"I felt, as I worked on the essays for the English Institute and the other occasions, a growing sense of excitement: not so much a governing idea as a feeling of something brewing. This feeling,Before the actual difficulties of writing set in, as always been for me the happiest moment and the composition process: you become allergic to everything, including things that everyone including you had long regarded as boring or unimportant, and everything you encounter, however accidentally, seems potentially rich with significance" (Greenblat xiii). The feeling of excitement that felt Greenblat when pondering his topic of self-fashioning is how I feel while reading and analyzing the texts assigned in AP Literature. The thoughts I have recorded in my commonplace book reflect the progression of my ability to recognize the rhetorical moves in texts. Additionally, I have gained a better understanding of literary terms, choices and how they reflect the author's argument and I have learned to pinpoint the argument, understand why the author is making it, and what they want us to do with the information provided. I have also gained a large understanding of society, self, aesthetic experience, and criticism from the factual evidence in the literary passages. I find myself relating the things I have learned in AP Lit to situations I come across every day. One of the things that I have found to be incredibly important when common-placing is discarding any notion of "perfection" or "correctness" that I am tempted to focus on. At the beginning of the year, I would only record information that Dr. Holt explicitly stated in class. However, I quickly learned that writing down my personal observations allowed me to come up with well thought out ideas about the subject being discussed. Having these solidified ideas written down also allowed me to share my thoughts with the class without stuttering or forgetting my endpoint. As soon as I figured out that my commonplace book is just a place for me to develop my ideas, my thinking process grew faster and more efficient. I chose to include this specific entry in my blog post because I felt that it illustrated both my thinking process and the classes' thoughts. This entry was centered around Greenblat’s self-fashioning conditions, specifically number three and four. The information under “Brainstorming” is an example of me recording my thought process and so is the information on the left page. The common place entry shown above is another example of how I have learned to develop my ideas on paper so that I do not lose my train of thought and I can remember exactly where I personally left off from the last class. I also enjoy asking questions to myself in my common place-book. This is a method that I began to incorporate after reading a more beautiful question during the summer. Asking questions and recording them in my common place book allows me to continue thinking about things that confuse me and circle back to them. The work we do in AP Lit is so exciting to me. Analyzing the text is difficult but I look forward to our class discussions every day because I find the process rewarding. I enjoy how we incorporate ideas from a more beautiful question into our classroom setting because I feel that it allows us to come to ideas on our own which is incredibly rewarding. I also appreciate how much thought is put into every direction we are given. I always know that the work I am assigned in this class will benefit me and help me make connections. I love the discussions that my classmates and I have in AP Lit. When my peers and I share our thoughts we are able to build off of each other, even if everything we're saying is not the "endpoint" it helps us reach that point. Every time someone contributes to the conversation, it is similar to when someone makes an assist in soccer, even if they are not making a goal their assist will eventually lead to a goal. We're all working together to get to our goals and I think that's such a beautiful thing. I love how we do our own thinking and come together to share that thinking allowing us to get to the bottom of what the authors are trying to argue.
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December 2019
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