Mindset

One of our greatest fears besides public speaking or walking down the street in our birthday suits is failure.  Most people see failure as hitting bottom or as a loss of status.  Some see it as a bruise on the ego, a blemish on the slate we try so hard to keep so polished.  But, failure is more than all of those.  

This video, The Power of belief,  is going to introduce you to a term called mindset.  There are two types--fixed and growth.  Watch this video and determine what mindset you are. 

 Then, think of how you allow your own internal dialogue to sabotage or to empower you.  Does your internal dialogue foster one type of mindset over another?  Does your mindset change or is it consistent?  Explain how your mindset works to help you achieve or halt your progress.  The last thing I want you to consider is how you can change your mindset? 

This post should be about you reflecting on your mindset, and it should be done in about two paragraphs.   

The Way We Read

The way we read is personal to each of us.  It is indicative of the way we think, the way that we process information, and the way we engage with the thoughts of others.  It is an intimate relationship, the comments between a reader and a writer.  It is a conversation that exists as King would say as a result of "telepathy" or a conversation that simply tells the writer, "I hear you."  

I cannot read without a pen anymore.  The inability to read and mark in my text is as though someone has tried to silence my voice.  So, I often find myself cradling a book as I walk through the house searching for a pencil or pen so that the conversation may begin.  I can hear your chuckles or even perhaps your doubt.  But what I tell you is true.  To read without marking on the page, in the margins or between the lines is akin to pushing the mute button on your own voice.

Your assignment this week is to go to this link from Brian Pickings (click the title). Read the page and then listen to Billy Collins read his poem titled "Marginalia."  Think about the tracks you leave on the page.  How do you read a text?  Are you passive?  Do you pose questions?  Do you truly engage the author?  

In your post, explain  how you read?  Describe your markings, what they mean, and how you make sense of the text.  Be honest with yourself and the group. If you do not mark anything while you read, explain why you choose to be passive.  Really think about this.  Then describe how you chose to mark up your books for summer reading.  This should be about two solid paragraphs: one for the way you read and then one for your summer reading.  Then in one to two sentences, pull a favorite line from "Marginalia" and explain why you like it.  

Enjoy listening to Billy Collins.  

Mirror

Analyze this poem without using any other sources or consulting any other person's opinion.

Analyze the poem to determine how the author uses point of view and figurative language to provide commentary on women in society.

Your post should be two to three paragraphs in length with quotes to back up your argument. Your thinking should be your own.

Should need to refresh how to analyze poetry click here.  Choose the writing about literature link:) 

Mirror

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful ‚
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.

-Sylvia Plath