Week 1
Class Ground Rules
Read all the assignments before class.
Keep yourself on mute unless called on.
Raise your hands electronically.
Focus your comments only on the question at hand rather than straying to other parts of the story.
Discuss the author's story, not your own story.
Refrain from offering a review of the whole story or jumping to the end.
Try to support your comments by referring to details from the text.
Listen to and respond to others with respect.
READ - Before reading the short story, please review:
The Reading Guide for an overview of the short story form and how to approach them. https://sites.google.com/view/exploringlaurengroff/reading-guide
Lauren Groff's biography https://sites.google.com/view/exploringlaurengroff/biography
Think About:
Is there anything you would add to the reading guide? Any elements you would dispute?
What did you find interesting in Groff's biography? How relevant is an author's biography to a work of fiction?
READ (at least twice): "Lucky Chow Fun," pp. 1-40. (Published in Delicate Edible Birds, 2015.)
A secret revealed destroys the idyllic haze of a small town, and a young girl grows up.
Think About:
The opening section, description of the village of Templeton.
First person narration and how it serves the story well.
Who is Lollie? What do we know about her? How is she changed by the end of the story?
Lollie's sister and their relationship.
Lollie's mother and their relationship.
The Chinese girls.
The relationship of myths and fairy tales to the story.
Purely Optional (but great writing!)
Read Groff's description to her hometown, the inspiration for Templeton—the setting in Lucky Chow Fun.
