Welcome to the world of Blogging!

It is in these posts where you will find the instructions for the reading and responding assignments that you will complete this year. 

Please remember that all of your posts should go on your own blog rather than the class blog. The class blog will be used only for instructional purposes.

A few words about your upcoming blog posts: Because we are dealing with an online audience, your posts should be concise and relatively short (between 100-150 words). This will mean that you will have to be very precise in your writing. Get to your point quickly, adding only those details necessary to describe or explain the main focus for your entry. 

TASK ONE: Before you begin blogging, take a look at the "Get Your Blog On!" list in the sidebar to your right which will link you to a number of blogs written by teens about books and reading. 
Click around...see what blogs are out there, then come back to this page to get your TASK TWO instructions!!!

The  pages listed on the TOP BAR will provide you with the introductory activities to get you ready to manage your own blog.  

TASK TWO: Click on the page entitled "Introduction to Blogging" to begin your journey into the weblog world. When you are done reading what is required on each page, follow the instructions at the bottom to complete your next assignment.

Good luck and have FUN!!!

8. FINAL BLOG POST

As your final blog post, you will be focusing on the final stage of the hero's journey: RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR.

Once the hero's journey is complete, they return to their Ordinary World with the elixir, a great treasure or a new understanding to share. The elixir can be love, wisdom, freedom, knowledge. It doesn't have to be a tangible prize. Unless something is brought back from the ordeal, an elixir, the hero is doomed to repeat the adventure. At this stage of the journey, a  circle has been closed, bringing change to the ordinary world. Returning with the elixir means the hero can now implement change in his daily life and use the lessons of the adventure to move forward and grow as a person.

Next year, you will be moving to grade 10. The skills and knowledge you have gained in grade 9 will serve you well as you begin to transform into grade 10 students and move on into a new and challenging special world, leaving the ordinary world of grade 9 behind. 

Today you have the opportunity to identify some of your strengths, weaknesses and next steps in the reading, writing and media strands, by looking at what you have gained from your work on the independent reading blog.

Using the INDEPENDENT READING BLOG FINAL EVALUATION  you have been given, go through your blog as it is TODAY, and reflect upon your process. 

Hand this self evaluation in on MONDAY, JANUARY 19 at the start of class. 

7. BLOG POST #7: The Confrontation

Once the hero has crossed the threshold, the next stages of the journey are all about the Hero trying to function in the special world as they face greater and greater obstacles. They face TESTS, form ALLIES and fight ENEMIES.  As they  APPROACH the inmost cave, the hero and their newfound allies make preparations to face the ORDEAL (the major challenge) in the special world. Finally, near the middle of the story, the hero faces their greatest fear as his/her ORDEAL.  Out of this moment comes a new sense of self or a new found appreciation for the qualities the hero has gained. Finally, the hero takes possession of the REWARD won by facing this central crisis.  

Throughout all of these stages, the hero learns about what they are made of, and what they can withstand physically and mentally.

Today, you will be making a connection between the novel you are currently reading and one of these middle stages of the journey.

Start your entry, as always, by identifying the novel source (by image or proper bibliographic citation). 

Last name, First name. Title of Book. City of Publication: 

     Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.

Then describe the stage (tests, enemies and allies; approach to the inmost cave; ordeal; or reward) as your protagonist is going through it. Use the definition of the stage to help you apply it to your protagonist's unique experiences.

Finally, explain what the hero has learned about him/herself from the conflict or confrontation at this middle stage of the journey. 

***Be sure to include at least ONE DIRECT QUOTATION with a proper in-text citation (Author page) or (page)

6. BLOG POST #6: The first five stages of the journey: text connection

Each hero who goes on a journey experiences a call to adventure. This is the time when the herald approaches the hero and offers him or her an opportunity to leave the comfort and safety of his or her ordinary world and embark on an adventure into a new, unknown and challenging world: the special world. After the call to adventure comes, the hero has to make a decision, to refuse the call and return to his or her ordinary world, or seek out a mentor and cross the threshold into the special world.

Do any or all of these stages apply to the story you are currently reading? If so, focus your attention on one or all of these steps for the 'hero' of your novel. Take us through the pressures they are feeling in their ordinary world and their decision making as they attempt to leave their ordinary world (what is their ordinary world like?) behind them. Describe their call to adventure (How is it delivered?) and either their reluctance (Why might they refuse the call to adventure?) or their willingness (What is it about their ordinary world that needs to change?) to embark on the adventure (What role might a mentor play in their decision?). 

Start your paragraph with a strong topic sentence within which you will identify, define and describe the stage(s) in the journey , the character AND the text you will be referring to in your development.

Practice what you know about organized paragraphs here. Make sure that you include a direct quotation and a properly formatted in-text citation (Author, Title page) and an MLA style bibliographic citation for the novel you are using. If you do this well, you can use this paragraph in your personal essay as your text connection).

Here is a student sample:

Roth, Veronica. Insurgent. New York: Katherine Tegen, 2012. Print.

 

            The novel Insurgent connects to several stages of the journey, but specifically to the call to adventure.  In the book Insurgent, by Veronica Roth, a new, less comforting, ordinary world is developed for Tris, but a significant event, or call to adventure, leads her to make an impulsive decision to cross the threshold. Everyone in Dauntless returns to their home: the Dauntless headquarters. Of course, things are not the same as they used to be, and the war against Jeanine and her army continues to seem neverending. One night, Tris is awakened by her friend, Christina and told to follow her. They walk to the elevator and travel up to the rooftop where they find their friends Hector, Lynn's brother and Marlene, Uriah's love, as well as a young, eight year-old Dauntless girl standing at the edge of the roof. They are under one of Jeanine's awful simulations, making them unaware of their existence or actions. Marlene states in a monotone voice, "This is not a negotiation. It is a warning...Every two days until one of you delivers yourself to Erudite headquarters, this will happen again" (Roth, Insurgent 299). Promptly after this, all three of them jump off the roof! Tris dives for Hector though, and saves him, but only him, from falling to his death (Roth, Insurgent 299). By "one of you", (Roth, Insurgent 299) she meant the Divergent, and from that point there, Tris decides she has to be that one. This is an example of the call to adventure. This event also displays Tris' crossing of the threshold, although the story jumps to this very quickly. Tris did  not want to see or hear about this murder happening again, especially since she would feel like it was her fault every time, not to mention that all Dauntless members would turn against the Divergent even more than they already do, therefore she immediately committed to handing herself over to the Erudite, but more specially Jeanine. Despite what she would have to go through to do it, she made her decision. In this way, I can make a connection between the journey archetype and the novel Insurgent.

5. BLOG POST #5: Character Archetypes

You have spent time highlighting the main ideas in the descriptions of the character archetypes, and found examples of them in classic and contemporary texts. You have extended your ideas to think symbolically about these descriptors to create your Tarot Cards, and you have completed a presentation about heroes throughout history.

This week, I want you to examine the possible character archetypes you might have found in the novels you have been reading this year.

YOUR POST THIS WEEK: Select one of the characters you have met through your reading, and identify the archetype he or she is most like. Describe how he/she exemplifies the archetypal characteristics listed on your handout.

If you find that the character you select shares some qualities of an archetypal character, but generally is very different from the definition you have been given, you may also wish to discuss how the character is atypical of the archetypal characteristics.

PROVE IT: Incorporate at least one well chosen excerpt (direct quote) from the novel to help support the ideas in your comparison.

Remember to begin your post by introducing the book source and the author by title and name and properly citing this source following your direct quotation (Author, Title page). Feel free to include a cover image or other image that will help your audience understand the connections you have made to character archetypes.

A student sample is below:

Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

I believe that the character Andrew Hopkins in this story is a a shape shifter. “You make yourself strong because it's expected of you. You become confident because someone beside you is unsure. You turn into the person others need you to be.” (Picoult 36) This line perfectly describes him because when his daughter Delia was 4 years old, he kidnapped her. Andrew was divorced to his wife Elise, but Elise had full custody of Delia. Elise was an alcoholic; however, and Andrew couldn't think of any other way to get his daughter out of that environment than to just take her and leave. So he left Arizona and drove to New Hampshire where he completely changed both of their identities and lived a full life with this secret, until 28 years later when the police find him, and he is sent back to Arizona to face trial. Both Delia and Andrew have to come back to who they're true identities are. Not only did Andrew change his personal information, he also had to change his personality, for both his, and his daughter's safety in their new lives. This makes him a shapeshifter .                                                                                                     

Comment on a peers' blog!

If your name is not listed under the CLASS BLOGS! link list in the right sidebar - please see me TODAY with 
your blog's html address.

Each of you should have FOUR blog posts complete as of today. If you do not have this done, it needs to become a priority over the weekend to get caught up!!

________________________________________

This week, instead of creating your own blog post, you will be writing comments on three of your peers' blogs. Everyone will write ONE comment on three of the first four posts written by your classmates this week (3 peers x 3 posts = 9 comments in total). 

Which BLOGS do I post comments to?: Select the blogs that belong to the three students whose names are listed BELOW your name on the 'CLASS BLOGS' list found in the sidebar to your right.

How do I do this?: Click on the names of three of your peers below your name found in the 'CLASS BLOGS' list to the right of the class blog. Read the posts they have written and then scroll to the bottom of each where you will find a comment box. 

What do I do if the peer that I am supposed to make comments to doesn't have all of their posts done?: You have 9 comments to make, so move to the next peer on the list.

What kinds of comments should I make?: You need to comment on what the person has said in the blog post you are commenting on selected. Read the rules below before proceeding......


DO NOT . . . 

`Do not be rude.

`Do not be sarcastic.

`Do not just tell the blogger they are awesome or that it is the best blog post you have ever read. 

`Do not make an inside joke.

`Do not insult or otherwise demean the writer.

`Do not leave an empty comment (I really liked your picture; I enjoyed this post; I think I might read this book too - these can be better through added detail)



DO. . .

`Genuinely look at what they have said about their books and respond accordingly.

`Make an intelligent comment on the book, the topic or the ideas presented by the blogger.

`Extend the blogger's thinking by linking their ideas to something else (another text, your personal experiences or the world).

`Ask the blogger a question about what they have read or what they have said.

`Offer a suggestion for another book they might like based on what they have read and the themes and ideas presented in the blog post.

`Give the blogger tips for improvement based upon the expectations for each post (including correct citations for their novels; using quotations with proper in-text citations; checking for punctuation, spelling or sentence structure; adding length through further detail, description or support from the text; organization of elements on the blog).

`You may also comment on the style or form of the blog itself (the design of it; the visual elements: colour, organization, font style and size; use of gadgets; readability; title and description etc.).

NOTE:  ****As a blogger, you should read these comments and respond accordingly to what your peers have posted. Fix what they have suggested, start a dialogue.

There are some samples of typical peer comments below:

GOOD! 
You were very descriptive about the two elements you wrote about. I am now really interested in reading Modelland, would you recommend it?

Good post. You chose great literary elements to describe and had good support from the novel for both of them. For next time I would start by saying what book you are reading to make the post easier to understand.

Very well written Laura!! Just to make it a bit better maybe you need to add more visual components to your blog. maybe add more colour or the book cover in each post :)

BETTER!!

This was interesting, however it lead me to a a question: Who was it that brushed aside Tookie? If it was her family then it would be a long hard journey for Tookie to gain confidence considering she grew up thinking she was always second to her sister. If Tookie stepped outside of her comfort zone she would gain confidence and fit into the stereo-typical world you talked about (how beauty is everything), because confidence is beauty. Maybe extend your post to include comments about the cause as well as the effect.

I like how you used such specific elements to the book and had solid support to your answers. I understood what you were talking about, because I've read this book, but anyone who hasn't read it might find it hard to understand. Like Lynne and Nathan (other students who commented) already mentioned, you could introduce your book at the beginning of the post to help those who haven't read it. Maybe add a bit of a summary about key information to lead up to your quotation to give your reader a sense of what has gone on so far. You could even use your quotation to help you do that.


BEST!!!
Foreshadowing is for sure an important quality for a book to have, and by reading your description of Uglies, the author seems to do an excellent job at including it. Great post, very descriptive. You were even able to talk about the significance of the device to the story when you said: "The foreshadowing used in Uglies allows you to uncover more about the characters. For instance, as the reader, we barely know Peris. But when Tally flashes back to memories with Peris, you start to discover certain things about him. In all of Tally's flashbacks, she went to Peris for advice, and from that I got that he was a good friend to talk to, and that he has good advice." I might consider reading this book sometime! 

FYI - If you liked this book you might want to try a book called Feed by M.T Anderson, it is really similar in theme and character to Uglies. 

4. BLOG POST #4: Popularity???

Before you complete your next blog post,  survey the comments made for WIKI task # 4 and 5 during our POPULAR debate, where you discussed together what qualities are important for a story to be considered popular and, more importantly, whether POPULAR =GOOD. Here are some specific student comments in response to the POPULAR = GOOD strand:

Student one : It's a hard question. I think it varies from one scenario to the next...BUT I also think that being popular is never 100% good or 100% bad for someone. I think that being popular will come with positives and negatives. For example any current popular music artist such as Justin Bieber. Yes there are many, many people in the world that LOVE Justin Bieber but there are also many people who don't. Bieber can never go out in public without being attacked by raging fans. ALSO think about how much pressure someone like Justin Bieber must be feeling. One small wrong move that the public doesn't agree with (such as getting a tatoo or making a music video filled with half naked women) and in an instance everyone is against him. I think popularity has its moments of glory... but with the glory comes many negative side effects.

Student two:Popular. It's a very deceptive word. Here's an example. Let's say you and a friend were talking and they ask you to check out a band they like. "These guys are so popular!" they say. So, you go home and you look them up online. After the first minute of one of their songs, you can't stand it. The singer is terrible, and the guitarist couldn't play a decent riff to save his life. What could possibly make them popular? Now let's envision your friend doing the exact same thing, but they love it! They can't stop listening to their new hit single, and they find that this band is popular, because the band has many people such as your friend that make them popular because they all like the certain band, and they make a fan base which is crucial for anything popular. Fan base= popularity. Simple as that.

Student three: Being popular is never good. It's also never bad. There are factors that affect whether or not the given popularity is a gift or curse. It can also change. Take Rebecca Black for example, there's no denying that 'Friday' was an awful song, but she used the bad popularity as an advantage. When she came out with new songs, everyone expected the worst. Her new music is impressive, even if it's just because her old stuff was bad. So popularity can vary. Then you can factor the degree of popularity. In the music industry, I think that there is a limit to how popular you can be while the pros still outweigh the cons. It's nice if people hear your songs, but you won't be mobbed on the street. Then there are things like creating a television show, the show could be impossibly popular, but you're still relatively safe, as long as you don't appear in the show. I think that for every pro, there is a con.

Student four: This question is difficult because popularity is an objective measurement- it can be quantified in the copies of books sold, views cataloged, or songs downloaded- while whether we think something is good quality is a subjective scale- it differs based on our opinions. For instance, when the harry Potter books came out, they were devoured by fans, but there was also a push by some parents to censor them due to what is described as "the glorification of witchcraft and heresy". essentially this is the belief that magic is an abomination before God. The move never gained enough support to actually censor the series, but despite this, we can clearly see a case of some people disliking a media form despite its huge popularity. Therefore whether or not popularity ensures we get the best quality stories is entirely in the eye of the beholder largely because the very question of the quality of the story is also in the eye of the beholder. it becomes a question that cannot be answered through fact, only through opinion.

Student five: I think that popularity influences people, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. An example where popularity would be a good thing could be when someone uses their popularity as a valuable helping tool. For example, One Direction used their popularity to bring up the pressing matter of bullying, and how they were teaming up with an organization against bullying. They made a commercial which told their fans that they could help stop bullying too. They used their popularity as an aid to help spread the message. However, popularity can be used in a bad way as well. A great example of this would be Miley Cyrus. Her new music/ music videos are inappropriate, however people still watch them due to her popularity. These things might influence people to do things that Miley Cyrus is doing, such as wear inappropriate clothing or strange dances. These things might tell people that it's ok to do these things, which its no.

Student Six: I believe popularity can be used to positive and negative purposes. The need for popularity can influence people's choices and ruin individuality. Being popular means you have people to listen to what you say, and follow what you do. With that, comes responsibility. Some accept the responsibility they have on others such as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. These two provide a great example to those who look up to them. Others don't acknowledge their responsibility such as Miley Cyrus, using her popularity for personal gain. In several cases popularity can equal good! In the documentary The Cove, Hayden Panettier's popularity as a Hollywood actress brought attention to the plight of the dolphins. In our own school, the interact club and many others are clubs that engage in community service and helping others. The interact club is very popular and the more popular, the better!

POPULAR? ENDURING?

_____________________________________________________

The ultimate test of popularity for any story is to be considered a classic.

To be deemed a classic a story must withstand the test of time. Thus, its popularity is able to transcend time and impact many generations of people long after its original date of publication.

Now turn to the novel you are reading right now (or have just finished): Is it popular? Is it good? Could it or should it be considered a classic to future generations?

THIS WEEK'S POST:

FIRST : Define CLASSIC. Which qualities are necessary to ensure that a story endures?  Make sure to record the source of your information if you borrow (ie. copy and paste a definition) from someone else. (author, title page) or (link).

THEN ANSWER THE FOLLOWING:
How is the novel you are reading right now (or have just finished reading) a possible classic? or What qualities of a classic does your novel have? 

AND  Why should future generations of students read this book?

NOTE: *** If you believe your story is not worthy to be called a classic, explain specifically what it is missing. Why will this book not live on to be read by future generations?