My analysis

Creating and Communicating

During the start of our unit on The Simpsons, Mr. Cook went over the literary devices we would see while watching the show, this helped me pick them up as I knew what terminology and setup they had. Seeing irony, allusion, and satire in action enhanced my understanding of their uses and how they can make a moment carry more weight or depth. Now I understand that when Bart says “Humour thy name is Krusty” he doesn’t actually mean that Krusty’s name is humour, he is just making an allusion to Hamlet saying “Fragility thy name is woman”, which is comedy within itself because Bart not only has no knowledge of Shakespeare’s work but is also illiterate. I was able to express my ideas by making use of a rough draft before I began writing my good copy; I also made notes of moments that carried weight and moments I felt I could use in my essay while watching. I also referenced the episodes: “Krusty Gets Busted” and “Homer the Heretic” to further strengthen my understanding of the literary devices as well as strengthen the points I brought up in my writing. After completing my written work I went skimmed over my text looking for any obvious corrections; then after completing that I went home and let my thoughts and ideas build up in my head so that when I came back the next day I could edit with further clarity and precision.

Core Competency Reflection

I can contribute to and work with criteria to improve my own work; evidence of that is I build my arguments and ideas based on the requirements of the assignment meaning that often I touch on all of the necessary points I need to in order to obtain full marks. Looking through the rubric first gives me a strong understanding of what is being asked of me and how I can not only achieve but exceed the expectations of the assignment. I remain open-minded as I explore viable options or alternative approaches, like when I realized nearing the start of my writing that my original idea didn’t fully represent the question of “What makes The Simpsons so successful?” so I didn’t give up or lose the will to complete the assignment, instead I found out how much of my work I could change slightly so it fit the question better and worked around it to create an essay that relates back to the question, my title, and my thesis statement. An example of when I built upon someone else’s ideas is when I was struggling to find a suitable title for my essay so I asked my mom for help and with her idea of relating the title to “the dominance, The Simpsons carried through the 20th century” I was able to construct a title that embodied my thesis statement and draws any potential reader in.