First semester of AP English

So far this class has been a lot more work than I expected it to be. When I talked to my senior friends from last year they all said that it was an easy class and worth taking for an easy A. Well, it hasn't been all that easy for me. I know that my knowledge of the English subject has grown tremendously. I now know the difference between literary and commercial fiction. I enjoy reading for pleasure so much more because it is a nice break from the literary stories. I've learned about topics that I didn't want to explore like the philosophical thinking. I believe that I now view life with a more open mind. A few moments this year I've been very frustrated. I didn't like how 13 short stories were crammed in to a test. I didn't like how most of the work has been done outside of class with little discussion in class. I don't like how we were given an AP essay to write the first few days of class. Overall, it seems like there was never enough time to talk about the work we did, and it all seemed rushed. At times during the semester I wished that time would slow down so that I could just breathe. I think that three books per semester for outside reading in addition to all the in class reading was too much. I realize this is an AP class, but it would help the work load was a little less. I hope that next semester things will slow down so that I have time to enjoy school and this class. Due to the heavy work load, I've learned a lot of information that I did not know before. I'm glad I took this class and I hope it pays off in the end in preparing me for college English.

The Rover Play

I enjoyed watching the play during this class time. A few things stuck out to me during the play. The language was pretty hard to understand and it didn't really help that a few of the actors didn't know their lines. It was hard to process their lines as they were saying them, it was kind of like reading subtitles. The topic that the play was on was kind of strange to be acted out in high school. I thought the plot was predictable and I expected for all of the couples to end up together. The costumes were very cool and I thought that they resembled the time period very well. I also thought that the set was executed well. It was cool how the two different platforms could be wheeled around to switch the rooms. I thought that the actors played out their roles very realistically. The subject of wanting a relationship that a person cannot have has been done before. Yes, the play was written in the 1800s so or was probably a new story during that time. The sword fighting really added a nice element to the play. It was kind of too staged because it didn't look realistic. Overall I was really happy to eat out of class and see my fellow classmates preform.