Class Thoughts V

I am tremendously behind on this journal, so I shall try to catch everything up to date.

Thursday, Ms. Kolb braved her headache and sinus pressure to come to class. We broke up into small groups and each discussed one of the assigned additional readings. Unfortunately, no one in my group had read any of the 5. I hate it when people don't do their assignments. I guess I understand that being busy just makes it hard to fit everything in - however, I just don't see why anyone would choose math, or chemistry homework over reading! Reading doesn't even really count as homework. Oh well, I digress. So anyways, because no one had read any of them, we picked a fairly short one (Araby) and they read it in class. I sat and mulled over the thought that this was the short story on the list that I had liked the least. However, I did enjoy looking over the discussion questions Ms. Kolb had given us, for the other stories.

Once they had all finished reading, we "discussed" the story - mostly, just agreeing about the fact that none of us cared for it. One of the themes of Araby seems to be disappointment - and because of that, the entire story is very anti-climactic. It leaves us feeling as though we've wasted our time - and maybe that is how we are supposed to feel. . . . much the same way the main character felt, after leaving the bazaar. He probably realized how much time, energy, and emotion he had spent on this crush, only to see that it wasn't all he dreamed it was.

I did appreciate the smaller group discussion format though. I must admit that I am just terrible about speaking up during whole-class discussions. I always have been, and most of it is because of my natural shyness and timidity. But in a smaller group, it's a lot easier to gauge the response to everything you say, and to bounce ideas and thoughts off of each other. Maybe this small group mentality comes from being home schooled, I don't know. :) But I felt that to be a very productive class.

This week, both Tuesday and today, we have been tackling Shakespeare! Oh joy! I do love Shakespeare. As part of my British Lit in high school, I read many of his plays. And although I didn't analyze them nearly as much as we are in this class, it was quite enjoyable.

Tuesday we discussed and watched Act I of Othello. Today, we went through Acts II & III. We are also watching through a movie version of it, which is really helpful when it comes to visualizing everything. To be honest, without the movie, I have a hard time visualizing at all - especially when it comes to thinking of Othello as a black man. Don't ask me why - maybe it's because "Moor" isn't a modern-day way to describe African-Americans. But anyways, I do appreciate going through the movie as well (although why they feel the need to add on in areas of what Dad calls "raunchiness" is beyond me).

But oh, what great language, and what an incredible story! Shakespeare is always better when you don't know the story going into it. Reading Romeo and Juliet last year in high school was interesting. . .but not nearly as captivating, because I already knew the end result. But Othello has been entirely new to me. After class today, I went to the park and finished reading through the last two acts, simply because I wanted to find out what happened.

The version in our textbook has all sorts of footnotes - I can't decided whether or not I like them. Sometimes, I read through a passage, then go back and look at the footnotes. But in general, I find them terribly distracting. Some seem quite unnecessary too - defining words that are simply used a little differently than usual. However, I feel as though I might be missing something if I don't read all the footnotes! Sigh. Well I do appreciate them for the most part - they are often terribly helpful. In fact, I was able to grasp the action of the entire play in simply my reading, not needing to use Sparknotes. Although, I did go through the Sparknotes for each Act, just to make sure I hadn't missed any little details.

Tomorrow, I will most definitely write more on Othello, as a reading assignment.