HAPPY SPRING BREAK! You have reached the end of Week 8 of the semester, which means the semester is more than half-way over - and it is time for Spring Break! The Week 8 Read and Respond assignment (blog commenting) is available now, along the other end-of-week assignments for Week 8, but they are not due until the weekend after Spring Break, March 22. For those of you who are working ahead, Week 9 and Week 10 are available during this time as well.
Storybook Stack. If you turned in a Storybook on or before Wednesday, you should have comments back from me and points recorded in the Gradebook. If you turned something in on Thursday or before noon on Friday, I will get comments back to you before Spring Break. During Spring Break, I won't be reading any Storybook assignments, so if you turn something in during Spring Break, it will go into the stack and I'll update the contents of the stack first thing on Monday morning, March 23.
Working ahead on your Storybook. If you want to work ahead on your Storybook, please do so! You can actually write the second and third and fourth stories over Spring Break if you want, and have them all lined up and ready to go. Your second story is due at the end of Week 8 (right after Spring Break), with the third story in Week 10, and then the fourth and final story in Week 12 - but there is no reason why you should wait if you are wanting to get ahead in the class. Especially for those of you who want to finish up the class early, getting ahead on your Storybook project is one of the best ways to do that.
Shortening a LONG story. (repeat announcement) Quite a few of you have struggled with finding a way to take a very long original story as your source (it is not uncommon for fairy tales to be 2000 or 3000 words long, or even more) and to turn that long source into a story that is 1000 words long. There's one strategy that almost always works - which is to NOT EVEN LOOK at the source story while you are writing. Instead, read the source story once just to get a first impression. Then, read the story again, and take notes, by hand - make them brief notes, no complete sentences, and absolutely no quotes. Only take notes about what matters to the plot - no descriptions, no direct speech, just the plot and characters. Then, write your version of the story, from your notes only, and do NOT LOOK at the original story at all. Keep your version short. Then, if you end up with some words to spare, go back and add in details and description where you think they will be most effective.
Fall 2009 enrollment. (repeat announcement) I know that many of you are graduating this spring (congratulations!), but for those of you who will be in school next year, I wanted to give you a chance to reserve a place in one of these online classes for Fall, if you are interested. The online courses all fill up very fast, but if you let me know BY MARCH 25 that you would like to take one of these classes in the Fall, I will reserve a space for you. You can get more information about each of the three classes at MythFolklore.net, which links to the websites for each class.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Thursday, March 12
Today is Thursday of WEEK 8 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 7 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that on Thursday morning for partial credit. For those of you in Myth-Folklore or World Lit, Thursday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Wednesday. (Indian Epics has no Wednesday assignments, so there is no Thursday morning grace period.)
Fall 2009 enrollment. I know that many of you are graduating this spring (congratulations!), but for those of you who will be in school next year, I wanted to give you a chance to reserve a place in one of these online classes for Fall, if you are interested. The online courses all fill up very fast, but if you let me know BY MARCH 25 that you would like to take one of these classes in the Fall, I will reserve a space for you. You can get more information about each of the three classes at MythFolklore.net, which links to the websites for each class.
Shortening a LONG story. Quite a few of you have struggled with finding a way to take a very long original story as your source (it is not uncommon for fairy tales to be 2000 or 3000 words long, or even more) and to turn that long source into a story that is 1000 words long. There's one strategy that almost always works - which is to NOT EVEN LOOK at the source story while you are writing. Instead, read the source story once just to get a first impression. Then, read the story again, and take notes, by hand - make them brief notes, no complete sentences, and absolutely no quotes. Only take notes about what matters to the plot - no descriptions, no direct speech, just the plot and characters. Then, write your version of the story, from your notes only, and do NOT LOOK at the original story at all. Keep your version short. Then, if you end up with some words to spare, go back and add in details and description where you think they will be most effective.
Storybook Stack. I've still got about some items left in the Storybook stack that were turned in on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday which I hope to read and return to you today (if you turn something in today, Thursday, I will have comments for you today or on Friday). If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. The final deadline for turning in a late Week 7 Storybook assignment for partial credit is today, Thursday, at noon. The deadline for getting comments back from me before Spring Break is Friday at noon. If you turn in a Storybook assignment before noon on Friday, I will do my very best to get comments back to you before Spring Break.
March 12: Jack Kerouac. Today, March 12, is the birthday Jack Kerouac, the great American novelist of the "Beat" generation of writers; he was born in 1922. You can read more about Kerouac's life and career in this Wikipedia article. He is most famous for his novel On the Road, which he wrote in a burst of inspiration during the month of April in 1951, at the ripe old age of 29. In order to keep pace with his writing style, he taped pieces of paper together in a continuous roll of paper that was 120 feet long which he could then feed into the typewriter without having to stop to put new pages into the typewriter. Just imagine what he could have done with a word processor, eh? The actual roll of paper has been preserved; here is the start of the novel at the top of the roll (click here for a larger view - and you can also see a display of the scroll rolled out):
Fall 2009 enrollment. I know that many of you are graduating this spring (congratulations!), but for those of you who will be in school next year, I wanted to give you a chance to reserve a place in one of these online classes for Fall, if you are interested. The online courses all fill up very fast, but if you let me know BY MARCH 25 that you would like to take one of these classes in the Fall, I will reserve a space for you. You can get more information about each of the three classes at MythFolklore.net, which links to the websites for each class.
Shortening a LONG story. Quite a few of you have struggled with finding a way to take a very long original story as your source (it is not uncommon for fairy tales to be 2000 or 3000 words long, or even more) and to turn that long source into a story that is 1000 words long. There's one strategy that almost always works - which is to NOT EVEN LOOK at the source story while you are writing. Instead, read the source story once just to get a first impression. Then, read the story again, and take notes, by hand - make them brief notes, no complete sentences, and absolutely no quotes. Only take notes about what matters to the plot - no descriptions, no direct speech, just the plot and characters. Then, write your version of the story, from your notes only, and do NOT LOOK at the original story at all. Keep your version short. Then, if you end up with some words to spare, go back and add in details and description where you think they will be most effective.
Storybook Stack. I've still got about some items left in the Storybook stack that were turned in on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday which I hope to read and return to you today (if you turn something in today, Thursday, I will have comments for you today or on Friday). If you want to check to make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. The final deadline for turning in a late Week 7 Storybook assignment for partial credit is today, Thursday, at noon. The deadline for getting comments back from me before Spring Break is Friday at noon. If you turn in a Storybook assignment before noon on Friday, I will do my very best to get comments back to you before Spring Break.
March 12: Jack Kerouac. Today, March 12, is the birthday Jack Kerouac, the great American novelist of the "Beat" generation of writers; he was born in 1922. You can read more about Kerouac's life and career in this Wikipedia article. He is most famous for his novel On the Road, which he wrote in a burst of inspiration during the month of April in 1951, at the ripe old age of 29. In order to keep pace with his writing style, he taped pieces of paper together in a continuous roll of paper that was 120 feet long which he could then feed into the typewriter without having to stop to put new pages into the typewriter. Just imagine what he could have done with a word processor, eh? The actual roll of paper has been preserved; here is the start of the novel at the top of the roll (click here for a larger view - and you can also see a display of the scroll rolled out):
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Wednesday, March 11
Today is Wednesday of WEEK 8 of the class. If you have not turned in your Week 7 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit. Wednesday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Tuesday.
Storybook Stack. There are still quite a few Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in before 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.
Spring Break. (repeat announcement) Spring break is next week! That means the assignments for Week 8 are spread out. You have the usual Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday assignments this week, March 10-12. Then, the weekend assignments are not due until at the end of spring break, with the grace period on Monday after Spring Break, March 23. I won't be doing any Storybook grading over the Spring Break, so if you want to get ahead and receive comments back from me before the Spring Break begins, please get your early assignments turned in by this Friday, March 13 (yes, Friday the 13th!) at noon. If you can get a Storybook assignment turned in by Friday at noon, I will get comments back to you before Spring Break.
March 11: Douglas Adams. Today marks the birthday of Douglas Adams, one of my most beloved writers, who sadly left this world in 2001. Adams is most famous as the creator of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and his two books about the detective Dirk Gently are also priceless. Happy birthday to you, Douglas Adams, wherever in the galaxy you may be!
Storybook Stack. There are still quite a few Storybook assignments in the stack and I am making my way through them in the order that they were turned in. If you turned something in before 10PM on Sunday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in later on Sunday or on Monday or Tuesday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.
Spring Break. (repeat announcement) Spring break is next week! That means the assignments for Week 8 are spread out. You have the usual Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday assignments this week, March 10-12. Then, the weekend assignments are not due until at the end of spring break, with the grace period on Monday after Spring Break, March 23. I won't be doing any Storybook grading over the Spring Break, so if you want to get ahead and receive comments back from me before the Spring Break begins, please get your early assignments turned in by this Friday, March 13 (yes, Friday the 13th!) at noon. If you can get a Storybook assignment turned in by Friday at noon, I will get comments back to you before Spring Break.
March 11: Douglas Adams. Today marks the birthday of Douglas Adams, one of my most beloved writers, who sadly left this world in 2001. Adams is most famous as the creator of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and his two books about the detective Dirk Gently are also priceless. Happy birthday to you, Douglas Adams, wherever in the galaxy you may be!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tuesday, March 10
Today is Tuesday, the first day of WEEK 8 of the class. Yes, this means the semester is one-half over! (In the Indian Epics class, you will see it is a review week before you start the Mahabharata in Week 9.) For those of you who are working ahead, Weeks 9 and 10 are also available! If you have not turned in your Week 7 Storybook assignment yet, you may still do that for partial credit.
Spring Break. Spring break is next week! That means the assignments for Week 8 are spread out. You have the usual Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday assignments this week, March 10-12. Then, the weekend assignments are not due until at the end of spring break, with the grace period on Monday after Spring Break, March 23. I won't be doing any Storybook grading over the Spring Break, so if you want to get ahead and receive comments back from me before the Spring Break begins, please get your early assignments turned in by this Friday, March 13 (yes, Friday the 13th!) at noon. If you can get a Storybook assignment turned in by Friday at noon, I will get comments back to you before Spring Break.
Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. If you turned something in on Saturday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in on Sunday or Monday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.
March 10: Mikhail Bulgakov. Today, March 10, marks the anniversary of the death of one of the most extraordinarily talented writers of the 20th century, Mikhail Bulgakov. Bulgakov is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita - I won't even try to summarize the plot of this fabulous book (you can read a synopsis here at Wikipedia); I'll just mention that some of the characters include the Devil himself, a black cat named Behemoth, various and sundry witches, as well as Pontius Pilate and Jesus. Below you can see a statue of the cat Behemoth which adorns a wall in the city of Kiev, where Bulgakov was born.
Spring Break. Spring break is next week! That means the assignments for Week 8 are spread out. You have the usual Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday assignments this week, March 10-12. Then, the weekend assignments are not due until at the end of spring break, with the grace period on Monday after Spring Break, March 23. I won't be doing any Storybook grading over the Spring Break, so if you want to get ahead and receive comments back from me before the Spring Break begins, please get your early assignments turned in by this Friday, March 13 (yes, Friday the 13th!) at noon. If you can get a Storybook assignment turned in by Friday at noon, I will get comments back to you before Spring Break.
Storybook Stack. As usual at the beginning of the week there are still LOTS of Storybook assignments in the stack. If you turned something in on Saturday, you should have comments back from me already. If you turned something in on Sunday or Monday, it is probably still in the stack. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here.
March 10: Mikhail Bulgakov. Today, March 10, marks the anniversary of the death of one of the most extraordinarily talented writers of the 20th century, Mikhail Bulgakov. Bulgakov is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita - I won't even try to summarize the plot of this fabulous book (you can read a synopsis here at Wikipedia); I'll just mention that some of the characters include the Devil himself, a black cat named Behemoth, various and sundry witches, as well as Pontius Pilate and Jesus. Below you can see a statue of the cat Behemoth which adorns a wall in the city of Kiev, where Bulgakov was born.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Monday, March 9
Today is Monday, and Week 7 of the class is now over. Monday morning, until noon, is the grace period if you forgot to do any of the assignments that were due on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. Week 8 will begin tomorrow - and those assignments are available now if you want to get started. The Week 9 assignments are also available now, too! (Week 10 will be available tomorrow.)
Grading. I've gotten numerous emails recently as people are checking up on their grades, so I thought I should make a general announcement about that. Each week there are 30 points of required work, so to get an A in the class, you need to be getting around 27-30 points per week. There is extra credit every week, too - some people use extra credit to make up for missed work, but you can also use extra credit to get ahead in class, earning more than 30 points per week. For a chart that shows you week by week point totals and other information about the grading system, you might want to look again at this Grading Information page - you saw this page back in the first week of the semester, but now you will be able to make better sense of the information, watching your total points adding up week by week. Let me know if you have any questions that are not answered on that page. It's fine with me if you want to finish the class with a grade of "B" (360 points) or "C" (320 points) - and if you want an "A" in the class, when you get to 410 points, you are done!
Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 8 a.m. or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and reply to the assignments in the order they were turned in.
Sita Sings the Blues. The folks in Indian Epics have now finished up the Ramayana (this week is a review week), and then will be moving on to the Mahabharata. There are many different versions of the Ramayana, of course, in many languages and styles, in addition to the two books we read in class - including a recent new film by Nina Paley, called Sita Sings the Blues! You can see a trailer for the film at YouTube (click on the image below), or you can visit the Sita Sings the Blues website - you can even view the movie online!
Grading. I've gotten numerous emails recently as people are checking up on their grades, so I thought I should make a general announcement about that. Each week there are 30 points of required work, so to get an A in the class, you need to be getting around 27-30 points per week. There is extra credit every week, too - some people use extra credit to make up for missed work, but you can also use extra credit to get ahead in class, earning more than 30 points per week. For a chart that shows you week by week point totals and other information about the grading system, you might want to look again at this Grading Information page - you saw this page back in the first week of the semester, but now you will be able to make better sense of the information, watching your total points adding up week by week. Let me know if you have any questions that are not answered on that page. It's fine with me if you want to finish the class with a grade of "B" (360 points) or "C" (320 points) - and if you want an "A" in the class, when you get to 410 points, you are done!
Storybook stack. As always on Monday, I will have a huge bunch of assignments in the Storybook stack that were turned in over the weekend or on Monday morning. The first thing I will do on Monday morning when I get to work is to update the list of items in the Storybook stack. So, after 8 a.m. or so on Monday, you will be able to check the contents of the stack to make sure I received your assignment. I will be reading and reply to the assignments in the order they were turned in.
Sita Sings the Blues. The folks in Indian Epics have now finished up the Ramayana (this week is a review week), and then will be moving on to the Mahabharata. There are many different versions of the Ramayana, of course, in many languages and styles, in addition to the two books we read in class - including a recent new film by Nina Paley, called Sita Sings the Blues! You can see a trailer for the film at YouTube (click on the image below), or you can visit the Sita Sings the Blues website - you can even view the movie online!
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