Class Blog #1

As of last night I finished Austin's Northanger Abbey. Overall I'm just confused why she was considered a heroine? Most of the book I just saw her as an immature girl that wasn't aware of her surroundings and the hints that society was putting in front of her. This is also in the same way why I was confused why we started discussing Bella as a heroine in class. Neither one of these characters, if I was to just read these books on my own without discussions with others, would I ever consider a heroine. They are both just damsels in distress that I believe are always in need of being taken care of and protected. When I think of heros in literature I think of Odysseus from The Odyssey and Don Guixote from Don Guixote. Or on the other hand I think of heros from comic books as in Superman and Batman. Never would I believe either of these young women to be considered a heroine. But to each their own.

We had our Vampire Symposium last week! It was fun to do something different with our projects. I really enjoyed the trivia and we got candy. I also enjoyed the projects because I learned a lot of interesting facts about vampires and the history of them. All the the history has influenced how much people are so interested in vampires today. It has even got to the point where people are starting their own vampire community. It was also neat to see how vampires have turned from such ugly creatures to desired ones. I'm glad we did the third project like that, it was a good idea.

Elizabeth Bathory

I am looking up information about Elizabeth Bathory for thegroup projects. That girl was nuts! The things that I have read about her are crazy and I can't believe she lived like that. She would take baths in the blood of virgins to make her seem younger and more beautiful, which is why she is called the Blood Countess. Taking baths in blood makes her insane enough without considering all the other horrible things she had done. She killed over 600 young women. She is considered one of the most evil women in the history. She would torture the women for weeks, even making them eat their own flesh. Locking her up in a tower and letting her die was not a suitable punishment for what she had done, at least I don't think so.

Class Blog #2

Bloggers-

Thank the lord class was canceled on Monday! I was so hungry and hadn't eaten all day, so a good lunch was definetely in order. Even though class was canceled on Monday, we did still have a lot of work to do! An annotated bibliography was due yesterday and I am still not completely sure if I even did it correctly. I know the information in my bibliography was correct, but the format I am still unclear about. Hopefully Professor Hodges will be lenient while grading.

So, a fellow classmate just pulled up an article titled, "Twilight Movie Causes 13 Year-Old Boy to Bite 11 Classmates." How crazy is that???? Apparently the child bit 11 kids in the span of 2 weeks and claimed that he was an actual vampire! Maybe that kids needs some physiological help.

Have a good week, I'll be back later this week!

Haley

We are going to give our presentations this week. We have been discussing different ways to improve presentations and being able to present. We want to keep the audiences entertained and not bored. We need to make sure that our information is organized and correct. We are going to practice presenting to also improve the organization of the presentation. This will make everything feel more prepared and easier for us to present. Here is an article on how to improve your presentation skills!
http://www.inc.com/guides/how-to-improve-your-presentation-skills.html

The Giaour

We read The Giaour, a very confusing poem, awhile back that had to do with Byronic heros. Ms. Hodges translated the poem for us, thank the lord, and helped us figure out what exactly was going on. Here is what I got out of it; The Giaour was in love with one of Hassan's harlots but the Giaour and Leila's affair did not make Hassan happy. When he found out Leila had betrayed him he tied her up and threw her in the ocean to die. The Giaour decided he didn't like that very much so he chopped Hassan's head in half. Little did he know Hassan would be having a great time in the afterlife while he was miserable on earth sulking over his dead lover, Leila. The Giaour should have never taken revenge on Hassan because he had to live with the guilt, along with the pain of losing his loved one. Hassan would have eventually got what he deserved had the Giaour not killed him. As passionate as the Giaour was making the priests mad on his death bed also not a great idea. If you ask me the Giaour was setting himself up for misery and was a real Debi downer for the rest of his life.

Reading Twilight

I saw this article on the Arkansas Newswire today, and I thought of y'all. The study argues that high school students are reading books that are far below their reading level. As we've noticed over the course of the semester, Twilight seems to be a particular punching bag for those who have problems with the millennial generation overall. As the article notes,

Some examples of popular books written at a fifth-grade level include Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Twilight, To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies.

What do you think about Dr. Stostky's recommendation?

She feels that the system must increasingly challenge students in every subject they take, including the literature curriculum. Assigning books with low reading levels to upper-grade students is not conducive to this goal, even if the books have mature interest levels.

Does Twilight challenge high school students? Is it really at a fifth-grade reading level? What type of books or texts do you think high school students should read?