Honors Seminar - Fall 2008
Finally…you may use this space for discussion of your seminar reading selections.
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egrimm 
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Not just another English teacher blog…….
Finally…you may use this space for discussion of your seminar reading selections.
comment | October 13, 2008 at 14:24 | individual comment-link
For my seminar group we’re reading under the banner of heaven. This is one of the best books I have ever read. It tells a true story but gives you all the background information that relates to it. So basically it about fundalist mormons and the bizarre things they do, and how Dan Lafferty and his brother Ron commited a murder in the name of God. They used their faith ot justify a murder, and have no remorse for it at all.
comment | October 18, 2008 at 09:17 | individual comment-link
Hey all! We are reading Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt. So far I’ve really enjoyed it. I think it is so sad because the mom, Angela, is losing her kids left and right. They are only babies and they are dying. I also think it is wierd how nobody in Limerick likes Malachy-Frank’s dad, because he is from the north. A prominant symbol so far is alcohol. The dad drinks all the time and spends all their money on drinks. That leaves nothing for the kids or Angela to eat. It is really a sad thing. No themes or ideas for our project are popping out to me yet. I guess we will have to keep reading to find those things.
comment | October 19, 2008 at 09:29 | individual comment-link
So far, I really have enjoyed Angela’s Ashes. I find it odd how they always comment about the father being from the North Ireland. Is the North of the Country so different? I was heart broken when the Margarete died, especially since she kept their father from drinking. I really hope things brighten up for them.
comment | October 20, 2008 at 15:22 | individual comment-link
Allright…so now we are done reading Angela’s Ashes. And, I loved it!! Yes, it was really sad how poor Frank’s family was, and how they had next to nothing. They never had anything to eat, keep them warm, or shoes for their feet. But, I enjoyed reading about his life in Ireland.
A symbol that really stuck out to me is the Angel on the 7th Step. It is a figment of Frank’s imagination, but it is also the only real friend he has. It started off because Dad told him the Angel leaves babies on the 7th step. Then it became a “thing” for Frank to talk to and tell all his worries too.
I can’t figure out why the book is called Angela’s Ashes yet. To me it seems like it was his entire family who faced problems, not just his mom-Angela.
comment | October 29, 2008 at 20:51 | individual comment-link
I’m reading Angela’s Ashes. I like the book so far. Some of the things Frankie says are so cute! His Angel on the Seventh Step is like his only comfort, and it’s really mean of the father to lie to him about that and then laugh at him when he believes it. The dad really bugs me because he doesn’t care one bit about his family. He drinks away all their money and leaves them with nothing while he’s out getting drunk. He’s not setting a very good example to his kids. I hope Frankie and Malachy don’t grow up like him.
comment | October 31, 2008 at 12:48 | individual comment-link
I am reading The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. So far, I am really enjoying this book. I am confused about the beginning of the book with the “House” section. I have a feeling that it is symbolic, but I have no clue what it means. I have also noticed that all of the chapter titles are a part of that “House” introduction. The narrator seems to be Claudia throughout most of the beginning, but it has switched a few times. I feel bad for Pecola, she seems to have such a rough life. I found it funny how Pecola got her period at Frieda’s house and Pecola thought she was going to die; that made me laugh.
comment | October 31, 2008 at 12:52 | individual comment-link
I cannot believe some of the troubles and hard times Pecola has been through. She does not have a solid family life, which sets her up for trouble. She gets treated poorly from kids at school, and whoever else she passes. I could not believe the chapter about the boy (Junior) who framed Pecola for killing his cat, he completely manipulated her. Pecola is like a scapegoat for the town. Because she is so “ugly” and so “bad”, the town feels better about themselves and can blame everything on her. I can tell that she does not like her life and I wouldn’t either. She does not have a good life at home or at school, or anywhere for that matter!
comment | October 31, 2008 at 12:57 | individual comment-link
I cannot believe that Pecola’s father raped her!!! How sick and perverted. So much happened throughout this book and throughout Pecola’s life that has tied into her having a baby, the merigolds, and the “House” scenerio. I think that the “House” described in the introduction represents Pecola’s view of the perfect “Dick and Jane” world. She feels that if she could have these things or good looks, then she could have a perfect life. She learns, however, that even with blue “pretty” eyes, her life is still miserable. She is still treated poorly after recieving her blue eyes. At the end of the book, Pecola is having a conversation with her imaginary friend which signifies that she has lost all connection to the world (and friends).
The book does not give much information about Pecola’s miscarraige, it just briefly mentions it. I wonder how far along she was, how she lost the baby, and what she did while she was pregnant. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and felt that the messages conveyed through the book are significant.
comment | October 31, 2008 at 13:08 | individual comment-link
Almost one week until our presentations and we still have so much to do! I feel confident about our script, but our props still need a lot of work. We need to make all of our props and tape our Cholly and Mrs. Breedlove scenes. We also need to go through our script several more times to figure out what actions we need to do and which props we need for the different scenes. We need to find our costumes and memorize our scripts so we look and sound appropriate for our presentation. We need to write the synopsis of our presentation to give to the teachers. I am confident that we can get all of the things we need to done before our presentation and do a great job!
comment | November 2, 2008 at 19:31 | individual comment-link
My Seminar Group read “Under the Banner of Heaven”. Although I found the book to be very factual and had to keep track of the details, I also found it very interesting. We met today at my house to finish our script and I think that all is very well. It took a lot of work but I have faith that our presentation choice will be worth the effort. I hope that when we finally do present that everyone will like it as much as our group did.
All we have left to do now is make sure that our costumes and film clips work so that we can have a flawless and informative presentation.
comment | November 3, 2008 at 16:11 | individual comment-link
My seminar group presents on the 10th and I am very nervous about it. I have never done a seminar presentation before and don’t really know what to expect on presentation day. Also my group isn’t as far along as I hoped we would be, but my group members don’t appear to be nervous at all. I really enjoy working with Ty and Erin they make our meetings fun, and it puts my mind at ease that they both have done this before. Anyways, I know we will get finished and have a great presentation for everybody.
comment | November 3, 2008 at 16:15 | individual comment-link
I am the type of person who loves learning about different cultures, and therefore I believe that “Under the Banner of Heaven” for the perfect book for me to read for seminar. Also it enables you to keep the audience intrested because of all of the “odd” things that mormons believe, and act upon. I don’t understand how anyone could use their faith as a justifcation for murder! How could someone do that? I guess it is good that I do not understand their logic, because it means I am not like them!
comment | November 3, 2008 at 16:21 | individual comment-link
I’m really excited about our ideas for our seminar presentation. I like that we get to interact with the audience, and incorporate them into our presentation in a creative way. Mostly, I’m looking forward to our “big finish”. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s dramatic and powerful (that’s all I can say). Somewhat I’m sad that presentations are so soon. This means that once we present it’s over. I really got to know the people in my seminar group a lot better that I ever thought I would. Good luck to all on your presentations.
comment | November 3, 2008 at 18:14 | individual comment-link
I read the book “Under the Banner of Heaven”. I found the book to be very interesting and it helped to open my eyes to a new religious culture, that I did not know much about before. Although the book was very persuasive, I do not think I will change my religion anytime soon. =]
I really liked that the book was nonfiction. I feel like it made it easier to relate to. When the murder was explained, it was explained in disturbing detail. I did not like the fact that women were prominent symbols in the book because it was degrading to women.
We just finished our script and I am quite pleased to say that our presentation is parallel to our theme.
comment | November 3, 2008 at 21:17 | individual comment-link
Ok, so I’ve finished reading Angela’s Ashes and I absolutely loved it. I wished I could’ve went to hear Frank McCourt that one Saturday but I already had other plans. From what I read in the paper a few weeks ago it seemed like he was pretty funny. Some of the parts in the memoir he wrote were funny too. For Example when he puked up his first communion in his Grandmother’s back yard, and his granmother keeps on screaming “You puked up god in me backyard!” Plus the time when he was washing his clothes and all he could find to wear was his dead Grandmother’s dress. That was priceless. We’re doing pretty great with our script and I’m actually getting a bit excited…or maybe it’s just nerves.
comment | November 4, 2008 at 18:30 | individual comment-link
We just finished a Seminar Group meeting. I am really pleased with the progress of our script writing and planning. We read the script and timed it and it was 19:30, and there’s still some stuff to add in. It flows nicely and I think it will go well. We found some good pictures online of the topics in our book so we made a slideshow which I think adds to the effect of the presentation. I’m looking forward to getting it done so we can really rehearse.
comment | November 4, 2008 at 18:33 | individual comment-link
The script is finally pretty much done and I think it’s awsome. We have to add some commercials which is going to add to the time. I really like my group because everybody works hard and wants to get it done right, so we all contribute. Like Amaris said, the slideshow that is going on behind us works really nicely. I’m excited to finally be done with seminar and get our presentation done and over with.
comment | November 4, 2008 at 18:40 | individual comment-link
So yesterday we filmed our commericals and I was very pleased with the way they turned out. I was suprised that I could do an Irish accent so well. Our group seems to work very well together, I like the people that are in it. We seem to pretty much finished with our script and I’m not really as nervous as I thought I was last night. I still really like this book and believe it or not I think it might be intresting to read ‘Tis and Teacher Man. They’ll probably be on my reading list within the next few years.
comment | November 5, 2008 at 16:49 | individual comment-link
So, little late here, but its better then never right?
To be honest, The Bluest Eye was one of the worst books I have ever read, and I will Never Ever read another book by Toni Morrison. I also heard form everyone that Beloved was horrible.
comment | November 5, 2008 at 16:53 | individual comment-link
Second little late one. Finally got my script finished. My whole group was freaking out on me, but it’s done. Now all we have to do is get our props in order and start rehearsing for the real deal. This may be just me, but thank god we present last! Hallelujah.
comment | November 5, 2008 at 22:06 | individual comment-link
My group finally printed out ours scripts today and started rehearsing. Hopefully one more meeting outside of school will allow us to feel comfortable enough on presentation day. We have most of our costumes pieces together and I think that they will be interesting.
I also would like to comment on the new seminar presentation schedule. I definitely think that having only one trimester to work on this, instead of two, puts a lot more pressure on the groups to finish. It could possibly cause the quality of the presentation to be less than they were in the past because of the amount of time we had to work on this. Hopefully it will work itself out for all of us.
comment | November 6, 2008 at 15:37 | individual comment-link
We present on Tuesday and I’m really excited about dress rehearsal on Friday. I think it should go really well and I’m glad we got the commercials done. I hope I can figure out how to hook the camera up to the TV so everyone can see them because they’re hilarious. So we’ll try to get that done before our presentation. The script is almost complete too so we’re almost ready.
comment | November 6, 2008 at 22:14 | individual comment-link
I just finished the note cards for our presentation and I’m so excited! I think it will go very smoothly. I wish I knew how to get our powerpoint to go continuously through the whole presentation, because that was our intention but if we can’t figure out how to do that, I don’t know how this will work. The powerpoint isn’t vital, but it enhances the presentation. Anyway, I’m bringing the camera to school tomorrow for dress rehearsal, and I hope we manage to get all the way through it without complications. When that happens, I’ll know we’re really ready for Tuesday.
comment | November 7, 2008 at 16:11 | individual comment-link
Wow. The dress rehearsal was alright. If alright is defined as a synonym for horrible. We really need to do a little more work before we present. It wasn’t that we didn’t know what we were doing, it simply didn’t flow like it should. I tried to make it more comedic, but then the rest of my group was laughing so hard they couldn’t say their lines. Guess it’s their problem now.
comment | November 8, 2008 at 10:18 | individual comment-link
So we had our dress rehearsal yesterday and I thought it went great. Sure I forgot my clothes but I already know what I’m wearing. I can’t believe went over the time slot! I thought we were perfect! Hopefully we can shorten it down, but what we have is basically, the basics. Maybe we need to take some quotes out or something. I’m glad we figured out how to make the powerpoint play continously, that will really help. I really love our commercials too, they were so great and funny! I think I’m not so nervous to present anymore…
comment | November 9, 2008 at 13:40 | individual comment-link
Dress rehearsal on Friday went really well. I think that it would have been more beneficial if multiple groups could have used the auditorium because I know that some members of my group were uneasy about the layout. I also wish that we could multiple dress rehearsal days, just for the simple fact of more preparation.
Also later today my group is planning on meeting at my house so that we have extra rehearsal time and time to fix any of the mistakes that we could have made. Hopefully all will go well!
comment | November 9, 2008 at 15:40 | individual comment-link
Hello. For my Seminar Group I read “Under The Banner of Heaven”. This book was very interesting and began growing with interest reading more and more. The information provided in the book opens myself up to new religious minds. Our Seminar Group has finished our scripts and are ready to present on Tuesday. I feel that are group will do very well with our presentation.
comment | November 9, 2008 at 15:41 | individual comment-link
My seminar group read the book “Under the Banner of Heaven” by John Krakauer. The book began being dull and informative, but as it went on, it became more developed and more suspenseful. I believe it was a great read overall and look forward to presenting for the book.
comment | November 9, 2008 at 15:49 | individual comment-link
Our presentation date is closing in and I’m getting very anxious! I really like the type of presentation we chose because I know it matches our mood/tone of our book, which is a plus. The theme was underlying but we found it to be very generic. We are rehearsing today to hopefully become more comfortable with the script and the flow of things. Monday we are also staying after school to rehearse on the stage so that all of us non-upstaggers, will have a feel for the stage. :]
comment | November 9, 2008 at 16:51 | individual comment-link
After meeting several times with the seminar group, we have the script done and the presentation ready. We are meeting in the auditorium after school on Monday as Brooke said so we can get a feeling for how it’s all going to go down. I’m looking forward to the presentation. It should be a good one, hopefully.
comment | November 9, 2008 at 17:39 | individual comment-link
Today our Seminar Group met at Liz’s house. We ran our script and wrote our synopses. Our presentation feels as if it si going to move on greatly. Our presentation them and layout is very interesting and different from most. I’ am excited to see the outcome of our presentation.
comment | November 10, 2008 at 12:06 | individual comment-link
I read the novel The Bluest Eye. I thought it was a pretty good book. It was confusing at first, then when we would discuss it in class I would understand it more. In the beginnings of the chapters there would be a paragraph that had no spaces and didn’t make a lot of sense.
The main character, Pecola, her life was very tragic. The way the author would say things made me feel bad for her. She had a poor family, her parents neglected her in a way, and her father raped her. When I read that part of the book my stomach turned, i was disgusted. I was surprised that her mom didn’t do anything.
Otherwise I liked the book. It was a nice quick read.
comment | November 10, 2008 at 12:11 | individual comment-link
In our presentation we are “adding” a chapter to the book. We are acting out as if we were the characters. In our presentation one of us is Pecola, she goes to a psychiatries office. Pecola is telling about her life and the rest of us are acting out flashbacks. I think that it should be fun. I get to change outfits inbetween each scene so I’m pretty excited. We present first on monday. I hope that we do a good job.
comment | November 10, 2008 at 12:49 | individual comment-link
We also made a video along with our presentation. Marissa is the main character in the first part of the video. Marissa is acting as Mrs. Breedlove in our video. I am the main character in the seond part of the video, I act as Cholly. The video turned out pretty good, it should be funny to watch. I am nervous for the presentation today. Our presentation follows the book pretty close.
comment | November 10, 2008 at 12:58 | individual comment-link
The Bluest Eye was a pretty good book, but there were many parts of it that I didn’t like. I didn’t like when it discribed when her father raped her, that was disgusting. I thought her parents were the first ever. They basically neglected her. I think that they were some of the worst parents ever.
The book was good also. I liked that it kept my attention. It wasn’t that I couldn’t put it down. It was just a pleasent book to read. I would recommend it to people who like to read books about a child’s life.
comment | November 10, 2008 at 17:14 | individual comment-link
Today, our seminar group met after school to run through the script and put together the odds and ends. However, we were kicked off the stage pretty quickly because the drama department had to rehearse, which is understandable. I’m quite anxious because we perform tomorrow! My favorite part of our presentation is the contemporary connections we explained through videos;especially the one Liz made. It makes me nearly cry everytime and I’m hoping I don’t tear-up between nerves and emotions! (We connected the extreme religious views between Osama bin Laden and Joseph Smith.)
comment | November 10, 2008 at 18:12 | individual comment-link
The book that my group read was The Bluest Eye. I really enjoyed it and even though there were some really creepy parts included, I thought it was pretty good. I don’t think I have ever heard of somebody with so many problems like Pecola. It was very easy for me to feel sorry for her and I hope I never have to go through that things she has. I thought it was a very creative read and I enjoyed reading about Freida and Claudia as well.
comment | November 10, 2008 at 18:16 | individual comment-link
As our group was preparing for our presentation on The Bluest Eye, We found it kind of difficult to figure our what kinds of props we wanted to use. After we got going though it seemed like time was flying by. I can definately tell that we had a shorter amount of time to do it this year because it always seemed like we were rushed and had to have things done twice as fast. I wish we would have had more time to practice during class, but what can you do. That would be a good suggestion for next year.
comment | November 10, 2008 at 18:21 | individual comment-link
While doing our project on The Bluest Eye, I found that even though we were short on time Marissa, Erica, Jordan, and I still managed to have fun. I think that’s important to have fun, but also remain serious when it’s necessary and I couldn’t have proved a better group of people to work with. I was happy with how fast we were able to get our book read and get our script finished. This gave us plenty of time to get things together and change things as necessary. I hope that everyone had as much as we did because if they didn’t they were missing out.
comment | November 10, 2008 at 18:25 | individual comment-link
Today was the day of our presention and I think we did pretty well. I’ll admit that I was pretty nervous, but I enjoyed it at the same time. I was very happy with the response of laughter we got from our audience, it let us know that they enjoyed what were doing and since we trying to make it enjoyable and funny it made it all even better. Our props turned out very well and even thou I talked a little faster then I had wanted to I am still happy nonetheless. Even thou we had some technical problems right before our performance I was really happy with how patient everyone one was and I don’t I can thank Mr.Hepler enough for saving the day!
comment | November 10, 2008 at 18:47 | individual comment-link
Today was the beginning of presentations. The presentations that went today went very smoothly. Our presentation is tomorrow, first up. Our script is very well thought out and I’am very confident our group will do very well. The main topic of our book is very important to all religions and most important to the people that disagree. My book was over all very interesting, I’am very happy I was able to read such a great book as “Under the Banner of Heaven”.
comment | November 10, 2008 at 20:14 | individual comment-link
Well, we’ve had our last meeting before our presentation tomorrow, and I feel very confident. I think we shortened it up a bit so hopefully it won’t be too long. I’m really glad how our commercials turned out. Hopefully they’re funny to everyone. I’m hoping that after some practice tonight I’ll be able to read my lines without stuttering so much.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 00:58 | individual comment-link
Ty Bell here
Hey so today’s presentation didn’t go as planned. I am sorry that I couldn’t get the media file to work, it was a very good movie too. I feel that I let everyone down in that area. We all spent so much time and effort in it and I am sorry again that it didn’t work, that one’s on me, also I am feeling kinda frustrated that we had to stay longer than the school hour, I felt like everyone wanted us to get a move on, and I may have skipped some lines due to that. Other than that, good job gang!
comment | November 11, 2008 at 01:00 | individual comment-link
So umm yeah, that was totall lame, our presentation would have been really stellar had everything not fallen throug.
Kudos to everyone for going with it regardless though.
I am not too happy with the error, but i think that we weren’tgiven adaquet time to do a very good job.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 01:02 | individual comment-link
Furthermore I think that we should be given more time next tri, and also we should present based on book length, because the shorter books were ready long before we were.
We also pushed the pace dramatically more than I have ever done, and we still came up short.
I hope that this all is taken into consideration.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 01:04 | individual comment-link
One more to go…
Hey seniors this is the second to last seminar you’ll ever do here…
So try and make it fun and interesting (like ours almost was)
I am still annoyed that it didn’t go as planned, an dcannont believe all the probles that came up, I definitely think thatthe presentation dates need to be revised next time.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 08:40 | individual comment-link
Hey everyone! My group read The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. I really enjoyed this book. I felt really bad for Pecola, the main character because of all the hardships that she had to go through. My group came up with a lot of great ideas for our presentations and hopefully it will be a lot of fun.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 08:44 | individual comment-link
Hello people! Our presentation is really coming along, and I’m really hoping it turns out as fun and creative as the goups that presented yesterday. My group is having our second after-school meeting today. It had better be a very productive meeting, we need it!
comment | November 11, 2008 at 16:18 | individual comment-link
Hello, today was the day our group presented. Our presented was planned to have two videos included into it. But we seemed to have some technical difficulties. From knowing this we all worked together and came with an idea for our problems. We had to SING! That was very hard for me to do in front of people, but our group came together and we sounded very welll together. Over all I beleive that our presentation went very well. I’ am very sad that seminar is over but also very releived. I’am going to miss my partners in my group because we all worked very hard to accompish our presentation.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 16:24 | individual comment-link
So, our presentation was today. I feel that we did very well. We encountered a few difficulties, mainly technical. But, we pulled through them. I’m really bummed our videos wouldn’t work but i suppose we made do. I’m sorry if I happened to ruin anyones ear drums I wasn’t expecting having to sing! This book and my group has taught me a lot about life. I’m just glad I got to experience it.
Group - I had a lot of fun with you guys. I felt we had really good english chemistry. I would love to be in the same group with you guys again! :] best of luck and wishes.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 17:06 | individual comment-link
So my group presented on Angela’s Ashes today, and I thought it went beautifully! Good job group! I was pleased that our commercials and slide show worked as planned. I hope everyone enjoyed them and understood how it all related back to the book. It also made me happy how our time was I think about the right length-not short this time! My entire group did a great job preparing for the presentation and contributing their ideas. I hope I get as great a group next time as my group was this time.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 17:18 | individual comment-link
The rehearsals went very well. The writing style of Frank is very relaxed. I find how simple objects can be symbols amazing. With the money and heavy impact of materialistic objects in our society, it’s such a different world he lived in. Eggs, stories, and songs are all they had to hold onto.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 17:20 | individual comment-link
I am very interested in reading ‘Tis and Teacher man. I wonder how his passage went. The story ends in such a strange way. I wish we could include everything into our presentation. So many funny but not exactly school appropriate events took place that I think fellow students would find as enjoyable to read about. Our rehearsals are going well. We all work so great together.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 17:27 | individual comment-link
Our presentation went great. I couldn’t ask for a better group or things to go any smoother. We had a little malfunction but nothing out of the expected. I really enjoyed my first seminar presentation although it will probably be my last.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 17:59 | individual comment-link
Under the Banner of Heaven is probably one of my favorite books. Although it was not one single story, the facts and stories within it were very interesting. When I read this book I saw how life would be as a Mormon and it was definitely a different perspective of many common things we do in our everyday lives.
Over all I really enjoyed this book and i reccommend it to everyone!
comment | November 11, 2008 at 18:03 | individual comment-link
During our meetings in and out of school, our group came up with many ideas and it was hard to decide how we wanted to present the book to our classmates. We devoted one of our meetings to going through our ideas and coming up with a detailed outline of our plan for our presentation. This was definitely helpful and I plan to do that again in the future.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 18:06 | individual comment-link
When we met to write our script, we worked hard to incorporate the rubric guidelines with our outline. The script took a very long time to write, even though it was not a very long script. But some things that we had in our presentation [Ex: the murder skit and the ‘end of the world’ scene] did not have any words: they just had actions to get across a dramatic effect. However this was not exactly what happened in the presentation…
comment | November 11, 2008 at 18:09 | individual comment-link
I have to admit that I was very upset when our presentation kind of fell apart. We had it planned out but we didn’t account for anything going wrong. This error was probably the main fault of the whole situation. There are a few things I plan to suggest for the next seminar so future groups dont end up in the same situation that my group fell into.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 22:13 | individual comment-link
I know I’m a little late with these posts, but my group read The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. It was a pretty quick read; I really enjoyed it! I like Morrison’s style of writing. She is extremely descriptive and she makes the reader feel as if they are actually there. I could really sympathize with Pecola because her life was so tragic. I felt really bad that she had such a low self-esteem and the only way she felt that she could be beautiful is if she had blue eyes. She always compared herself to little white girls which lowered her self-confidence even more. I guess everybody feels a little insecure sometimes, but it’s even worse when you have a horrible home life.
comment | November 11, 2008 at 22:25 | individual comment-link
Hey again. So in The Bluest Eye, my group and I thought that the dandelion was a symbol. We thought that this represented inner-beauty because everyone in the town thought the weed was an ugly pest, but Pecola felt that is was truly beautiful. She did not understand why people thought it was ugly just because it was different. In a way, this compares to how she feels people view her–ugly because of her skin color.
comment | November 12, 2008 at 15:15 | individual comment-link
So far the presentation have looked really well put together and everyone looked prepared. Yesterday when we presented we had two videos that did not, so we had fifteen minutes to come up with a new plan. My group decided that it would be good to stand up in front of the entire auditorium and sing, so that is exactly what we did. I was so nervous, I don’t think that I have ever been that nervous in my entire life. I hope that everyone liked our presentation.
comment | November 12, 2008 at 22:58 | individual comment-link
I feel really bad for Pecola because of her family life. I was in complete shock when I found out that her father raped her. Even worse, she became pregnant. It was sad that she didn’t have anyone to talk to about it either. All of her friends were too young to understand the whole situation and she for sure couldn’t tell her mother about it. And on top of being raped by her father, she had to watch her parents physically abuse eachother almost everyday. I don’t know how someone could handle that kind of life style.
comment | November 12, 2008 at 23:03 | individual comment-link
Our group decided that the overall theme of The Bluest Eye was beauty and lack of self-acceptance. Pecola longed to be beautiful and envied those who were, for example, Maureen. She could not accept the fact that she was African American or that she did not have blue eyes. She was finally able to accept herself and feel beautiful when she thought she really had blue eyes.
comment | November 15, 2008 at 12:06 | individual comment-link
I’m so glad that our presentation went over so well! I believe we represented the tone (informational, informative) well and gave everybody a good idea of what the story was about. I’m glad I got the group that I did, all the girls did a great job of preparing the presentation.
comment | November 15, 2008 at 12:09 | individual comment-link
The improvisation that we came up with worked out really great. I’m glad Liz, Brooke, and Jessica all have great singing voices. It was tough thinking on our feet. I can tell you that we were very frustrated when the videos didn’t work. But the girls all have a quick mind and I’m grateful I got to work with them.
comment | November 16, 2008 at 15:43 | individual comment-link
Although I know I am above my number of required comments, I had to leave this in response to Andrew Trans last entry. I’m glad that I had the opportunity to work with you as well, you were such a fun guy to be in a group with. It took more then the girls in our group to put together this presentation. We could not have done it without you!
comment | November 17, 2008 at 12:14 | individual comment-link
We had a great start to our seminar reading. We started off fast, and got a lot of reading done early on. Therefore, we were able to start on our script early which really helpd out a lot. I felt like we had a lot of time to brainstorm our options, which was really great. I’m really happy my group worked so well together and got everything done. Working on out script after school was a little challenging at times, but it was well worth it.
comment | November 17, 2008 at 12:17 | individual comment-link
My group & I worked on our seminar videos two days after school and on a saturday. It was really challenging to get so much done so fast, but we did it. There was a lot of complications with what to wear to make each character easily recongnizable, and also wear the setting of each video should be. We wroked everything out though, and our videos turned out really good.
comment | November 17, 2008 at 12:20 | individual comment-link
Memorizing lines for our play was really challenging. Although we were done fairly early with our script.. we crunched for time when it came down to the end with everyone’s busy scheduales. We all purchased notebooks to put our lines on in hopes on making it easier to read, and keep our lines in order.I wish we would have been able to run lines a little more before the play, so it would flow smoother.. but it wasn’t too bad I guess.
comment | November 17, 2008 at 12:22 | individual comment-link
Our seminar play went fairly good I though. Again, I think it would ahve been better had we had more time to run lines again.. but overall things weren’t too bad. The only major problem was our video that magically stopped working after the weekend, but that was resolved and I was pleased with how well the vidoes played after they were fixed. I think my group did a really good job, and I hope our grade reflects our hard work.