We have now come to the end of our blogging journey. I do hope you had
an interesting and engaging time using the technology to apply concepts
learned in class to your own reading.
For our last blog task, you are going to assume the role of a character in a novel
you have read for class this semester. Imagine he/she has been surfing
the net, and happened upon your blog and read your entries.
CONSIDER:
What
would he/she have to contribute to the discussion surrounding the
journey and its stages?
What would he/she write as a response?
What tone (attitude of the speaker) and dictionwould your character use?
Your character can respond to your blog in general about the journey archetype or the character can respond to a specific blog entry. If you decide to do the latter, be sure to identify the blog entry addressed in your opening sentence. Remember, your character has NOT been studying the archetypal journey and characters found in literature, like you have this semester. Therefore, he/she would be reacting to your insights about this approach to stories, and he/she would be making text to self or text to world connections.
In the movie Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon plays a Harvard grad and math genius who has lost his way. Robin Williams plays his psychologist and mentor in the film. Check it out! It's a great movie from the late 90's.
A young Miep Gies
"Behind every success story is either a coach, parent, teacher, friend, or some other person who is the hero's mentor" (Heroes). This week, consider the mentors you have encountered as you have read your novels this year. As we saw in Freedom Writers,
there can be many mentors in a story, and they don't always have to be
someone who is alive or someone whom the protagonist has met. Anne Frank
and Miep Gies (the woman who hid Anne) were mentors for the Erin
Gruwell's students.
Discuss one or two significant mentors
from your novels. You should
compare and/or explain the reasons they are mentors for your protagonist-heroes.
describe the ways in which they
provide support, new knowledge, or inspiration for your characters.
select the mentors you find particularly memorable and justify your choice.
For one of your ideas, provide a QUOTATION (Note: this is the last blog that will use a quotation) as support.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is an archetypal mentor as seen in the Star Wars films. He guides, teaches, and protects Luke Skywalker. He is one of only four characters to appear in all six of the original movies.
What exactly does this stage of the archetypal journey look like?
The hero, hearing the call to the adventure, intially may hesitate, reluctant to leave the comfort and tasks of his/her everyday existence.
Why? Perhaps he/she does not see the importance of the call because
he/she is engrossed in his/her current life. Perhaps he/she has
responsibilities or does not want to leave his/her family.
Ask yourself this: Why are certain steps in the archetypal journey, specifically refusal of the call, significant to contemporary narratives?
SOME POSSIBLE ANSWERS
(So consider if they apply to your novel)
*
In your novel, if you have already experienced your hero's call to
adventure, and his/her refusal to respond positively to that call, has
this refusal frustrated you or the other characters, creating tension in
the story?
* The inclusion of the hero's refusal may make him more human and make us further bond with him/her. The refusal may also illustrate the hero's initial frail state, before the transformation occurs in his/her journey.
* The refusal may be linked to an important part of the plot. There may have been some significant conflict
(a tragedy or a disturbance) that has occurred. The hero is initially
shocked by this, so he/she refuses the call while he/she bargains for
some alternative (such as sending someone else).
YOUR TASK:
Identify
the event that represents the refusal of the call in your current
novel. Considering the above ideas and reasons, attempt to explain the
significance of the event you have identified. For your explanation, remember my advice for justifying the importance of an event or character: simply stating that "if ____________ would not have been in the story, _______________ would not have happened, or ______________ would not be like this." This is weak logic and does not show insightful thinking. Justify the significance of an element by linking its existence to another element of text (characterization, suspense, reader engagement, plot development, theme etc.)
The ordinary world is the place where he or she feels the most comfortable and safe. For example, in the movie Up,
Carl's ordinary world, leading up to his journey, includes meeting and
marrying his love Ellie, painting the house, working towards the
adventure of Paradise Falls, losing a child, but then having to spend
the money on other needs.
Using a book you are currently reading (or have just finished), describe the protagonist's ordinary world.
Identify and describe the protagonist and then describe the key elements in his/her ordinary world, including people and objects.
Once you have described the protagonist's ordinary world, select an appropriate image to help convey the character's feelings for the people and objects in their ordinary world , and a direct quotation from the book to help your classmates see how the protagonist reacts to and functions within his or her ordinary world.
Consider how you might answer the following prompts before you select and provide an explanation for the image and quotation:
What pressures exist for the character in his/her ordinary world? Who creates conflict or peace here? Which elements create the most or least comfort? Why is the character reluctant or excited to leave this world behind? etc.....
_________________________________
Make sure that you use the proper citations for this borrowed material (author, title page) for a direct quotation and MLA style bibliography for the image from the Internet (see link for: Easybib).
The MLA style Bibliographic entry for the the house image selected for this page is:"Up! House Image" KSL Radio. KSL.com, 29 Nov. 2011. Web. 01 May 2012. The proper MLA bibliographic format for citing websites is:
Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site.
Version number. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the
site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available).
Medium of publication. Date of access.
? What Greek myth is mentioned in the first verse of this song?
? What 90's movie is this originally from?
____________________________________
____________________________________
During
our study of the hero thus far, we
have looked at the classic
definition of the
hero and applied this to an ancient story, that of a Greek hero.
This week, talk about the hero of one of your novels - or an emerging hero. What qualities do you see in your protagonist that you might consider to be (or will become) heroic in nature?
Expand your view of what it means to be a herofrom our archetypal study; what other qualities do you see in your novel's characters that are heroic?
In an organized paragraph, respond to the prompts above, and include an excerpt from the novel to help you support your claims. Be sure to also include a proper citation. A Student Example... I see Danny's mother, Catherine as the hero in my book, The Second Trial. She is very strong and independent because she was able to leave and report her abusive husband to the authorities, which can be a difficult thing to do, especially when you have children with that person. She has moved past all that, and even though her son Danny is extremely angry with her for making them move, she continues to fight for a good life. During a tense argument with her son, readers can see the determination of this mother: "Catherine closed her eyes and bowed her head. She looked up at him and half-whispered, 'Please, I don't want to do all this and have to fight you too' " (Boll 102).
To me, a hero is someone who perseveres through certain struggles and makes a difference, in both his/her life, and in the lives of others. Her strength, perseverance, and courage are what make her a hero.
We have just reviewed character archetypes in class.
For the seven archetypes, you have highlighted the main points in the descriptions of the archetypes, found examples of the character archetypes in ancient and modern stories, applied the characteristics to a family member, andlinked them to career paths.
This week, let's examine what possible character archetypes are present in the novel(s) you have read so far.
The Shapeshifter
SELECT one of the characters you have met through reading, IDENTIFY the archetype he or she is most like, and DESCRIBE how he/she exemplifies the qualities of that archetype.
N.B. Do NOT choose theHERO, as we will be examining and exploring this archetype in classes to follow.
If
you find that the character you select shares some qualities of an
archetypal character, but generally is very different from the
definition you have been given, you may also wish to discuss how the character is atypicalof the archetypal characteristics.
The Herald
PROVE IT:
Incorporate at least one well chosen excerpt (direct quote) from the novel to help support the ideas in your comparison.
Remember to begin your post
by introducing the book source and the author by title and name, and
properly citing this source following your direct quotation (Author, Title page #). ______________________________________________________ Here are a couple of examples from last year to help you get started...
In the novel, The Gathering by Kelly Armstrong, one of the characters named Rafael is a perfect example of a shapeshifter. He can physically shift into a cougar, but he also shifts his loyalty in order to achieve what he wants. You never really know if he is telling the truth. Often he wants information from Maya, the hero. He changes his attitude and honesty to makes himself irresistible, so she will let her gaurd down and fall for him. In the beginning, Rafael is trying to be the cool guy, but to get Maya under his controls, he acts more like himself.
Rafael could also be Maya's mentor beacuse he helps explain many of the questions she has about herself: "Real skin-walkers, like us, go back to before Columbus 'discovered' America. It's a kind of supernatural race. We're born into a family of skin-walkers" (Armstrong, The Gathering 251).
In the novel The Perfect Cut, by Julie Burtinshaw, the protagonist's father is an example of the SHADOW. Bryan's dad always treats Bryan and his mother badly, and he makes Bryan feel worthless and unwanted. He makes Bryan feel like his son will never compare to his late daughter Michelle. Bryan's father is part of the reason Bryan suffers from depression, which is why he could be considered the shadow. Bryan's father is rude, cold hearted, and insensitive. His father is all around a negative person to be around, and I think this represents the shadow.
In the following excerpt, the reader has access to the mother's internal thoughts, giving insight to the effect that Bryan's dad has on him: "She reflects on how Bryan just looks down when Dad berates him, how he does exactly what he's told, even if he disagrees, how he almost believes that he is as useless as Dad intimates" (Burtinshaw 52).
Since the start of the year, we have been examining different motifs
and patterns developed in ancient stories and how these patterns are
duplicated in our contemporary storytelling. These motifs and patterns
help us to connect strongly to past and present stories. We have seen
this week how J.K Rowling connects and synthesizes her knowledge of
ancient stories and history with details from her own life to create the
fictional world of Harry Potter. The 100+ million readers of the Harry
Potter series have certainly shown us that this can be a powerful
connection.
This week I want you to write a
blog post where you discuss a part of your novel that reminds you of
something else or connects in some way to a personal experience, to what is
going on in the world, or to another text (media, digital or written).
What I want you to do is make a personal, textual,
and/or worldly connection to the novel you are reading.
By
discussing these connections, you will be showing how you can synthesize
(= bring together unlike or like parts to make meaning) concepts and
texts.
AS PROCESS:
If you are not familiar with the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, watch this winning video made for the book as an entry for a contest.
Then watch this interview with Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief.
Listen carefully for insights into the connections he has made to the
reality of his own life, and then presented as fiction in his award
winning novel.
NOW COMPOSE YOUR POST:
Step 1: To begin your entry,
select a brief quotation (20-30 words) from the section of your book
that connects you to some other experience. Be sure that you use
"quotation marks" around the direct quotation, and that you provide a
proper citation following the quote using the correct format (Author's Last Name, Title Page #) .
Step 2: In the body of your entry, make
the connection you have made clear to your readers (max 100 words).
Here you are to explain with specific details the type of connection you
are making to your novel.
Step 3: Add an image, a video or a link to text that illustrates or emphasizes the connection you have just made with your novel. A good introduction to posting videos is to use a video from youtube.com. Here's how you do it.
On the posting tool bar, select the director's clapboard and this will take you to the necessary page.
Select "From YouTube", then type in your search words. Choose a video and then press the "select button". This action will immediately paste the video into your post. Voilà !
To get you started, think about how you would finish this paragraph:
The
(character, event, place) reminds me of (a place, a real event,
another person/character, another text, a real world situation) in the
following ways . . . . __________________________________________________
Here are two student samples, one with a video and one with a link to a newspaper article:
Student #1
"Reef takes a deep breath. 'I need you to stay away from the street kids who hang out at Safe Haven Unitarian Church on Eighth Avenue Southeast' '" (Aker, The Fifth Rule 5).
From this story of a teenage boy trying to improve his life after years of overcoming obstacles, I am seeing an excellent example of a significant character trait from real life. In this section of the novel, I see how Reef the main character has done some bad things in his life, but he has changed over the last 10 years. He learns from the his past and tries to be a better person. In doing so, he develops the character traits of perseverance, and being kind and caring person to others. This gives hope to teen readers who may be struggling with social issues like drug and alcohol abuse.
I think the outcome of the character (Reef) will be a positive one because he has learned from his mistakes and he is trying to be a better person which will help in his future and in the story.
As a text to another text connection, I picked the song "The Climb" because the song is about falling down, but it also says to never give up and to keep climbing until you get to the top. Reef doesn't give up, even when he fails, and he keeps climbing until he achieves his goal.
Student #2
" Illegal Fireworks Suspected in Church Blaze: Pastor Injured
Wrightsville
Beach, NC - A fire destroyed historic First Baptist Church on New
Year's Eve, and investigators suspect illegal fireworks" (Sparks,
The Last Song 3).
One
of the main events that happens in this book is the fire that burns
down the church. It connects many of the other events that happen in
the novel. Two teenage boys used illegal fireworks and were responsible
for the fire. This reminds me of a newspaper article I read about two
men in east Texas who were charged with intentionally setting fire to
a church and were suspected in a string of similar blazes.
The outbreak started with a fire set New Year's Day, which is also
similar to the book because the fire in the novel was set New Years'
Eve. This is one of the text - to - world connections I made while
reading The Last Song.
We are four weeks into our blogging adventure. This week will be a chance for you to take a moment to reevaluate your work thus far...
As you can see on the left hand side of this page, links to your blogs are now posted on our class blog. If yours is not there, you need to see me so we can add it.
For those of you who have not posted three blogs, use this time to catch up. For those who have published three blogs, use this week as an opportunity to revisit your work and make some improvements.
In general, here are some suggestions for you based on the brief view I had of your blogs when adding them as links:
All book titles should be italicized. i.e. The Hunger Games
If you look at the rubric, you can see that proper use of language conventions will be evaluated. Your blog posts should be written in full sentences with proper spelling, punctuation, and good word choice (specific nouns and vivid verbs).
If you would like a guideline of what merits a level 4, go to the page entitled "Posts: Achieving a Level Four" (look for the tab at the top of the home page) that has examples of Level 4 answers.
Be sure to read the instructions carefully and fulfill all the requirements. Specifically...
Blog Post #1: Ensure that the quotation you chose appears under the name of your blog on the home page. Instructions on how to do this are given. Also, in addition to explaining the quotation's connection to your reading philosophy and habits, provide specific details about your life as a reader, both now and in the early days.
Blog Post #2: You are to have one paragraph giving a summary of the novel's content; another paragraph should have a brief review. Refer specifically to the novel as much as possible.
Blog Post #3: For this post, perhaps experiment a bit with adding images like I have done on this post. Add an image that represents your motif or your novel. One of the requirements of the Independent Novel Study blog is to add media features like clips, images, and aesthetic elements.
With the creation and presentation of the posters, you now have a clearer understanding of
the motifs and how these patterns are found in ancient texts, as well as modern stories and
film. Now, see how these motifs are present in the novel you are currently reading.
For example, I have just finished reading the novel If I Stay by Gayle Norman.
In this story, the protagonist (main character) spends much of the novel in the hospital where her body lies in a coma after a tragic accident. Her spirit agonizes over the decision to pass into the afterlife, or to continue her life here on Earth. Therefore, the novel explores the mystique of life after death, and hypothesizes on the benefits of seeking peace in another world. Although we do not see this novel's version of the AFTERLIFE, the motif certainly does influence the story line and the character's development.
Refer to the list of motifs discussed in class (found in the handout "What is a Myth"?) Discuss how one of these motifs is represented in your novel (represented indicates that it may simply have some link or connection in your novel, like my example above). In your post include:
Name of the novel
Motif represented in the the novel
Context of the motif (how it fits into the story line)
As your second blog post you will be writing two short concise paragraphs about what you have read, or are currently reading.
Start by finding, saving and uploading a picture of the cover of your book. I am currently reading a novel called TheParis Wife byPaula McLain, pictured here:
Once
you have found a cover picture online, you will need to:
1. Use the"SAVE
AS"command to save the photo in your"PICTURE"folder of your"H
drive".
2. Click on the "INSERT IMAGE" (little Picture) on the tool bar. Upload the file from your H Drive.
Make sure you copy and paste the source for the cover art - we want to credit any work that is not our own.
I obtained the original image of this cover from searching Google Images. I
then clicked on "Website for this image" in order to find the source of
the picture. You CANNOT CITE GOOGLE IMAGES as the source for graphics,
images, photos etc. Cite the website from which Google found the
image.
(ANOTHER OPTION:
I have also made the cover a link by adding the original site of the cover, using the "Link
button" on the toolbar. Click on the cover and see where it takes you.
Once you have posted your picture you can begin Blog Post #2:
INTRODUCTION: In your first sentence identify the title and author of the book. Please note that you need to properly punctuate the title of your novel - use italics.
A SUMMARY: Your first paragraph should be a 50-60 word summary
of the book. If you haven't finished reading your book yet, summarize
what you have read so far. A summary is a brief description of the
major events of the book. It is general and does not contain specific
examples of any of the plot. Look Here for some examples of concise and precise summaries).
A REVIEW: Your second paragraph should be a 50-60 word reviewof the book. I would suggest that you take a look at the format and style of some reviews before
you begin to write. You only have 50-60 words, so use them wisely.
Your main purpose is to explain, with specific reasons, your views of
the book.
Please
remember that all of your posts should go on your own blog, rather
than the class blog. The class blog will be used only for instructional
purposes.
Before you get started, have you done the following?
1.
Read the pages on blog basics, etiquette and guidelines for
blogging? (These are located at the top of the class blog home page,
identified with tabs)? 2. Checked out the page entitled "Posts: Achieving a Level Four"? 3.
Added me as a reader to your blog? If not, go into your dashboard
and select "Settings" and then "Permissions". Make your blog private,
but add me as a reader with the email address msjraleigh@gmail.com.
4. On the layout page, have you added the gadget entitled, "Blog List" and added the class blog (eng1d2012.blogspot.ca). This will allow you to access the blog each week with a mere click of the mouse!
NOW,find a quote on the internet that displays well yourfeelings about books, or your relationship with books.Once
you have found a perfect quotation, add it as the subheading of your blog
(give credit to the author of the quote as well). In my "Links"
list, I have given you two websites that have lots of quotations. HOW TO ADD THE QUOTATION: You will need to go your dashboard where you will find
your "'Settings" button. This will allow you to change your title and
add the quotation as the description of the blog.
THEN as your first blog post
, explain why you selected the quotation you have chosen. Make a personal
connection to the quotation and what it tells your readers about you and
your relationship to reading. Be sure to include the quote itself as
well as the author and a link to the sourceyou borrowed it from.
Here's an example of a level four response to this assignment:
"In
the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you
can get through, but how many can get through to you." -Mortimer Adler
I
do not read books as if it's a competition to see who can get to the
end the fastest. It doesn't even have to be books; they can be articles,
myths or anything written. For you can read something quickly
countless times, but still know nothing of what it is saying. Instead
,why don't you take a few extra moments, read it more slowly, then you
take in all of what the words are saying to you and then later you
don't keep having to flip back to the text saying: "I read this in this
part, but what did it say"? Then you have to spend more time on it. I
know people who race through many books a week and enjoy them, but then
you ask them what it meant, and they don't know. Some people are okay
with not knowing exactly what the book was trying to convey, but that's
not me. I would rather read one book and take it apart word for word.
If I don't do that, then I don't see a point. Books are written to
serve a purpose. If books don't tell you something or if they don't
give you that feeling that hits you deep down, then it's not the
author's fault, it's yours. So search for it, and then let the meaning
get through to you .
