Reading notes:Myth-Folklore Unit: Homer's Odyssey, part B

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As I had stated in my previous post about the Odyssey the language is more difficult to read and I want to tell a story with a more modern flowing language. The second half of the story that was provided had too much information to write a single story within the limits and I would not want to leave out any of the important parts. I also can not think of a way to leave out parts to make it shorter without skipping important plot parts. There were just way too many character ghost that Odysseus spoke to that had been sent to Hades at death. I think I will write my story based off the first encounter of his adventures. I would like to put my own twist on the encountered with the cyclops as I had suggested in my last post. I will either tell the story from the point of view of the cyclopes or tell the story with a few plot changes. The plot changes may be that the cyclopes actually dies or kills himself by accident or change the way that Odysseus escapes with his men. This is the story I plan on telling and how I plan to change it.

Bibliography: Homer's Odyssey, Translated into English by Tony Kline

Reading notes:Myth-Folklore Unit: Homer's Odyssey, part A

Circe By Wright Barker: link

The language of the stories is not terribly difficult to read but it is an aspect I would would change. I would write the story in a more flowing language that does seem to have such a old language tone to it. I could rewrite the part of the story for the giants or Circe’s point of view. If I were to do this, I would make it look like they were not in the wrong but rather they were doing something that is normal and they see no evil in it. I could also do a retelling of the stories with some plot point changes. An example would be in stead of the giant being blinded he is kill in the escape by his own mistake or clumsiness. I could also make it where Odysseus fails and dies. I could also write the story with a modern touch completely changing the plot but keeping the characters the same. There also seemed to be a lot of repetition in the stories, like when Odysseus is mentioned they always say a few lines after that are repeated on multiple occasions. I see no need for this and would leave this out. The story I will right will have have more of a flowing language but keep the same entertaining aspect of the story even if I do a plot change.

Bibliography: Homer's Odyssey, Translated into English by Tony Kline

Feedback Strategies

Article: Be a Mirror: Give Readers Feedback That Fosters a Growth Mindset
This article gives useful information on the idea the we need to give feedback that is about the the reader is doing and not just feedback on what is missing. They give five steps on how to give the reader better feedback. Its say Instead of just saying what you think is missing tell them your thoughts on what they are writing about. It does say to not get personal and try to avoid using I. It states to provide constructive thoughts on what they are writing to help them move forward with their work. It say to focus on their process and be specific on what you suggest for them. I believe this would be a great way to get feedback on what one is doing but can have its downfalls. Someone could take the feedback of their work as criticism rather than it being helpful. Also some people like the personal touch that some feedback can provide. Otherwise this process seems like it would help to create great feedback and help someone push forward on their work.

Article: The Difference Between Praise and Feedback
This article give as the title state the difference between feedback and praise. It talks about how some people will provide praise thinking it feedback causing the person/child to continually feed on the praise. It states how instead of praise good feedback can cause someone to do better next time while lots of praise can make them want to not do it anymore or lose interest. I believe there need to be a balance between praise and feedback. We all know good feedback can help us to get better over time but some praise can also boost confidence but as stated too much praise can make us feed off of it. A perfect balance between the two is what is needed for the two. 

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topic research

For my project I have decide to write my own version of Dante's inferno but with me visiting instead of Dante. I want to break down the inferno into 4 part. The project takes 4 parts so I will give my break Down here.

I will first start with the introduction of who will guide me through the inferno and travel the first 4 levels of the inferno. I will give my own modern touch of the inferno and the sins that got people to those levels. I will also include modern people in those parts and their sins.

I will then write the second part about the travels I will face in the 5th and 6th levels of hell. The same modern touch will apply.

For the first two parts I have written down details of what i want to do for the first two parts in my reading extra credit notes for week three.

For the final two parts I will cover the remaining 4 levels of hell with the same idea of modernism in mind. When I read the second half of the Dante’s inferno unit, I will have written ideas for these parts.

source information: Dante's Inferno Unit

The Inferno

link: Sandro Botticelli

extra credit: Reading notes: Dantes Inferno: part A

  Dante in the inferno 

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Simple notes to help me keep track (useful to me):

Dante's starts in purgatory

Moves on to level 2 which is lust

The 3rd level contained Cerberus the 3 headed dog and gluttony aka light greed

The 4th level is greed

The 5th level is anger and wrath

The 6th level is hertics or those who follow faith wrong the city of dis

I have just finished reading Dante's Inferno part A. These notes will be based on the project I have chosen to do. The story start off with Dante in a Forest trying to ascend to heaven up a mountain from what I understood. He find the path impossible so he stay where he is at until virgil comes along to show him there is another way and to follow him. He leads dante to the entrance of hell and will guide him through. I would change my guide to a jewish person for it has great biblical irony for in the jewish faith one does not believe in hell. I not sure because i do not want to offend by doing this. I would write my first part of my story to include the first 4 levels of hell. I would start of with a quick intro to purgatory for there is not a whole to lot to say. I would say a lot for the 2nd level which is lust. For the 3rd and 4th level intertwine the two for they are so similar. I would hit a 2 for one. I would write these in a way for modern audiences to understand with what modern sin would have you in that level and name some modern people who are there. I would also put a twist on the punishment for the people in these places. The second part of my story would include the 5th and 6th levels of hell for their are many things that I could write about in modern day to be a part of these levels of hell and many people who could be used as examples of those who dwell on those levels. Putting the modern twist on punishment and people would be the goal to make the story my own.

bibliography: Dante's Divine Comedy, translated by Tony Kline

Week 3 Story: The Serpent's Lesson

The Serpent's Lesson


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Once there was an old man who lived in the life near Jerusalem. He and his wife were becoming ill and knew their death was upon them. The man sent a messenger to notify his son. His son's name was Spencer. His son arrived and he explained to him that him and mother were going to die and that he would need to mourn a week before Passover. Once Passover came he would need to go to the market and buy the first thing a merchant offered him and take care of it. Later that evening the father died.
The son did as he was told. He mourned with his wife and child the week before Passover, then went to the market on Passover. The first person he met was salesperson who offer for him to buy a medium sized box. Spencer asked, “ how much for the box?”
The salesman said, ”1000 gold pieces.”
Spencer knew this was a great cost, but wanted to follow his father’s wishes and bought the box. When he arrived home home, he opened the box and it contained a snake. Right there the snake spoke and said “ I am hungry. Will you feed me?”
Remembering what his father said he fed the snake and started to care for it. It continued to ask for food for several weeks and grew to an enormous size. Finally one day the snake made the a different and biggest request of all. He said, “let me eat your child.”
For some reason spencer following the snakes request and his father wishes he fed the snake his child. The next day spencer and his wife were mourning the loss of their child and the snake asked for them to follow him. He lead them to the edge of a forest. At the edge of the forest the snake began become transparent and morphed into the form of a human. The human form said, “ I am Eve from the old days of the first humans. You have treated with kindness and taken care of me even though I have taken everything from you. For this I will reward you and your wife Spencer by first giving you back your child and many riches of the world.”
Out of the bushes came their child and many creatures carrying many jewels, different foods, and finally rare spices. Then Eve spoke again. She said, “For your kindness and humility these presents shall help to make the rest of your life have less hardship. I do have one request though. I ask that you do the same with your child and I will wipe his memory of these events to test his kindness when he is older.”
Spencer agreed with these terms. After that Eve left into the forest. Spencer and his family lived life very happily after this event in there life. Spencer waited until the day he had to tell his child he was dying and hopes his child will do the same that he did.


Author's notes : The original story that I read was "The Fairy Frog." the story started out similar with a father's death and telling his son to grieve and get something from a market. He got a coffin that contained a frog. They feed the frog until the were on the brink of starvation. They were kind and listened to frog also. Now they did not feed a child to the frog. the original story did not even have child. In the end of the story the frog was Adam but did not turn into a human figure but shrank back into a frog. He did present the family with treasures but did not tell them to continue this tradition through the family. The last change was I changed the characters name from Hanina






bibliography: source story and author:The Fairy Frog by Gertrude Landa

Reading notes:Myth-Folklore Unit: Jewish Fairy Tales, part b

The story I liked most out of all the reading is the fairy frog. Of course, the final of all the stories. It takes 10 to find one I want to rewrite. I believe could make this story a little better for my own writings. The first thing I would attempt with the story is it starts out with a typical “once” start and jump right into the story. I would start the story a better place setting. It doesn’t really describe when or where it is taking place. I would also want to change the animal in the story to something more mythical like a jackalope or something sinister such as a snake. This would peak my interest because jackalopes aren’t real and snakes are sinister, so to follow a snake and be rewarded would be interesting. I would also include another character such as a child of the husband and wife to add to the feeling in the story. To add the feeling the child would be suffering along side the two to create more of a feel for the characters. I could also create a greater twist by using the child as a sacrifice half way through and the parent be rewarded at the end with the child to create a happy ending. These are my notes and what I think I will do with my story later this week.

jacklopes

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Bibliography:
Myth-Folklore Unit: Jewish Fairy Tales
Author:Gertrude Landa

Reading notes:Myth-Folklore Unit: Jewish Fairy Tales, part A

I noticed when reading these stories, they all had a lesson to be learned. the lesson may have varied based on the type of story. Some of the lessons were about keeping faith to the religion while others were about basic humility. I particularly like the stories where the main characters are based of talking animals or biblical creatures that can speak. This gives the story a feature that stands out to me when I am reading. There are some things that were missing from these stories though. The first thing I felt that they all fell short on is that they don’t really give a setting. By setting I mean they don’t paint a good picture of where they are. The stories seemed to jump right in or give a brief description of where the setting is. For example, it will say they are in forest, but to me a forest could be dark and scary or thin and full of light that penetrates through the trees. It wouldn’t hurt to put a little more into setting up a picture in peoples minds so that the setting is clearer. Basically, a little more detail. Grated these are short stories and one can not give all the details in the world. Something I noticed with all the stories is that there are not very many characters in the story. There are usually about four but since this is Jewish fairy tales and they are biblical they may not need more characters. I usually like to have a vast cast to keep more detail coming out and keep a complex plot, but once again short story comes to mind. To finish my thoughts, I would give a better description in the place setting to these stories, add more characters for more complex plot situation, and make more animal characters. These are things I would want for these stories and mean no offense to anyone by changing them in this way.

Unicorns came up in these fairy tales a lot so a unicorn seems logical for this situation 

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all my thoughts cam from reading the stories in the bibliography link

Bibliography:
Myth-Folklore Unit: Jewish Fairy Tales
Author:Gertrude Landa

Feedback Thoughts

The first article I read was " How to Get past Negativity Bias in Order to Hardwire Positive Experience." The article discusses how are brain will thrive on negative experiences and keep remembering them. When applying this to a learning situation we remember bad grades and mistakes that caused those making us not want to learn anything new. The article described a plan called heal. Basically if you start to have a negative thought about something start by thinking about something happy to get rid of the negativeness and engulf yourself in it. Afterwards start working again on what gave you the negative thoughts while keeping the negativeness in the background and happiness up front. This seems to me like this would be a good way for students to think, but even through the process of heal students will still struggle, but it is a good first step to helping students be less discouraged by new knowledge. It a good article and i would suggest people read it.

The second article I read was "Seven Ways to Crush Self-Doubt in Creative Work." The article gave as the title states Seven great ways to crush self-doubt. The ways in my opinion are really based on believing in yourself and not trying to be perfect at the same time. The author gives seven great ideas to get rid of the doubt, but the most important in my opinion is trusting yourself. This article gives ideas that I believe are use full and would help students to have more confidence in attempting new ideas. I would suggest people read this article also.

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Topic Brainstorm

This post is based on the thought that I want to write my project based on a portfolio.

Subject 1: Death 

I would like to write a story based on death. I have always found the idea of the mythical figure of death to be interesting. I know death can be described in many ways and even be replaced when death believes it's time to die. I have read stories about death and what it does in the past and would love to make one with my own twist. 

link to stories of death by another student.

Subject 2:  Dante's inferno 

I have always found the subjects based on Dante's inferno to be fascinating. Though I have never read the original book The Divine Comedy, I have read many shorten versions of the stories about Dante's descent into hell. I have always loved how the level of hell are described and why people are there. I would love to maybe make a story about where people who commit modern sins would land in hell and have a character do his own descent to see their punishments.

link to site for information on Dante's Inferno 

Subject 3: Grimm's tale

The Grimm brother fairy tales have always interested me. They are not your typical Disney fairy tales with a happy ending. I know the original tales are very old and very dark at times. Also when I was younger my father used to read to me out of a Grimm's fairy tale book. I would love to put my own twist on a Grimm's tale. 

link to information for Grimm Fairy Tales

Subject 4: Dragons 

I have always found the subject of dragons to be fascinating. I know there are lots of dragon fairy tales with different plots and twist to them. I would love to find some good dragon fairy tales and rewrite one with a twist of my own.

link to dragon information

dragon

Illustration of a winged, fire-breathing dragon by Friedrich Justin Bertuch from 1806: link