NEW RESPONDING GROUPS. The blog responding groups have been shuffled around this week, so you should find some new people to read and respond to when you do the blog responding assignment for Week 10. If somehow I've accidentally left anybody off the list, please let me know. This is done completely at random, so you may be with someone you have been in a group with before, or you may have all new people - that is the magic of randomness!
Storybook Stack. I'm still working my way through the stack of Storybook assignments that people have turned in. I've read and replied to all the Week 9 assignments turned in on time, but if you turned in a late Week 9 assignment, or an early assignment for Week 10, 11 or 12, it may still be in the stack. My goal is to get comments back to everyone by the end of the day Friday for assignments turned in before Friday at noon. If you want to check and make sure your assignment is in the stack, you can see the contents of the stack here. If you want comments back before the weekend, make sure you turn in your assignment by noon on Friday.
Storybooks: Three-story option. (repeat announcement) If you are on schedule right now with the Storybook, turning in your third story for Week 10, you may decide to finish the Storybook with just three stories. So, think about that when you go to add the new story to your Storybook for Week 10. If you want to stop with three stories, make sure you give your Storybook a sense of "ending" with that third story. For a great example of a complete Storybook with a dramatic conclusion in the third story, see Robbie's Adventures of Sailor Crusade. If you decide to finish with just three stories, here is what you would do: Week 10 Third Story; Week 11 Revise Third Story; (skip Week 12 and Week 13); Week 14 Revise Introduction; Week 15 Final Revisions. It's up to you, based on your personal preferences and the number of points you will be needing to get the grade you want (410 total for an A, 360 total for a B, 320 total for a C).
Week 10 Internet assignment: Extra credit option. (repeat announcement) The Week 10 Internet assignment is available now and in addition to the usual task of reading three Storybooks and commenting on them, there is an additional "extra credit" option where you can read three more Storybooks and comment on them for an additional 6 points. Last year a student suggested that I add this option for the next few weeks so that you have more of a chance to read all the Storybooks in your class, and that seemed like a good idea to me! So, in Week 10, and also in Week 11 and Week 12, you have the extra credit option of doubling up and reading more Storybooks for extra credit if you want.
April 1: April Fool's Day Hoaxes. Friday is April Fool's Day! There is a wonderful article in Wikipedia about the many famous April Fool's Day Hoaxes over the years. One of my favorites is this one from National Public Radio in 2007, when they ran a sponsor announcement for Soylent Green (yes, one of my favorite movies of all time): "Support for NPR comes from the Soylent Corporation, manufacturing protein-rich food products in a variety of colors. Soylent Green is People." You can listen to the NPR audio of the Soylent Green announcement in their archives (it comes near the end of the segment there, after they discuss the other April Fool's hoaxes they ran that year).
