6/14/18 : Final Harkness Discussion

Today in class we started out in small groups to talk about some ideas for themes we had in the book.  We connected those themes to incidents from the book and we provided textual support from the end of the book for our claims.  We first discussed some topics like death, isolation, maturity/immaturity, and loss of innocence.  That discussion led us to create the themes that we posted to classroom.

We returned to a classwide discussion where different people shared the ideas that their groups came up with.  A focus of the discussion concerned the images on the cover of the book.  We talked about the symbol of the carousel and the horse and New York City.  One student asked why those images were on the cover, but no one really provided a good answer.  I think it's important that New York City is on the cover because that's where Holden really has a lot of moments of conflict with himself and other people.  The carousel is important because Holden wants to take Phoebe there.  And he seems really focused on Phoebe having a good time as a little kid.

We also talked about whether Holden really hates his parents or not and how that was part of his whole problem with maturity and immaturity.  And whether Holden's parents should have or shouldn't have sent him to the mental asylum.  There was a lot of discussion on this topic with some people thinking that the parents didn't really know what to do with Holden and instead of talking to him and trying to work it out, they just sent him away.  I thought that Holden's parents were afraid.  They had already lost Allie and maybe they were afraid of losing Holden, too.

The relationship between Holden and Phoebe can be related to my life today between my brother and I. In the book, Holden passionately cares about Phoebe and tries to enjoy his time with her as much as he can. He takes her to the carousel and Phoebe asks Holden to tag along which relates to me when my brother wants me to ride with him on small baby rides. Holden and I both want to hold on to our siblings' childhood before they become adults and independent. We both cherish the fact that we have someone to love and care for.  This idea is pretty common, I think.  And older siblings watching out for younger siblings is important.

6/13/18

Today's class revolved around the idea and ability to be able to 'inject' more flavor and tone into a text or passage in order for it to become more engaging and interesting for whoever is reading the passage. However, before this, Mr. Rivers introduced the class to our 2018 summer reading assignments for each of the five English classes that one could take as a Senior next year. Additionally, we briefly discussed the Final Harkness Prep assignment that was posted on classroom. The lesson itself today, again, was focused on turning relatively bland sentences into something engaging and interesting for the reader. The passage that the class had to give some 'flavor' to was; 'Yesterday was Tuesday. I went to school and had English, Math, History, Band, and Science. We had a substitute teacher in Math. I brought lunch from home. After school, I went to work. When I got home, I watched some TV before going to be.' We were then instructed by Mr. Rivers to talk within our groups and work together to make the passage either more positive or more negative. Then, once we had finished, we had to post our new passages onto the google classroom assignment (the finished products can be viewed there). This lesson can easily tie into the real world as it is often necessary in almost all walks of life to be able to write some form of composition while also keeping the reader interested enough to keep on reading. One example of this that we are all actually working on now is the College Essay. As we have learned in class and Rivers has said multiple times, it is very important to not only get your message and information across to the Admissions officer or teacher reading your essay, but also to have 'flavor' in your essay so that the officer gets to actually learn who you are. They need to be able to make a special distinction between you and your paper and the thousands of other papers from other applicants. This lesson specifically ties into the essay that we have been working on for almost the past month.

6/12/18

Today in the beginning of class, Mr. Rivers first reviewed important dates and assignments coming up in the next two weeks. The CP English 11 final exam will be on the 26th of June and will consist of excerpts from certain texts from which we will need to extract answers to questions about the passages. The final will have an emphasis on rhetorical devices and your writing style. Rivers also mentioned again to remember to have the book finished and the two themes ready for the Harkness discussion this Thursday (6/14). Today's lesson itself was on the topic of 'Why Does Holden Complain so Much?'. Rivers asked us this question and then let the class discuss it in our groups for a few minutes. At the end of the time, we came together as a class and we came up with the following reasons that Holden complains. 1. In order to cope/insecurity; 2. Points out other people's flaws to avoid his own; 3. He would rather ruin something himself then let someone else ruin it for him; and 4. Anxiety/PTSD (from his brother's death while Holden was young). Additionally, we (the class) came up with other sub-topics and themes within our #3 reason. The topics of #3 are as follows: he does this as an excuse; is this behavior universal to kids? (no it can transfer to adulthood as well); and he pretends to have control over his life even though he doesn't. The class closed with a discussion about one of the few times in Catcher in the Rye where Holden is positive; the museum scene. Holden seems happy with the things in the museum staying the same (likes stability), and we came to the conclusion that Holden is a major ROMANTIC character. This class period can extend to the world at large as it deals with how we, as people, perceive others and other things in our world. Although we can see how people act, such as Holden complaining about almost anything, most of the time we cannot or do not understand why they act in this way. This a very important skill in the modern world that we live in as it can not only be used for deeper reading and/or examination of a book, novel or movie, but can be applied to almost any interaction between people, whether they be fictional or in real life. One of the most prominent examples of how being perceptive can be applied in the real world is the occupation of being a police detective. As a detective, you need to not only use your training but also your perception to almost put yourself in the shoes of the criminal or person you are after in order to be one step ahead of them and arrest them. Additionally, in movies, you are often thinking of what is going to happen next or what will happen in the next movie in the series and by using the skill of perception you can make educated guess based on prior knowledge or facts found in the film itself.

Silent Work Period

     Today we were able to either work on our college essay or read Catcher in the Rye in class. The college essay assignment is due on Sunday and the Harkness for the Catcher in the Rye is due on Thursday. So I choose to read Catcher in the Rye because that was a closer due date and the whole book needs to be read. Holden has a very immature train of thought as I've learned in the book. He always wants to talk about sex life despite Old Luce not wanting to, and probably many others. He also has a drinking problem for a kid his age. To be drunk that much and wandering around NYC in the cold can kill you. He has low regard for his own health and well-being as well as reputation. However, he may act this way only because he feels lonely and he doesn't want the fear of being alone. He even asked Old Luce to stay with him as an almost desperate cry for help.
     Hopefully more of these classes happen because I was able to get more work done. The class was able to help me focus more on what I needed to be done. Now I can work on making my college essay as good as it can be. Hopefully drafting good enough to end up getting money from the school I apply to. To be able to work on this in class really helps us prepare for the future and hopefully we get into our colleges of choice because these extra steps we're taking in order to make us sound like us.

Themes and Claims 6/7/18

In today's class Mr. Rivers asked us a  true or false question. That question is "all themes are claims, but not all claims are themes". True or False? The majority of the class said true because claims are strictly based on facts and evidence when a theme can be specific and not forced on one thing. For example, Holden believes people are phony, this would be a claim because number one it is true and the second thing is that it is only focused on The Catcher in the Rye. If someone said teenager's anxiety makes them act phony, would be a theme but not as specific as someone can get. Themes  can be applied to all sources and it should be able to stand on its own two feet. With a theme you would want to add who? what? how? where? why? when? to make the theme more specific. After we discussed themes and claims we went to the classroom and looked at the themes we did yesterday in class. Yesterday we took claims that were on the board and turned them into themes by using who? what? etc. We then picked the one that we thought was good, and we discussed how Sean Lyons theme was more valuable because it did not focus on the Catcher in the Rye but focused on the real world. Mr. Rivers put something on classroom that was an assignment that was strictly on claims turning into a theme that is turning into a specific theme. We were then told that if we were working with a partner that we need to change 5 themes into specific themes and if you were working alone you only needed to do 3. As a result in giving us this assignment we had the period to work on it and if you did not finish in class then we needed to hand it in by this evening. He also told us to remember to read for our harkness that is on the 17th. As Mr. Rivers allowed us to work the rest of the class, as he walked around answering questions. I was able to finish my 3 themes, and I picked claims that were easy for me to relate to. For example, "The more Holden tries to act mature, the more immature he appears." which I was able to turn it into " Teenagers who try to act mature in situations end up acting more immature because they are trying to be someone they are not."  The other one that I chose was "Holden's insecurity comes from trying to cover up his pain after death. " I turned that into "People of any age that experienced a tragic event become insecure after trying to hide the pain that follows death because they fear how society will react.  And the last one I picked was this " Holden is starting to trust the reader and so he’s letting his guard down a bit. I ended up changing it to "Teenager's in high school that begin to trust others allow themselves to put their guard down because they feel as though they're in a safe environment"With all of my themes I was able to turn it into a specific theme by using who? what? etc. 

This can help everyone in the long run because by doing this activity it made us really understand how to change a claim into a theme into a specific themes. I think that this was a good experience and personally it really helped me understand how easy it really is to make a claim into a theme. It could help in any situation whether you are in high school or in college you need to know how to do this and the difference between them both. 

Developing Theme 6-6-18

Today in class we began by getting asked the  questions that students made during last nights homework. The important question we were asked was a what if question asking, how would Holden be different if Allie had not died. The answers to these questions were extremely varied and all had merit to them. From there Mr. Rivers asked us to identify what words that were written on the board could be a topic from the chapters we have read so far, We came up with the topics; loss, anxiety, and fear. From those we dove deeper into topics and themes and went far enough to have example themes put on the board. We then reviewed the ways that we can make a theme better by adding specificity(who/what/when/where/why/how). After, he gave us the theme "teenagers who have anxiety act phony and we, as groups, had to enhance this theme by adding specificity. These themes are posted on the classroom page. We did this because our homework is to read chapters 17- End for next Thursday and create two of our own themes from the book.
The importance of learning about specificity is because it gives us the knowledge that not everyone will agree with our ideas. If we make a claim that is super broad and general it is either a yes or no answer but once specificity is added, the answers can become more complicated. Like yes, I agree with your theme, but I do not believe this is WHY this theme is true. It allows room for argumentation even if your theme is the popular opinion. This is because not everyone's brain works the same way and we are all capable of independent thought. And not only are we learning this in our classroom, but Catcher in the Rye does this as well.

6/6/2018 : Exploring Themes

In today's class, we started by catching up with the assignment we were working on yesterday. In small groups, we responded to questions that were on the board like,

Holden thinks Sally Hayes is a phony but still goes out with her. Why?

Some responses from the groups included because she is attractive and also that Holden might be competing with his peers in some way.

Then we returned to the whole class and we discussed the difference between topic and theme. We learned that a topic is like a square and theme is more like a cube. I think that means a topic is kind

of flat but a theme has more depth.

Mr. Rivers then gave an idea of the differences between topic and theme by giving us examples:

1. Holden’s anxiety forces him to act phony. (Just in the text, generic, yes or no)

2. Teenagers’ anxiety forces them to act phony. (Move away from the text to be self sufficient)

3. A society which does not empathize with mental illness increases anxiety in teenagers, which force them to lie as  away to hide their shame. (Arguable, more thoughtful, sophisticated)

The first one is more like just a topic, the second one is better (more like a theme), the third one is the best because it has more depth.

We returned to our groups and were told to choose a sentence and elaborate further to establish a theme. To help us elaborate, we had to answer the questions who, what, when, where, and why so that our theme can be sophisticated and arguable. One example that our class came up that can be found on classroom is the sentence/theme:

"Teenagers in the 50's have anxiety that forces them to act phony because they want to be socially accepted by their peers to be considered normal."  More examples can be found on classroom.

I think studying themes is important because a good theme is universal and timeless. Teenagers had anxiety in the 50’s, teenagers have anxiety now, and teenagers probably had anxiety in ancient Greece. For example, in today’s world, someone like Holden Caulfield would probably be dealing with anxiety on instagram as he tries to maintain his finsta vs. his rinsta.

The Catcher Harkness- 6/5/18

Today in class we had two separate harkness discussions about chapters 6-16 with our combined small groups. We were combined into groups of two small groups, so three groups total. In this harkness we could discuss anything that we deemed fit that could be concluded about Holden. Our group spent a lot of time discussing Holden's maturity and his family and how the two of them exist side by side instead of two separate ideas. After we had the harkness in a small group, the whole class came together in one giant circle and we discussed the ideas that were shared in our small groups. While it was difficult for some to get their point across, Mr. Rivers made a Google Classroom assignment for everyone to share something you were planning on saying but could not say due to someone talking or the lack of time in the class. This is a great idea for the class because not everyone can always speak, especially when there are a lot of other people trying to get their ideas in.
This relates in the world because sometimes you have to learn that sometimes you can't always say what you want or have the time to say what you may find to be a good idea. So instead we are learning to troubleshoot our problems by giving the idea, if we can't share our ideas, but if our idea is a good one, we should try to find a way to share it. But the harkness, like always, helps with our social skills when talking with people about a forced topic. This will prepare us for times when we aren't speaking to classmates about a forced topic and in this age, social encounters are becoming more scarce due to more developed technologies but with these harkness, we can become more proficient in social skills that are supposed to be second nature.

The College Essay Workshop- 6/4/18

Today in class we began by discussing what we would tell Mr. Rivers, as a 17 year old, on ways to improve his own College Essay. As we have done before, we came together to apply a critical eye and came up with some of the following ideas. We told Mr. Rivers to try to focus more on one specific moment, such as in the hospital. We told him, the be himself, and the lack of doing so made him come across as arrogant and naive. After reviewing his paper one last time he told us that we had to apply this critical eye to our own paper. Using questions similar to the questions asked on Mr. Rivers college essay, we began to apply what we discussed to our own papers. And speaking for myself, I really needed this revision because my paper is hot garbage. But with revision it might be garbage with Fe-breeze on it. Who knows?
The importance of this College Essay Workshop we are currently doing is to one; give us an opportunity to create an essay that will hopefully help provide financial aid from colleges, or even get us into our reach school and two; give us the chance to realize nothing is perfect on its first go around. Everything requires revision to allow something to reach its full potential. We see this everywhere in life. From lifting weights to playing video games, the idea "Practice makes perfect" is what is trying to be applied. An idea that has lost meaning in the impatient world we live in. A world where food is delivered from our house, and lines can be cut with money, the one thing that will always take time, a quality education. Patience is needed, and this workshop can be the first step.

6/4/18

Today in class we started off again with Mr. Rivers essay.  We picked it apart and tried to figure out what could have made it better.  We came up with a list: Tone → what makes us happy?, avoid arrogance, jumpiness within paragraphs, zoom in to one topic, trying for mature but is naive, revision and audience. Revision is the most important thing when it comes to writing an essay that could potentially get you money going into college. Mr. Rivers talked about how when he wrote this when he was seventeen it wasn't something that he did in class it was something he wrote at home on his own. Without the constructive criticism from peers or a teacher lead it to be not the best it could have been. Rivers then introduced us to a post on classroom under "college essay workshop." This document is going to help us to revise our essays to the best of our abilities. Four reflection questions are listed for us to answer. Then we will use what we say to make our essays into a better versions. The questions are very similar to the questions we answered about Rivers' essay. We have to make sure it follows the prompt, shows abstract qualities, zooms in on a specific moment, and to make sure active verbs and figurative language is in them. For all questions you need to have evidence from your article to show where exactly things are to help you really follow your essay. Our final drafts will be due June 17th and will be handed in on here. We worked on this up until the bell and tomorrow we will have a harkness discussion on chapters 6-16. Bringing in passages before hand is very recommended in order to help you throughout the discussion.

6/1/18

What you should have completed for class today was the College Essay Rough Draft you had to make from one of the prompts you had made from the other assignment. Reason why I'm making sure is because in class we were told that the final revised draft is due in about two in a half weeks or so, so even if you didn't do it you have to have it done first then work on the final draft. Anyway what we did in class today was start off by talking about this and other deadlines we have to make because of end of the year crunch time including a harkness on chapters 6 - 16 on Tuesday and another harkness on every other chapter in the book the following week. We had another discussion on Holden saying do people always ruin things for you? An then we started to break down that other sample essay, the one about the theater kid. We pointed out what went right with it saying that the guy who wrote it was good at narrowing down a specific moment in this life, and giving a straight answer for the prompt, but what was wrong with it was that he gave too much of a straight answer, there was no buildup, there was no figurative language or any literary devices, and the vocabulary he uses was so bland, it made me cringe, it made him sound like a robot. Whats funny about this essay is that this is actually River's old college essay what you gain to learn from going over his essay is not let the final draft of ours come out as bad as his. By pointing out what's so terrible about his essay, helps to identify what to point ours, and what not to do like us horrible vocabulary. His essay wasn't that bad, it's just that you shouldn't want your essay to come out like River's.