THE TIME OF MY LIFE

At the start of class today, I read the journal topic and started brainstorming in the journal entry what I could do with the period so that it would benefit my education and improve my understanding of the two Dickens novels, The Tale of  Two Cities and Great Expectations.  In the middle of my entry, Daniel was asking who had read Great Expectations so that they could explain the main plot of the book to him so he could better understand the lecture that Dr. Preston gave in class yesterday and months before.  I needed to know more about The Tale of Two Cities, since I had read Great Expectations instead, so we came up with the solution that the groups who had read one novel would summarize it to the other groups who hadn't and vice versa.  I told him, however, that everyone needed more time to work on the journals.  Once I finished today's journal entry, I finished another entry from the day before that I wasn't able to complete in class. After ten minutes, Daniel and Jake got up in front of the class, and we got the class to quiet down and pay attention as they told us the main story line of The Tale of Two Cities, including characters, theme, and the symbol of the wine, which has a dual meaning of blood as well as wine.  When they had finished, I volunteered to summarize the first half of Great Expectations in front of the class and did so for the next ten minutes, answering any questions the class had, as Daniel and Jake had done before.  Rachel completed the summary of the book, and we made sure to mention the change in the characters. (i.e. how Magwich turns from a criminal into a benefactor due to Pip (bad to good), while Pip turns from a shy boy to an arrogant man (good to bad) due to the money that his benefactor Magwich gives him)  Those plot discussions went on until class ended.