Creative Writing

This web page is for the class creative writing.

This page is a collection of assignments,

resources, instructions, and links

used by the class.

PowToons

Little Bird Tales

https://littlebirdtales.com/home/default/

Program for School Play

Need examples? Go here and scroll to the bottom. Click on the pdfs

Requirements for program

• Use front and back of page
• Use landscape or portrait
• Adjust margins as needed
• Use font styles, font sizes, borders as needed
• Include activities (word find, sudoku, ???) for audience
• Use tables or columns as needed
• Put * beside names of seniors
• Make use of white space--the program must be both visually appealing and readable
• Know your audience: some can't read/see closeup, some will space off during the show--what do they need to know about the story? What info can you include that will help them follow along with the plot?
• Use clip art

Synopsis:

Prince John has decreed that the citizens of Nottingham pay weekly taxes or face the penalty of death. His decrees are enforced by the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. The citizens think that all hope is lost until they hear word of a noble hero, Robin Hood of Locksley. Robin Hood, with the help of his merry men (which are mostly girls) rob from the rich, give to the poor, and save the fair Maid Marian. This comic retelling of the story includes thumb wars, missed cues, and a slow motion fight.

End of Robin Hood information

24 sentences that can be added to pretty much any paragraph:

1. Topic sentence: the main idea of the paragraph written in one sentence
2. Short: a short, concise sentence of your topic
3. Long: a long, wordy version that over-explains your topic
4. Example: Give an example of what you are describing, use the words "for example" in this sentence
5. Literal Description: (Do NOT use the words like or as) Explain your topic by what it feels, smells, tastes, sounds, or looks like; all of these are literal descriptions (figurative descriptions are next)
6. Figurative Description: Use a simile, metaphor, exaggeration, understatement or irony
7. Announce: Announce to audience what is next, Pay attention to these next steps. Or now I would like to discuss the importance of [topic]. Or At this point I will give an example of [topic].
8. Evaluate: Tell what is the worth or value of the topic (this could be literal as in the actual dollar cost of your topic or could be figurative as in your topic represents liberty, skill, recognition, safety, tradition, wealth, independence, knowledge, harmony, citizenship, love, faith, health, etc.)
9. Interpret: Explain how the topic is either good or bad for the reader
10. Predict: If this topic is the cause of something, what then will be the effect
11. Solution: Your topic is a solution; your reader has a problem; your topic is the solution to your reader's problem; so . . . describe the problem that your reader has and then reveal that your idea will solve that problem--be creative, invent a problem, use imagination, keep it real
12. Opponent: If somebody thought idea was bad, what might they say about your idea
13. Response: How would you respond to what that negative person in #10 just said
14. Slogan: Summarize your topic into a few syllables that an angry mob could shout
15. Answer: Predict a question a reader might have then answer that question
16. Connection: Connect this topic to the overall message of your writing: (A) Your paper is on one topic. (B) That topic is divided into subtopics. (C) The paragraph you are writing is on one of those subtopics. (D) Go out of your way to explain to the reader how the subtopic is connected to the main topic
17. Vividness: Bring life to your topic; bring vigor and excitement: Good writing captures imagination, appeals to senses, creates mental pictures
18. Exaggerate: emphasize or enlarge the action, emotion, or other qualities of your topic (hyperbole is extreme exaggeration that creates humor or irony)
19. Understatement: deliberately diminish or lessen the importance of the topic (also is done for irony or humor)
20. Repetition: Say something more than once; it means to say something more than once (repetition does not change words)
21. Restatement: Paraphrase what was already stated; repeat key information, key information must be restated (restatement does change words)
22. Parallelism: Repeat words, phrases or sentences to emphasize an idea: Good writing must repeat. Good writing must restate. Good writing must parallel. [Ok, so "parallel" is misused, but you get the point.]
23. Rhetorical Question: Ask a question that can be answered in many ways that each depend upon a person's opinion, AND no real answer is expected to be given; the speaker is making a point, not looking for information. Know what I mean?
24. Transition: Use the keywords of this paragraph and the next paragraph in one sentence

Literary Devices

Resource

• Theme: A universal message of about life; an idea that repeats itself and permeates a work of writing
• Oxymoron: A phrase or a combination of words in which two contradictory or opposing ideas are put together to create an effect: original copy, bittersweet, icewater, bright smoke
• Analogy: Metaphors and similes
• Allusion: An indirect reference to an idea, person, place, event, or thing; allusions are often brief, passing comments meant to convey a bulk of information or an assessment. Example, calling a young man a "Romeo" implies something, calling an older woman "the wicked witch of the west" implies something. In neither case are you saying he is romantic or she is mean but the idea is conveyed
• Imagery: Describe things by how they sound, taste, feel, look, and smell; lets us see in detail the item you are writing about
• Alliteration: Repeat a vowel or consonant sound in a line of writing; often used in poetry; always used in tongue twisters; example, The ocean waves crested over the crabs that scurried for scraps of food in the swirling eddies.
• Symbolism: An object in a story represents the story itself. Example, from War of the Worlds: Aliens invade Earth. Girl gets sliver in finger. Girl says her body will push the sliver out when the time is right for the sliver to come out. A week passes. The aliens all die from an Earth virus. The sliver comes out on its own.
• Foreshadow: Write a hint about what could happen later in the story. Create suspense by hinting at but not revealing what happens at the end. Let's put our campsite directly below the dam and get out of this rain. Or, these creatures are harmless as long as you don't feed them after midnight
• Dramatic Irony: A character in the story misunderstands something. The reader of the story knows the truth. The reader knows that the character is wrong. Juliet fakes her death. Everyone thinks she's dead. She's not. We who are reading the story know that she's not dead. We know that Romeo is mistaken when he thinks that she is dead.

Minimized Shakespeare (Super-short summaries)

Describe Hero: Hero's home, talents, values, things he/she cares about, limitations and inabilities, and what "normal" things are for hero.

Course Standards

Timeline of History

Resources

• 20 Tech Tools for Learning and Communicating
• 21st Century Educators Don’t Say, “Hand It In.” They say, “Publish It!
• 50 Free Collaboration Tools that are Awesome for Educators
• 50 Ways to Tell a Digital Story
• 55 Interesting Ways to Support Writing in the Classroom
• 100 Inspiring Ways to Use Social Media in the Classroom
• Authentic Intellectual Achievement in Writing
• Communication in the Mathematics Classroom
• Creative Expression and Communication in Fine Arts
• Rubrics for Assessing DIgital Work and More

Tools

• Animoto - Introduce a topic, booktalk, record an event, simulate field trips, create commercials and more
• Apollo - Web-based collaborative platform
• Board800 - Multi-user online whiteboard
• Cacoo - Multiple users can plan, share, edit, and review simultaneously
• Collaborize Classroom - Support your in-class instruction or help your flipped-classroom model
• Creately - Create, share, and collaborate with data-rich diagrams
• Digital Storytelling with Web 2.0 - 50+ sites and resources
• Edistorm - Brainstorming, add, discuss, and organize ideas
• Edmodo - For Micro-blogging in the classroom
• Entri - Collaborative tools for writing and sharing documents
• Ficly - Collaborative writing environment where anyone can pick up a narrative thread and weave a prequel or sequel
• Google Sites
• GroupTweet - Enables 2 to 100,000+ contributors to tweet from the same account
• iCritique - Publish, view, and discuss media online
• Jing - Screencasting with voice to narrate
• Little Bird Tales - Upload original art; add text and voice
• LiveBinders - Gathering place for knowledge, resources, and learning
• MentorMob - Create collaborative learning playlists
• Myebook - Write, create, publish, and share
• Phonecasting - iPadio - Video of how to use in education
• Pirate Pad - Writing is synchronized as you collaborative with others
• Popplet - Real time collaboration platform - think together
• Posterous Spaces - Blogging, collection of evidence, individual or collaborative
• Primary Pad - Web-based word processor designed for schools that allows real-time collaboration
• Quick Topic - Platform to engage students in written discussion about curriculum topic
• Scribblar - Online teaching and learning, revising artwork and images, brainstorming, interviews, and student collaboration
• Shelfari - Create a book shelf and collaborate with others around the books
• Stroome - Upload footage, work collaboratively to mix it, mash it, and share
• Student Publishing - Students write and publish their work
• Thumbscribes - Co-create haiku, poems, short stories, and more in real time or asynchronously
• Twiddla - Mark-up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas
• Using Audio Boo in the Classroom - Podcasting - Video
• Using Kid Blog in the Classroom - Video
• Using Ning in the Classroom - Video
• Voicethread - Respond to a problem, peer review of art, music or writing, or group discussions
• Wallwisher - Gather images, gather feedback from audience, share ideas, make recommendations
• WeVideo - Video or picture, collaboratively shape your story and share
• Wiggio - Collaborate on projects, case studies, labs, study groups, and more
• Writeboard - Write, share, revise, compare
• Zoho - Chats, discussions, meetings, sharing, track collaborative projects
• Zooburst - Create 3D popup digital books

Docu-Drama (Historical Fiction)

An historical event is told through the point of view of one fictional character. Events that historically took a long time, over multiple locations, involving many people are condensed in a docu-drama into happening in a short time, in one or few locations, involving one or few people. In other words, a complicated historical event is compressed in order to make it easier to understand. The actions of several people are combined into one person, or one person is given credit for doing things that others did. The purpose is to make the event manageable.

All of your story is told from the perspective of a 12 year old. All verbs are used in the past tense.

You must pick something that DOES have a wikipedia page on that topic.

Criteria

Word Count:

• 10 points = 2000+ words
• 8 points = 1600-1999 words
• 6 points = 1200-1599 words
• 4 point = 800-1199 words
• 2 point = 400-799 words
• 0 points = 0-399 words

Events: Each event must be in its own paragraph, and each event must be put in bold type the first time it is mentioned

• 8 events = 10 points
• 6-7 events = 8 points
• 5 events = 5 points
• 3-4 events = 3 points
• 1-2 events = 1 point

Disclaimer: A disclaimer is a statement that reveals the truth of something said earlier. The disclaimer goes at the end of your story. It explains what factually happened in each event.

• One (1) point for each disclaimer (8 points)
• Each disclaimer must be in its own paragraph
• Each must be titled (must begin with) the words that were put into bold earlier
• Disclaimers do not count toward the total word count
• Must be written for a middle school audience
• All disclaimers go at the end of the story

Total possible points: 28

Suggestions:

• The Transcontinental Railroad
• Landing on the Moon
• Creation of Apple, Inc.
• The Boy Scouts of America is founded
• Ford invents the Model T
• Disco is created
• Video games are created
• The First X-Games happen
• [Name of person] becomes famous

Short Story: Writer’s Checklist

The ten rules for writing a short story:

1. Follow consistent point of view (usually past tense): “I ran” not “I am running”
2. Have believable characters that readers can identify with and whose motives are understandable
3. Develop a plot that includes a background, conflict, rising action, climax, and resolution
4. Have a theme (a message) for the reader; a benefit that the reader gets from reading the story
5. Show, rather than tell, what happens: “But he did step forward into the dark” not “he was brave”
6. Give concise, specific descriptions
7. Have some imaginative language, metaphors, similes, imagery, or other forms of figurative language
8. Use literary devices: flashback, symbolism, foreshadowing
9. Use dialogue that is appropriate for the characters
10. All parts of story are necessary--no extra stuff--each character, action, and word lead to a single end

Can your story fill in the details to this sentence?

My fully developed characters will interact in these ways in order to achieve this resolution--so that the reader will get this message.

How to Begin a Story

Pre-write

Determine Your Theme/Message

What value is there for someone to read your story? What will they learn? What message will you send?

Outline the Plot

Once you have a clear message, decide what conflict your characters will face (to illustrate the message) You will not state the message; rather, your characters and the plot will reveal the message. Start here:

1. What events lead to the conflict?
2. What initial conflict do your characters encounter?
3. What are the results?
4. How do the results build to additional, more complicated conflicts (this is the rising action)?
5. What things bring the events to a crisis (a big problem in the story that is making life miserable)
6. What is the crisis--the big problem itself, not how the big problem started, that is number 5
7. What happens as a result of the crisis (the turning point of story where end can be predicted; climax)
8. What is the end result? Do characters change? What makes them change; how are they different?

Develop Characters

All characters in your story should have answers to these questions:

1. What does the character look like?
2. What is the character’s background? History? Education? Family life?
3. What kind of surrounding does he or she like? Where is he or she most or least comfortable?
4. What does the character think about? How does she react to frustrating situations?
5. What does the character value?
6. What is his or her behavior like?
7. What does he or she sound like when speaking? What kind of vocabulary does he or she use?
8. How do others react to the character? Do they all see the character the same way?
9. Does the character see him or herself in the same way that others see him or her?

Critically evaluate your ideas:

1. Do your characters portray consistent, realistic behavior?
2. Are their reactions realistic to their backgrounds.
3. If the character behaves in an odd way, is there a logical reason for it?
4. Note: Few of your responses to these questions will actually appear in your story, since they are probably not related to your message directly.
5. But by answering them you will force yourself to examine each character in turn, the only way to develop consistent, believable characters.

Establish Setting: Consider how the setting feels, smells, and sounds, not just how it looks.

The Three-Act Play: The structure of a 3-Act play, or what happens in each act?

• Provocation--villain feels wronged or cheated and seeks vengeance, villain could be jealous of hero
• Pain and suffering--audience is shown the suffering of innocent people that the villain's evil scheme has caused
• Redemption--the villain's evil plan is foiled at the last moment because (1) a choice the villain himself makes backfire on him, or (2) an ironic twist of fate occurs, or (3) divine intervention saves the day, or (4) the villain, in arrogance, lets down his guard, and the hero seizes the opportunity to win, or (5) the villain is caught in his own trap, or (6) anything along those lines.

Your play must have exactly 5 characters and NO narrator.

Act 1 (200 words +/-50 words)

The hero and his ordinary world are introduced to the audience. The audience is shown what "normal" is for the hero. All characters in the story are typically introduced in Act 1. The central conflict of the play is introduced midway through the first act. The audience should easily be able to describe in a few words what the story is about before the end of Act 1: fairy tale creature needs to destroy a magical ring, small boy learns karate to stand up to bullies, soldier must decide to help friendly (blue) alien species or to help rigid military commander, etc.

Act 2 (200 words +/-50 words)

Things become complicated for our hero. Hero encounters obstacles in his quest to solve the conflict. Hero enters the lowest part of his struggle--the point where he is most likely to fail or give up out of desperation. All seems hopeless. Hero does gain insight (a clue) about the problem he must overcome.

Act 3 (200 words +/-50 words)

Yeah! Hero solves problem. Hero uses past events in the play to determine the correct way to solve the problem. Audience is shown immediate consequences of the solution--what happens to villain moments later, to hero moments later. Audience is then shown either directly or through implication the long-term consequences--how life returns to normal or will return to normal. Time passes. Story ends with Hero back in exactly the same location as the hero was in when the story began; however, Hero is different for the experience and has something new (an item or knowledge) that makes the world a better place.

Types of Stories

Melodrama

A melodrama is a type of romantic comedy set in an exotic location that uses two-dimensional characters. Melodramas feature an obvious villain, a squeaky-clean hero, and a maiden in distress. Melodramas are more concerned with creating strong emotional reactions for the audience rather than on creating a strong plot (story) for the audience. Always the hero wins the girl and the bad guy receives just punishment.

Conventions

Characters in Melodrama

• A Hero: handsome, strong, dependable, trustworthy, shiny
• The hero’s faithful servant, comic relief, discovers villain’s evil plot
• an obvious villain,
• a villain’s accomplice, comic relief, bumbling, foolish, likable not all evil
• a heroine in distress,
• a maid servant, puckish, coquettish: opposite of heroine, goes with servant

Events in Melodrama

Use these twelve events. Put each into its own paragraph. Type the underlined words into your story.

1. The villain (wrongly) feels cheated or slighted and seeks revenge: Label as Villain Feels Cheated
2. The villain tricks the good but not very clever hero: Label as Fooled
3. an important piece of paper falls into the wrong hands: Label as Evidence
4. an unusual, exotic location for a story: Label as Location
5. love and crime go hand-in-hand: Label as Love and Crime
6. awkward social situations both funny and embarrassing: Label as Awkward
7. Extreme contrast is present in melodrama: justice versus revenge, or honesty versus deceit, or diligent-industrious-working-effort versus laziness, or generosity versus greed, etc.: Label as Contrasts
8. young lovers who do not know they are perfect for each other: Label as Young Love
9. justice: Label as Justice
10. the 'aside' (an 'aside' is a moment in a story where a character talks directly to the audience to reveal a secret or other information): Label as Aside
11. improbable events come together: Label as As If
12. a miraculous ending where all problems are neatly resolved: Label as Yeah! We're Saved

Where to start?

Start by making an outline of your story. Divide these items into smaller parts that you can write about:

• Bad guy feels cheated even though he was not cheated.
• Bad guy gets revenge on good guy.
• Female hero is captured by villain.
• Good guy saves girl, captures bad guy.

Farce (farce is a type of comedy)

Characters in Farce: Stereotypes are the main characters of a farce: such as, soldier and ballerina meet cowboy and doctor

Events in Farce

• Early in the story our hero makes a minor mistake, a small blunder, does something he (she) knows is wrong, but instead of simply taking responsibility for the problem and accepting the (small) punishment for it, he (or she) tries to hide the problem thereby creating a much larger problem with much worse consequences
• highly unlikely things are likely to happen, improbable events always happen at exactly the moment that such an event would be catastrophically bad or wonderfully good. "Shoe string breaks. Hero ducks to tie it--just as the wrecking ball swings over hero's head just missing the hero" or, "After years of not being maintained, the bridge collapses--but collapses JUST as our hero crosses it and the villain in pursuit is unable to cross, thereby allowing the hero to escape."
• Spectacular and extravagant events are highlighted; an emphasis is placed on making the story spectacular
• Logical plot events are unimportant, continuity of plot is unimportant; the plot is loose, general, and not too important to the story; we care more about the jokes and situations than we do about an actual sequence of events
• Humor: fast word play and slap-stick action
• Fast plot--to whatever degree an actual may or may not exist, the action in the play is rapid and only gaining speed
• Wrong identity, costumes, and disguises: characters in play get each other mixed up or confused with someone else
• Chase scene at end of story

Comedia Del Arte

Theater of the Absurd

Characters

• Characters are flat (they do not change or learn something new from the story)
• Characters use hand gestures and body language as part of their dialogue
• Characters appear as possibly genius but (much) more likely as idiot

Events in Theater of the Absurd

• Theater of the Absurd begins with a premise that something in reality is false and that the story told by the plot can shattered this false reality; that is, the audience before the play is delusional about something in their life, culture, society, religion, laws, etc. and acquires at the end of the play a new (and accurate) understanding of his or her reality (life, culture, society, etc.).
• Cliches or other meaningless phrases are used by characters
• Sound, the lack of sound, noise, the lack of noise, and ambient sounds play a part in the story, somehow have significance or meaning
• All events occur in one setting in one span of time
• Nothing happens in the story
• Sound, noise, and (awkward) silence has some type of meaning to the characters--even though it actually has no meaning and just happens to be a sound or noise
• The end of the story returns to the beginning of the story; that is, the first line of the story is a response to the last line of the story
• All characters are flat characters, meaning they do not change, grow, learn, or develop during the course of the story
• Heavy use of nonverbal elements meant to affect the audience: harsh lighting, odd or awkward silences, odd or awkward ambient sounds that suggest meaning or suggest a message is being sent, harsh noise, or cruelty

The Western

Characters

Hero

• lives by his own code of honor that may or may not conform to laws of society
• is a nomadic wanderer, a drifter, a stranger
• has a mysterious or unknown history that hints at violence
• is a capable fighter with experience using pistol, rifle, or fist
• is either motivated by bringing justice for others or is motivated by furthering his own wealth (depends on the style of western)
• Sherif is either good or bad

Victims

• Simple folk: farmers, ranchers, citizens of the town
• are unable to defend themselves from the villain
• are demoralized with some giving up and leaving
• are motivated to bring civility, civilization, culture, and law to a new territory

Villain

• Powerful land owner, railroad tycoon, or cattle man
• Victims (their town or farm) stands in the way of villain's path (railroad can't get through, town is on cattle path, fence blocks cattle drive, town owns oil rights, etc.)
• has unlimited resources of money and henchmen
• establishes his own set of laws by which people must obey
• only fights directly at the end of story after all henchmen are defeated

Events in a Western

• Settlers, farmers, or town folk are bullied by villain
• Villain wants settlers, farmers, or town folk to go away; they stand in the way of his plans
• Stranger appears in town and helps settlers, farmers, or town folk
• Stranger kills (dispatches) villains henchmen, then villain
• Stranger rides away alone
• Cowboys, horses, and wanted signs
• revenge
• poker
• girl in distress
• land disputes
• Law: no established law, self-governing law, vigilante justice
• Town is place for alcohol, bar fights, stand offs; if church and school are present, more social structure is present

Checklist

• At least one paragraph of dialogue exists in your story
• The word "said" is not used
• All is written in past tense
• No two sentence in any one paragraph begin with the same word
• No sentence begins with any of these words: it, this, that, these, those, there
• Must be 1200+ words long
• Three or fewer spelling errors

The Epic (Assignment)

Characters

Protagonists:

• The Epic Hero represents the best characteristics and values of the culture, nation, or group of people that he comes from
• The Epic Hero has a destiny to fulfill but is not always working towards fulfilling that destiny
• The Epic Hero makes errors in judgement but is never destroyed by those mistakes
• The Epic Hero makes mistakes bad decisions but is never destroyed by those bad decisions
• The Epic Hero has flaws but, unlike the tragic hero, is not destroyed by his flaws
• The Epic Hero is a leader but must prove his leadership ability to his companions
• The Epic Hero must use multiple skills and talents (strength, intelligence, humility, agility, patience, reckless action, etc.) to overcome obstacles
• The other characters in the hero's party are a band of brothers with a sworn allegiance to each other

Antagonists

• Boss: Epics do have one antagonist that is ultra powerful. This boss-type character harasses the hero throughout the hero's journey and is only encountered in person near the end of the journey. The boss-type character has seemingly endless resources, soldiers, or monsters
• In addition to the armies or minions of the boss character, the hero encounters villains not connected to the boss that are of an assortment of characters, each offering a different challenge that requires a different solution; these are the moments where the hero must use choose from his multiple talents that talent or skill that would best defeat the villain
• Nature is an antagonist: sometimes helpful, often times harmful to the hero
• Society in genreal can be an obstacle to the hero; not every town or group of people support the hero's cause
• The hero's own conscience becomes a conflict; a moment comes in the epic where the hero has self-doubt or second thoughts about his mission or purpose and deals with an internal conflict on what to do or on what is right

Conventions in an Epic

An epic takes a hero and companions on a long, complicated journey that tests their values, intelligence, skill, morals, and strength as they seek to obtain something that is worth having (such as an end to war, peace between kingdoms, the salvation of mankind, a return to home, the safety of an innocent people). Most epics contain most of the following conventions:

• Epic Question: A question at the beginning of the story that is not answered until the end of the story; the hero effort to answer this question guides the hero throughout the story
• Pray before you go: Epics begin with a prayer, an invocation or a plea to a higher source for help and guidance in what is about to be done
• Honesty counts: The narrator of the story is objective. The narrator does not brag about things hero does right, nor cover up things done wrong.
• Seriousness: The story is obviously serious and important even though some or much may have humor. Note: When an epic becomes too humorous, it becomes an Adventure story
• Start in the middle: The actual plot (the story of our hero) of an epic begins in the middle of an on-going action, called in media res: two sides are fighting in a war and the reader, audience does not know who is fighting or why; all background to the story is told at a later point in the story
• Enormous setting: The setting of the story is huge; the hero travels to every place known to the audience, or to everyplace that exists in the fictional world of the hero
• Real people and places are met and traveled to in an epic
• Fictional people and places are met and traveled to in an epic
• Long trip: The journey the hero must go on is long, is complicated, is difficult; the hero encounters multiple detours and obstacles that must be navigated or circumvented
• Bad problems happen for a reason: All problems the hero encounters are necessary for the hero's ultimate success; if any obstacle from earlier in the story where removed from the story, then the hero would not have been lead to somewhere, something, or someone that later becomes vital to the hero's success--the only way the hero won was for the hero to encounter all the problems that he/she encountered. Each problem leads to another problem that finally leads to success
• Land of the Dead: The hero travels to a place where the dead exist, either literally or metaphorically, or the hero has a near-death experience. This experience with death is a turning point in an epic. Before journeying to the land where the dead exist, the hero is aloof from his destiny. He knows of his destiny but does not seek it. The hero is living for himself, not for others. After the land of the dead, the hero accepts his destiny, works towards it, starts living to help others, and becomes self-sacrificing
• Heroes Everywhere: An epic contains at least one moment where other heroes, either alive or from history are described or appear (alive or dead). The purpose is to juxtapose our epic hero's talents with those of other heroes
• Divine Intervention: Divine intervention means "a god or goddess" "decides to change reality to help or hurt." The hero would certainly fail where it not for a god or goddess going down to the hero and giving the hero some special token, blessing, weapon, or disguise.
• Prophecy: Prophecy is a prediction of a future event. Prophecy is always wrapped in ambiguity, uncertainty or inexactness of meaning, and open to different interpretations. Prophecy involves making a predication about something that is unpredictable; compare with destiny where destiny is something predictable. Destiny: your father was ruler, you will someday be ruler. Prophecy: You shall find what you seek in a place where place is not, the mother of integrity shall endure the mystical sleeping ideas that lead to the colorless blue shadows of sanctuary. Okay, huh?
• Fate or Destiny: The hero does have a known destiny that he must one take accept. See prophecy above.
• Grand, dramatic speeches: On occasion the hero makes a summative speech that encapsulated all that the hero and everyone on the hero's side is fighting for; think of the speeches given just before the battle begins, of when the hero finishes, everyone cheers wildly and is ready to fight
• Universal themes about life: The epic contains themes about life such as: a mother's love is unbreakable, friendship matters, somethings are bigger or more important that your own dreams or safety, bad things happen when good people stand by and do nothing, etc.
• Multiple high points: The epic contains multiple places in the story where a climax is reached, rather than one point (near the end of the story) where all the action has cumulated and is released

THE STAGES OF THE HERO’S JOURNEY: The Sequence of Events that the Hero Does, from Start to Finish. This assignment / task / activity is about teamwork, creativity, and efficiency.

Hero Quest

Helpful Website

Letters A-F all take place at location #1 on your map

Exposition:

A Here is home: The hero is introduced in his/her ordinary world. Most stories ultimately take us to a special world, a world that is new and alien to its hero. If you’re going to tell a story about a fish out of his customary element, you first have to create a contrast by showing him in his mundane, ordinary world. In WITNESS you see both the Amish boy and the policeman in their ordinary worlds before they are thrust into alien worlds – the farm boy into the city, and the city cop into the unfamiliar countryside. In STAR WARS you see Luke Skywalker being bored to death as a farm boy before he tackles the universe. The call to adventure:

Inciting Action:

B Something important, rewarding, and dangerous must be done. The hero is presented with a problem, challenge or adventure. Maybe the land is dying, as in the King Arthur stories about the search for the Grail. In STAR WARS, it’s Princess Leia’s holographic message to Obi Wan Kenobi, who then asks Luke to join the quest. In detective stories, it’s the hero being offered a new case. In romantic comedies it could be the first sight of that special but annoying someone the hero or heroine will be pursuing/sparring with.

C Refusal by hero to go on adventure: The hero is reluctant at first. Often at this point the hero balks at the threshold of adventure. After all, he or she is facing the greatest of all fears – fear of the unknown. At this point Luke refuses Obi Wan’s call to adventure, and returns to his aunt and uncle’s farmhouse, only to find they have been barbecued by the Emperor’s stormtroopers. Suddenly Luke is no longer reluctant, and is eager to undertake the adventure. He is motivated.

D Mentor helps hero: The hero is encouraged by the Wise Old Man or Woman. By this time many stories will have introduced a Merlin-like character who is the hero’s mentor. In JAWS it’s the crusty Robert Shaw character who knows all about sharks; in the mythology of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, it’s Lou Grant. The mentor gives advice and sometimes magical weapons. This is Obi Wan giving Luke his father’s light saber. The mentor can only go so far with the hero. Eventually the hero must face the unknown by himself. Sometimes the Wise Old Man/Woman is required to give the hero a swift kick in the pants to get the adventure going.

E Hero leaves home, enters new world: The hero passes the first threshold. The hero fully enters the special world of the story for the first time. This is the moment at which the story takes off and the adventure gets going. The balloon goes up, the romance begins, the spaceship blasts off, the wagon train gets rolling. Dorothy sets out on the Yellow Brick Road. The hero is now committed to his/her journey and there’s no turning back.

Rising Action:

F Tests, friends, and enemies: The hero encounters tests and helpers. The hero is forced to make allies and enemies in the special world, and to pass certain tests and challenges that are part of his/her training. In STAR WARS the cantina is the setting for the forging of an important alliance with Han Solo and the start of an important enmity with Jabba the Hutt. In CASABLANCA Rick’s Café is the setting for the “alliances and enmities” phase and in many Westerns it’s the saloon where these relationships are tested.

• Find new friend Takes place on your map at location #2
• face simple obstacle Takes place on your map at location #3
• get weapon Takes place on your map at location #4
• hero demonstrates that he or she is worthy of being part of the group, worthy of being the hero Takes place on your map at location #5
• hero must take a detour; detour seems terrible at the time but the detour, itself, will end up being essential to the success of the quest--no other path would lead to victory Takes place on your map at location #6
• hero loses fight but gains clue to defeating the bad guy Takes place on your map at location #7
• Hero finds a new friend, new ally Takes place on your map at location #8
• Hero gains a new skill Takes place on your map at location #9
• Hero gains new knowledge Takes place on your map at location #10

Lymerick

1. A long line
2. A long line
3. B short line
4. B short line
5. A long line

English 9 Requirements:

• 1800 -- 2500 words
• Use more than one paragraph, please
• You must use dialogue:

Bob shouted, "Where are you going!"

"No where," Jill responded.

"Then what are you doing?" asked Bob.

• You may NOT use the words "Say," or "Said."
• You must have a clear beginning, middle, and end. They do not need (and should not be) the same length.
• Show the reader:
  • Hero's life before problems come along
  • The problem arriving and hero's first reaction to it
  • The hero's long-term plan for solving problem
  • Hero solving problem
  • Hero returns to the life he or she had before the problem happened AND hero is slightly different because of the experience

Links:

Storybird

Can you find the 15 ninjas hiding in this photo?

Use highlighter to reveal answer:

[ Of course not, they're NINJAS! ]

Poetry

Examples of iamb, troch, anapest, and dactyl are here.

Trochaic

Song of Hiawatha

Should you | ask me, | whence these | stories?

Whence these | legends | and tra | ditions,

With the | odors | of the | forest,

With the | dew and | damp of | meadows,

With the | curling | smoke of | wigwams,

With the | rushing | of great | rivers,

With their | frequent| repe | titions,

And their | wild re | verber| ations,

As of | thunder | in the | mountains?

Earth, receive an honoured guest;

William Yeats is laid to rest:

Let this Irish vessel lie

Emptied of its poetry.

Tiger, Tiger burning bright

The Raven

Gilligan’s Island

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,

A tale of a fateful trip

That started from this tropic port

Aboard this tiny ship.

The mate was a mighty sailing man,

The skipper brave and sure.

Five passengers set sail that day

For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.

The weather started getting rough,

The tiny ship was tossed,

If not for the courage of a fearless crew

The minnow would be lost, the minnow would be lost.

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/gilligansislandlyrics.html

Brady Bunch

Here's the story of a lovely lady

Who was bringing up three very lovely girls.

All of them had hair of gold, like their mother,

The youngest one in curls.

Here's the story, of a man named Brady,

Who was busy with three boys of his own,

They were four men, living all together,

Yet they were all alone.

Till the one day when the lady met this fellow

And they knew it was much more than a hunch,

That this group must somehow form a family.

That's the way we all became the Brady Bunch.

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/thebradybunchlyrics.html

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn around.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Touch the ground.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Touch your shoe.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, That will do.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Go upstairs.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Say your prayers.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn out the light.

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Say good night!

Film Projects

PSA Project Rubric

PSA Project for Films

Films Final Project Rubric

Movie Making Project Information

Book Report Instructions 4 week project, 4 tasks