Looking back at what I have accomplished this trimester in AP Literature and all the interesting papers, projects, and presentations that I have posted on my blog, I probably would say that the assignment that I am most proud of is my creative project for my Man-Booker prize winner book, The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. For this project, I created a Twitterature of the novel told from the perspective of Pi Patel, the protagonist of the story. I formatted the background to include the a picture of the ocean since the majority of the book takes place at sea and made the twitter username @lifeofpie314 as a pun on words and to show the animalistic and immoral side that humans can display when they are deprived of food. The main weakness of this project is that it indirectly hints at the complexity of the book but does not explain the complexity in fuller detail. However, the strength of this project lies in the informal nature of the tweets and is what gives the reader a look inside into Pi's thinking and how it is transformed through his experiences. The tweets start when he is at Pondicherry and chronicles his adventures and survival stories at sea. Through this project, I was able to see that learning literature does not always consist of reading Shakespeare and writing papers but can also be a fun way to try something new.
Another assignment that I am proud of is my Compare/Contrast, Mis En Scene, and Prose Analysis paper on The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. In this paper, I was able to not only improve on my compare and contrast writing skills but also explore the different aspects of how a movie is filmed and how the different camera angles and action shots contribute to the purpose that the director is trying to convey. While I thought the mis en scene was very interesting, I believe that was my weakest part of the paper because of the novelty of the concepts like non-diegetic vs diegetic sounds. In contrast, I thought the comprehensive compare and contrast paper was my strongest because I had written compare/contrast papers in the past and knew what to expect. Through this paper, I was able to see how the various movie shots made by the director and the literary devices and strategies employed by the author can convey the author/director's attitude toward the subject that is being addressed and how this elements help highlight the overarching theme and/or complexity of the piece.
At the start of the trimester, I raised my hand more actively because we were reviewing a lot of the literary devices that I had learned in AP Language and Composition. However, as the trimester progressed, I did not raise my hand as often because I needed more time to process the new information in my head and think deeper about the complexities within each work of literature. With all the snow days this trimester, I was able to go home and review the works of literature that we had learned in class and try to analyze it by myself without using class notes and/or Sparknotes. For example, I was able to review the poems that other groups had analyzed for the presentations and try to analyze the poem by myself before looking at their slideshows and seeing what complexities they were able to pick out from the work of literature. In the classroom, I was also not afraid to ask my classmates for further clarification about certain concepts or needed help with understanding the assignment and tried my best to actively participate in classroom activities and discussions.
Because of the small class size, it was pretty easy getting to know everyone in my class. Since the presentations and group projects did not start until the latter half of the trimester, I was able to get to know the strengths and weaknesses of my classmates which eventually helped me delegate roles and tasks based on each person's strengths during group projects like the American Drama Project and literary presentations. Working in a group has its perks but it can also have some road bumps along the way. Especially for the American Drama Project, technology did not always work when we needed it to which resulted in some delayed filming and "hiccups" at various points in the video. In addition, our schedules did not always line up so it made meeting as a group a little more difficult. Fortunately, we were able to work out brief time slots that the entire group could meet at and film the video. Overall, this class has helped me build on my group work skills, have fun while learning literature, and look for hidden complexities within each work of literature.
Looking back at my goals that I set in November after taking my first diagnostic multiple choice exam, I realized that I had only fully met one of the goals that I set and partially met the other goal. Utilizing the Thanksgiving Break and Winter Break this trimester, I went to Collegeboard Central and completed the practice exam located on the course description page. I made sure to time myself according to the time allotted on the exam and applied the SOAPStone strategies that I had set out to implement in one of my goals that I made in November. However, instead of completing three that I had originally set out to do in November, I had only completed two of the exams. While this didn't meet my goal, it definitely helped me improve on the MC test that we took in February. The first time through, I did not score as well as I had liked but I had narrowed down most of the questions that I missed to two answer choices. When test corrections came around, I was able to pick the obvious answer that I had not eliminated and understand why the second answer was correct and my original answer was not.
With the AP exam in less than two and a half months, I hope to dedicate more time to utilizing the "bullet-point summary" goal that I had set in November to help me focus more on the details of the work and not overlook important aspects that contribute to the complexity of the work. While I had not originally set a goal of memorizing vocab words as one of my three time-stamped goals in November, I still found time to make flashcards of the literary terms and devices in the back of the 5 Steps to a 5 book. I hope that I can continue to memorize 5 terms a week so that I can have the entire list in the back of the book memorized a week before the AP exam.
With second trimester coming to an end and third trimester just around the corner, I have set some new goals to help me stay on top of my assignments and better prepare myself for the AP exam in May. In addition to memorizing 5 literary terms a week, I plan on completing a full length practice test over spring break in one sitting and analyzing my strengths and weaknesses. As the AP exam approaches, I plan on completing the two AP Lit practice exams in my Barron's prep book on Saturday, April 12th and Saturday, April 26th. In addition, I plan on reviewing the information from this trimester's powerpoints like the How To Create A Thesis powerpoint as well as important concepts like the Great Chain of Being. By setting these goals for second trimester, I hope that I can be better prepared for the AP exam and hopefully become more actively involved in classroom discussions.
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