Final Reflection

1.       What was your favorite lesson this year and why?

My favorite lesson this year was the entire unit on How to Read Literature Like a Professor because I think that you did very well in teaching it. I think your activities really enforced the things to be learned and I liked that the book covered the span of the entire year in relation to the future activities we did beyond finishing the book. I also really liked the lesson with the short stories that we had to rewrite; not only did it encourage creativity, it made us subconsciously analyze the text to find the meaning and tone and rewrite it in our own words. You should definitely keep both of these for next year.

2.       What was your least favorite lesson this year? Why?

My least favorite lesson this year was the entire poetry unit. I’ve never understood poetry in my life and trying to analyze it was torture in my honest opinion. However, I think you covered a lot in a short amount of time so it was understandable that you couldn’t cover everything. I think my dislike was based on my own opinion of the unit.

3.       Academically, what have you learned from this class?

Academically speaking, I’ve learned so much this year. The most important thing I’ve learned, in my opinion, is how to analyze literature. I was okay at that before, but after spending the year in here I can look so much deeper into the writing and see things and connections I wouldn’t have seen before we did How to Read Literature Like a Professor. I’ve also learned how to write better; you helped me find my strengths and weaknesses and I built upon those to make my essays and my papers better. Poetry, though, was the biggest thing I learned. The main thing I learned with that was to not read too much into things, and that sometimes things are literal.

4.       What life lessons have you learned from this class?

I think I’ve honestly learned too many life lessons from this class to name. It took me forever to realize that you were making us read things that could be considered controversial mainly for the life lessons we would take from the text. The little things we could relate to was what we were looking for, and I guarantee most of us didn’t even pick up that we were learning life lessons at the time we were reading or talking. I think the most important life lesson I’ve learned from this class is that I am not alone. Though I sometimes feel alone and empty, I’m realistically not. There’s always someone to lean on who has been through the things I’ve been through and who knows how to be there for me. I’ve also learned that there is a lot more to people than what you see on the surface; taking you for example, I never would’ve known you’ve been through some of the things I’ve been through since you appear so happy and content and at peace. I also learned that there is healing and life will go on, no matter how much it hurts now or how unlikely you think your chances of redemption are.

5.       What can I change and improve upon as an educator to make this class more beneficial for future classes?

I honestly think that you’ve done a great job this year, considering it’s your first your teaching AP Lit and you had so much to cover in such a short amount of time. The only thing I can think of is that maybe you could be a little less lenient with turning in assignments in some cases. Boundaries should be set and applied even if angry parents get in the way; it is the student’s responsibility to keep up with and do their work and if they fail to do so, then they deserve the grade you give them. Also, I think that doing this would make them more prepared for college considering the professors will not take excuses and such for missing/late assignments. Also maybe you should learn a little English since you teach it. (I’m just kidding, lol. Love you, Katie! J)

6.       Final thoughts and opinions

I came into this class not knowing what to expect, even though I’d had you as a teacher before and knew about the way you run your classroom. I never expected that it would become such an emotional, open place where everyone felt accepted, at least while inside of the classroom. I think that for your first year teaching AP, you’ve done a wonderful job and you really prepared us for the AP Exam – seriously, I thought it was the easiest test I’ve ever taken, and that’s because of you and the strategies you used to help prepare us for it. I think that even though there were minor faults and incidents, you moved on with pride and you really did what you were supposed to do and in my honest opinion, I don’t think there’s anyone better suited to teach AP Lit.

Why Gatsby Left Daisy Years Before: My response

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, there are many scenes that pull at the reader's attention and hearts but the most relevant is a flashback scene. In this flashback, Gatsby's character is further revealed. This specific scene recounts Gatsby's meeting Daisy to his leaving her for reasons that are suddenly made clear. 

What started off as a quaint fling between a nice young woman and a lieutenant suddenly developed into so much more than that, which was enough to make my heart beat ninety times faster. When Gatsby and Daisy first meet, he is about to go to war and the two begin a relationship they know will never last when he is gone. Nevertheless, they become entwined with one another and their relationship blooms; Daisy loves him because he is like her and he knows how to treat her. Yet, Gatsby feels hollow. He knows Daisy is above him and that he can’t keep pretending to be part of her world. But he does. 

Normal people would hate themselves for pretending to be something they’re not, but Gatsby lets the fling continue. The next step in this is him deflowering Daisy because he has no claim to touch her hand, meaning that even he sees himself as unfit to marry her but he’ll take her innocence either way. Perhaps this is why the color white is abundant throughout the story. 

To risk further deviating, I don’t believe that Gatsby really loved Daisy at first. I think he was rather in love with the idea of being in love because love can’t be left behind so easily. “When they met again two days later, it was Gatsby who was breathless, who was somehow betrayed.” This is the epitome of Gatsby’s character development. Despite his ruse of caring, loving man, he is selfish deep down and believes that Daisy somehow betrayed him by letting him in. It’s almost as if he is disregarding all of his own actions. Thus this brings me to my final thoughts on Gatsby: while a charming and debonair man, he is really insecure and doesn’t know how to let go of the past, as displayed in the flashback scene that displays his leaving Daisy for minor reasons.

The Great Gatsby: A Brief Retelling

 F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby starts off as one of the most boring books I've ever read in my life. What seemed like a promising title was filled with around five chapters of pure nothingness. In fact, the book only begins to get good once Daisy is back together with Gatsby.

To begin, the book recounts a summer in the 1920s when Nick Carraway's neighbor, Gatsby, threw lavish parties and pined for the affection of Daisy Buchanan. This is all that goes on for pages and pages; Gatsby throws a part hoping to lure Daisy in, but alas this never happens. This makes for a very boring first couple of chapters.

The story dramatically picks up pace when Daisy and Gatsby decide to resume their love affair from the past despite Daisy being happily married. For one, this seems totally uncharacteristic with Daisy's character as presented thus far. True, she does seem like a fun loving woman but nowhere in the text does it hint that she'd be willing to throw her marriage away like her husband has. She doesn't seem like the type to get revenge for such trivial things.

What started off as a snooze fest morphs into an action packed story by the end. Not only is there a secret love affair, well two secret love affairs, but there is also a murder that goes unsolved until Gatsby admits that Daisy accidentally killed Myrtle. This prompts the local men to begin a manhunt to find her murderer without knowing that who they are looking for is no man at all, but rather a very popular woman from West Egg. A misunderstanding over who was driving the car that ran over and killed Myrtle leads to Myrtle’s husband killing both Gatsby and himself in a murder-suicide in Gatsby’s very own backyard. 

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter – tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning- So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” This is the most important quote in relevance to the story as a whole. What happens in the entire book is summed up by this one small quote; people can never truly be happy with what they have and thus they must create trouble to try to get what they desire without realizing that it is a cycle. They are endlessly reliving the past because of a failure to move on and let go.

Daisy Fay Buchanan

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, there are many characters that work together to make the storyline progress. One important character, aside from Gatsby himself, would be Daisy Buchanan, nee Fay, the love interest of both Tom and Gatsby and the cousin of Nick Carraway.

Daisy, who grew up as a spoiled young girl who had her heart's content, finds herself married to Tom Buchanan and living in East Egg with him and their daughter. Though she is 'happily' married, her heart still lingers on old feelings not forgotten for Mr. Jay Gatsby. To fully understand the character of Daisy, readers must look at the roles she has played and continues to play in the lives of those around her.

It is revealed in flashbacks that Daisy was the first real love of Jay Gatsby. This makes her a catalyst capable of manipulating his feelings, as he has never gotten over her. When Gatsby comes back into the picture, Daisy resumes her relationship with him almost automatically, despite being married. This paints her as an untrustworthy woman, though one can't help but admire her willingness to follow her heart.

To Tom, Daisy is loving wife extraordinaire, the one who takes care of his child, 'loves' him unconditionally, and helps run his estate while he's off having an affair with Myrtle. Though Tom has this 'perfect' image of his loving wife, she is really destroying him and Gatsby at once. By cheating with Gatsby, Daisy is ruining a perfectly good marriage with Tom (the fact that he is cheating being taken off the table). As for Gatsby, Daisy is further slaughtering his heart by running around with him in secret but not really being able to stand up for their 'love' in front of anyone.

In short, Daisy likes to create trouble for herself and mar the lives of those around her little by little. "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy - they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made..." is probably the most important quote related to Daisy as it paints another side of her character. She is finally shown in full light; though she comes across as a lovely, pure young woman and wife and mother, her interior motives entail creating havoc at the expense of others, though I suppose this is what keeps Tom interested in her. Perhaps it's a sick little game of cat and mouse, and Daisy is the cat destroying the world in her path.

Jay Gatsby

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, there are many characters that play vital roles in developing the story and plot. The most important of these characters is, ironically enough, the focal character of the story, Jay Gatsby. From the beginning of the story, Mr. Gatsby is elusive, as he is first seen staring off into what Nick thinks is the stars but is later revealed to be the green light at Daisy's dock on her side of the waters. After attending one of Gatsby's parties, Gatsby soon forces his friendship onto Nick after learning that he was related to Daisy. This sparks the beginning of Gatsby's charades to win her heart.

Obviously in the beginning of the book, Gatsby is a very static, very flat character. All he ever does is sit around in his mansion throwing parties for people he doesn't really know. All that is known about him is his name and the rumor mill is running wild with absurd stories about his past. In the midst of this chaos, Nick Carraway first meets Mr. Gatsby at one of his aforementioned parties. Right off the bat Gatsby is perceived as an odd fellow as he doesn’t seem to speak much and spends the night drifting from guest to guest in his home. His oddness hits new levels as he begins calling on Nick almost immediately after meeting him.

This sudden favoring of Nick and the way Gatsby acts toward him are peculiar. Why would a man who seemingly cared about nothing suddenly want to be best friends with the guy from next door? It is this peculiarity that drives Nick to dismiss Gatsby, but he works his way back into Nick’s life from afar. This prompts Nick to find out about Gatsby’s past which he does through the stories of Jordan Baker.

As it turns out, our elusive Mr. Gatsby grew up as a wealthy, ready to learn boy who had a falling out and ventured off on his own. Eventually ending up in the military, he met a girl named Daisy Fay who he fell desperately in love with. After a falling out with her, Gatsby wandered for a while and began to build his fortune on illegal activity. None of this mattered, though. To him, nothing mattered but Daisy and he held a flame for her for over five years. 

“I can’t describe to you how surprised I was to find out I loved her, old sport. I even hoped for a while that she’d throw me over, but she didn’t, because she was in love with me too.” This is one of the most important quotes of the book. Suddenly all of Gatsby’s actions throughout his presence in the book make sense. He has been harboring feelings for Daisy for years and has been acting to win her heart back throughout the story. The parties, the lavish lifestyle… they were ploys that Gatsby used to try and lure Daisy back in because deep in his heart, he loved her. And after going through certain things, loving Daisy was terrifying because he was scared of losing her. So there you have it. The thing that makes Jay Gatsby tick? Love.

AP Exam Response Questions

1. Examine the rubric closely. What score do you deserve based on that rubric? Justify why by giving examples. 

Based on the rubric, I think I deserve either a 6 or 7. I would say probably a 7, at the risk of sounding too self-assured. According to the rubric for a score of 6 or 7, “These essays offer a reasonable analysis of a single pivotal moment in the psychological or moral development of the protagonist in a bildungsroman and how that single moment shapes the meaning of the work as a whole. These essays analyze how the pivotal moment shapes the entire work. While these essays show insight and understanding, their analysis is less thorough, less perceptive, and/or less specific in supporting detail than that of the 9–8 essays.” I think that I did exactly that through my analysis of the fighting scene between Assef and Amir. I was able to relate it back to Amir’s past and the overall meaning of the work. I just didn’t do it in as much detail as I should have, and I probably could have used more textual support. Actually, I definitely could have used more textual support but I feel that what I did use was used appropriately and was sufficient enough to score me a 7.

2. Read the student performance "Common errors" section. What common errors did you commit? If you were going to do this prompt over again, how would you correct these errors?

The first error that I committed was that I did a lot of plot summary in my essay. Even though my analysis was sufficient and I got my point across, I feel like I just summarized several parts. Also, while I did pick a moment that was a pivotal moment, it was also a turning point for the story which I guess is what made it easier to write about. If I was going to redo this, I would work on explaining more than summarizing and on focusing in on a more relevant situation that would allow me to talk about how it relates to the character’s journey into adulthood and how it changed them in relation to the meaning of the story. I did this, loosely, but I feel that I could do better.

3. After reading the student response examples what have you learned? Is there anything specifically you would change in your own paper?

I’ve learned that essays that are scored 8 and 9 are much better than mine. That was a joke. Anyway, I learned that essays that are scored an 8 or 9 are very descriptive and very focused on the prompt and getting their point across. The vocabulary and diction/sentence structure are elevated and sophisticated. Essays that are marked at a 6 or 7 do a sufficient analysis, but lesser than the ones scored higher, much like my essay. Anything below that doesn’t really do much analyzing but rather summarize plot. I could honestly work on using upper level vocabulary and work on varying my sentence structure and focusing more on the prompt when I write.

4. What aspect of timed writings do you feel you need the most help on? What do you suggest we do in class to help with this?

I don’t know about needing help on anything, but I know that textual support has always been my weakest area. I never have much of it and sometimes what I pick as textual support isn’t relevant, really. Maybe there are some exercises or something we could do about that. I also sometimes have trouble understanding what the prompt wants so it takes me longer to get started. Maybe we could have some practice exams or something to help with this.

LRB #7: The Kite Runner

In Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, many elements come into play that influence the book and are significant in some way. The most significant thing to this book is quite honestly it's title. The Kite Runner is not simply some catchy title used to draw in readers - it actually holds relevance to the entirety of the story. While the title does draw in readers, it also emphasizes a certain character's role in the story.

Anyone who has read the book is aware of the fact that the kite runner is Hassan, Amir's best friend who always runs the kites Amir pushes out of the sky. The title of the book underscores Hassan's importance in the story; from the very beginning to the very end of the book, Hassan is always in Amir's thoughts and influences some of the things Amir himself does.

The story that starts out with boys being boys and flying kites eventually ends with Amir and Hassan's son, Sohrab, flying kites, which is basically an instance of history repeating itself.

Next to me, Sohrab was breathing rapidly through his nose. The spool rolled in his palms, the tendons in his scarred wrists like rubab strings. Then I blinked, and, for just a moment, the hands holding the spool were the chipped-nailed, calloused hands of a harelipped boy. I heard a crow calling somewhere and I looked up. The park shimmered with snow so fresh, so dazzling white, it burned my eyes. It sprinkled soundlessly from the branches of white-clad trees.

This flashback may be the most important one of the book; despite everything Amir had lived through and the absence that Hassan had taken in his life - at his own hands - he still thought of him throughout everything. This scene of bonding with Sohrab sent Amir back to bonding with Hassan, back to his childhood and back to his best friend. This is why the book's title is important. The Kite Runner symbolizes Hassan and what he meant, and still means, to Amir, and how he holds a place in his heart.