Final Reflection for HAS Portfolio

Please answer each question in paragraph form. Be sure to write clear, detailed and specific responses.

1. How have you grown as a critical thinker and communicator this year?
2. Which of our units of study have you found most helpful in defining American identity?
3. Discuss the role you played in class. Assess your participation throughout the year.
4. How have your reading and writing skills developed over the course of the year?
5. Which of the essential questions for this course was most compelling to you? Why?

Course essential questions:
• What does it mean to be an American?
• How can groups with different values and norms exist in the same space?
• How is history remembered by those who experience it?
• What is truth and who gets to tell it?


6. Your final literature question:

This year, we read three novels: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, The Things They Carried, and The Great Gatsby. Though they are books that discuss very different themes, topics and ideas, there are also some potentially major overarching ideas, as well. Some people might argue that, in the end, these are all books about LOVE. (Yes, you heard that correctly.) Think beyond romantic love--think about things like brotherly love, love of self, love of country, etc.

For this assignment, you'll write a detailed analytical paragraph, using SPA format.
Your question: Do you agree that these are all books about LOVE? If so, please explain and analyze. If you disagree, tell me what you think they're all about instead. (You must pick ONE idea that fits all three books, and analyze it.) Please don't write "I agree" or "I disagree" in your topic statement--just write a clear topic statement that shares the topic of your paragraph.

Wanna see some shirts fly? Or some fly shirts? See both here!

Here it is: from the 1974 movie version of The Great Gatsby, the tea party scene, culminating in a bizarro flurry of fancy European shirts! This movie version stars the dashing Robert Redford as Gatsby, the doe-eyed Mia Farrow as Daisy, and the eventual-Manhattan-D.A.-on-Law-and-Order Sam Waterston as Nick.



Take a look, and, if you want a couple of extra credit points for English, respond below with your critique. What works or doesn't work about the scene, as compared with the text version presented in Chapter 5? Include specific details--maybe even a quotation?