Weekly Blog: Week 2

This week made me feel as though AP Literature should be taught in elementary school. Certainly not because of any lack of difficulty, but because this week has showed my the importance of learning for learning's sake and thinking for the betterment of the mind.
One night's reading in Meyer's anthology explained why we students are told to write and how doing so can help students develop organized thoughts as they think deeply about what goes on paper. In my previous years of schooling, students have been taught to write for a grade, and I think many students feel as if the only purpose of writing a 'good' essay is for the credit. This week has showed me how writing can teach one how to use critical thinking to choose an independent position on something and defend his or her beliefs with words. The week has been a refreshing lesson on why we write instead of how we write.

Weekly Blog: Week 1

It's always helpful to begin with the basics. So starting this year of AP Lit with the Academic and Intellectual Profile was a good basis. It helped me to recognize my strengths and weaknesses so that I can further improve my writing and intellect. Responding to the critical thinking passage helped me see the difference between schooling and true learning, which many students overlook. It is beneficial to learn deeply and not just do assignments for the grade or stop thinking simply because a task has been completed. Hopefully realization such as this will create more curious and passionate scholars.
Wagner's survivor skills are things we looked at this week as well. At first I disagreed with the list because I didn't think each skill was necessary for one person to have in order to have global success. But then I thought about the difference between survival and success. Maybe as a society it is true we need each of these skills for survival, but as far as personal achievemnt goes, it is also important for one to have qualities to help him or her develop successful relationships with other people, and the list doesn't include qualities such as these. Global survival is possible with economic prosperity, but human survival, in a way, depends on relational fulfillment.

The Wanderer

Looking forward to the year ahead, there are many mixed feelings and thoughts. Senior year is both exciting and scary, happy and sad, all at once. The man in the painting we viewed in class today is looking out at a landscape and obviously is deep in thought. I'd like to know what he is thinking about; whether he is puzzled or feeling as though he's conquered the world. In either case, the painting relates to many viewers because they can put themselves in the man's position; everyone in some point or another is proud or confused, and depending on what's going on in a person's life at the time of seeing the painting, their perceptions of the man's position will differ. For me it has gone between a prideful man and a concentrated one. In thinking about certain things I feel like the man is wise and just soaking it all in; looking at it from other perspectives I feel like he is pondering something of great importance in his life.

Summer Reading

The Book Theif
by Markus Zusak
This is one of the best books I've read. Once I got a hundred or so pages into it, I looked forward to turning the page. I liked the author's writing style and how he breaks up paragraphs with side notes or details he'll return to later on. It put Nazi Germany in a whole new perspective for me since I've never considered what it was like for those who didn't agree with the ideas of the Party.
1984
by George Orwell
It took a long time for me to get into this book, but the second half was interesting. The novel is full of paradoxes, which made me think more about what it would be like to live in a world like that. It made me sad that Winton has to give up his beliefs in order to survive, so this was not the most uplifting story. However the ideas of Party members in the novel are abstract and different to think about.