What better way to start a new week than to start a new unit. This week we focused on tragedy; what it is in both literature and life. Tragedy in literature is a type of drama. It focuses on human suffering based on negative forces occurring to the main character. We also read a document about how tragedy in life is not biased. Just because someone is not a king with so much to lose does not mean that one’s life is not worthy enough to use such a label as tragedy to describe their loss. I related to this particular document in many ways. I liked that it pointed out that bad things can happen to anyone, but that doesn’t make life a contest. In fact, it is something that people can even come together and relate about. Life is full of just trying to relate to things to feel more connected to each other and to the world.
We learned about how to format a response essay as well. Schoenborn showed us an example essay that scored a 9 so we could glimpse what kind of things to put in our own writing. There are three things we need to include: illustrating, authorizing, and extending. Illustrating is including the big idea of the text as well as compelling quotes. Authorizing is explaining how and why we find the quotes compelling. And extending is connecting the text to ourselves, putting our own spin on what it is about. I thought that going over the example essay was extremely helpful for my future response essays and for the AP exam.
We learned about how to format a response essay as well. Schoenborn showed us an example essay that scored a 9 so we could glimpse what kind of things to put in our own writing. There are three things we need to include: illustrating, authorizing, and extending. Illustrating is including the big idea of the text as well as compelling quotes. Authorizing is explaining how and why we find the quotes compelling. And extending is connecting the text to ourselves, putting our own spin on what it is about. I thought that going over the example essay was extremely helpful for my future response essays and for the AP exam.