I have been learning about theme since I can remember yet the concept
still seems so distant. The talk we had in class helped a lot, but why am I just
grasping the concept? If I have been taught something for at the very least 4
years, I feel like I should know everything there is to know about it, but I don’t.
I don’t like the way high school does this, I feel like I have been learning the
same things in all of my core classes for all four years. Maybe this is just
the senior coming out of me, but I have grown to hate high school. It’s not
just English either, I feel like all of my core classes have grown to be
pointless. I know that I am working to graduate and it is necessary to
graduate, but I’m ready to get out and work toward something that I want to be
learning. Senior year of high school is known for being easy, but I don’t see
it yet. Maybe it will start to get easier, but right now I am not enjoying
myself at all. I hope it gets better. That was my rant.
Well... maybe I shouldn't touch this because we're all entitled to a rant now and then.
ReplyDeleteBut as far as theme goes: we're building on the complexity of the concept. Yes, you have studied it for years, but could you have dealt with it on this level before now? Lots of students in AP still can't quiet deal with it "on this level," if you know what I mean. So hopefully that doesn't make it seem like a waste of time.
As far as the senior year is easy thing: I really, really, really dislike that expectation of 12th grade and I would like to bludgeon its originator with a three-volume literature anthology (I guess I needed to rant too!).
I have a hard time coming up with good themes but I think that going over theme helped me to understand it more. So far this year I am enjoying my classes even though some are more difficult.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your thoughts on theme! I do my community service at Beaumont Middle School and I work with an 8th grade English class for most of the time. The other day a girl was confused on finding theme, and asked me to explain it to her and I had a lot of trouble just doing that. I think I've always just "known" what a theme was or how to identify a theme that I never really explored what theme meant or how to write one. Maybe if she had of asked me a few days later, I could have helped her out a lot more!
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