This class was my first introduction class to start off my freshman year at Longwood. I was excited for this class specifically because it was going to be centered around The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, and I loved the books and movies when they came out. My first thought was that this class was going to be just another English/Seminar class, where we read the book and discussed our favorite parts of the book, and for the most part, that was what we did. However, there was a special aspect to this class that allowed us to get deeper into what the story of The Hunger Games was all about, and how the morals and dilemmas in the story related to our everyday lives.
Our daily journal entries of the book allowed us to reflect on what we read in the chapter, as well as connect our readings to the world around us. We were also assigned 2 “minute talk” assignments, where we would present in front of the class the synopsis of what happened in our assigned chapters, the significance, and an outside source that related to the significance of that chapter. These assignments were helpful in opening my eyes to the world around me, and how this fictional parallel world is not as exotic and far-fetch as it may seem.
Below I have included an artifact of one of the minute talks that I provided during the class, based on chapters 14-18 of the novel Catching Fire, where I discuss the evidence of defiance and unity. This shows how the application to the real world from events in the book occurs, and it overall helped me become more in-tune to the world around me and become aware of events that are occurring outside my own backyard.