Week 7: Reflection

This week was mainly a continuation to our learning of poetry. We looked up online all the different types of poetry and to my surprise there’s a ton of different types of poetry. Before this class I had no idea that there were so many different types of poetry. I at first thought poetry rhymed when in reality not all poetry consists of even rhyming. There are just so many types of poetry for example, Tanka, Irony, Name poem, Ballad, Epitaph, lyric, Rhyme, Verse, Dramatic, and the list is ongoing. We referred to this site to learn about the different types of poetry:

http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/

In class we were instructed to get into groups of two and write a poem according to the description on the piece of paper we pulled from the hat. My partner Vince and I got Irony as the type of poem we had to write.

Here’s our poem:

MATT & VINCENT

Despite all the sunshine

My acting had no room to shine

On the daring paramount stage

I received the bare minimum wage.

For our out of class work we were to post in our new blog. This was the first time I ever blogged before and it was kind of cool to learn how to do. At first I thought, “Ugh I don’t want to learn how to blog…” But after writing my first post I really didn’t find blogging all that bad, it’s actually quite interesting. We also took a short matching quiz on poetry types, which I found very easy and got a 100 on :)

Week 6: Reflection

Week 6 was different from all the other weeks because this week we didn’t meet for our face-to-face instead we had an online discussion on Monday from 12pm- 4pm. This week we covered dramatic and lyric poetry. Dramatic poetry involves a narrative poem of a person in a specific situation. It can involve emotions, but has so much more to it. We were to read two poems and watch a YouTube video on Islam Against Terrorism Poem. After I had read both poems and watched the video we were now to go to the discussion forum and discuss with our groups about our reactions to both the poems and the YouTube video.

We were broken up into 3 groups and I was in group 1 and my group leader was Talia. Talia posted a bunch of starter questions to get the discussion going, and we all answered and responded to each other’s thoughts and opinions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGe0nl-wSyU

A lot of my attention went toward the YouTube video on the poem about terrorism. I discussed my reaction and how I felt about the poem. I feel that having this discussion online was a great success I seemed to have learned a lot and was able to work well with the group getting and giving great answers.

Some of my posts from the disscussion forum:

Re: Islam

3. After listening to the poem written by Dr. Rafey Habib it has brought to my attention many other stereotypes that we see on a daily basis. Pretty much every ethnic group has a stereotype. For example when someone thinks of someone Jewish they joke about money, they stereotype that Jew's are cheap. When in reality it’s just a stereotype because not all Jew's are "cheap". Another stereotype that you will see almost every day is that against African Americans, some people think that because someone is black that they are a gangster or not smart, which is obviously a false judgments.

Re: Islam

1. What effect does seeing and hearing the poet have on the poem and the emotions it illicit?
Being able to see and hear the poet gives you a better image of what point the poet is trying to get across. You can see the poets face showing his emotion and his voice brings out his true feelings. Without seeing the poet and hearing him you would have too envision in your mind of what he looked like giving a different outcome to your feelings on the poem.

I agree the poem was amazing and it makes you think before judging someone because of their ethnic group. I believe Dr. Rafey Habib was trying to make a point when he wrote this poem. He was trying to say " Dont judge a book by its cover" , meaning don’t just judge someone because their Islam not all Islam's are terrorists many of them are actually frown upon the terrorists.

During week 6 we were also responsible for submitting our National Writing Day submission. For this I chose to submit an old essay that has always meant a lot to me. I wrote the essay back in 2007 for English class in high school, it was about a day at the public park and an unexpected event that happened that night. This essay had a lot of meaning to me for many reasons mainly because it brings back great childhood memories and how happy I was just to be with my family.

Week 5: Reflection

This week we were introduced to poetry and learned that poetry is much more than just simple rhymes. In class we did a really cool activity that lead to not only poem making but also a lot of creativity. We were each given a school newspaper and told to pick an article and scan through it. Then we had to underline a few words/phrases and create a poem using those words/phrases. I used an article on the recent VMA’s and what went on that night at the VMA’s. The article was mainly describing how Kayne West took the microphone out of Taylor Swift’s hands as she was making her thank you speech, and rudely took that special moment away from her. My poem was based off this and was aimed to bringing out the emotion that took place during that event. I liked this activity because it really got me thinking creatively. Before we did this activity we also listened to a poem written by Marianne Moore called Poetry, and were told to respond to the poem with a journal entry.


For this week’s discussion forum we were to research a murder story that was in the news and had a love theme to it. I took the time to research the Scott Paterson case, which was a murder that took place late 2002. Scott Peterson murdered his eight month pregnant wife, because he had a feeling that she found out about the affair he had been having with another women. We were told to write a Ballad poem using this theme. So I took it a different direction then most of the other students and wrote my poem from the dead wives view. I believe my poem was very good but I didn’t receive the grade that I thought I had earned for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jbv6QQRi8I

My Ballard Poem:

Deceived by Love

The watery grave that I now lie in,
how did this come to be
this strange place is not my home,
but at least my baby is with me.

I can’t remember how I got here,
the circumstances I must embrace
for my true love was responsible,
the death penalty he must await.

He once was so happy,
Or so I was led to believe,
it seems so imaginable,
how much he could deceive.

My memory is fading,
of that faithful day,
the day my love,
strangled my breath away.

I also submitted my second draft to paper one this week. My first draft was nothing like my second draft, which was much stronger. After reviewing all my errors and corrections I should make to better my paper, it seemed my paper had really done a complete turnaround. I learned alot about poetry this week and wrote a good poem to show for it.

Week 4: Reflection

This week was all about setting. First we were to read about setting in our books and also watch a short presentation created by the teacher on setting. Setting is the time, location, and everything in which a story takes place, and initiates the main backdrop and mood for a story. Then we were to read two short stories before class on Monday. The two stories were, A Party Down at the Square by Ralph Ellison and Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Mason. I personally like the story Shiloh more because I understood it better and it also was a much gentler story than A Party Down at the Square. I didn’t really like the type of story, A party down at the Square was because it was about racism and the whole burning of people alive is disgusting and just wrong. In class we had an assignment in which we discussed the two stories and answered multiple questions on them.

Our journal entry consisted of watching a short YouTube video that displayed many photos of beautiful sceneries and then responding to what we had just scene. Watching the short clip brought back memories of past vacations and specific moments in my life. It also made me think about where I want to live when I am older and what mood each type of scenery tends to set.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VRwMghIemo

We did not have a discussion forum this week but we did have to submit our first draft to our first paper. My first paper was about how my uncle has inspired me to follow in his footsteps and become an Orthotic and prosthetic practitioner. I thought I did a good job at first but I was later to realize the many mistakes that were in my paper.

Week 3: Reflection

We did not meet for a face-to-face class this week because it was Labor Day, so we got the day off! Week 3 was mainly an online class, were I watched Bolduc-Simpson's Thinking About Theme. In the short presentation I learned a little about Theme. In order to be prepared for the online discussion forum I had to read a few passages in the literature book. The two short stories we read were The Story of an Hour Kate Chopin and The Red Convertible Lymes LaMartine. The Red Convertible was a story about a guy whom struck rich and bought himself a nice car, which was later vandalized because he was showing it off at the wrong place. Ever since he won the money his life went downhill, ultimately leading to his demise. The Story of an Hour, was a story about a lady who thinks her husband died in an accident but later finds out that he didn’t when he walks through the door but she dies at the sight of seeing him again.

The main part of week 3 was our discussion forum posts. We each had to choose from one of the following questions:

“1. Research Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder (PTSD) and relate it to the character in Lyman Lamartine's short story, The Red Convertible. Use information in the short story to analyze Henry's character and his post-war experience coming home from Vietnam. Be sure and cite at least one secondary source using MLA format in addition to the primary source (the short story). Include in-text citations in your post (minimum 200 words). If you are unsure of how to do the citations and Works Cited, go to the Resource tab and click on the MLA links or the citation links. Use http://www.easybib.com/ or http://citationmachine.net/ .

2. Choose three of the following discussion questions on Kate Chopin's The Story of an Hour to respond to (Indicate in your response which question you are responding to):
 The story says Mrs. Mallard “had loved him [her husband]–sometimes. Often she did not.” If she was “often” not in love with him, why did she marry him?
 What was life like for Mrs. Mallard in the home of Brently Mallard?
 In the report of the train accident, Brently Mallard's name was at the top of the list of fatalities (Paragraph Does this information mean that Mallard was an important citizen in his community? Does it also suggest that perhaps Louise married him, in part, because of his standing in the community?
 Do you believe Brently Mallard mistreated his wife? In answering this question, keep in mind the following: (1) In Paragraph 13 (p. 73), Louise Mallard recalls that Brently was kind and that "he had never looked save with love upon her." (2) However, Paragraph 8 (p. 72) had previously informed the reader that Mrs. Mallard's face "bespoke repression," and Paragraph 14 (p. 73) says Brently had a "powerful will bending her."
 How much of Mrs. Mallard's apparent unhappiness in her marriage was her own fault?
 After Mrs. Mallard receives news that her husband died in a train accident, she goes to “her room.” Do these two words mean that she slept separately from her husband? Does the fact that no children are named in the story indeed indicate that she and her husband slept apart? Explain.
 Write a paragraph about what society expected of the typical 19th Century American woman.
 Research the life of Kate Chopin (1851-1904). Then decide whether the death of her husband in 1882 influenced her when she wrote “The Story of an Hour,” published in 1894 in Vogue magazine.
 Did author Chopin herself face problems similar to those of Mrs. Mallard? Explain.”

I ended up choosing the second choice and the three questions that I went off to answer where, How much of Mrs. Mallard's apparent unhappiness in her marriage was her own fault?, Research the life of Kate Chopin (1851-1904). Then decide whether the death of her husband in 1882 influenced her when she wrote “The Story of an Hour,” published in 1894 in Vogue magazine, and The story says Mrs. Mallard “had loved him [her husband]–sometimes. Often she did not.” If she was “often” not in love with him, why did she marry him?

The first time I read the story I really didn’t have a full understanding of the main point and theme that the story was trying to give off. But by answering those 3 questions it gave me a much better understanding of the story. Reading up on the authors life made me realize a lot more that was probably behind the writing of the story itself.

Week 2: Reflection

The second week of class was the first time I met for a face-face class. I had to introduce myself and tell everyone something weird about myself, so that people could remember me. At first I simply said I was from New York, but I was forced into thinking of something else that was more interesting and I came up with that I have eaten Ostrich. Then class really begun, we talked about and learned about Characterization. We were to have read three different things in our Literature books before we got to class. We broke up into groups of four and discussed the two short stories. I had only read one of the short stories which got me in a bit of trouble because I only knew part of the information that was needed for class. I had only read, Died and Gone to Vegas by Tim Gautreaux which was a story about a factory and a group of workers playing a card game. In class we also had a Journal entry we had to write responding to a short clip we listened to about a women and a men and how they met. In my entry I compared the guy’s scenario to how I feel sometimes when I go out on a first date.

For our discussion forum we had to choose from one of three things in order to respond to Tim O’Briens How to Tell a War Story. I personally choose to make a Wordle on the narrator’s main character, Bob “Rat” Kiley. My wordle described the main characters personality and the setting he was in. Here is the wordle that I made:

Week 1: Reflection

The first week of class I was not in the class because I was switched into the class later in the week. So I personally did not get to experience the first face-face class. I emailed my teacher to get all the information that I missed and had to catch up on, and to my surprise I had missed a ton. I missed the in class Ice breaker activity, I wished I was there because ice breaker activities always get the class more comfortable with each other.

During the first week we covered “Plot,” I seemed to learn a lot about plot that I hadn’t know before, by watching the pondering plot presentation that was found in the week 1 folder. Our first real assignment was to read Margret Atwood’s Happy Endings, and then to write a plot/ short story and create a PowerPoint presentation showing the different parts of the plot. We had to use Scenario F (Your characters are John, who is revolutionary and Mary, who is a counterespionage agent) to create a plot. I wrote a story about a college relationship turned bad. From doing all the work in week 1 I now know the different elements of plot very well. After the first week of class I was actually kind of nervous about the course because of how much work we already had to do. For a first week of class it seemed a bit overwhelming for most.


The short story I wrote for my plot post :

It was a cold fall day in a small college town located on the border of Quebec. John a revolutionary had been waiting for this day for a long time today was the day he would find out if all his fighting had paid off. John had been working very hard to change all the dorms on campus to co-ed. His girlfriend Mary who is a counterespionage had different feeling about the whole idea of the dorms being co-ed, because she didn’t like the possibility of other being in her boyfriend’s room. John hurried to the board meeting to see if the housing would be changed to co-ed this year. When he got there he was thrilled to hear the news that the dorms would now be co-ed this semester. School started and now he would be able to live across the hall from Mary. He first day of school began and Mary went to the gym while she had some spare time in between classes. At the gym she met a guy named Justin who she was really attracted to, they talked and the conversation led to her taking him back to her dorm. Mary and Justin were performing sexual acts when they heard a knock on the door, Mary’s heart began to race she thought in her head “Please not it be John.” She opened the door and there was john who came to surprise her with a dozen roses. In the corner of John’s eye he spots Justin lying in Mary’s bed and instantly freaks out and runs to the kitchen, grabs a knife and stabs Mary repeatedly until she’s dead. He stared at her body lying on the floor in pool a blood and realized that he could not live with himself for what he had done and in return slices his own neck. Justin, who is still in Mary’s bed and is in complete shock in what he just watched happen.