So Far...

To be honest, it doesn't seem like we've actually covered a ton so far.  Well, I don't say this meaning that we haven't learned anything or that I haven't learned anything because I definitely have.  What  I meant is that I'm sure we have a lot of things to cover that we haven't even begun to touch on yet.  Most of the material we've touched on has been summer work material; we have had only four days of school, after all.  However, much of it has been focusing on two points that I think are actually probably the most important of the class, which is unsurprising.

The summer work especially seems to be focusing on how to read.  How To Read Literature Like a Professor was actually very entertaining as well as informative.  I definitely enjoyed reading it, since it had a pretty entertaining and strong voice.  Much of it seemed to focus on different aspects of literature that can be understood deeper than simply as a plot element.  I've heard of some things, like the Journey/Quest, before, when we were talking about archetypes.  It reminded me of when, in Mrs. Reed's American Literature class, we watched Star Wars through different critical lenses and the characteristics of many epic tales stood out clearly through the archetypal lens.  Certain aspects of Foster's book seem to focus on similar concepts, such as the meanings behind disfigurement or the commonality of Greek mythology.  It really makes me think more now on the meaning of Darth Vader's prosthetic body or how Luke not knowing his father is reminiscent of Oedipus' lack of knowledge, though luckily for Luke, it doesn't cause complete destruction of his life.  Our reading of the poems and the questions we had to answer for the diagnostic test also work on reading.  While some of them focused more on the vocabulary we had to learn, others - mainly those that talked about theme and author's message - also did use certain aspects of the book, such as the meaning of weather or spring.  In a way, the diagnostic tests and other reading we've had to do allowed me to focus on using the techniques, which was great.  They helped me practice understanding exactly what I was looking for and how it'd help me on the AP exam and in the future (The Foster presentation was actually really hard; I don't know that many things from pop culture.)

Our practice with reading also focused a lot on poetry, particularly the different vocabulary that we'd need.  And I feel I must mention again that the vocabulary test we had to do on Quia was actually really really hard.  But I digress.  Some of the words I thought I knew, but clearly not well enough.  It makes me wonder whether I've been mislabeling poems and poetic devices when we talked about them in Lit/Comp 9.  At the same time, it's also given me quite a few new concepts to work into my poems in the future (I do like to write poetry in my spare time, though it's sometimes hard to come up with something I really like).  I do hope we get to practice recognizing these different poetic devices more in the future; given the results of the quiz, we all still need a lot of work with them.  I'm thinking not only in terms of my test score, but also because they are interesting and I like securely learning things, just for myself.  I'm not really sure where I'm going with this point, except that the poetry reading was fun and I hope we do them more.  (I also really liked that Shakespeare sonnet we read as part of our diagnostics test.  I think Sonnet 55 has just become my favorite sonnet.)

We've also talked a bit on how to write properly.  The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing started that discussion off, which focused primarily on not sounding like a snob in college essays and such.  Of course, when I was writing my response to it, and even as I type now, I'm a little self-conscious about how I write.  I know for a fact that I used to have this problem; I somehow made the connection between "mature" writing and very unauthentic (I'm not sure if that's the word I'm actually looking for but that's as close as I'm going to get for now) writing.  Thinking back to all of the things I've written for English classes before, I wonder sometimes how I haven't bored my teachers to sleep, considering the fact that I'm sure some of them was rather bland and void of good voice.  This is also partially related to what the powerpoints were talking about.  They focused primarily on the art of AP writing and how to make arguments, but the basic idea is the same.  We have to not bore our audiences, which is why audience is something to consider in rhetoric.  And Nuts and Bolts also focuses on keeping things concise, which makes our arguments easier to follow, a point made in the powerpoint on crafting good arguments.  This is another problem I think I have in my writing; I tend to write my thoughts as they come to me, which means that they aren't always extremely organized.  This blog post might even be an example of that, though at least I'm pretty sure I'm not writing with a particularly snobby voice right now.  Hopefully, I'll be able to focus on these ideas more in the future and improve that aspect of my writing.

So overall, even though we haven't been in school for long, this class has given me quite a few things to focus on, many of which can likely be carried over into other classes as well.  The things we've covered related to reading and writing have given me much cause for thought and I can't wait to see what we cover in class next.

(P.S.  I know this is submitted a bit late.  I would have done it earlier but my laptop is refusing to connect to the Internet and I just got on my family's desktop now.)