12/20/17 - Daily Blog

Today in class Mr. Rivers first told us about a seating chart form he posted on classroom. It was a simple way of getting feedback on where we sit and if we like it. It's preferred to complete it before the end of the week. Mr. Rivers then went to talk about what we learned yesterday, and how we will go from talking about allegories to themes. He also said that our goal was to determine the allegory and analyze and make sense of it to finding the theme. We then re-watched the 3 minute clip from The Wire about the chess game. The point of this was so that we can look for topics that we can turn into themes as well as thing about what are the argument this allegory makes

Our class came up with the following notes:
Literal → Figurative
Pawn → Footsoldier in the drug gang
King → Leader of the gang - can be only one
Castle → drug stash
Queen → Gets stuff done
Topics - Social hierarchy, drug gangs, war/drug wars, poverty, social awareness, deconcentration of drugs

Mr. Rivers then told us to talk in our group and make 2-3 assertions of the topics listed. In my group, there were only two assertions written, "Social awareness - Social awareness might enlighten someone about their place in life, but it won't necessarily help them change." and "Poverty - It's easy to fall into poverty but not to get out of it".
Once we all said out points, we moved onto Net Neutrality. Mr. Rivers posted three articles about net neutrality and we were told to find connections between Ready Player One and real life. We were given the rest of class to read a specific article in our group out-loud and find points to make. We are expected to come into school tomorrow prepare to talk more about net neutrality and how is connect to Ready Player One.

There's a fairly clear way we can build off of what we learned in class today, and a two of them are finding themes, topics, or allegories in shows, as well as comparing fictional texts to reality. With the rising topic of net neutrality, the articles Mr. Rivers made us read gave us more information about to the topic and learning what will happen if net neutrality is taken away. This is not only informing us on current events, but is relevant to us in both school and personal life. Finding allegories and topics in shows is also something that can help outside of school. By being able to recognize topics and compare them to reality, it gives more depth into what you are watching.