If you presented a slideshow about an author's life... Name the author you researched. Describe how you feel about the process and product. (minimum 200 words)
I researched Sandra Cisneros. The process was fairly easy. The House on Mango Street had read like an autobiography. While the book wasn't an actual autobiography it was very easy to see where she got her inspiration for writing it. There were a few sites that even gave more details about her life after she graduated from Loyola, but the outline of her childhood was enough to draw a bunch of conclusions. The product was okay. It was a quick little presentation that told the story of her life and did a tiny bit of analysis that pretty much anyone could see just from hearing her story. To be honest, I'm not sure how much more analysis one could do anyways about her life without actually meeting her. I think that I could've probably done a better job of how I set up the analysis and done it more towards the end instead of spreading it out through the presentation. Having it spread out kinda took away from having any sort of conclusion that wasn't a flimsy sort of, "...and yeah that's about it. Here's what I just said in thirty seconds." It was nice being able to do this over break given the amount of work I have during school weeks. I really enjoy the freedom of honors work.
I enjoyed your presentation Ian. One of the things that stands out to me about the lives of most authors especially Cisneros is the extreme adversity they face. Making a career in writing is difficult and now that you have shared about Cisneros' challenging upbringing I have an increased sense of admiration for her and others of her ilk. I also really enjoyed hearing about Cisneros' conflict with the historical board where she lives. She is clearly a smart and spirited woman and you conveyed these qualities well in your presentation.
Your presentation about Cisneros was very well put together. I really enjoyed learning all the new things about her that you included in your slides, especially because we had just recently read her book. Because of this, I was able to make a connection and it made me more interested in the presentation than if it had been an author whose book I had not read. The main thing that really stood out to me about your presentation was how closely intertwined Cisneros' life was to The House On Mango Street. Once I learned about her life growing up, I could see just how important it was to her to write that book and spread awareness about those issues. I can imagine she would have closely connected with Esperanza. Overall, it gave me a greater appreciation for the book and the author.
I spent several days researching William Shakespeare. And in that time I learned a great deal about him. My time was not spent wisely so I wasn't able to make the slideshow as long as I would have liked. But I did use all the major concepts that I had planned on using. I tried to gear the powerpoint to lesser known things about Shakespeare. I also tried to add some uniqueness to the presentation. There has been thousands of presentations on Shakespeare and I wanted mine to be made up of less common knowledge. My presentation was difficult to pull together. I spent a lot of time finalizing it. I did a shabby job reading it and I didn't put any cues for myself. I just read right off the screen with more time I would have worked on that. I think that there was a lot of useful and interesting information. The whole process was easy and useful because I learned a lot. I think more people should do powerpoint. Also knowing more about Shakespeare helped me learn more about his plays and why they are unique. His life events showed up in his plays and in his sonnets. He was easy to research because there is so much on him. He is considered on of the most influential people ever. And he is certainly the most influential writer ever. Learning and teaching about him was fun.
I researched the life of J. D. Salinger. While we were reading the Catcher in the Rye I began to relate to the character of Holden and after doing my research on J.D. Salinger I realized the influence that his own personality had in creating this character. It was fascinating to research someone's life and J.D. Salinger was no exception. His life ranged from a struggling academic student to a soldier in the second world war and lastly to a phenomenal writer who secluded himself in a homey estate in nearby Cornish, New Hampshire. I think what I enjoyed most was that throughout his life he continued to write, Not just because he was a literary genius, but because it was a passion. I came to the conclusion throughout my research that J.D. Salinger designed Holden Claufield out of parts of his own self. This conclusion helped me both appreciate Salinger, But also Holden's character. I didn't expect I would learn as much as I did. Although there was plenty more information I had not included in my presentation, I still read a lot and learned a lot. This process was overall great! I think anyone struggling to find an appreciation for this Holden (which I did for most of the book) researching J.D. Salinger could really help. I really enjoyed this project!
I enjoyed your presentation Zack. I thought it was very interesting how you brought to life the connections between the author and Holdens character. It seems like J. D. Salinger may have used his writing to express somethings that he experienced. This was particularly evident in the connection you made with Salinger going to war and missing his war buddies. I also think his thirst to be completely alone during the end of his life is very interesting. It is opposite to what Holden wanted. Could this be a result of giving up? I also learned that he had connections to an area close to here which was cool. Thank you for sharing this information.
I presented on Sandra Cisneros. Overall I found the process very interesting. I enjoyed finding the connections between Sandra and Esperanza, the main character in The House on Mango Street. Researching Cisneros enabled me to observe with a different perspective which I enjoyed. I feel like researching Sandra Cisneros’s life gave me a better understanding of the book. I really enjoyed seeing all the connections and putting the pieces together. I get nervous when I present in front of people. As a result, I could have done a better job speaking to the class. I feel as though I read too much off the screen. I also included a video clip of Cisneros talking about the inspiration for the book. However, at the last minute, I decided not to show it. I really enjoyed this process.
I completed a presentation on John Steinbeck. I really enjoyed learning in depth about a specific person and being able to spread my knowledge to my classmates. What really intrigued me were the connections between Steinbeck's real life and the book. When you become deeply involved in a book, it's extremely exciting to know that some parts of it have meaning or even a real back story. Having those pieces of information transforms the book. In terms of the physical process of making the slideshow, it was an enjoyable, yet long, complicated process. I am a perfectionist and struggled with making everything exactly the way I like it in a timely manner. I ended up spending 2 days just working on that single slideshow. It also took a decent amount of time to find all the correct information. Lastly, I have never done a presentation where I don’t read directly off the slide the whole time, so reading off of my notes was a new experience. Even though it took a while, I am very happy with the product. I believe it is a sufficient slideshow to describe Steinbeck's life and the importance of "Of Mice and Men".
I enjoyed your slideshow Maeve. It was clear that you worked hard on it . I share your interest in an author's backstory because I think it is often extremely relevant to their literature. Author's almost always seem to take inspiration from their own lives when writing and making that connection is sometimes important to understanding their works. John Steinbeck is one of few authors who have managed such consistent success from so many books and to hear about how he got there was cool. I was also glad to be made aware of his other books including "The Grapes of Wrath" which I had never associated with "Of Mice and Men." Your presentation helped peak my interest in reattempting "The Grapes of Wrath" and other Steinbeck novels.
I researched the life of John Steinbeck. He is the author of Of Mice and Men which we read this school year. I really liked this book and its connections to history. I enjoyed learning about his life for many reasons. Firstly got to know about his life and background. This is one of the most influential parts of a life for an author and almost always has connections to that author's literature. I learned that there were many connections to Steinbeck's life in Of Mice and Men. I also found out that he was recognized greatly for his works which is rarely talked about these days. Many times old authors are forgot about even when their works stay popular. I am glad that I got to know about him. I learned a lot about his life as well as him as an author. It makes me appreciate his works better. I struggled finding some connections but found themes that he had included. I had no problems putting all this into a slide show. I did not read off the slides the whole time and instead used it to start talking points that I knew. I have to make everything look good so I added pictures.
I researched Sandra Cisneros. The process was fairly easy. The House on Mango Street had read like an autobiography. While the book wasn't an actual autobiography it was very easy to see where she got her inspiration for writing it. There were a few sites that even gave more details about her life after she graduated from Loyola, but the outline of her childhood was enough to draw a bunch of conclusions. The product was okay. It was a quick little presentation that told the story of her life and did a tiny bit of analysis that pretty much anyone could see just from hearing her story. To be honest, I'm not sure how much more analysis one could do anyways about her life without actually meeting her. I think that I could've probably done a better job of how I set up the analysis and done it more towards the end instead of spreading it out through the presentation. Having it spread out kinda took away from having any sort of conclusion that wasn't a flimsy sort of, "...and yeah that's about it. Here's what I just said in thirty seconds." It was nice being able to do this over break given the amount of work I have during school weeks. I really enjoy the freedom of honors work.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your presentation Ian. One of the things that stands out to me about the lives of most authors especially Cisneros is the extreme adversity they face. Making a career in writing is difficult and now that you have shared about Cisneros' challenging upbringing I have an increased sense of admiration for her and others of her ilk. I also really enjoyed hearing about Cisneros' conflict with the historical board where she lives. She is clearly a smart and spirited woman and you conveyed these qualities well in your presentation.
DeleteYour presentation about Cisneros was very well put together. I really enjoyed learning all the new things about her that you included in your slides, especially because we had just recently read her book. Because of this, I was able to make a connection and it made me more interested in the presentation than if it had been an author whose book I had not read. The main thing that really stood out to me about your presentation was how closely intertwined Cisneros' life was to The House On Mango Street. Once I learned about her life growing up, I could see just how important it was to her to write that book and spread awareness about those issues. I can imagine she would have closely connected with Esperanza. Overall, it gave me a greater appreciation for the book and the author.
DeleteI spent several days researching William Shakespeare. And in that time I learned a great deal about him. My time was not spent wisely so I wasn't able to make the slideshow as long as I would have liked. But I did use all the major concepts that I had planned on using. I tried to gear the powerpoint to lesser known things about Shakespeare. I also tried to add some uniqueness to the presentation. There has been thousands of presentations on Shakespeare and I wanted mine to be made up of less common knowledge. My presentation was difficult to pull together. I spent a lot of time finalizing it. I did a shabby job reading it and I didn't put any cues for myself. I just read right off the screen with more time I would have worked on that. I think that there was a lot of useful and interesting information. The whole process was easy and useful because I learned a lot. I think more people should do powerpoint. Also knowing more about Shakespeare helped me learn more about his plays and why they are unique. His life events showed up in his plays and in his sonnets. He was easy to research because there is so much on him. He is considered on of the most influential people ever. And he is certainly the most influential writer ever. Learning and teaching about him was fun.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your honesty, William. I thought your powerpoint was good, though, and you succeeded in making it interesting.
DeleteBest, Mr. D
I researched the life of J. D. Salinger. While we were reading the Catcher in the Rye I began to relate to the character of Holden and after doing my research on J.D. Salinger I realized the influence that his own personality had in creating this character. It was fascinating to research someone's life and J.D. Salinger was no exception. His life ranged from a struggling academic student to a soldier in the second world war and lastly to a phenomenal writer who secluded himself in a homey estate in nearby Cornish, New Hampshire. I think what I enjoyed most was that throughout his life he continued to write, Not just because he was a literary genius, but because it was a passion. I came to the conclusion throughout my research that J.D. Salinger designed Holden Claufield out of parts of his own self. This conclusion helped me both appreciate Salinger, But also Holden's character. I didn't expect I would learn as much as I did. Although there was plenty more information I had not included in my presentation, I still read a lot and learned a lot. This process was overall great! I think anyone struggling to find an appreciation for this Holden (which I did for most of the book) researching J.D. Salinger could really help. I really enjoyed this project!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your presentation Zack. I thought it was very interesting how you brought to life the connections between the author and Holdens character. It seems like J. D. Salinger may have used his writing to express somethings that he experienced. This was particularly evident in the connection you made with Salinger going to war and missing his war buddies. I also think his thirst to be completely alone during the end of his life is very interesting. It is opposite to what Holden wanted. Could this be a result of giving up? I also learned that he had connections to an area close to here which was cool. Thank you for sharing this information.
DeleteI presented on Sandra Cisneros. Overall I found the process very interesting. I enjoyed finding the connections between Sandra and Esperanza, the main character in The House on Mango Street. Researching Cisneros enabled me to observe with a different perspective which I enjoyed. I feel like researching Sandra Cisneros’s life gave me a better understanding of the book. I really enjoyed seeing all the connections and putting the pieces together. I get nervous when I present in front of people. As a result, I could have done a better job speaking to the class. I feel as though I read too much off the screen. I also included a video clip of Cisneros talking about the inspiration for the book. However, at the last minute, I decided not to show it. I really enjoyed this process.
ReplyDeleteI completed a presentation on John Steinbeck. I really enjoyed learning in depth about a specific person and being able to spread my knowledge to my classmates. What really intrigued me were the connections between Steinbeck's real life and the book. When you become deeply involved in a book, it's extremely exciting to know that some parts of it have meaning or even a real back story. Having those pieces of information transforms the book. In terms of the physical process of making the slideshow, it was an enjoyable, yet long, complicated process. I am a perfectionist and struggled with making everything exactly the way I like it in a timely manner. I ended up spending 2 days just working on that single slideshow. It also took a decent amount of time to find all the correct information. Lastly, I have never done a presentation where I don’t read directly off the slide the whole time, so reading off of my notes was a new experience. Even though it took a while, I am very happy with the product. I believe it is a sufficient slideshow to describe Steinbeck's life and the importance of "Of Mice and Men".
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your slideshow Maeve. It was clear that you worked hard on it . I share your interest in an author's backstory because I think it is often extremely relevant to their literature. Author's almost always seem to take inspiration from their own lives when writing and making that connection is sometimes important to understanding their works. John Steinbeck is one of few authors who have managed such consistent success from so many books and to hear about how he got there was cool. I was also glad to be made aware of his other books including "The Grapes of Wrath" which I had never associated with "Of Mice and Men." Your presentation helped peak my interest in reattempting "The Grapes of Wrath" and other Steinbeck novels.
DeleteI researched the life of John Steinbeck. He is the author of Of Mice and Men which we read this school year. I really liked this book and its connections to history. I enjoyed learning about his life for many reasons. Firstly got to know about his life and background. This is one of the most influential parts of a life for an author and almost always has connections to that author's literature. I learned that there were many connections to Steinbeck's life in Of Mice and Men. I also found out that he was recognized greatly for his works which is rarely talked about these days. Many times old authors are forgot about even when their works stay popular. I am glad that I got to know about him. I learned a lot about his life as well as him as an author. It makes me appreciate his works better. I struggled finding some connections but found themes that he had included. I had no problems putting all this into a slide show. I did not read off the slides the whole time and instead used it to start talking points that I knew. I have to make everything look good so I added pictures.
ReplyDelete