Best of/Worst of

My favorite poem was probably The Road Not Taken because I have always enjoyed Robert Frost's poems. My least favorite poem was probably The Red Wheelbarrow. Short poems like that I have never understood why people liked them so much. Maybe I just can't see the importance like I should but I just don't know.

My favorite short story was The Things They Carried. I just thought it was really interesting how soldiers think and survive when they are in war. I liked how  the things that they did carry actually represented their character. My least favorite short story was Bartleby, the Scrivener because it was difficult for me to follow along. The style of writing got me confused most of the time and I just couldn't find anything in that story that related to me so it wasn't personally connected to me to motivate me to keep reading.

I think that next semester the students should read Death of a Salesman because it can relate to anyone. Everyone has family problems and everyone can relate to it. There is also a lot to talk about because this story has so many themes to work off of. I also really like Dustin Hoffman so the movie was interesting to me.

I didn't much care for the movie Bartleby because it almost made me sick to watch it. The music was irritating and it didn't really follow the story very well. The movie Death of a Salesman was better because it is a play and it is supposed to be played out. I was excited to see how much emotion the actors had compared to just reading the dialogue. When I watched Bartleby it was irritating because it wasn't like I imagined it while reading the short story.

My favorite in class activity was watching movies. I enjoyed watching The Lottery being played out on screen and also Death of a Salesman. My least favorite in class activity was probably answering questions about the stories in small groups. I just would rather talk about the questions instead of wasting time writing them down.

I didn't miss the small group presentations because I am uncomfortable with presenting in front of the whole class. I liked small group discussions better because I felt like I was more involved. No one wants to talk when they are put on the spot in front of the entire class. It is better to have small groups  than one large group because when it is the large group, the same 4 or 5 people are always the ones talking. It's hard to join in when you know they will be the only people giving their opinions/interpretations. 

I enjoyed learning how to write some of the poem entrys for the blogs even though it was extremely difficult for me. After they were written, I felt proud of my work though because sometimes it is hard for me to get my creative juices flowing. I also liked reading my classmates entries as well. There wasn't one entry in particular that I didn't like. It was just the fact that I would get frustrated with myself if I couldn't figure out what to write.

I jut think that the more connection you have to a story/poem, the easier it is to talk about. Stories that relate to yourself are the best ones.