Practice IOC (Langston Hughes-Dream Variations)

A Brave New World FOA

In this blog post, I am going to reflect on our team's further oral activity on the book “A Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. Our group was focused on creating an advertisement for the fictional drug SOMA. We accomplished the task with a music based video, displaying slow motion recordings with false color spinning in delight. I feel like generally the task went pretty well. We had plenty of time, and our idea was relatively devolved, ending in a result we were all relatively proud in. The things I feel like we could have done differently are headed off by an item that encompassed most of our discussion, development of our idea. We believed our idea was good, but it could have been better. It's not that our final product did not match our intentions, more that our intentions were not at the level they could have been. This would have made more work for the team, but would have resulted in a more rounded FOA that would have more thoroughly fulfilled the prescribed task.

FOA Reflection

For our group's FOA, we analyzed the play, A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen. We focused on the relationship between the main characters, Nora and Torvald Helmer. We chose the text because we felt it had interesting inter-character relationships that could be modified and transposed to explain the themes of the assignment. I think the outcome we accomplished most thoroughly was “develop[ing] the students’ powers of expression, both in oral and written communication”. We did this while we developed the voices of our characters in the context of the objective and the background of the character. In my opinion this was what I felt best about during our presentation. We needed to make the presentation longer while adding relation to our theme and question to make it perfect. Though, saying that more time needed to be invested in that aspect of the performance doesn’t completely function. The large amount time we spent practicing and developing the character voices was more important for me. I think the time we spent on that made it one of the strengths of our presentation.

The things I learned during this assignment are mostly ones related to how much time it took to do everything. Texts take a very long time to analyze and create. This was exemplified by our trouble writing 20 minutes of dialog for our presentation. It took more than a week to complete what we had, which was still not enough. This is what I would take away from this assignment, that text requires more work to create and analyze that I thought. I will take this into account when I do my IOC, that I should focus on creating a structure and not necessarily dialogue.

Interpretative Paragraph -- "Harlem" by Langston Hughes

What's the effect of the food imagery?

The use of food imagery in the Langston Hughes poem Harlem, adds a visceral effect that reinforces his description expired dreams. The poem opens with the line “what Happens to a dream deferred?'(1). This establish that the rest of the poem will address that question in some way. Lines like "like a raisin in the sun"(3), "stink like rotten meat"(6), and "crust and sugar over---"(7) use imagery of various food items to exploit the fact that most food reactions are extremely strong in people's minds. This occurs because of humans automatic relation of disgust with rotten, expired, or unwanted foods. When Hughes relates the expiration of dreams with the expiration of food, the imagery of rotten meat and crusty sweets becomes a powerful poetic tool. The disgust created by this tool is used by Langston Hughes to add a deep-wired response of disgust with expired dreams.

Theme For English B -- Analysis

I loved all of my group members poems. They communicated unique stories and ideas within one distinct format. I was very surprised to find out Leanne started with the same first line. We ended up in very different positions at the end of our poems. I ended with a dispute of the weight of ideas formed by adults and kids. Leanne ended by establishing that adults effect kids and vice versa even though adults have more power and freedom. I was also struck by how deep and thoughtful people's poems where. I think the blog system is allowing people to feel more comfortable with their writing, it definitely helps me. All in all I learned a lot about my classmates and poetry through this project. I realized the structure of a poem does not necessarily equate to its personality. That simply by applying their personal experiences to a known structure, my classmates created moving and creative works.

Theme For English B

The instructor said,

Go home and write

a page tonight.

And let that page come out of you-
Then, it will be true.

I wonder how it could be true?

I am seventeen, white, born in Seattle, Washington.

I moved here early, and stayed, then

a few years in private school, a few in public.

Now, I am a blissfully lost student at a  new school

I walk past others, friends, teachers, kids.

In a vehicle, and an hour home

to the farm stand, a halfway point

but not really, almost home

Tired, reluctant to write this

In my world, they shouldn't care if its true

Sometimes, it feels true, other times false

Its relative, dynamic, Port Townsend I know you're not true

The wet streets, faced buildings, repainted homes.

City sounds. We talk on this page.

Well I like to listen, almost as much as I like to talk.

I like to criticize, and empathize

and try and just exist.

be myself, and someone else.

I guess being young doesn't make me a liar

Many things older's say hold less than that of the youth

Being younger, will you see me as a lie?

Disregard my words,

Do you feel true?

if so how, and why.

I can't lie, for I am me

Sometimes perhaps you don't want to believe it.

Nor will I

We all lie, we must, for lies are truth!

Prescribed Outline

Spencer Drewry

HL Language A: Language and Literature

Written Task 2

Area B

Prescribed Outline

Prescribed question:

What social groups are marginalized, excluded, or silenced within the text?

Title of text(s) for analysis:

Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. NY: Continuum International Publishing Group, 1970. Print.

Wright, Richard. Native Son. Harper & Brothers, 1940. Print.

Task is related to course section:

Part I: Language and the cultural context

Task focus:

This essay focuses on the discrimination within the book as well as its sources, effects, outcomes, and meanings for the author.

The essay claims that blacks and women are marginalized excluded and silenced through the preexisting social structures outlined by Paulo Freire.

The essay explores how blacks and women are marginalized, as well as the significance of their marginalization through the characters dialogue.

Learning Outcomes of Part I- Language and The Cultural Context include:

• I can analyze how audience and purpose affect the structure and content of texts.

• I can analyze the impact of language changes.

• I can demonstrate an awareness of how language and meaning are shaped by culture and context.