. commercial fiction is a spectrum, not a line in the sand. This topic sparked a prime example of a focused, weighted, and engaging classroom dialogue . If you define it using black and white terms, I feel that strips it of the ability to be art. Art requires interpretation was a discussion point that really helped me grasp the difference in Lit vs. CF. Taking the idea of a spectrum definition, we read two short stories and decided on our own what elements of commercial fiction and literature were present. I was absent Friday, so I'll have many questions on my reading come Monday. A personal goal of mine is to always remain an active participant in class, and I feel I've done that this week. I do wonder if there is a better way to explicate text, and hope those answer will come in the next few weeks.

I found the video below and used it to really validate the ideas we learned in class. I like this video because as the instructor is speaking, ideas are scrolling along the bottom. This engages both the sights and hearing, making it a great learning tool.

 This week I feel that we began to delve into what it means to be a college level reader and writer, and also what it means to effectively communicate. When we wrote the "You as a reader/You as a writer" passage on our Weebly I began to see how my own personal experiences have shaped who I am as an ELA student. Though this was our first week in class, I feel like I've been learning for much longer due to our summer reading. The reading kept my mind firing, so once week one came along I felt my mind was more prepared for learning. Many people don't enjoy reading outside of class, but I feel that as long as it serves a purpose I can't complain. Personally, I get busy and find the time difficult to spare, but know it must be done.
    After reading "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" I felt more knowledgeable for our forum discussion with Dr. Borsheim-Black's class and really expand upon what my ideas were. Literature to me feels like works that really involve analytical skills, and I'm eager to see how the college students posting to this forum feel too. I enjoyed our other forum discussion too, and thought how we both watched and discussed Shaped by Writing: The Freshman Experience was an interesting way of learning that I'd never experienced before. The forum way of discussion really appeals to me because reading and writing requires communication of ideas. By communicating in the classroom often like we have this week I feel that communicating our works will become easier and more effective. Through exploring my classmates comments I noticed that I'm not the only one who has issues with conveying their own ideas in a concise manner. The freshman at Harvard also in a way felt that, and I suppose that through time we will all feel more at ease with our writing just as they have. I enjoyed how large emphasis was laid on the fact that our classroom has to be a comfortable sharing environment. In life sharing won't always be easy but I feel that if our classroom keeps an open mind that learning to effectively share and communicate will become easy so when the time does come we will all be prepared.
    Communicating ideas will also be easier with the help of Weebly. I appreciate that this is going to be an ongoing portfolio for us to communicate to our classmates (and potentially other people) about our growth, thoughts, major break throughs, and general learning experiences. I'm excited for the year to come, and hopefully I can grow a lot as both a reader and writer.  I am hoping to grow as a student with what I read and how I write. I know I'm an adequate writer, but I would like to be an excellent writer. According to what we've discussed, this course will give me those tools. I hesitant when it comes to reading literature because there are many times where the reading swallows me and I drown in the text, rather than dive in. I'd like to gain the tools to dive in head first, confident that I'm able to understand the authors' intentions. I've already learned I'm not at the level I thought I was, and to be truthful last years English course was a little lax which didn't give me a full view of this fast paced course. I hope that for my sake, you're able to work with me on an individual basis, because that one-on-one communication is something that really aids me as a learner.
    Thank you for a wonderful week of class, and reading my thoughts and ideas!
-Annie
 
Attached, I found a video from TexasTech University about an Agricultural Communications Professor who has come to use Twitter professionally and in her classroom. This related to our discussion this week about how though you may not be an English major, communication is still important to your work.