And the rest was silence. . . (Blog Post #18)

          The Exam Reflection forced me to confront the challenges I would face throughout the trimester. Up until this year English has been a relatively relaxed class and I knew AP English and Literature would take this subject to the next level, forcing me to be more analytical and to develop better close reading skills. Though this Exam was slightly demoralizing, it revealed a truth about my current understanding (or lack thereof) of complex literature. This came as a sort of reality check but the blog post preserved my sense of initial shock following the exam so that throughout the trimester I could continue to revisit this post to keep track of my progress and the goals I had set. Though this post had originally pried me to find my weaknesses in each area of study, it became an immensely helpful resource that kept me focused throughout this course. The strengths in this post are the tone I maintain throughout the multiple paragraphs and its organization. The tone made both writing and future reading of the post come more naturally as it is somewhat comedic and conversational though still stylistically elevated while formatting with paragraphs and numbered goals helped to organize a lengthy post. The most prominent weakness would be its lack of focus. Throughout the post, I often found myself rambling, either about the amount of work I had yet to do or the amount I had already done. This habit adds unnecessary length to what could have been a rather concise blog entry. This may also have been the result of unfamiliarity with the blog format. Since then I have learned that though blogs address an audience and should be entertaining, posts should still be professional and purposeful.

          The American Drama video, featuring our rendition of Six Degrees of Separation by John Guare was by far the most involved task we tackled this trimester. The cast and crew of Cathy, Shivank, Emily, Jessica, and myself spent thirteen hours over a weekend on filming alone and countless more on editing and effects, not to mention the class time spent on script-cutting and the write up. This required a massive group effort as well as individual contributions from everyone. This level of involvement and time commitment revealed both strengths and weaknesses in our collaborative skills, time management, and work ethic. From the start we made a fairly solid group but finding the time to film was the most difficult as each member had personal commitments and miscellaneous conflicts stemming from participation in clubs and/or other events. Schedule shifts revealed our individual levels of dedication and determination. Often we filmed and refilmed a specific scene, varying from a few lines long to a few minutes long, until we achieved a satisfactory effect. This pursuit showed each member of our group would settle for nothing less than our best, a strength it turns out we all shared. The weaknesses of this project would be the flow of the video itself. While filming, we struggled to keep track of time while technology introduced a new obstacle. We often assumed the audience would infer a certain plot detail from our acting or the summary sheet and, as a result, the video itself is slightly jumbled. However overall this was a wonderfully challenging project as it heightened collaborative skills and, simply put, was very fun to create.

          AP English and Literature, being one of my more involved if not the most involved class, has dared me to expand my participation both in and out of the classroom. Entering the class I was well-aware that the classwork would be more vigorous than any other previous English course and that individual papers would be meticulously picked apart. The class itself was enjoyable and participation came naturally for the most part as we analyzed and discussed various pieces of literature with other classmates, a small group, or the class as a whole. The multitude of presentations throughout the trimester also served a double purpose. While they introduced new pieces of information and literary backgrounds, they also served to increased our participation habits and revealed a little about our classmates presenting. Though I have always done the required classwork in class and for written essays, this trimester challenged me to bring the same work ethic home as I sat down each night to begin the assigned homework that often involved collaborative projects or simple creativity. Here I often found myself spending far too much time on nightly assignments and it struck me to hear that we should only be spending one to two hours each night on homework. It was here that I realized it was not a matter of the workload but rather my efficiency. I realized that no matter how many hours of sleep one sacrificed, time was the commodity that always ran out.  Thus, throughout the trimester I have pursued the highest quality of work done in the lowest quantity of time, increasing my involvement in the course as I went. AP Lit raised the bar for success and forced me to climb both faster and higher to achieve it.

          The extensive group work throughout the trimester also demanded a higher level of in-class participation and interaction with my peers. It is easy to sit off to the side and to mind my own business but much more difficult to introduce and explain ideas to a group. Working in a group forced me to ask questions, stay on task, and overall increase my level of participation. Furthermore, working in a group and acknowledging the various perspectives has encouraged me to become more open-minded towards different perspectives and more inclined to accept suggestion. Though it made me accepting of other views, it also helped me in establishing my own. In a group, while it is important to hear the voices of others, it is equally important to make your own voice heard. Thus I pursued roles of both leader and follower within the group, adapting appropriately to maintain productivity and group participation. Most of the classmates I worked on various projects were similarly motivated to achieve a higher level of excellence through the work we created. Consequentially, group work was an enjoyable approach towards many challenging projects that continuously introduced new perspectives and increased my participation throughout the course.

          The measurable time-stamped goals I had set for myself at the beginning of the trimester have, for the most part, been met! These goals included developing “good habits as an attentive reader while cutting my skimming habits”, “making more markings while close-reading”, and “reading fourteen unfamiliar pieces of literature”. These I planned to achieve by reading every piece of material that requires analysis at least twice to avoid careless errors, annotating each sentence with a quality marking, and actively seeking out new pieces of literature. As I tried to improve my reading skills throughout the past twelve weeks I have found that, indeed, they have improved. In hindsight, my reading skills had been very poorly developed as they were inefficient and ineffective—involving a slow skimming of the piece without extensive thought or annotation. Since then I have developed greater skills for active reading and an increased attentiveness to detail.

          The third and final goal I had set for myself, to seek out and analyze unfamiliar pieces of literature, has been the most challenging. This was simply a matter of motivation and time management. A challenging academic schedule, club participation, and college apps made reading and analyzing an extra poem each week sound outrageous.  Oftentimes by the time I had finished schoolwork and was ready to look for a poem/essay/article, all I wanted to do was sleep. In all honesty, I have skipped a few weeks in October and then scrabbled to make up for lost time in later weeks. If reading one poem at a time was a challenge, reading three as the result of procrastination was torturous. I realized that procrastinating would only catch up with me later and frankly was not worth the panicked scramble it brought. The quality of my analysis had deteriorated in these “last-minute” pieces and the complexities lost. As a result, this third goal had done more than expanding my literary awareness. It had also expanded my thoughtfulness and analytical skills while discouraging the procrastination habits I maintained at the beginning of the school year.