HERO's JOURNEY--Early Thoughts and Questions

Some ideas that emerged from class as to what hero's journey is or could be:

A hero is involved.
And a journey.
The hero's journey might follow a story arc with opening, conflict, resolution and ending.
Becoming is involved--there's a journey to BECOME a hero.
Obstacles occur.
Also setbacks.
There will be death.
There will be traveling.

QUESTIONS that emerged about HERO'S JOURNEY:

WHAT IS IT?

CAN ANYONE GO ON A HERO'S JOURNEY?

WHEN WAS IT MADE?

WHAT TIME PERIOD DOES IT TAKE PLACE IN?

WHAT'S IT FOR?

I also think it's interesting what differences were observed among the heroes and heroines chosen by class members in small groups. Here are some of the observations about differences among the chosen heroes and heroines:

Fantasy vs. Real
Male vs. Female
Star (who needs glory) vs Hero who is humble
Sincere vs. Insincere
Humble vs. Conceited
General vs. Personal
Global vs. Personal
Famous vs. Ordinary
Heroes and Heroines from different time periods

Hero Journey Resources

Hero Journey Circle Graph

Hero Journey Powerpoint

Hero Journey Steps (summary of Campbell's stages)

Encyclopedia Mythica

Heroes at Mythweb

Paleothea: Women in Greek Myths

A video clip about Jason (via Discovery Channel)

Virtual Odyssey

Psychiatrist who uses Odyssey to counsel vets

He wrote Odysseus in America

Hero journey interactive

Choosing From the Thousand

As part of our study of heroes and heroines and their journeys, each of you will be choosing, among other things, one classic hero or heroine. You'll be tracing their quest or journey and recreating it in graphic form on a sheet of cardstock. Here's a list of possible heroes and heroines:

Herakles
Jason
Theseus
Perseus
Odysseus
Prometheus
Psyche
Persephone
Sisyphus
Percival [in textbook]
Prince Gautama (Buddha)
Jonah
David
Moses
Gilgamesh [in textbook]
Beowulf
The Handless Maiden

The goal here is no more than one or two people working on the same hero or heroine so we can all learn from these.

Another classic hero or heroine you'd like to choose? Talk to me.

Contemporary Films with Quests

We're talking all different kinds of quests.
Here's a selected list of films (including a few films which are not quite so contemporary).

Films need to be viewed by Monday, October 5.

2001: A Space Odyssey
A Knight's Tale
Antwone Fisher
Batman Begins
Bend it Like Beckham
(The) Chronicles of Narnia
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(The) Color Purple
Contact
(The) Dark Knight
Erin Brokovich
E.T.
(The) Field of Dreams
Finding Forrester
(The) Fisher King
Ghandi
Harry Potter Series
Hoop Dreams
Hotel Rwanda
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Jane Eyre
Lion King
(The) Little Mermaid
Lord of the Rings
(The) Matrix Series
Memoirs of a Geisha
Mona Lisa's Smile
(The) Natural
North Country
O Brother Where Art Thou
(The) Shipping News
Slumdog Millionare
Spiderman
Stardust
Star Wars Series
Thelma and Louise
Their Eyes Were Watching God
To Sir With Love
Whale Rider
(The) Wizard of Oz

How to Begin?

If we're going to correspond with these authors, rather than just compliment, and if we're going to synthesize rather than just summarize, it helps, I think, to begin with a seed of a connection to the literary work.

Here are some of the seeds that emerged in class:

• Katniss volunteering in her sister's place to enter the games--all the sibling connections one could make to that choice
• Finding a character to relate to---similarities or differences!
• A moment of being ridiculed---like Ender
• A feeling of desperation--like the feeling in The Hunger Games
• A feeling towards the government---like the characters feel in The Hunger Games
• Violence as entertainment---like in The Hunger Games
• Katniss and her mother----parent relationships---
• Being without something---like Katniss is without food in The Hunger Games
• Censorship---how on television we may only be seeing part of the true story---a connection again to The Hunger Games

Could one of these work for you?
What other connections can you make?

And remember we've also got the ideas we pooled from the model letters.

A Reading Plan. Got One?

This semester we'll be reading books together--at least two or three. You'll also continue to have choices with your reading. In the next week you need to begin putting together your own reading plan--what books you want to read--both for fun and as sources of writing topics (which might also be fun). Your reading plan will be due Friday, September 25th but you can begin working on it now.

Also, and looking ahead, begin thinking about the best ways to use writing with the books of choice that you're reading. Book reviews for the blog? Brief essays on topics of interest? Collaborative projects? Letters to your author? Rewriting endings? Poetry or stories inspired by your book? Be thinking about these kinds of writing ideas as you choose your books.

Do you already have a reading plan?
Where do you begin if you don't? Here are a few places to start:

Our Blog. Of course! See what other people in the class are reading. Add books that sound intriguing to your own to-read list. (Click in the upper right corner of this blog to connect to the class blog, Until To Morrow.)

Amazon. You can enter a book you love into Amazon and then scroll down. Check out "Customers Who Also Bought this Book Bought . . ." Or check out Listmania at the very bottom of the page for more ideas.

LibraryThing Is it the world's largest book club? Well, according to their front page it is.
This is one of my favorite sites. You can catalog your books, make wish lists, join groups, see what others think of books. Well, you can do all sorts of things. Excellent resource. Easy to join. You can turn in your book plan as pages printed from LibraryThing if you wish.

Media Center at the Career Center
The Media Center Coordinator has started a small book blog with favorites of the folks who frequent the Media Center just down the road. She's kicking off the year by introducing a fantasy series by Melissa Marr. (Anyone familiar with her?)

Best Books for Young Adults at the American Library Association Site. These are catalogued by year.

Also, any of the sites for book reviews below can be good sites for finding books.

Other places you go to find good books? Email me or write them in the comments here and I'll add them to the list.

Note: check this NYT article out. The Future of Reading? Looks like we're in good company---

What's in a Letter?

Or what could be in a letter? Inspired by the Letters About Literature Contest sponsored by the Library of Congress, we're going to be writing letters to authors Orson Scott Card and Suzanne Collins about the books we've just finished.

Today we looked at some winning letters from previous years and began pooling wisdom about what makes, or could make, a winning or inspired letter.

From the Pool:

• Successful letter writers relate their life to the work of literature--for instance, telling a story about a father--or about health issues.
• Writers write about experiences of personal growth--not just saying they grew but describing actual moments that reflect growth.
• Writers use strong visualization such as a detailed passage about a leg fracture (the right amount of detail).
• Writes use relevant quotes from the book.
• Writers describe an emotional response to the work of literature.
• Writers stay on topic.

This is a great start. We will continue to work on these in class. This batch with Mr. Card and Ms. Collins will be followed later in the semester by letters to an author of choice. And remember, hard work could pay off--literally. Look for actual prize amounts here.

Need a Point?

Make a comment here on this blog, Read, Write and Create, by Tuesday, September 15 at 8 AM and then email me that you've done so--and there you have it--an extra point added to your book review.

Also of note: I just remembered I need to sign out of Until To Morrow so others will be able to post. Oops. So----if you sign in, remember to sign back out, thus making room for someone else to take a turn. Thanks.

What Blog Doing?

The blog is beginning. We have a name which was chosen by a majority: Until To Morrow. (Yes, there were a few dissenters, but you will have other ways to make your voice heard.) So, we have a name. And we have working groups. Editing is busy editing the book reviews, getting some nice organization in place. Design is making us beautiful and helping sort work into genres. The visual group is figuring out what photos, sketches and such will add visual interest. Our managers today have begun their management and discovery tasks. And, last but not least, our tech group is helping us figure out all things technological as well as troubleshooting for us.

We're starting with each class member posting a book review, but who knows where we could go after that.

Got a great idea? Tell the Managers. They're coordinating the big picture.

Which Game Will You Choose?

As an introduction to a unit we're going to begin on Classic Heroes and Heroines and Contemporary Characters, each of you will get to choose one of two contemporary novels: either The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins or Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Great reads, both of them.

Need help making a decision? Check these out-----

Suzanne Collins' website
Her brand new book, the sequel to Hunger Games, is out this week and is getting a lot of attention, including an interview at NPR. But maybe wait to listen to that one--I haven't heard it yet, but I suspect it may contain a spoiler for the first book.

A page of sites on Ender's Game and Orson Scott Card
Lots of interesting links. And on the sidebar of the page above, check out "Before You Read"--a short persuasive piece on Ender's Game. (Interesting to notice what strategies he uses here for persuasion.)

And here are the videos we looked at in class:
Suzanne Collins talking about her classical and contemporary inspirations for The Hunger Games series

Ender's Game fan trailer on YouTube
As noted by more than one Ender fan in this class, the novel is more character-driven and psychological than comes across in this particular fan trailer. (You do not need to love battles to enjoy this book.)

Ender's Game, the Graphic Novel on YouTube

Can't make a decision? No worries. Pick both. Read one book now and choose the other one later for a choice book.

Come across more good sites? Email me or leave a comment here.

Need Help with Smushes (or Comma Splices)?

Here's a great site for help with all kinds of issues with writing--commas and just about everything else. It's called OWL--the online writing lab--and it is based at Purdue University. These are good basic recommendations for college writing. Everything you want to know and more.

Here's the comma page from OWL that we will look at in class.

And here's Grammar Bytes. (The Chomp Chomp site.)

Disclosure: Smush is a kind of made-up word (from the verb smush) which is descriptive but may not be found in handbooks. Handbooks will call these commas splices.

About Book Reviews

To summarize the pool of wisdom we developed in class, here are some features of a good book review to consider including in your own review:

• YOUR OPINION with supporting evidence
• CONTEXT---give us some background on your book
• JUST ENOUGH SUMMARY----not too much/not too brief---(how much is just right?)
• Give some VISUAL DETAILS to help your reader see.

Other things to keep in mind from the pool:

• Keep it interesting.
• Appeal to your reader--in this case the class. Remember. You'll be posting this book review for others in the class to read on our class blog.
• Make connections, if you can, to books and movies you think your audience already knows and likes.

And here are some places to find reviews: four sites with lots of book reviews that can be used as models. If you find another source you like, email me or write it in the comments here and I'll add it to the list.

Amazon, of course

New York Times Books

Los Angeles Times Books

Washington Post Books

And more---------(thanks)---
Barnes and Noble

A Sampling of Web Resources for the English Language Arts Classroom

I. POETRY RESOURCES
Poetry Out Loud
On-line texts of poems especially well-suited for performing out loud.

Poets.org
Academy of American Poets site----lots of resources here--
including poem texts, profiles of poets, and a nifty way to create and share poetry books or anthologies on-line

Poetry Resources for Teens---at Poets.org

How to Read a Poem

Brave New Voices
first episode

Youth Speaks

Poem a Day
180 on-line poem texts created especially for American high schools by Billy Collins, the poet laureate from 2001-2003

Classic Poetry Aloud
Audio versions of classic poems.
This page links to "If" by Rudyard Kipling
Most recent audio poems are available free on iTunes

Favorite Poem Project
Video-documentaries of people reciting favorite poems w/ connections to their lives

II. READING RESOURCES--BOOKS
LibraryThing
Create a catalog of your books on-line. Books you've read. Books you want to read. Easy and attractive way to keep track of reading.

YALSA (Young Adult Library Services Association)
Lists, lists, and more lists of books for young adults.
This particular page links to 86 books selected as best books for young adults in 2009

World of Reading
Book reviews by youth. Extensive data base. Can search by book. Sponsored by the Ann Arbor Public Library.

North Carolina Digital Library
Dowloadable audio ebooks

Gutenberg: The Audio Books Project
Free audio ebooks. Can search by title or subject.
example: download Metamorphosis by Kafka to iTunes

LibriVox
Downloadable audio ebooks in the public domain
(The link above links to Homer's Odyssey)

Manybooks.Net
Free ebooks and audio books for download---more than 23,000

III. WRITING RESOURCES
Visuwords
Online graphical dictionary

Online Etymology Dictionary
Word origins

Multigenre Writing
Extensive resources + annotated bibliography

OWL
Online writing lab at purdue

George Mason Writing Resource Center
Another site for writing resources----large number of handouts and links

IV. MYTHOLOGY RESOURCES

What is mythology?

Encyclopedia Mythica

Mythweb

Paleothea: Women in Greek Myths

Your journey through the Odyssey: A Project

Virtual Odyssey

Psychiatrist who uses Odyssey to counsel vets

He wrote Odysseus in America

Web english teacher resources

Hero journey interactive

V. RESOURCES ON USING IPODS
The iPod Experience at Brandeis University

K12 iPod Wiki

iPods in Education
At Learning in Hand

Student Podcasts
from the Nebraska Writing Project. w/ article about the Nebraska Writing Project experience

VI. ORGANIZATION
Evernote