Free Clichés

So many times my students want to repeat tired clichés in their "interpretations" of literature. It's as if they are still reading children's books. After a while I get tired of reading that I should "look for the beauty within," or that "money can't buy happiness," or to "never give up." It's not that they are "wrong" per se, it's just that their interpretations are so shallow, so reliant on surfaces, and they miss the depth of the novel or poem or story. They can't see anything in great literature that they didn't see in "The Little Engine That Could." (Thud! That's the sound of me jumping/falling off my high horse.) To the quotations! As always, these sentences are from student work and my comments are in ( ).

- It also goes to explain the identity of ones self to what the mirror believes to be. (Yup, right on.)

- Poetry is a combination of art and literature. (No, poetry IS literature which is a FORM of art. Thanks for playing the Semantics Game, enjoy the parting gifts.)

- Poems are a group of thoughts put together in certain ways and with the use of specific words. (So is prose, there, Shakespeare. Are you getting the feeling I am doing something wrong when I teach poetry? They can't even define the word!)

- The last three lines of each stanza also carry repetition. He uses the word "and" in each one. (I find some of the most powerful poetry uses the word "and" over and over!)

- Clouds do not fly. (Well, they don't walk.)

- Masefield uses the imagery and language to show his theme. (Thanks for the clue.)

- Really all the speaker wants is to be at see.

- The bird is good because it symbolizes more to the theme of hope being in everything.

- By saying this it means that this poem takes the reality of life and tells the readers how life really is. (It's brutal... life, I mean.)

- "Sea-Fever" was written by John Masefield with the use of literary terms. (I hope he cleaned them after he used them; they rust.)

- The citizen has no control or says about his life.

- That's why people lurk for hope. (If you don't lurk you'll never take hope by surprise.)

- The use of alliteration improves the request of the poem to the ear.

- The water can be a symbol of the feels the woman is having. (I had feels once; water is a good symbol for them.)

- The speaker associates being alone with loneliness. (I would never have seen that connection.)

As you might be able to tell, all of these came from papers on poetry. My students do not get poetry. Of course, very few of them try... It's almost June!!

J.

What Field Exactly?

I hate in May and June when my classes are half empty because everybody goes on field trip after field trip. Today I was missing about 20 students between two of my classes because of an AP Physics field trip; Physics? What are a bunch of physics students doing in a field? Anyway, three other seniors decided to skip my class and spend the whole period in the library. Did they think the librarians wouldn't see them? I was not amused. (If any of you three are reading this blog, I am coming for you! Guess who will have speaking parts for the rest of Hamlet!!) To the sentences! These are all from student papers and my comments are in (  ).

- (From a student journal, and the Department of Redundancy Department.) This chapter was hard for me to understand, especially considering that it was hard for me to understand.

- Krebs no longer wants to go out with girls and fun.

- Krebs goes through the notion of life.  (Whose notion I don't know.)

- He started to just go through the notions of life. (Who copied who I wonder.)

- Aunt Georgiana illusioned herself into thinking she was in love.

- These concepts play a negative role in the two characters.

- Authors would convey their ideas of life to the reader. (They would, if only there was a way.)

- The relationship between a man and a woman is a never-ending element of life. Even the Bible includes this relationship. (Even the Bible? You don't say.)

- "The Chrysanthemums" is probably based before women's rights. (Wait, there's another one about the same story.)

- The story is set back sometime in history, perhaps even before women's rights. (So neither of these students bothered to figure out the time period of the story within a hundred years or so, and they think of "women's rights" as a moment in history at which everything changed. Ah, the study of history.)

- John is keeping his wife from expressing herself and letting her have an outlet for her insanity. (We all need an outlet for our insanity.)

- She has been sworn to bed rest. (Swear you will not get out of bed! SWEAR!)

- He was a silent character with large emotions. (How large, exactly?)

- Every author in any story you read has a purpose to what their writing about. (Thanks for the heads up.)

- The story doesn't always have to be in someone's point of view, it could be that the point of view of the people can effect the story. (Air...I...need...air...)

- Their relationship reveals that they don't have a relationship at all.

- (The following phrase was used by two students to pinpoint a period in the past.) ...back in the day...

- In life violence can errupt out based on events that have occured. (Good to know.)

- ...a female girl... (As opposed to?)

- Many stories have a single climactic moment that reviles something about life or the world.

- Many young children have life changing experiences that of which change who the are. (1. So, life changing experiences result in change. Deep. 2. Could you write a sentence that of which I understand.)

Now if you will excuse me, I need to skip class and sit in the library. No, wait, that would be my students.

May Flowers

Ah, spring. The birds are singing, the flowers blooming, and the seniors all need some kind of pill to cure senioritis. Here are some more fun sentences from my students from various papers on various works. As always, these are unedited and my comments are in ( ).

- Finally the narrator rips off the wallpaper, but only showing that she has lost reality. (Hope she finds it.)

- Gatsby was ok when we talked about it. (We? I have no idea who we are.)

- The Great Gatsby, a novel by Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel full of repetition. (Like this sentence.)

- When the illusion fades away their life is left.

- He lets too many other things get in the way of stuff. (I hate when things get in the way of stuff.)

- Jay Gatsby faces reality and he faces his own reality which is known as an illusion.

- ...to keep up with appearances...

- Jay Gatsby was creating this fack imige about himself. ("fake image," I think.)

- ...his realization of reality kicked in... (For some reason my students love it when things "kick in.")

- Literary elements are the frosting of a story. (I hate it when they come up with meaningless metaphors in their intros.)

- Characterization brings about the fascination people have with each other. (Huh?)

- Dummy was so protective of the fish that he erected a fence around the pond where he and his wife lived. (Now, the character's name was Dummy, but it was the FISH who lived in the pond!)

- Words in short stories are very significant. (Shocker.)

- ...she had gone crazy in the mind.

- Symbolism means to represent a certain thing by symbols or coming up with things that show symbols or represent them. (No, that is not what symbolism means.)

- The house seems hunted to her.

- Dummy is characterized as a preservative person.

- Being young and vulnerable, knowing the specificities from a male to female was unknown to the narrator. (Your guess is as good as mine.)

Until next time...

J