During the next several weeks we will read, study, discuss, and write about several classics, current events, and literary/historical figures. Synthesizing will be a critical part of AP Language as we seek to make connections between a variety of sources.
To foster this process, I'm creating a site where students may share interesting articles, stories, essays, and other literary "gems" they discover on their own. When you discover such a gem, post the link on this site along with a brief description of the piece you find. For example, I just read about the poet, Elizabeth Alexander, who will read at Obama's Inauguration tomorrow.
To become a better reader, writer, speaker, and critical thinker, you must READ, READ, READ! You will also be creating some of your own synthesis questions, which will require at least six sources. So let the sharing begin. . .
7 comments:
Sunday's Parade Magazine shared Obama's open letter to his daughters. This wonderful piece reminds me of why I am sad that letter-writing is becoming a lost art.
If anyone's interested, here
is Elizabeth Alexander's poem from today. To be blunt, I thought it was terrible, though her delivery might have contributed significantly. (The woman cannot read a poem out loud, it seems.)
I have another item that may not be particularly literary; in fact, I may be perverting the intentions of the blog by posting this (so don't follow my example). Being fairly recently inducted into the land of forensics geekery, I couldn't help but pass up the opportunity to post the Pride and Prejudice Duo Interpretation. For those who don't know, the idea is to creatively interpret a piece of literature with two people in 10 minutes or so, without props or costumes, and not looking at or touching eachother. I found it rather humorous, and I imagine that reading P&P will only enhance it.
First off, I thought that Obama's speech was eloquent, powerful, and rendered some speechless. The crowd's energy was epic, and it was clearly an important historic day that will always be remembered.
Obviously thousands of people attended the inauguration, but the stories some of them shared were so incredibly touching and epic. One of the more powerful stories was an old black man who had picked cotton in the fields during the devastating time of slavery, and was now attending the inauguration to watch a black man get sworn in as America's first black president. He was brought to tears, and it just was continually showing what a hero and how powerful Obama truly is.
Watching the news, critics were discussing President Obama's lack of a coined expresstion throughout his inaugural speech, such as Roosevlet's, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" or Kennedy's, "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." In my opinion, that is not necessarily a bad thing, but good. It wasn't necessary for Obama to coin one expression when his entire speech will go down in history, making people hang on his every word, speaking poetically from his heart and instilling hope and the power change in the hearts of Americans.
Tom-
I agree with what you said about Elizabeth Alexander's poem. It was so bland, and I think we were all expecting something more touching and epic.
When Obama spoke about setting aside "childish things" during his Inaugural Address yesterday, I thought you might like to see the passage from scripture containing his allusion. It's poetic and powerful.
This site *hopefully the link works* has very useful side texts (possibly for synthesis or the assignment tomorrow)for P&P. It's a little difficult to initially navigate, but there is good stuff once you find it...here is a back up address incase the top link doesn't work...
http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/pridprej.html
Thanks!
P.S. Blogger isn't accepting my link. I've been trying for 4-5 minutes and am giving up. Copy and paste the address and you should get there. Sorry.
Hey there kids!
Some of the prescription sites Mr. Murphy gave us on the yellow bookmark (you can also find these under the 'Library' tab on the school website!) have FANTASTIC information! I particularly love the Opposing Viewpoints site; it has such great articles relating to romantic themes in Pride and Prejudice and I'm sure Heart of Darkness people can find help there too!
I was also wondering: is anyone having difficulty with their synthesis essay packet? I have a question I think I like, but there is quite a struggle for me to put anything together, even with articles I like! Hahaha, is anyone else in a similar quandry? Perhaps we can bounce ideas and help each other out!
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