BP#5 Popular?

Before you complete your next blog post, go back to the class WIKI and read through the comments made for task #4 and 5, where you discuss together what qualities are important for a story to be considered popular and whether POPULAR =GOOD.

Some specific student comments in response to the POPULAR = GOOD strand are found below:

J. J. : No, just because something is popular doesn't mean we're experiencing the best quality stories. Take the Twilight series movies for example, sure a lot of people read the books and were desperate to see their favourite story play out in front of them. But, I looked up the box office sales statistics and Twilight brought in $392,616,625 in theatres, which would have been those die-hard book fans. Then the second movie, New Moon, brought in $709,827,462! I'm sure this movie was more popular because girls saw the commercials, saw that Taylor Lautner takes off his shirt so the 'stupid vampire movie' was worth putting up with for that. The third movie, Eclipse, made $698,491,347 so, pretty much the same amount of sales. The few sales that were lost were probably those girls that couldn't stand sitting through the movie just to see the werewolf take off his shirt. I'm not saying that the Twilight series aren't good quality stories because I think they're amazing but for the movies, I think the second and third ones were so much more popular than the first only because a nice looking guy takes off his shirt a couple times, and not because it's a good quality story.

T.D: Negative publicity is necessary for popularity because even so it means that it is well known, and sometimes things are popular for being disliked, for instance Rebecca Black who is popular for creating an annoying song everyone hated so much they watched it to make fun of it. It ended up being mocked on Saturday Night Live which is, to a lot of people, the definition of well known. Negative popularity can sometimes hurt people. Rebecca was probably hurt by some of the comments her videos received, but again it probably made her much stronger. It really depends on your opinion of good and varies from case to case. Sometimes the things that should be popular aren't because they depict a message that is hard to hear, but one that also must be heard. For instance George Orwell's Animal Farm, which was rejected by dozens of publishing companies before it was finally accepted, has now become a classic. At the time it went unpublished because it said things that would offend people of power, but if it had been published it could have had a huge effect on people. It really can't be classified as either good or bad, because it varies from case to case and every person has a different opinion on what they think is well known.

(By the way Rebecca Black's "Friday" song (as of today) now has 4,371,406 hits,
the acoustic version has6,563,251 hits and
her "It's not the worst song in the world" interview posted by ABC has 4,552,218 hits.......)

POPULAR? ENDURING?

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The ultimate version 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.

How about the novel you are reading right now or have just finished: Is it popular? Is it good? Could it be considered a classic to future generations?

THIS WEEK'S POST:

FIRST : Define CLASSIC.
(What qualities are necessary to ensure that a story endures? ) Make sure to record the source of your information if you borrow from another. (title, author page) or (link).)

THEN ANSWER THE FOLLOWING:
How is the novel you are reading right now (or have just finished reading) a classic? or What qualities of a classic does your novel have? and Why should future generations of students read this book?

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?

BP#4 This reminds me of....

Since the start of the year we have been examining different motifs and patterns developed in ancient stories and how these patterns are duplicated in our contemporary storytelling. These motifs and patterns help us to connect strongly to past and present stories. We have seen this week how J.K Rowling connects and synthesizes her knowledge of ancient stories and history with details from her own life to create the fictional world of Harry Potter. The 100+ million readers of the Harry Potter series have certainly shown us that this can be a powerful connection.

This week I want you to write a blog post where you discuss a part of your novel that reminds you of something else or connects in some way to a personal experience, what is going on in the world or another text (media, digital or written).

What I want you to do is make a personal, textual,

and/or worldly connection to the novel you are reading.

By discussing these connections you will be showing how you can synthesize (bring together unlike or like parts to make meaning) concepts and texts.

AS PROCESS:
If you are not familiar with the novel The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, watch this movie trailer:

Then watch this interview with Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief. Listen carefully for insights into the connections he has made to the reality of his own life, and then presented as fiction in his award winning novel.

NOW COMPOSE YOUR POST:
To begin your entry, select a brief quotation (20-30 words) from the section of your book that connects you to some other experience. Be sure that you use "quotation marks" around the direct quotation, and that you provide a proper citation following the quote using the correct format (Author, Title Page) .

In the body of your entry make the connection you have made clear to your readers (max 100 words). Here you are to explain with specific details the type of connection you are making to your novel.

To get you started, think about how you would finish this paragraph:

The (character, event, place) reminds me of (a place, a real event, another person/character, another text, a real world situation) in the following ways . . . .

Here is a student sample:

"Illegal Fireworks Suspected in Church Blaze Pastor Injured

Wrightsville Beach, NC - A fire destroyed historic First Baptist Church on New Year's Eve, and investigators suspect illegal fireworks." ..... (Sparks, The Last Song 3)

One of the main events that happens in this book is the fire that burns down the church. It connects many of the other things that happen in the novel. Two teenage boys used illegal fireworks and were responsible for the fire. This reminds me of a newspaper article I read about two men in east Texas who were charged with intentionally setting fire to a church and were suspected in a string of similar blazes. The outbreak started with a fire set New Year's Day, which is also similar to the book because the fire in the novel was set New Years' Eve. This is one of the text - to - world connections I made while reading The Last Song.

BP#3: Your Main Character

In this week's blog post you will concentrate on the protagonist (main character) in the novel you are currently reading. You will also learn how to embed a video from youtube into your blog post.

Remember to ALWAYS begin your blog post by identifying the text source of your post. You can do this by adding a visual (the book cover: we learned how to do this in the last blog post) or simply writing the book title (in italics) and author's name.

Your assignment for this week:
Write a brief description of the protagonist in your novel. Follow these three steps to complete your description:

a. Start by finding a direct quotation from your novel that you believe helps to reveal a significant character trait present in your main character. Include a proper citation following this quotation (Author, Title page#).

b. In approximately 50-60 words explain specifically what you have learned about the protagonist from this section of the story (relate specifically to the events presented in the selected quotation).

c. Now, based on what you know about your main character, make a prediction about the outcome for this character. What do you think will happen as the plot progresses? Do this in one or two sentences.

NOW....... add the video element.

a. FIND a video on youtube that you feel expresses or extends what you already know about protagonist - the video could represent the character's personality, mood, actions or key characteristics. The video could be a music video, a compilation video set to music, a film excerpt, a poem set to music etc...

b. INTRODUCE why you selected it in one-two sentences (connect in some way to the main character you have just described), then embed the video using the instructions below.

To embed this video into your blog post:
1. Once you have found the video - COPY the EMBED code (found below the video - you will have to click on SHARE and then EMBED to find the code) it will be long and complicated (it will start like this: < width = "480" height = "385"> param )

2. Go to blog post #3 on YOUR BLOG , click EDIT POST.

3. Click on EDIT HTML found in the top right corner of the blog post toolbar.

4. Go to the bottom of your blog post and PASTE the embed code into your post. Make sure that you hit the ENTER button after you have pasted the embed code.

5. To check to see if the video has been embedded, click on COMPOSE and then PREVIEW to see it before posting.

Good luck.... help each other, then ask me for help.

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A COUPLE OF EXAMPLES:

STUDENT ONE: Here is a video that I selected to represent the SADNESS felt by my protagonist, William Thornhill in The Secret River by Kate Grenville, when he and his family are forced out of London, England in 1806. They are sent to New South Wales, Australia because of a crime he commits. (He steals wood he is delivering to the mainland in his small boat to try and make enough money to feed his ever growing family.) He misses his friends and is separated from his wife and children while on the long, uncomfortable journey across the ocean.

STUDENT TWO: I am about 5 chapters into The Penelopaid by Maraget Atwood. "I was a kind girl- kinder than Helen, or so I thought. I knew I would have to have something to offer instead of beauty. I was clever, everyone said so- in fact they said it so much that I found it discouraging- but cleverness is a quality a man likes to have in his wife as long as she is some distance away from him. Up close, he'll take kindness any day of the week, if there's nothing more alluring to be had," (Atwood, M, The Penelopaid 29). I feel as though this describes Penelope very well. She is very aware that she isn't as beautiful and radiant as her cousin Helen, but she has much more inner beauty and she is aware of herself. She isn't self absorbed like her cousin.


This video is a poem about the connection found between Penelope and Odysseus when first they met.

BP#2 : Summary and Review

As your second blog post you will be writing two short concise paragraphs about what you have read, or are currently reading.

Start by finding, saving and uploading a picture of the cover of your book. I am currently reading a book called The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Sutterfield (pictured below).

NOTE: Once you have found a cover picture online, you will need to use the "SAVE AS" command to save the photo in your "PICTURE" folder of your "H drive" and then the "INSERT IMAGE" OR "ADD IMAGE" button on your "NEW POST" toolbar. Make sure you copy and paste the source for the cover art - we want to credit any work that is not our own. I got the original image of this cover from a book blog called "Violet Crush" - the link follows: http://violetcrush.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/the-thirteenth-tale/

(ANOTHER OPTION: I have also made the cover a link by clicking on it and using the link button (5th button from the left in your create new post section of the blog). Click on the cover and see where it takes you.)

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Once you have posted your picture you can begin Blog Post #2:

INTRODUCTION: In your first sentence identify the title and author of the book. Please note that you need to properly punctuate the title of your novel - use italics.

A SUMMARY: Your first paragraph should be a 50-60 word summary of the book. If you haven't finished reading your book yet, summarize what you have read so far. A summary is a brief description of the major events of the book. It is general and does not contain specific examples of any of the plot. (Look Here for some examples of concise and precise summaries).

A REVIEW: Your second paragraph should be a 50-60 word review of the book. I would suggest that you take a look at the format and style of some reviews before you begin to write. You only have 50-60 words, so use them wisely. Your main purpose is to explain, with specific reasons, your views of the book.