Reflections

Some student reflections about the making of the Study Guide " I would have to say that yes, I did learn more about the book than what I had expected to. Since I did sensational sixties, I would have to say that I kind of knew more about the sixties and how it was related to the book (before actually reading the book); what I mean is about how white people were calling out names to black people, the Vietnam War, the election on black people being able to vote, etc. There were a few things that I did particularly enjoy, I enjoyed writing the chapter summary, I found it an interesting yet a hard process, I’ve never written a chapter summary before (or at least I don’t remember ever writing one) so I kind of feel a bit proud that what I have written sounds alright. I also enjoyed reading what everyone else wrote for their chapter summary and how they wrote it or just looking over The Secret Life of Bees study guide page. The things I did not enjoy doing were actually reading the book, the book was alright but I just don’t really like reading that much; unless it is a book (or series of books) that I love. Some other comments, I would have to say that this was fun, I wish to do it again, or at least let the other years do it too. It is a great way of learning and remembering the book."

" Even though I didn’t particularly like the book I think by doing the chapter summaries I learnt a lot about it. It gave me a chance to look at how other people interpreted the book and the chapters they read. In learnt that people can view things differently even though we all read the same book we took different things away from it and learnt different things. The thing I enjoyed most about this book is I learnt more about the 60’s and more about the Negros fighting for rights. The thing I didn’t like about reading this book is I found it a bit slow and it took a lot of will power to continue reading it. There were parts in it that I found boring and un-necessary but I continued to read it and I found that the ending was very enjoyable which I found particularly good because I hate books with bad endings."

"By reading the chapter summaries I did learn more about the book. I learnt more because it gave me a brief outline of all the chapters and summed up the book in not many words at all. Also by reading the summaries I learnt some interesting things because while reading the book I didn’t take everything in, so by reading them I found out some things that I didn’t notice while reading. I can’t say I enjoyed it, but I didn’t hate it either. I prefer to type up things instead of writing them as it is easier to change things around if you want to or if you made a mistake to change it. It also helps me take things in better and it looks neater when typed up. It was good to be able to read other people’s summaries as it gave you a brief idea of what you have to write. I didn’t like that I was meant to do a chapter summary on chapter 11 even though I hadn’t read that part of the book because it ruined the ending for me. I think it is a pretty good idea to do chapter summaries as it outlines the chapter for you."

" writing the study guide it helped me learn more into the book and it made it all easy to remember because it was short summary of the book that I could refer back too. I learnt that summarizing a book is an easier way of understanding it and breaking it down. I didn’t really enjoy much but I did prefer doing things on the internet and typing rather then writing the study guide helped me get to know the book and the characters better and helped me to understand what was going on. I didn’t really not enjoy anything I think it’s better than writing. I learnt that everyone sees the book differently and seeing the other classes summaries made it better to understand too and gave you an idea for writing our own summaries. Over all I think it was good and it was a great way of getting to understand the book the characters and the plot."

" By reading the study guide, I did learn more about the book then I expected to because it described the book in small but deep detail and an easy to understand modern language that teenagers like me use. I didn’t learn any interesting things, and there was nothing I really enjoyed about doing it, I mean I was just writing about a chapter in the book and looking at other peoples opinions that I didn’t really care about cause at the end of the day my opinion is the only one I stick with. I didn’t like writing about the chapter and getting bad criticism which doesn’t help me improve. This book isn’t too bad though it’s kind of cool to read about stuff in the sixties and how girls my age lived back in the day. I haven’t read much of the book because I have nothing to motivate me to read because I don’t enjoy it, so this study guide is very cleaver because I don’t have to read the book, I can just read the study guide and get a brief understanding. This study guide is helpful because teenagers these days are better at using computers and the internet then text book and writing."

" I am actually not surprised at all that we all managed to write up to 3,700 words, because there are like 14 chapters, so you know, it’s pretty easy to do so.   I did not put a link on my chapter, because I did everything by myself and I had very little time to do so.  To be honest I didn’t really learn anything else because I have read the ok and I would’ve wrote something similar to the other chapter summaries.  Whilst I wrote my chapter summary, I learnt that Zach really does love her, and I thought it was cute that they had a necklace to represent their love for each other though they couldn’t be together as a couple. It’s kind of motivating, how they show love through it. I liked how we did it over the computer because writing on a piece of paper, doesn’t always help you say a lot of things because when you type on the computer it is quicker and faster and is always easier to say much more things. It was interesting to see how other people summarised up a chapter when it could be a little bit different to you, but I got the same vibe from the chapters as the other students who summarised them up."