Reflection

Generally, if I am being completely honest I am not very fond of language arts classes, but this class was a breath of fresh air from the average language arts class. One of the thing that I enjoyed most about this class, which was actually a huge surprise to me, was the amount of writing we did. We wrote far more than any other language arts class I have been a part of. Even though while I was in the process of writing it may have been horrible, I realized that all the writing that we did this semester formed me into a much more skilled writer by the time the end of the semester came around. It is in a way like practicing a sport, even if all you do is watch and research baseball, the only way you will ever get better at the sport itself is by actually playing it. I say this because I realized that if all you do is learn about writing but never actually write, you will never improve your writing skills as much as you have the potential to. Overall, I believe that this class has helped me become a far better writer over the course of only one semester which is one reason why I have enjoyed the class so far.
Another big reason why I have enjoyed this class so far is the fact that it has helped so much with me preparing for college in multiple ways. The first way it has helped me prepare myself for college is the fact that it has given me a taste of what the amount of writing we do in college will be like. I know that in college it is much more, but I am hoping the amount of writing we do in this class will make the transition to college not as much of a rude awakening. The other big thing that this class has helped me with in regards to college preparation, is not helping with college itself but helping with the application process. This class helped me so much with writing my college essays, and I actually believe that without it my essays would not have been half the quality that they turned out to be. I truly believe that this class has helped me develop greatly as a writer, and even though I never expected to say this about a language arts class, I actually really enjoyed this class.

Laramie.

After reading the Laramie Project, I was very impacted by the story it told but one thing that enhanced this a lot was watching the film of this play. Even though the reading of this play was very detailed and vivid, watching the film version gave  me a whole new view of the events that happened. One of the things that happened in this story that the film really emphasized was the verbal violence that took place after Matthew Shepard's murder. One example of this violence was the fact that the Westboro Baptist Church picketed Shepard's funeral. The film really showed me how intense this picketing was and the extreme measures people went to on topics about this case. Another huge thing that the film version of this play did a great job at portraying and emphasizing was how eerie and desolate the location of Shepard's murder really was, while at the same time still being a beautiful place. This may sound rather insignificant, but I had a completely different picture in my head and this film showed the viewers exactly what Matthew Shepard had seen during his last hours which I believe is very important. Although the written play, the Laramie Project, did a great job at explaining the events that revolved around Matthew Shepard's murder in great detail, the film version of this play opened a completely new window and a new perspective on Shepard's case and the events that happened because of it.

20/20

During this week my class watched, read, and discussed many different topics related to the killing of Matthew Shepard, but the one thing that we watched that impacted me the most was easily the 20/20 Report on this case. This is because this report presented so many different views and so many different ideas that were not presented in any of the other items we read or watched. One of the things that shocked me that was discussed in this report was the fact that members of the Westboro Baptist Church Picketed Matthew's funeral, saying that he deserved to die because he was homosexual. This amazed me because I never thought anyone could go so low to ever say something like this about a person. Another reason why this report was the thing that shocked me the most, and probably the biggest, was the fact that both of Matthew's killers, Aaron McKinney and Russel Henderson, were interviewed during this report. This was very interesting to me because of some of the things that they said, and just the fact that it was the first time that they were ever interviewed after Matthew's death. One of the big things that Aaron McKinney brought up during his interview was that Matthew's murder had nothing to do with the fact that he was homosexual, and this was very interesting because almost everyone believed that this was the sole motive for Matthew's murder. Another thing that was brought up during this interview that was very shocking to me was during Russel Henderson's interview when he said that all he did was tie up Matthew, and other than that he never touched him. He even says that he tried to stop Aaron from beating Matthew, but Aaron responded by hitting Russel with his gun. During his interview, Aaron says that all of this is indeed true, and that he feels that it is completely his fault for Russel being in jail. Overall, this report was packed with shocking information, and it was the one thing that impacted me the most out of all of the different things my class went over.

The Laramie Project

Although the Laramie project is a very entertaining play full of information, it can be very hard to understand. I have really enjoyed reading this play so far, but the style of writing that it is done in can make the play hard to follow. In my opinion, the biggest thing that causes this is the fact that the play is constantly jumping back and forth between characters. One example of where the book jumps from character to character is in the beginning of the book where a rancher named Eileen Engen talking about how important it is to maintain your land in Laramie, and then out of no where a character named Doc O'Connor came out of no where and said "I Love it here." (Kaufman 7). Things like this happen very often throughout the book, and although it is possible to adjust to, it still makes it very confusing in the sense that it is hard to tell who is talking and when. Another thing that made this book hard to follow was the fact that all of the characters would be responding to questions, but the questions would not be presented. I would have changed this by making the questions much more obvious and also by having better transitions between the characters. I understand that this play would be much more understandable if it was presented to me in a visual form, but I still believe there are better ways that this play could have been put together.

This is a picture of how the play may look, and an example for how the stage for this play may be set up.

This video shows a visual representation of the play, and even though this video makes a few things more clear, it is still somewhat confusing because of how it was written.

A Stolen Life

One of the presentations in my class this week that really interested me was on the memoir A Stolen Life. This book was written by Jaycee Dugard, a woman who was kidnapped at the age of 11 and was held in captivity for 18 years. This presentation was very interesting to me because the Jaycee Dugard Kidnapping was something that I had heard of, but I never really knew any details about it was interesting to learn a small amount about it. This memoir seems like a book that I would really enjoy reading because it seemed like it was very intense, and I would not mind learning more about this terrible event and hearing the story directly from the person who experienced it all. Overall this presentation was very interesting and filled with information, and I am hoping that I will be able to read this book in the near future.

Don't Put Me In, Coach

This week, one of the students in my class presented a project on a memoir called "Don't Put Me In, Coach" written by Mark Titus. Mark Titus was a college athlete that "played" basketball for Ohio State University. The reason why I put the word "played" in parenthesis is because the only position he played for this basketball team was warming the bench. Mark Titus walked on to the college basketball team and since his freshman year the number of times he has been put into the game could be counted on one hand. Although Titus barely ever played, all he was always loved by fans, teammates, and coaches and was often referred to as a big part of the team. Titus always played a huge role in motivating and getting the team pumped up so this really showed that even though he barely ever played he was still a huge part of the team. I am definitely looking forward to reading this book for a couple reasons. First of all I love college basketball and everything about it, and second of all the book sounds absolutely hilarious. These reasons together make the book seem like a great read, and I am very excited to read this memoir when I get the chance.

Scar Tissue

One of the students in my class did a presentation on a memoir called "Scar Tissue" written by Anthony Kiedis, the lead singer of the band The Red Hot Chili Peppers. I really enjoyed this presentation for a few reasons. One of the reasons that made me enjoy this presentation as much as I did was how it really showed how the band as a whole got along, what they did for fun, and just how they acted. I thought that this was really interesting because The Red Hot Chili Peppers is probably my favorite band so it was cool to see how the group acted when they were not producing music and what they did in their free time as a group. Also, probably the biggest reason for me enjoying this presentation as much as I did was the fact that it gave a large amount of background knowledge on Anthony Kiedis's life. This was really entertaining because I love the music that he makes and it was awesome to see a background for the music he makes and learn a little about the meaning of some of his music. Also, it was just really interesting to learn about his life and some of his past and see how it has made him the person that he is today, because once again I love the music that he makes and it was very cool to learn about the person that is behind the whole production. Overall, I really enjoyed this presentation and I am definitely going to read this book in the near future.