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Reflective Learning Blog
This week Melissa and I worked together to bring to an end the project that we had been working on for many weeks. On Wednesday we concluded our work by presenting it to the class. We both felt fairly confident that we knew what we were talking about during our presentation. Something that made us nervous was how we were going to capture the attention of our audience. Although I had wished that we had practiced before hand we were still able to portray our ideas in a way that made sense. It felt rewarding to work so hard on a presentation and then for present all of the information we had just learned. By the end of the presentation I didn't even care what grade I got because, I felt as though I had proved to myself that I had learned something new and I was able to form what I learned into words. Some people can know a lot of information but when it's their turn to teach the information they know they cannot form words that make sense to their audience. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-become-a-good-presenter-public-speaking-2014-12
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So what? Why is anything is anything we do in school important. Over the week when beginning to start our presentations we were asked to pay strong attention to the "so what" of what we were going to say. But why don't all presentations I sit through everyday focus on the so what? I sit in math learning the derivative of a square and in my mind I think "well that's some interesting information but why should I care?". I understand that when standing in front of a group of people, spouting out information it is important to focus on the so what. The "so what" keeps the audience's attention. A good presenter doesn't want their audience to feel the way I feel in math class. They want the audience to be interested in what the presenter has to be said. But My math teacher has a hard job, for even if he were to focus on the so what, he probably still wouldn't be able to capture the attention of a room full of teenageres, who lets be honest most of them would rather be anywhere else. My goal for next week when presenting is to not be like my math teacher but to engage my audience in my presentation on the elements of fiction. https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/centers/oralcommunication/guides/how-to-engage-your-audience-and-keep-them-with-you Characters play a big role in showing the reader the ideas the writer intended to show. Throughout the week Melissa and I learned about Characterization and how every character even the minor characters are important. I then used these ideas to think about my piece of literature book A Prayer For Owen Meanie by John Irving. I notice how much work is put into the round characters such as Owen Meany, or Johnny Wheelwright. The writer brings many different emotions and descriptions in order to bring the characters to life. By the end of the story I felt as if the whole thing had actually happened. While some characters are more present to the story than others, for some characters just their existence in the story makes a difference. Like the angel of death, or reverend Merrill Lewis they are influential to the story. The angel of death solidifies Owen's faith when appearing at the head of Johnny's mom's bed. While reverend Merrill Lewis mostly shows up at significant ceremonies, weddings, funerals, or Christmas gatherings. This week opened my eyes to a new element of literature that I tend to over look when I would read in the past. http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson800/Characterization.pdf When my dad was around my age he read A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving and it easily became his favorite book. When I say that John Irving was on the list of authors with a significance in literature I choose the same book. Monday night this week I was sitting in the kitchen with my dad as he was making dinner and we were discussing the book. My dad said to me "I've never understood the significance of the armadillo that Johnny and Owen play with, it's a weird toy to be found in New Hampshire". I agreed with him that is is a weird toy but I told him "I think the armadillo represents their friendship. It's weird and unexpected, they both cherish it so much, and when Johnny's mom dies Owen removes the claws of the armadillo to show how their friendship was crippled but not destroyed". My dad sat down and said "huh, thank you". I could see in his eyes that he had made connections to the book. He then goes on to say that he had read the book years ago and some parts have never made sense until just in that moment. I was proud of myself for being able to help my dad understand his favorite book. This proved to myself that I was growing as a reader for I used to read for surface level meanings and take everything that the author gave me as just another piece in the entertainment pie, but now I am seeing things in books that I never would have even looked for. http://literarydevices.net/symbolism/ |
AuthorLindsay is thinking in AP Lit Archives
March 2017
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