So far, we have dug deeper into The American Dream and have watched the movie, Death of a Salesman. At first, I was extremely confused after only reading the play, but after annotating, discussions with the class, and the close reading, I think I am pretty solid on it. The thing that helped the most was annotating. I would usually just skim through the play, but annotating made me read every line multiple times to not only find DILDS in it, but also the meaning of the line and how it contributes to the characters' personalities or the theme of the story. Before, I have only annotated passages when I took the ACT and SAT and that seemed to help me a lot, as I improved my ACT reading score by 8 points last year. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to annotate school reading as well.
After reading The American Dream, we jumped straight into watching the next play, Death of a Salesman. I liked that we didn't skim the play instead because watching the movie helped me create a visual thought to the play. I was able to actually see the set and the characters and hear the tone of each character. The music and visual effects helped set the mood as well. Although I know what happened in the play, I am still putting together the meaning of it and how the events and actions of the characters reveal the theme of the play. I have just started annotating and already, I am understanding so much more. The annotating the second time around is much quicker and easier for me.
In addition to the plays we have read/watched, we have also retook the terms test. I noticed that I didn't have to study as much this time because I already knew most of the words. I concentrated on putting those words in context and searching for examples. This helped me a ton during the test. However, I realized that I need to pay attention to the specific details and wording of the question stem, as I lost points due to rushed reading. I will definitely use that technique on future tests.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a really good response, Julie! You did a good job of not just saying what we did, but how it applied to you specifically. The American Dream really confused me at first to, and annotating definitely did help! The only thing I have to say is that, if possible, try to make more connections instead of just writing about your thoughts. Your connection to the ACT was a really good one!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brianna and can say this is a solid response! I liked how you really connected personally with what we were doing in class. I too, feel really lost when we first read the plays, so all the work we do in and outside of class is critical for a deeper understanding. Hopefully Hamlet will go over better. One thing I think you can do is respond or connect to the different aspects of the text we talk about in class, like the symbols and motifs, and perhaps talk about their purpose. Other than that, really excellent post.
ReplyDeleteJulie this is a great response. I felt the same way about watching Death of a Salesman movie. Im often miss a lot of things when doing a quick read and I had never thought of annotating the sections on the ACT. You used lots of details and examples in this piece which was great and it is a very complete response. Your response would become even stronger if you tied the three things (annotations, Death of a Salesman, and the terms test) together at the end of the response. By doing so it adds depth to your response and really shows you understand why we are doing what we do during class.
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