This week in AP Lit there was a focus on independent/group work. The majority of the time spent in class was spent working on the "What is Literature?" project. Working independently sometimes provides more of a struggle when looking for specific information. I have found that sometimes when three people read a story they can all find different parts of the story. This can be a good thing and a bad thing, it lets more ideas come out of the story, but not agreeing with the group can make it hard to move forward in a project. I think that our group was pretty good at finding many points in the stories and narrowing it down to the main themes and symbols in each.
Our group chose to focus on theme and symbolism when analyzing literature for the project. This week we finished with theme by reading "Spunk" by Zora Neale Hurston. Our big question had to do with looking at the theme related to three of the stories characters. We found that more or less, the theme of Spunk is that passion and lust can lead to lapse in judgement and dangerous consequences.
Working in a group is usually something I enjoy. Dividing up work can make learning a lot easier when you divide the work evenly. I am glad that I am not alone in this project, but working in a group can making moving forward a lot more difficult. It is much easier to stay on task when you cannot be distracted by other group members. I think I would be further along in this project if I had been working by myself, but I do not think I would have learned as much or found as much in each piece of literature.