Sunday, April 29, 2012

A Reflection on Unstructured Learning

     The theme of the passage is that starting something is difficult.  You will often make excuses in order to prolong the process.  As with the narrator, he wants to fight crime and be a "costumed adventurer" but he convinces himself that he needs a costume first in order to be a vigilante.  He can't make his costume yet because he needs a name first.  Something as simple as a name made him wait to fight crime in the night.  He already admits to having self-doubt about the idea so he figures that if everything is perfect, he has his name and his costume, then he can finally be ready to do something he wants to do.  You shouldn't procrastinate and wait, instead seize the day, carpe diem.  YOLO!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

AP Studying

     After taking the 2004 Practice exam questions,  I realized I can get about half of the questions correct.  I have problems with analyzing short passages within the passage.  I believe this is because I have trouble with reading the tone of the author.  I can never tell how the author is speaking while reading the passage.  This also causes problems when analyzing the passage as a whole.  I plan on finding more questions like this and studying which answer is the correct one and why it is correct.
     The whole test took me a little longer than the allotted time of one hour.  The test as a whole took me about an hour and ten minutes because I read the passages slowly to attempt to analyze them to answer the questions.  I plan to practice on my pacing for each question and reading each passage.  I think if I were to take the test right now I could pass with a three.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Those three prompts for that essay we write tomorrow

A recurring theme in literature is the classic war between passion and responsibility. For instance, a personal cause, a love, a desire for revenge, a determination to redress a wrong, or some other emotion or drive may conflict with moral duty. Choose a literary work in which a character confronts the demands of a private passion that conflicts with his or her responsibilities. In a well-written essay show clearly the nature of the conflict, its effects upon the character, and its significance to the work. Avoid plot summary


From a novel or play of literary merit, select an important character who is avillain. Then, in a well-organized essay, analyze the nature of the character s villainy and show how it enhances meaning in the work. Do not summarize plot.


 Select a line or so of poetry, or a moment or scene in a novel, epic poem, or play that you find especially memorable. Write an essay in which you identify the line or the passage, explain its relationship to the work in which it is found, and analyze the reasons for its effectiveness. Do not base your essay on a work that you know about only from having seen a television or movie production of it. Select a work of recognized literary merit.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Lit Terms

AP LITERARY TERMS

My Plan

I plan to use these resources provided to study for my final.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Macbeth Test Answers

Test 1:

1. A
2. B
3. C
4. A
5. A
6. B
7. B
8. C
9. C
10. A
11. Macbeth was a good man before killing King Duncan.  He had the praise of his fellow soldiers, he was trusted and friends with a loyal and honest friend, Banquo, and his own wife said he was filled with the milk of human kindness.  After he kills the King he loses sight of good and evil.  He is corrupted by the power of his decisions and fears that the rest of his prophecy may come true and he will die.
12. Macbeth is motivated by his ambition to be king and receive what power comes with it.  He is intrigued by the witches' prophecy and is determined to be king.  His wife is also responsible for pushing Macbeth to kill Duncan.
13. The witches are able to tell the future and this intrigues Macbeth.  Macbeth does everything the witches tell him though this is completely under Macbeth's control.  The witches also deceive Macbeth by making him think he is invincible but this is Macbeth's misinterpretation of their prophecy.
14.  Macbeth fears the prophecy at first but later decides that he will fall under the temptations of what it promised.  Banquo is skeptical but later realizes he hopes they come true but does nothing to ensure that these predictions do come true.
15. In the beginning of the play they know each other very well and communicate well.  They have cute pet names for each other and love one another very much.  She is able to manipulate him to kill Duncan.  After he kills Duncan, they stop communicating as well and Macbeth does things on his own more.


Test 2:
1. B
2. B
3. C
4. A
5. A
6. A
7. A
8. C
9. B
10. B
11. This line is a major theme of the play.  Everything that seems fair is actually foul.  Macbeth becoming King actually leads to the death of his family and himself.  This also kills his best friend Banquo.  Macbeth is also unable to distinguish between what is fair and what is foul by the end of the play.
12. Macbeth is someone who gets what he wants.  Unfortunately, he does this with bad intentions and by doing something he knows is wrong.  He is tempted by the witches prophecy and crumbles under his temptations.  His story shows that the most appealing temptations are actually horrible traps.
13. When Macbeth meets with Duncan, the audience knows that Macbeth is plotting to murder him while Duncan does not know this.  The audience also knows that Macbeth is doomed at the end of the play and he will die, but Macbeth is blinded by the witches prophecy that he is invincible.
14. Lady Macbeth uses determination, insults, and practicality to convince her husband to kill Duncan.  She insults his manhood to get him to rise to action.
15. Macduff cannot believe the news when he first hears it, while Macbeth seems unsurprised by this news.  Macduff feels pain when he realizes that his family is dead, while Macbeth doesn't seem to feel any pain at all.  Macduff accepts that his family is dead and goes on a quest to seek vengeance, while Macbeth has a desperate and suicidal final stand in his castle.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOdRRAd_zGo

Remixed Literature Analysis notes

Willy Loman
Everytime something bad happens, I go back in time to happier occasions.
Biff Loman
I'm a bum.
Willy Loman
Here I go again.
(Willy Loman goes back in time. Then he runs out of times to go back to, so he dies.)


THE END
 

Literature Analysis Notes

My Literature Analysis book, Death of a Salesman, was pretty good.  It delves into the mind of a middle-class worker in America who tries to achieve the American Dream.  He ultimately fails and commits suicide, seeing as he could never provide for his family or be the man he wanted his son to see him as.  He slowly goes insane throughout the book and talks to memories of people in his life instead of the people who are actually there.  The theme of this book is the disillusionment of the American dream and how this is an unachievable ideal.  This causes a man to become disillusioned with life as he realized he was promised something that could never exist and never existed in the first place.  He can no longer live life based on the fact that he will never become the ideal nuclear family that is shown throughout this time in history.  He realizes that life isn't an ideal and can't live with that.  This ultimately leads to his demise.

Top three blog videos!!!!!

http://kerhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
http://kljrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/
http://tkrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/

Socratic Seminar Notes

I took notes but what I took from the discussion was that you can't always do what you love so sometimes you have to love what you do.