The End of a Wonderful Semester

This is my last blog post for English 495 ESM. I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this class! It combined so many different elements, keeping me on my toes from beginning to end. Not only writing about literature, but writing my own was a fun experience, and has inspired me to do more creative writing. It has also helped diminish my fear of technology. There were a lot of firsts in this class. I created my first powerpoint, my first found poem, and my first blog. Thanks Professor Clark for making this a wonderful semester!!!
Laura

The truth about fiction

When writing about fiction, I felt myself confined. I was worried about whether or not what I was saying was anywhere near what the author actually intended. Including secondary sources also limited me, as I couldn't write about a story if I was unable to find secondary material to include. It was also imperative that I be able to successfully include the material into my essay.
Delving into my own piece of fiction was a feeling of complete freedom. There were no worries about whether or not I was going in the right direction, as there were no limitations at all as to what I could write about. Having a topic helped. I chose the topic "Under what circumstances would someone play a tuba at a funeral?" This topic seemed challenging to me, because I have no emotional connection to the tuba. While I love music, I do not have an extreme fascination with brass instruments. I am also not a fan of stories that end in death. Even if a movie or book is wonderful and enjoyable, if the end includes the death of the hero or heroine, I will rarely see or read it again. While it is challenging and often unenjoyable for me to watch a sad movie or read a sad book, I found it enjoyable writing a sad story. I actually changed the ending to make it more positive, because I wanted to make it a little more enjoyable for readers like me. It surprised me that, as someone who is extremely sensitive to the portrayal of death in movies and literature, I enjoyed writing about the death of one of my own main characters.
In this experience, I found that I really enjoyed creating my own piece of fiction. It was also fun to get feedback from classmates. I think it is important to encourage students to write their own stories, as it helps them appreciate the work of others, as well as realize that they are capable of writing something just as amazing.

Mythology: Analyzing and Creating

Presenting about myth, and writing about myth proved to be two distinct challenges. When writing about myth, I found myself analyzing another person's creation of a myth. In their work, I learned about the elements that are necessary to create a myth. Prior to the experience, I felt that I knew a lot about myth. Afterwards, I realized that all of the concepts I was aware of had technical terms and ways of describing them.
By studying myths, I found that my own experience of creating a myth was enhanced due to my increased knowledge of how myths were constructed. However, most of my energy was now targeted towards creativity rather than analysis.
In a sense, it is easier to write a myth than to present on a myth, yet when writing my own myth, I felt a conflict as to what to write. There were so many options, and the myths I had already read were constantly in the back of my mind while I wrote. Yet I also felt a sense of freedom as I wrote my myth. It could go in any direction, and any direction I went in was perfectly acceptable. When presenting on the myth in class, however, I felt as if there was a specific direction in which I needed to go.
One of the challenges I had with creating my myth, was the tone I was to set. I wasn't sure if it should be serious, funny, use sophisticated language, use language targeted towards children, etc. I found myself adding lines that didn't match the overall tone, because I had decided to suddenly aim for a more light-hearted myth. It was a struggle to tie the myth together. This struggle was one that helped me appreciate the myths we read for the presentations. Each one had a unique tone that was evident throughout. Reading the myths of classmates helped me to see how others had handled the issue of tone, and also gave me a wide variety of myths that illustrated humor, seriousness, warning, fear, etc.
In the classroom, I believe it would be wonderful to include a similar exercise. I feel that all of the students would benefit greatly from presenting on an actual myth, and then providing their own myth. By giving students the opportunity to analyze and create, they will become more involved in the learning process, and will hopefully have much more interest in what they are doing.

Blog #2 Writing Poetry and Writing About Poetry

I found writing about poetry and writing poetry to be two unique experiences. When I was writing about poetry, I had to look at someone else's work, and try to uncover the meaning embedded within their poem. By explicating the poem of another, I had the opportunity to appreciate the intricate details used. When I was writing my own poems, I really began to understand the complexity of devices such as alliteration and consonance. Weaving them into my poem was difficult, yet rewarding. After I finished my poems, I went through them and looked at them using the same techniques I used when writing about other poems. I was surprised at the different approaches in thought I was able to find towards my own poetry. I realized that others may interpret my poetry in a way unique to the message I had originally intended. It made me wonder how the author of the poem I wrote about would view my interpretation of their work. Was my interpretation anywhere near what they had in mind when writing their poem? There was a lot more freedom in writing my own poem. I was freed from such thoughts, and was chiefly concerned with creating something original and personal. After writing my poem, I was able to look at the poetry of others with new awareness. This experience has given me great insight into teaching poetry to others. I realized that to truly appreciate the poetry of others, it helps to appreciate the process of writing poetry. Not only does it help to know the names of different devices used in poetry, as well as different forms of poetry, it also helps to actually write poetry. By writing their own poetry, students will be more aware of the hard work that went into the poem they are writing about.

See Laura's Thoughts regarding Blog # 1

Hi reader!
My name is Laura, and this is my very first blog for English 495ESM. My hopes are to become an English teacher for Deaf students. It is my goal to teach them in their native language, American Sign Language (ASL). Because I will be teaching in my second language, my fear is that I will not be as clear to my students as a native signer. I believe Deaf students should have the same opportunities to learn English as hearing students, and they should be able to learn without becoming bogged down by communication issues. By achieving fluency in ASL, I will be able to provide them with the opportunity to learn directly from their teacher without losing precious time in repairing errors made because of miscommunication. Technology will play an important role in my class. The internet provides an amazing amount of information, and students will most likely use the internet to research papers and find information for upcoming presentations and assignments. For a Deaf student, the internet is a vital tool, providing students with the ability to contact other students and the teacher. I would like to provide a place online for the class to come together. Film could be used to support or expand the student's learning, but as the teacher, I must be careful to choose media that has closed captioning or English subtitles. As Deaf students are often incorporated into classrooms with hearing students and teachers who do not know ASL, my hope is that more teachers will become aware of the needs of their Deaf students. Although the teachers may not be able to communicate in the language of their Deaf students, I hope they will be able to respect ASL, and provide a classroom environment that includes and respects the Deaf student.