Unit AAR

During our unit, we read "How to read lit like a professor." The main ideas of this unit were to learn how to interpret things differently. We learned about literature a lot more in depth, and learned so many new ways to think about it. I really like the way we approached learning about the main ideas in this unit. Every once and a while we were assigned to read certain chapters from the book to read for homework, or we would have a reading day in class. We always had a lot of time to finish reading these chapters, which I really enjoyed. We also were put into groups, and were assigned groups, and specific chapters to completely review, read, and learn to the best of our abilities, and then create a presentation to teach the rest of our class. I think for the most part everything went well during this unit, sometimes parts of the chapters were hard to understand, but besides that there didn't seem to be any problems, at least for me, while learning about this. The only thing that I think could have been worked on, is when we were having group discussions about the chapters, not a lot of people participated, including me, and the same people were answering over and over. After all the reading during this unit on fosters type of literary criticism I was very surprised. This unit wasn't all as boring as I thought it would be. The way foster explained all the elements of literature was very well done. The book all together is really impressive, not only did it help me better understand and read literature, But I actually enjoyed spending my time studying and reading the chapters of the book.

Blog #1 "What is literature?"

The definition of literature probably has one of the most vast varieties ever. To everyone, somehow literature means something different. Literature can be as simple as just a page with words that tells a story, or it can be a huge exploration of information, and all sorts of interesting things. Personally I don't enjoy literature to it's full potential, but when I find a good book, or some interesting form of writing, I can really get into it.


My definition of literature is most likely very different from most peoples. I find that literature is an adventure, you never know exactly what's going to happen next. The best part of literature in my opinion is the fact that you can interrupt the situations in  piece so many different ways that one thing could be 1000 different meanings. Literature is something that people fall back on, in times of need, or just times of boredom, everyone can find a book, or poem,etc., that they will enjoy.

"When should tradition be upheld, done away with, or modified?"

"When should tradition be upheld, done away with, or modified?" Tradition is a wonderful thing that everyone has, whether it's something like celebrating Christmas, or even just a annual family get together. Tradition is what brings people together, and is something most people look forward to everyday. Although sometimes traditions can be something people don't enjoy, or might be something some people don't even have.

Tradition is something you should never completely get rid of, but at specific times, it's also something that definitely should not come first. The only time tradition should really be rid of, is when it's getting in the way, causing troubles or problems for you, or is just plain out not needed. Tradition can also be modified, either for the better or the worse. In the Whale Rider, their tribes chief has always been a male, but when Pai is born into the world, her brother and mother were killed during the birth of the two children. Now Pai, being a female, has to try and become the position of chief, but this is against tradition, and her grandfather does not like this modification to the tribe.

I personally do not have any really "different" traditions apart from the basic american traditions of celebrating holidays and such. But I do know, Life would be a lot different without traditions, and I know of times where those traditions aren't really needed, but also they shouldn't be completely forgotten. Traditions are who we are, what we are, and they all around just represent us.