Great TEA analysis. I asked: What message is this student sending? Am I convinced of the message? Or am I left asking questions. Questions that extend beyond the present analysis are great, but if I’m asking questions about the credibility of the message or the logic of the message or the message itself, then more clarity needs to occur. The message is blurred, or vague.
Great incorporation of evidence: Here’s what you do when you don’t have any idea what the question is asking? Incorporate the language from the prompt in an explanatory way and lead your reader to your brief analysis. If you’re guiding me through the prompt and explaining clearly as you go—great. You do need to make your claim: what does this mean, but I’m less likely to argue with you if you have prepared me well.
Page numbers! Why just the author’s name here?
Wow! Great work on the lists. I will read a couple of these in class.
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The assessment on the exam was divided into two parts. Part 1 assessed whether or not you could apply critical terms to fiction. Part 11 asked you to interpret literature, specifically “Diving Into the Wreck.”
- I was very pleased with the success rate on this exam!
- You were all able to identify the parts of the story. There were a couple of students who struggled with one or two terms. The epiphany troubled both of these students—this is the most difficult aspect of literature. Also, if you missed class when we worked on these terms….well you might not have had all of the information.
- Many students went ahead and applied these terms to their analysis of the story…they went above and beyond the basic requirements of the exam and interpreted the stories—I saw some excellent efforts by these students! We will read one of those papers today on The Yellow Wallpaper and one more on Young Goodman Brown when we begin our discussion of The Scarlet Letter.
- Everyone did a good job of interpreting "Diving Into the Wreck." It was very interesting to read so many different interpretations of this highly symbolic text. This is a testament to the power of language and symbol and the connection between language, culture and meaning. If you continue on in the Humanities, this is a subject you will discuss often.
- Everyone used specific examples to support their ideas and looped from the text to their interpretation and back to the text. You will need this skill for your next paper and this exam gave you a great opportunity to practice on the small scale.
- Everyone worked to create meaning and articulated this meaning coherently. You had a week to do this, so I expected few errors, for the most part I was pleased with this aspect of you writing. But for those of you who continue to be plagued by errors, you will need to build extra time into your writing process. Frequent grammar errors need to stop at English 1B—especially, if they impede meaning. These errors impact your credibility and they need to be taken seriously. Work with a tutor one-on-one in the Writing Center or see me.
- One area I’d like to see improve is on taking the time to introduce your ideas. Some just rushed into what you thought the symbols meant without acknowledging that the poem was about a diver going into the water. The best papers acknowledged this and explained that the diving or the water or the diver was a metaphor for something else. Taking the time to spell out (what might seem obvious to you) is very important to your reader. Using transitional language coordination and subordination helps. Using the term metaphor or symbol really helped students to connect their ideas. Practice using the terms in your blog, many of you are already doing this.
Here is an example of one student who went the extra mile and interpreted the story.
Read This—Explanation of the Yellow Wallpaper.
We seem to be in agreement here that things have really changed for women, but I think it’s important to remember this change came only after years of battling and much suffering. Something we will, hopefully, learn from our Reading of the Scarlet Letter.
But in some places this battle has not yet begun. Front Page of Today's NYTs.
You should each have a copy of the Discussion Schedule. Attendance will be important in our lead up to the Final Paper.
