Free time? Games? YouTube videos? No Structure? These are just some of the things that this semester consisted of. Not saying that it was a bad semester. For people who actually did their work consistently throughout the course and didn't rely on their fellow group members to do the wiki work for them, I would have to say that it was actually a fairly good course. It took a lot of self discipline, planning out of weekends and week nights, and organization to make it through this course with no hair falling out of my head and steam coming out of my ears. I actually liked this course for the one main reason of that I read novels that I most likely would never have picked off of the library shelf and read all the way through. Some may of complained every day but those people are just the ones who did not plan well and didn't use the piles of in class work periods that were given to us. Even though it was impossible to read in the classroom because of YouTube videos and other people having room filling group conversations I still managed to make my way though.
If it were up to me to make some changes in this course I would mainly want to change the fact that we needed more mac books. Seeing as a class of 30 bodies (not all responsive 100% of the time) with over 30 different books being read and wiki profiles to be updated it was nearly impossible to get a good amount of work completed in the time given, while trying to share a mac book. But I don't blame you (Farmer) for this because what can an English teacher do about the amount of mac books provided by the school? Nothing. There is one thing though that I would change about this course and it would be the amount of structure in it. I'm not English teacher but I feel as though teenagers who are given a computer for over an hour seem to not always do the work that is asked of them to do.
As I'm thinking of it right now I am actually beginning to realize that you (Mr. Farmer) were right and I have learned a lot more then I would if we were lectured for 75 minutes each day about how Hamlet was a tragic hero and how he actually was not a person trapped in the art of procrastination. I learned many life skills which you do not expect to learn from English class, such as time management, and organization. These though are the type of skills that I personally will need in my future career. For English skills, I have become fairly good at classifying poetry and finding the different rhythmic and rhyme schemes in several different poems. I have also realized many differences in female writing styles over males. Females tend to use a lot more pronouns such I, Me, He, and She. While males use a lot more nouns.
This might be my last English class ever but I have got to say it for sure was one that I will remember for a life time.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Sense and Sensibility
"Sense and Sensibility" one of Jane Austen's famous novels, is fairly similar to one of her other works which I have previously read, "Pride and Prejudice". I would do this blog on comparing the two and showing the several ways that they are alike and also the ways that they differ, but two others in my Women in Literature group have already done that. So I have decided that I am going to just write some of my true feelings about this novel.
Many people would say that it is a great novel which it is, but I would have to say that it takes a very long time to get to the greatness of it. It was very interesting in some ways such as all of the drama between who Mrs. Dashwood's daughters (Elinor and Marianne) loved and who loved them back. It was an ongoing search for their true love and finally within the last few chapters it finally all comes down to the fine line of who truly loves who. I also liked this novel because of some of the characters. There were several characters in this novel that you can find in everyday life, there's the bitchy ones, the crazy ones, and the out going ones. There is at least one of each of these types of characters in this novel which makes it a little bit more entertaining to read. The end of this novel was the best part for the fact that there was a lot of suspense and conflicts relieved.
I felt as though this novel was not as quite as good "Pride and Prejudice" because "Pride and Prejudice" was slightly faster moving and had more plot in the beginning and middle of the novel. I would have to say that it was a good novel but if I were to suggest any of Jane Austen's novels to anyone I would have to go for "Pride and Prejudice."
Many people would say that it is a great novel which it is, but I would have to say that it takes a very long time to get to the greatness of it. It was very interesting in some ways such as all of the drama between who Mrs. Dashwood's daughters (Elinor and Marianne) loved and who loved them back. It was an ongoing search for their true love and finally within the last few chapters it finally all comes down to the fine line of who truly loves who. I also liked this novel because of some of the characters. There were several characters in this novel that you can find in everyday life, there's the bitchy ones, the crazy ones, and the out going ones. There is at least one of each of these types of characters in this novel which makes it a little bit more entertaining to read. The end of this novel was the best part for the fact that there was a lot of suspense and conflicts relieved.
I felt as though this novel was not as quite as good "Pride and Prejudice" because "Pride and Prejudice" was slightly faster moving and had more plot in the beginning and middle of the novel. I would have to say that it was a good novel but if I were to suggest any of Jane Austen's novels to anyone I would have to go for "Pride and Prejudice."
Lives of Girls And Women
I have recently read the novel "Lives of Girls and Women" written by Alice Munro. This novel is a collection of eight different short stories that she has written earlier in her life. All of these short stories are slightly connected in the way that they all are stories about the main character Del's life and the challenges she goes through. All of these stories are also connected because they take place in the small town of Jubilee where Del lives just a mile away of.
While reading this novel I had many mixed feelings for it. Some of the stories in it were fairly interesting and not boring, while others did not appeal to me one bit. I really enjoyed the first section of this novel which was called The Flats Road. This story kept me on my feet at all times with no stops in the rise and fall of the climax. The story had the feel where you got pulled into it because you felt for the characters, especially for Diane (Madeleine's daughter) and Del's Uncle Benny. This short story was the best in my perspective also because in a way you could relate it to the society we live in and many challenges that people right next to us might be going through.
I also took interest in the fourth short story "Age Of Faith." This section of the novel was very well written I found, because Alice Munro was able to write it in a way that it did not make it go against any religions. Any Catholic to Atheist human being can read this chapter and agree with what is being said because there was so many different views and it shows that what ever you believe in you should continue to believe in. Del goes against her mother showing that she is trying find her place in religion where her mother is not. Going to a public school you see a lot of this just in the classroom, from people disagreeing with beliefs to the way people act.
This novel also had it's appeal because of where it took place. There were many towns in this novel that I recognized because Alice grew up in Southern Ontario and made all of the settings of her short stories be in places that she knew as she was growing up. It made it easier to stay on track while reading because the thought 'Oh I know where this is' made me interested and wanting to keep the pages turning. It made it easier for me to connect with some of the stories because living in a small town for my whole life I know the feeling of knowing every neighbour and the cars they drive. Some of the places that were familiar included, Kitchener which is where Madeleine was from, Toronto which is where she ran to, London, and several other towns from around our area.
All in all I felt this novel was well written and interesting in most parts. I feel as though some of the short stories were stretching my patience span but did not harm me too much.
While reading this novel I had many mixed feelings for it. Some of the stories in it were fairly interesting and not boring, while others did not appeal to me one bit. I really enjoyed the first section of this novel which was called The Flats Road. This story kept me on my feet at all times with no stops in the rise and fall of the climax. The story had the feel where you got pulled into it because you felt for the characters, especially for Diane (Madeleine's daughter) and Del's Uncle Benny. This short story was the best in my perspective also because in a way you could relate it to the society we live in and many challenges that people right next to us might be going through.
I also took interest in the fourth short story "Age Of Faith." This section of the novel was very well written I found, because Alice Munro was able to write it in a way that it did not make it go against any religions. Any Catholic to Atheist human being can read this chapter and agree with what is being said because there was so many different views and it shows that what ever you believe in you should continue to believe in. Del goes against her mother showing that she is trying find her place in religion where her mother is not. Going to a public school you see a lot of this just in the classroom, from people disagreeing with beliefs to the way people act.
This novel also had it's appeal because of where it took place. There were many towns in this novel that I recognized because Alice grew up in Southern Ontario and made all of the settings of her short stories be in places that she knew as she was growing up. It made it easier to stay on track while reading because the thought 'Oh I know where this is' made me interested and wanting to keep the pages turning. It made it easier for me to connect with some of the stories because living in a small town for my whole life I know the feeling of knowing every neighbour and the cars they drive. Some of the places that were familiar included, Kitchener which is where Madeleine was from, Toronto which is where she ran to, London, and several other towns from around our area.
All in all I felt this novel was well written and interesting in most parts. I feel as though some of the short stories were stretching my patience span but did not harm me too much.
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