Senior Project - The Dance that Couldn't Happen

Literary Analysis (REMIX) - The Kite Runner

This is a dance I participated in that depicts the story of The Kite Runner. It focuses on the actual kite running to see the happier parts of the book: the beginning where Hassan runs Amir's kite and the ending when Amir runs Hassan's son's kite.

AP Practice Essays

Groupthink

My group mostly discussed the poem I chose, "The Road Not Taken." I believe I had a good understanding of this poem, but it was nice to hear what the others thought as well. We all believed that there was a sort of struggle that was occurring. Some believed it was a choice that the character had to make while others believed it could also be something that was forced onto another. I say it could be either when only the first two stanzas are read. By the third and fourth however I see it as two options being presented, one more difficult than the other, and that you have to choose between those that are given. And then by choosing the more difficult one there will be more benefits.

Gridlock

Poem Analysis (TPCASTT ) of 'The Road Not Taken'

• Title: I believe the title means that are two different paths to choose from and that one of them, more often than not, isn't taken.
• Paraphrase: This poem could literally be about two paths in some type of forest, but I believe its really just about two choices going around in someone's head.
• Connotation: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by" This means that there were two options in this persons life and they had to make a difficult choice. They chose to go where many don't, probably because it wasn't the easy way out.
• Diction: I think the words chosen by Robert Frost were smart and eloquent because this poem can be understood by many because it doesn't have big, scary words that you need a dictionary for. He wanted his message to be heard by all.
• Attitude: The person in the story seemed determined to find whatever he/she was looking for.
• Tone: This poem is very calming which I think is needed because it really makes you think about life and which paths you want to pursue.
• Shift(s): The person seems to be intrigued by the path that most people take, but in the end he decides to take the one most people avoid noting how much it was worth it.
• Title revisited: The title now seems to explain that there is a path that isn't followed, but it should be and that's what the person in this poem decides.
• Theme: The central message I believe is to know every option you have and to pursue the more difficult one because in the end it could change your life.

Seventh Reading

The Road Not Taken - Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Open Essay Prompts - Carrie by Stephen King

1. In some works of literature the insanity (or period of insanity) of a main character plays a central role. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write a well-organized essay in which you discuss the mental illness of a central character and the specific ways in which that character’s mental illness relates to the larger themes of the work.

2. In some works of literature, mothers or the concept of motherhood play central roles. Choose a novel or play of literary merit and write a well-organized essay in which you discuss a maternal character and the specific ways the character and the concept of maternity relate to the larger themes of the work.

3. Novels and plays often include scenes of weddings, funerals, parties, and other social occasions [PROM]. Such scenes may reveal the values of the characters and the society in which they live. Select a novel or play that includes such a scene and, in a focused essay, discuss the contribution the scene makes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

---None of these prompts were meant specifically for Carrie, but I believe that they could all be responded to with this book in mind.

Literature Analysis - The Grapes of Wrath

GENERAL
1. This book is about the Joad family who first goes through the hardship of being kicked off the land they farmed for years and being left with nothing. They didn't know what to do, but they were told that there was work for farmers in California. And so like everybody else in there position they migrate to California. Their large family packs into their car and does whatever they can to get food and simply survive.
2. I think the theme can be shown with a quote from the movie Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming, what do we do? we swim!" The life of the Joad family was drastically altered and so the main message is to continue on, even though it's difficult.
3. The author's tone fit right in with the feeling of the family. They were down and depressed, so the author gave off the feeling of hopelessness. I think his use of the mini stories of the lives of other people really helped the story along just to show how bad things were for the people during this time.

CHARACTERIZATION
1. The author uses direct characterization when he describes what people look like and how they are as a person. He makes his writing interesting then by using indirect characterization by having the characters show who they are through their actions and words. (We learn what Tom looks like in the beginning when describing his clothes after he got out of jail and we learn what Pa thinks of Connie based on what he says after Connie runs off and leaves the family.)
2. I think the author's writing is pretty stable throughout the book. He used the language that the characters would understand which is somewhat broken English. (This is in a way irony because throughout the book nothing stays the same, things are broken and left behind, but the words are always the same.)
3. I believe Tom Joad is mostly a static, flat character. In the very beginning of the story we learn he was convicted of manslaughter due to him getting hot-headed in a bar and then towards the end of the book he avenges the death of Casy without a second glance. I can't say that this is necessarily a good or a bad thing, but throughout all their hardships Tom remained the same.
4. I feel like I read a character because I have never been anywhere close to the situation that this family went through. Also Tom is a convicted felon and I tend to stay away from those types of people...

AP Test Resources

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/Controller.jpf
http://ozpk.tripod.com/AP
http://www.apstrategies.org/
http://www.phschool.com/advanced/lesson_plans/building_success/ap_test_taking_techniques.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/28751/info/strategies.html

Brave New World (Ch.7)

During this chapter we learn some aspects of life on a savage reservation. We see the diseases the people have, the babies they produce, and their horrific way of sacrificing (slashing someone with a whip until they fall and then giving away the blood from their back). All the while Lenina is frantic and dislikes everything, whereas Bernard finds it all very interesting. They then come across a man that looks like them, not dark skin toned like the other Indians. His name is John and they learn that his mother was a woman from their world. Bernard and Lenina are shocked! They then meet her and realize that the father of John is indeed the Director! Crazy news. Also Linda speaks how much she misses her old life.

Brave New World (Ch.6)

During this chapter we see consecutive dates that Lenina and Bernard go on together on a vacation to America. Lenina doesn't really understand Bernard and finds him very odd, but she accepts to go wherever he wants to. They begin with trite stuff that every person in this new world does and Bernard didn't like this idea. He decided to take Lenina on a helicopter ride to overlook the ocean because he found it peaceful. Lenina however found it extremely frightening and wanted to leave immediately (taught to hate nature). After this little adventure, Bernard decides he's going to take Lenina to a savage reservation to see how they live. Upon getting a permit signed by the Director, it becomes known that he was similar to Bernard in the idea that he once cared for another more than he should. The Director became flustered after he spoke of this and warned Bernard that he must change his ways unless he wants to be sent away. Bernard leaves and then travels with Lenina to the reservation. Before entering they meet the Warden who is a dull character that simply states what life is like inside. An important thing he mentions is that they trained the savages so that when they do something wrong they are severely punished.

Lit. Terms Applied

Lets just say that the quiz we had in class today was ridiculously difficult and I mean that in the nicest way possible. First off, I know most of the literary terms pretty well but I am still getting used to finding them being used in a text. Therefore giving us only 20 seconds to read the text and then find them, define them, and explain why they were used was extremely hard. There was no rhyme or reason to keep the pace the same. Once I finished reading the text, it would be gone and replaced by another. When we finally got to look at it again I had to reread it to simply to remember what it said but then still leave time to find an example of a lit term. I think the idea behind the quiz was good, but taking it and then reflecting on it now, all I really remembering was being flustered that I didn't have enough time.

Brave New World (Ch.4-5)

Throughout these two chapters we learn something about the author's writing style. He very much enjoys using puns, especially ones that are sexual oriented. They are mostly easy to spot and are somewhat uncomfortable to read about, but it gets the reader to really understand the time the author writes about. Also in these chapters we see what a date is like between Lenina and Henry. It started with a helicopter ride and then went straight to dancing to the music stylings of the 'sexophones'. It ended with them in his apartment clearly hinting at what would happen next. Also we see Bernard participating in what seems like a sort of sex/happiness orgy. However he didn't get the feelings everybody else did. This goes to show that he is very different from the other people that surround him in this world. A recurring item are 'soma' tablets and I believe these are what help endive their happiness.

Brave New World (Ch.2-3)

Throughout these chapters this book has become more of a story. We learn of different characters and what the interactions are supposed to be like. Also how the infant clones are taught and how they live life. One example would be when the clones are little they are taught to love themselves and dislike anybody who is in a different 'class' than they are. They are taught this through sleep-teaching where this idea becomes engrained into their minds. Also the 'teachers' are cruel with their ways of teaching. Another example would be that they don't want the infants to like books or nature so they set them up in a room where there are books and flowers. This seems fine, until one of the clones touches either. After this occurs they are electrocuted and alarms go off. They do this to associate these items with pain. Then as they grow older they are taught that family life was horrible back in the day and that it's not something you want. They do however want the girls to be promiscuous, but to not be part of a serious relationship. Lets just say, life is strange in this new world. Information is jumbled throughout the text so the reader must really pay attention to understand it all.

Brave New World (Ch. 1)

When I first started this book I was easily confused. The language was different and obviously the things the author wrote about were very different from what I was used to. However after a discussion in class, it started to make much more sense. This story takes place in the distant future and is what the author believes will come of our world. Rather than creating mankind the normal way, the people of this time have found a way to clone embryos and then grow them from nothing. They are categorized based on the way they are brought up (basically whether they will be useful or not). We learn very little of the people in the first chapter, but are taught the way in which these clones come to be.

First Quarter Review

1) Evaluate your performance so far this semester by explaining how you've done on required assignments and how you have moved forward on your Sr. Project/BQ/CWG;
---I believe I have kept up with the assignments that have been due during this grading period. I have many other things that occupy my time so I do as much when I can. As for my Senior Project I was at somewhat of a loss up until this Friday. I was planning on basing my project after the process of achieving my SMART goal (getting a dance solo for a performance I'm in), but it didn't exactly pan out as planned. Therefore Dr. Preston had me think about it harder, what is the reason for my dancing? Within seconds I responded with self-expression, so I now believe I will base my project on that and how it has shapes who I am today.

2) List your goals and expectations of yourself for the next quarter.
---I hope to continue on a path where I achieve earning high grades in all of my classes and also trying my hardest whenever I dance. (Maybe get some sleep in there)

3) Make suggestions for course content/process.
---Maybe some more freestyle posts on our blogs?..

Literary Terms 101-139

Pun: play on words; the humorous use of a word emphasizing different meanings or applications.

Purpose: the intended result wished by an author.

Realism: writing about the ordinary aspects of life in a straightfoward manner to reflect life as it actually is.

Refrain: a phrase or verse recurring at intervals in a poem or song; chorus.

Requiem: any chant, dirge, hymn, or musical service for the dead.

Resolution: point in a literary work at which the chief dramatic complication is worked out; denouement.

Restatement: idea repeated for emphasis.

Rhetoric: use of language, both written and verbal in order to persuade.

Rhetorical Question: question suggesting its own answer or not requiring an answer; used in argument or persuasion.

Rising Action: plot build up, caused by conflict and complications, advancement towards climax.

Romanticism: movement in western culture beginning in the eighteenth and peaking in the nineteenth century as a revolt against Classicism; imagination was valued over reason and fact.

Satire: ridicules or condemns the weakness and wrong doings of individuals, groups, institutions, or humanity in general.

Scansion: the analysis of verse in terms of meter.

Setting: the time and place in which events in a short story, novel, play, or narrative poem occur.

Simile: a figure of speech comparing two essentially unlike things through the use of a specific word of comparison.

Soliloquy: an extended speech, usually in a drama, delivered by a character alone on stage.

Spiritual: a folk song, usually on a religious theme.

Speaker: a narrator, the one speaking.

Stereotype: cliché; a simplified, standardized conception with a special meaning and appeal for members of a group; a formula story.

Stream of Consciousness: the style of writing that attempts to imitate the natural flow of a character’s thoughts, feelings, reflections, memories, and mental images, as the character experiences them.

Structure: the planned framework of a literary selection; its apparent organization.

Style: the manner of putting thoughts into words; a characteristic way of writing or speaking.

Subordination: the couching of less important ideas in less important structures of language.

Surrealism: a style in literature and painting that stresses the subconscious or the nonrational aspects of man’s existence characterized by the juxtaposition of the bizarre and the banal.

Suspension of Disbelief: suspend not believing in order to enjoy it.

Symbol: something which stands for something else, yet has a meaning of its own.

Synesthesia: the use of one sense to convey the experience of another sense.

Synecdoche: another form of name changing, in which a part stands for the whole.

Syntax: the arrangement and grammatical relations of words in a sentence.

Theme: main idea of the story; its message(s).

Thesis: a proposition for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or disproved; the main idea.

Tone: the devices used to create the mood and atmosphere of a literary work; the author’s perceived point of view.

Tongue in Cheek: a type of humor in which the speaker feigns seriousness; a.k.a. “dry” or “dead pan”

Tragedy: in literature: any composition with a somber theme carried to a disastrous conclusion; a fatal event; protagonist usually is heroic but tragically (fatally) flawed

Understatement: opposite of hyperbole; saying less than you mean for emphasis

Vernacular: everyday speech

Voice: The textual features, such as diction and sentence structures, that convey a writer’s or speaker’s persona.

Zeitgeist: the feeling of a particular era in history

BOB 1

I did rank the blogs, but I turned my thoughts into Dr. Preston rather than putting them on here.

I Am Here

So far this semester I believe I have made progress towards my short-term SMART goal. The solo I want was given a few rules and I believe I have followed them. I found beautiful music that I cut so it fits the time frame, but I also think that I convey the story I am supposed to tell. All that were auditioning could choose whatever they want, so I chose my favorite story, "A Walk to Remember." I am anxious to see how it is accepted by my fellow dancers and I hope that I can present it in the future. (I do hope to incorporate this with my senior project, but I have to wait some time to see if I achieve it.)

Literary Terms 81-100

Narrator: one who narrates, or tells, a story.

Naturalism: extreme form of realism.

Novelette/Novella: short story; short prose narrative, often satirical.

Omniscient Point of View: knowing all things, usually the third person.

Onomatopoeia: use of a word whose sound in some degree imitates or suggests its
meaning.

Oxymoron: a figure of speech in which two contradicting words or phrases are combined to produce a rhetorical effect by means of a concise paradox.

Pacing: rate of movement; tempo.

Parable: a story designed to convey some religious principle, moral lesson, or general truth.

Paradox: a statement apparently self-contradictory or absurd but really containing a possible truth; an opinion contrary to generally accepted ideas.

Parallelism: the principle in sentence structure that states elements of equal function should have equal form.

Parody: an imitation of mimicking of a composition or of the style of a well-known artist.

Pathos: the ability in literature to call forth feelings of pity, compassion, and/or sadness.

Pedantry: a display of learning for its own sake.

Personification: a figure of speech attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.

Plot: a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose.

Poignant: eliciting sorrow or sentiment.

Point of View: the attitude unifying any oral or written argumentation; in description, the physical point from which the observer views what he is describing.

Postmodernism: literature characterized by experimentation, irony, nontraditional forms, multiple meanings, playfulness and a blurred boundary between real and imaginary.

Prose: the ordinary form of spoken and written language; language that does not have a regular rhyme pattern.

Protagonist: the central character in a work of fiction; opposes antagonist.