OT Documentary

I thought that the documentary on Our Town and the students in California who put it on as a play was very interesting. It was good to see the lives of the students at the beginning and get a feel for how the school and town were. Then, going into the teacher's opinions and why they wanted to put on the play was good because it allowed us insight into their thoughts. I liked all the interviews and opinions that the film got from the students' perspective throughout the film because it was really helpful and interesting to see their thoughts on the whole thing. I also think it is great that the teachers decided to put this play on, and that the students actually cooperated. That may not always happen expecially in a "ghetto" school as they called themselves, so it was nice to see. I really liked how they added their own personal touch to the play, but still kept it realistic and original enough to make it worth while. It made me smile to see the students get so involved in it, and was definitely a good documentary to watch to get some ideas about how we can use plays in our future high school English classes as well!

Spoon River Anthology

After reading these Spoon River Anthology poems I found them to be quite interesting, and very unique compared to some of the poetry I have read before. Each poem tells its own story, but also relates to the other poems in the anthology to make one giant story. One thing I noticed about the poems are that many of them: are about death or graves, have questions posed in them, have repetition of some sort, and are about individual people.

This ties into "Our Town" in a way because Our Town had similar things in it. It was about individual people in a small town, told its own story of the town, and dealt a lot with death and dying, as the anthology does. If I were a teacher trying to use the Spoon River Anthology in a classroom where we read Our Town, I would probably stress the death aspect and have the students talk about how the poems talk about death in a similar or different way than that of Our Town. I would also point out how the anthology of poems have different people's names as their titles, and have the students explain to me the meaning behind this, what it adds to the poems, and if it makes them feel like the person in the poem is important because the whole individual poem is focused on them. Then I would have the students tell me if they think that each character in Our Town was important, and why or why not. I would end by asking them which form they liked better as a story telling method - the play or the anthology of poems - and why.

Our Town

After reading the first act of Our Town and discussing it with my fellow classmates, some thoughts came to mind. One was that the play seemed a bit plain and boring in a sense. It didn't seem to be about much other than some random people's lives. Now maybe it was written that way and is meant to be like that, but it's hard to tell. In a way that does allow readers to put themselves in the position of the characters and think about what it would be like to be those people. But sometimes it just seems like the story isn't going anywhere important. But I suppose we'll find out. I did like how the details of the town were introduced. Instead of a typical narrator just explaining how the town is, they have Mr. Webb explain it through questions from the townspeople and such. This was a unique introduction and made the story seem more realistic and showed the people's involvement with one another. I'm sure this play does have deeper and more important meaning behind it though, so hopefully those will become more clear once I read Act 2 and 3 tonight and tomorrow.

Our Town Act 1

In the first act of "Our Town," the town of Grover's Corners seems to be a normal and average town in America. The way it is portrayed and the way that the characters are described and act, this seems similar to the way that many average Americans are. I found it interesting that the birth and death rates seem to stay consistent in this town from year to year. Also the fact that there is a minimum amount of drinking that goes on in Grover's Corners is somewhat surprising.

Some of the repetition that is seen in this act is the amount of gossip that goes on between characters. For example, Mrs. Gibbs and Mrs. Webb gossip about Mrs. Gibbs' money offer from the furniture salesman, Dr. Gibbs and the paperboy gossip about the local schoolteacher's marriage, and the children have their own gossiping conversations.

Night of the Hunter Film Viewing in regards to Huck Finn

In this blog I am responding to questions #4 and #6 that you had on our handout....

#4 response

Reading Huck Finn before watching this film changed my viewing experience of the film because I was constantly thinking about Huck Finn while watching the movie. Through the movie I would be watching it, and when something happened that was similar to something from Huck Finn, it caught my attention. Basically I viewed the film in relation to Huck Finn and tried to find all the ways that it was similar to Huck. I also focused on details of the film such as how the boy in the film reacted to certain situations, and how he grew up through the story. If I had just watched this film on my own I might not have focused as much attention on the boy or the step father, but after reading Huck, I paid more attention to these things. Also, all the similarities between the novel and movie allowed me to compare them more and do more thinking and analyzing of the movie, instead of just watching it with no purpose.

#6 response

Yes, I would possibly teach this film with a Huck Finn lesson. There are many similarities between the two stories such as: the boys growing up and maturing quickly; having an abusive father or step-father; running away down a river; having a theme of money; and more. Therefore, if I taught this movie in a Huck Finn lesson I would emphasize the similarities and differences between the two, and have the students analyze the stories in relation to one another. I would have the students give me their reactions to each of the stories and what they think they would have done in each situation. Or I would have them tell me which situation they would have liked to me in more. I would not necessarily use this every time I taught Huck Finn, but I might in certain situations based on the age group and whatnot of my students.