Module 10

To be honest, as one of the few non-education majors in the class, I was a little skeptical about this assignment. In the end though, it was one of my favorites!

I really enjoyed every one's presentations, but there were three specific ones that really stuck out to me. These three were assignments I would have loved to do in one of my English classes. It seems like many of them dealt with analyzing how complex characters developed over the course of a text, how they interacted with other characters, and how it advanced the plot of developed the theme.

The Character Analysis using Of Mice and Men and Twitter was one that resonated with me. I think it is important to start teaching social media in middle school/ high school level because of how much it impacts our current society. No teacher should deny their students education just because they do not agree with the topic. Social media is here to stay and there is no denying it will only get bigger and better.

Miss Peregrines Artifacts assignment was definitely one I wished I could have done. I love any assignment that deals with art and creative expression. The purpose of the assignment was to create a visual artifact that represented your understanding of the text including theme, mood, symbolism, and the overall meaning. I loved how for their example, they each made bird cages, but had very different interpretations of the artifact.

Last, but not least, was the OMG it's Shakespeare assignment. I loved that one of the purposes of the assignment was to create a personal connection with the text by using text language. When you modernize any text, you gain a better understanding. However, this project takes "modern" to a whole new level. They used text jargon in their example and tried to put themselves into the characters shoes when responding to each other's text messages.

Module 9

People would say I have a pretty outgoing personality, but for some reason as soon as it comes to speaking in front of a bunch of people, I instantly shut down and become shy. So, you can only imagine how I feel when it comes to drama and acting. The funniest part is that when I was younger, I wanted to be an actress.

In my analysis of the assigned reading, I was still kind of confused about what process drama really was. Like I have said in the past, I am a visual learner and typically do not completely grasp concepts until I see them in action.

The in-class activities were where I comprehended everything and realized I really liked the whole notion. I loved how TO incorporated the whole class and how comfortable he made everyone feel. It was also really fast paced and did not give me enough time to overthink and freak out before “performing.” I really enjoyed the short story activity we did in small groups.

However, my favorite activity was the interpretation of the grocer’s children poem. It was really cool that we basically were the ones to come up with the “scripts” and the poem was just a reference. Each group had their own interpretation, some feeling bad for the grocer and some who were disgusted.

Although I did not get up and participate in the live action skit, I enjoyed watching my peers and had a good laugh. I was pleasantly surprised with some of my classmates and never expected some people to act the way they did. I still wish I would have volunteered, but as soon as TO asked who wanted to come up to perform, my palms instantly started sweating and I felt the nerves. Overall, this was one of my favorite units and I wish I would have done something similar to this in high school.