Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & A Tangled Tale


Blog #5

CRAZINESS!!

Both books that were assigned for this weeks reading A Tangled Tale and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland were very…interesting to say the least.

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
I remember hearing about the Disney movie Alice in Wonderland as a child, but I don’t think I have ever seen it. I am pretty sure I didn’t see it because of all the weird things I heard about it and I didn’t want to have nightmares. So I was interested to see what the book was going to be like. To be honest, I am not a fan of the book. From the moment I picked up the book, it all seemed very strange to me. If I am going to read a book, which is rare, I want to read something that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside with a happy ending. And this book, was definitely not that. From Alice sliding down what seemed like a never-ending rabbit hole, to nearly drowning in her own tears, I was a bit freaked out by the weirdness of the story and wondered where Alice would end up. When I was about half way through the book, I was thinking “how in the heck is this supposed to be related to math,” but then I remembered that we don’t necessarily have to read the book from the point of view of a teacher, so I just kept reading. At the end of the story, I have to say that I was pleased to know that all of Alice’s adventures were a dream! After looking back at the story after reading it, I can kind of see some of the logic in all of the illogicalness. From Alice figuring out how to shrink to be able to fit through the door to figuring out how to grow to get the key, there is eventually logic behind her actions. But, like I said earlier, I am not a fan of this book and would probably not recommend it to my students.

A Tangled Tale
I thought Alice was confusing…oh my goodness! This book was horrible! It took me FOREVER to read this book! Every time I read just one page, I had to go back and read it again. I had such a hard time following all the knots and solutions and what not. This book is a perfect example of why I do not like to read. I know that I would never use this book in a classroom, because if I did, my students would hate me for confusing them! If I couldn’t understand what was going on, I know that the majority of middle school students will not be able to figure it out either. I am also not a fan of old English language. Yes, I understand that the book is full of problems, or knots, that we are trying to figure out, but I know I can find problems for my students to think about logically and figure out without completely confusing them, making them hate math. I hate to be so negative but I really did not enjoy this book!

References:
Carroll, L. The best of lewis carrol. New York, NY: Castle Books.

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