Week 7

This week was my first time blogging. WE were instructed to blog about certain material we covered this semester, and how we reacted to some of its various technological aspects. Although it seems embarrassing to learn that my middle aged literature teacher knows more about technology than I do, I can honestly say that I traveled down some technological avenues that I had never travelled down. I think that it’s a very practical and modern approach to teaching writing, and will certainly prepare us for our future workplac e.

Week 6

Week 6:
This week we looked into different kinds of dramatic poetry. “Islam Against Terrorism “ is a type of poetry that before this class I wouldn’t have immediately identified as poetry. It certainly employs many types of media to express the message( i.e. video, lyric, music, images) which is why it is a good example of dramatic poetry—It fuses both drama and lyric to make a narrative poem. This week we also submitted our national day of writing assignment. I made a wordle about my class I took last year on hurricane Katrina. In the class we examined certain socially oppressed groups in Louisiana that were made apparent after the hurricane hit.

week 5

Week 5: This week we learned about poetry and how to analyze its content. To my surprise a lot of its analysis is done by researching the author and his background. I consider the research that studies the author’s geographical, political, and social setting, a starting block for examining his poetry. I always thought that poetry was hard to read, but it wasn’t until this week that I learned that it was much harder to write. During this week we wrote a ballad—a poem consisting of quatrains (four line stanzas) of alternating lines of iambic (an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable) tetrameter (eight syllables) and iambic trimeter (six syllables), known as ballad meter (wikipedia).

week 4

Setting—where it all takes place. Following an exciting topic like theme, setting seems a little duller,but it’s important, especially in historical fiction. A writer using slang that is archaic in regards to the setting can confuse the reader and discredit its believability. This week we also wrote the “paper 1.” I wrote about a person who influenced me to pick my fields of study. It was my mom. I talked about her intense vigor for words and learning, and how it influenced me to pick a minor in English.

week 3

Week 3: This week we delved into the complexity of theme. This week reminded me of my LMS class in fifth grade. Growing up the youngest of three boys, my grasp of a woman’s anatomy and physiology was a bit murky. Needless to say, when I learned about what happened to women once a month I was in horror and shock. The classroom of immature boys that got used to giggling at diagrams of penises was silenced by information they wished was erased from their memory. This was an intense realization. Being a bit older now, I understand a woman’s physical anatomy, but now have the task of understanding a woman’s emotional anatomy. And by reading “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin I once again have this feeling of horror and shock. Men are often overwhelmed by a woman’s emotions, and for them to follow this woman’s emotional highs and lows that are squeezed into a mere hour is scary. Stunned, I was compelled to ask questions. “How could a woman so depressed become so happy so quickly? How could a woman so dedicated to her husband mourn his death, then rejoice at his absence, and then literally “fall” into a depression at the sight of him?” While I frantically asked these questions to simply gain my composure, I realized I was asking pivotal questions about theme. The complexity of Mrs. Mallard’s emotional journey, mirrors the complexity of the story’s theme. The meaning I derived from this piece was that women were certainly more complex than I had thought. Certainly a juvenile and perhaps ignorant response, but theme, as I have learned, is in the eye of the beholder. For others, they interpreted it is a microcosmic look into women’s life in the late 19th century.

Week 2

Week2: Uggh! Our second class is over and to be honest I’m a little disappointed. I understand that in every subject, no matter how interested you are in it, there are tedious components. But I expected more from this class then a lecture on plot and characterization. One more lecture on exposition, rising action, falling action, etc. in my educational career and I was going to explode. This frustration, however, was quickly calmed by the stories we read. I didn’t mind applying the lectures to stories like “How to Tell a True War Story,” by Tim Obrien, and “The Tale of the Wife of Bath,” by Geoffrey Chaucer, because they were riveting narratives. And frankly, I don’t think I would’ve appreciated “How to tell a true War Story” without my taking a scalpel to Bob “rat” Kiley’s character. Homework can be a funny thing, because while I often scoff at its uselessness, it often makes the material more personal. The discussion forum this week had us examine Bob Kiley’s character by referring to Mrs. Bolduc-Simpson’s “10 easy steps to analyzing character,” and thank God for it. This assignment forced me to read a story that, due to its merciless sincerity, I will never forget. And because I was then able to break it down in a comprehensible essay, the story became a part of me.

Week 1:

Week 1 started off with an icebreaker. Icebreakers aren’t usually my favorite thing to do when I’m in a class with a bunch of strangers, but I should’ve expected this type of interaction when I first walked into the room and saw my teacher. She was wearing a brightly-colored sundress with earrings that dangled and swayed to her bodily movements—an immediate indication of a hippie-like character. She jumped around the classroom with enthusiasm that made me think we were going to cure cancer instead of analyze sentence structure, and to top it off she brought her family with her. I thought to myself, “well, I hate icebreakers, but if it means I get to watch this mad hatter jump around the room, then hell, I’ll play along.” And To be honest I welcomed the craziness. As the son of an English teacher I learned early in life that writing teachers express their brilliance and passion in a more loony fashion, and the more odd they seem, the more engaging they are as a teacher. Perhaps this logic is flawed, but while I’ve chuckled at the crazy English teacher who’s wearing a dress and panny hoes with tennis shoes, reading a book, while skipping to lunch, I never would doubt her ability to capture my attention and interest in the classroom. In short, I was delighted to know that my professor was a little off.