this week in AP Lit

This week in AP Lit was very interesting. The most enjoyable part of it that I found was the
discussion groups with our small groups. I very much prefer this way of discussing rather than
the whole class being pressured to talk as a group within an hour's period. When we did the
socratic seminar a few weeks back, I felt pressured to fight my way into the discussion and share
insightful points. However, there were so many other students that were so much faster at
sharing a similar point or even better. However, in our small group discussion with only 4 other people, I was able to freely talk about my findings and share it with my classmates. Ironically, I thought that
we were in need of much more time than when we did our socratic seminar. I felt much more invovled
in the small group discussion which made me talk a lot more.
We talked about two of the short stories within Winesburg, Ohio: "Sophistication" and "Hands." Honestly,
I feel like there was a lot more to talk about with Sophistication and that our group made a lot
more interesting points in that section. One of the biggest question in our discussion was the meaning of
"sophistication" that Anderson used in the text. There were two sides: 1) the word "sophistication"
was used with a positive connotation and 2) it was used with a negative connotation.
I personally thought that it had a positive meaning to it. Although it wasn't the best feeling to become
sophisticated, in a sense, it was one person maturing and learning about life. In the novel,
George was able to understand that there wasn't much to life and that it wasn't as great as he thought
it would be. He found true happiness when he was with Helen and played around. Nevertheless,
through sophistication, George was able to grow internally. Another point that I found interesting
was in "Hands"; the question about whether we thought Wing was guilty of his accused crime. I said that
I did not think he was guilty and that he was not a homosexual. I believe that if he was guilty, he would
not have been so affected by the accusation. He would not have stayed away from people,
considering George to be his only friend. If he was guilty, he would not have been so appalled for
touching George.
I hope that we have more discussions like this one instead of the socratic seminar. I think it gives
all students equal share of the time and can be much more though provoking. Individual students are
able to think of points that have much more insightful.

Another assignment we had to do for AP Lit this week was our essay outline. I feel that the outline for my summer reading essay is not thorough enough yet. It lacks examples
and details. However, it is just an outline and hopefully, the overall product will be a success!
Good luck to every one of you guys! :)