VoiceThread: The Big Sleep

Here I leave you an analysis of an extract of "The Big Sleep".

Glogster: The Catcher in the Rye

Here I leave you a glogster about an analysis of an extract of The Catcher in the Rye:

"Boy, when you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead?"

Analyzing Pictures

Not only text can be analyzed. During the years, people have found different meaning in images or pictures, that have change the way of seen a image. Pictures can also be analyze, and some people said that the content is much stronger than the content of a text. The most clear example is the World Press Photo of the Year, that is chosen every year, and have a poweful content and a lot of meanings inside, very delicious to analyze. 
Now I will comment the World Press Photo of the Year in 1980, taked by Mike Wells.

This image show how far have famine been afecting pople located in the Horn of Africa. Also I think is like a type of comparison between the white and black people, because black people, along human history, have suffer a lot in contrast to white people (who have a "confortable life").
When I see this image I felt kind a responsable in a way, because humans in general don´t appreciate what they have, until they need something. People in Africa who only ask for something to eat, and they saw food as a precious treasure. We have the oportunite of have food in our homes, and we must appreciated how lucky we...

Critical Thinking

The definition of Critical Thinking has been debated for 2500 years approximately. But in 1987, the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking , stated that critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning or communication, as a guide to belief and action.


I really agree with this definition, because in my point of view, think critically is to go deeper in the meaning of the text. What the text say isn´t the most important thing, the author, the context, culture play an important role (as we saw, New Criticism establish that the test is the most important thing, depriving critical thinking). Think in a critical way is always important, and I think that in this case that the school teaches us to think critically, is an important tool to develop in other fields.


Sources: http://blog.cicei.com/erubio/files/2012/03/the-critical-thinking-community.png 

Active reading

Being an active reader will help you to understand better the text, and in our case as students it will help us when we have to study. To become an active reader, you must take note of the following steps or tips:

• Make notes: write down the important words or phrases in a text. 
• Underline key words.
• Test yourself
• Question the text: make an interaction with the text.
• Allow ambiguity: try to find both meanings.
• Be attentive to the "rules of notice": try to find the elements that attract your attention, and think about why the author use those words, maybe he try to give some meaning, he those words, color,etc.
• Know when to look for help: is you dont understand something you must use other sources like internet, diccionary, etc. 
• Explain someone else what you´ve read.
• Record yourself.

Now i leave you a video about how to become a active reader. 

Reading Critically

First of all to became a critical reader, we must be Active readers. Nowadays in our society, its important to read in a critical way, to understand better the meaning or the different meanings of the text, to make predictions, conclusions, etc. Below I put some questions that can help you to read a text a critical way:

• What does it say? (literary level, basic elements)
• What does it mean? (ideas, issues, suggestions and purpose)
• Why does it matter? (value, interest, connections)

Sometimes its important to recognize that there are reasons to publish, to post, to write something, and those reason are linked directly to the author and the ideas that he wants to express or inform. In most of the cases, the psychological aspects, influence in a conciderable way, what do a person its going to write.

Practical Criticism

You fit into me

You fit into me

like a hook into an eye

A fish hook 

An open eye.

Questions

1.- What is the relationship between the title and the rest of the poem?

-The title let us know the main topic or theme of the poem, "you fit into me". Reading only  title I thought that was about that someone fits the persona, but when I read the whole poem I understand the real meaning.

2.- What words, if any, need to be defined?

-Hook and a Eye:  A latch consisting of a hook that is inserted in a screw eye.

3.- What relations do you see among any words in the poem?

-A relation between the word "hook" and "eye", and the meaning of this relation, changes as the poem advances.

4.- What are the various connotative meaning of the words in the poem? Do you see various shades of meaning help establish relationships or patterns in the text?

-As I said before, the meaning of the poem changes as the poem advances. First it refer about the "hook and eye" as something related to our clothes, but then it refers to a hook (fishing) and a real human eye.

 5.- What symbols, images or figures of speech are used? What is the relationship between them?

-We can see irony when in the 2 final verse of the poem, the meaning change in a considerable way.

Melancholy

6.- What elements of rhyme, meter or pattern can you discuss?

-This poem is a Free Verse poem, that means that don´t have rhyme.

7.- What is the tone of the poem?

-Maybe sadness,melancholy, fury.

8.- From what point of view is the content of the poem being told?

-From the point of view of a person that ensures that somebody belongs to him (in love). Also taking the meaning of the 1 and 2 verse, the persona established that they are right for each other, as a "hook and eye"

9.- What tensions, ambiguities or paradoxes arise within the poem?

-The words "Hook and Eye" change their meanings as the poem advances, a clear case of ambiguity. First the Hook and Eye refers to a men in love, but then it talk about the suffering that make to put a hook in your eye, referring to the pain that or delusion that love can make.

10.- What do you believe the chief paradox or irony is in the text?

-Express the suffering, sadness and fury of a person that have been betrayed by love.

11.-How do all of the elements of the poem support and develop the primary paradox or irony?

-In this case, the irony is supported by the ambiguity of the words "hook" and "eye", that let to express the ideas of the persona in ambiguous way.