Reading Notes, Robin Hood, Part A

(Robin Hood, Louis Rhead)

For some extra credit this week I choose to read something from the British/Celtic Unit. The story I decided to read was Robin Hood. I really liked how in this story was set up like a poem, so there were stanzas, and every other line rhymed. This entire story reminded me a lot of the cartoon Disney Robin Hood. An idea I have to turn this into a story is to retell it based in current times. So make it like a modern day Robin Hood. I could also tell it like a newspaper reporting the thefts that Robin Hood make. I cant wait to read more stories from this unit!

Bibliography: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child link to reading

Reading Notes, Tejas Legends, Part A

(The Pink Cloud)

This week I chose to read stories from a tribe that lives in the state I was born: Texas. The stories in this collection personified inanimate objects which I thought was really cute. My favorite story to read was called The Cloud That Was Lost. At night clouds rest on top of mountains, but one cloud chasing its tail, sailed off from the others. When night fell he found himself over a broad, flat land and growing sleepily stretching himself over the land. The flowers on the land looked up, saw the pretty colors of the cloud, and wanting to be colorful too, drank until the cloud was gone. That's how the wild phlox flowers got their soft pretty color. An idea I had for the story this week was to tell the story from the flowers point of view, or even change the ending so that the cloud does not disappear. 

Bibliography: When the Storm God Rides: Tejas and Other Indian Legends retold by Florence Stratton link to reading

Reading Notes, Turkish Fairy Tales

I never had the opportunity to read a story from the Middle East so for extra reading this week I decided to explore it a little bit. I chose to read Turkish Fairy Tales. I thought that these stories were very hard to read, and understand so an idea I had to write a story is to translate it into a way so that I and other readers are able to better understand it. My favorite story in this compilation is The Fish-Peri. Peri means fairy in Turkish, and this story is about someone who finds a fish and takes him home. He digs the fish a well and gives it a home, and in return the fairy fish cleans its owners house.

(The Fish-Peri)

Bibliography: Forty-Four Turkish Fairy Tales by Ignacz Kunos link to reading

Week 8 Growth Mindset

(Image from Cheezburger)

Reading the chart and comparing my mindset in this class and in my life to earlier this semester I noticed a lot of changes! For example at the beginning of the semester, I focused on grades now I know to focus on learning and the grade I deserve will come. A couple of my strengths in this class are being open to any and all feedback, being always ready to learn more and focusing on my own progress. Some of my weaknesses are I tend to do the minimum in the class to get the grade I need, and doing things at the last minute. One of the things I tend to be really good at overall in my life is being ready for things to change, and being willing to try new things. I think this is because I moved a lot growing up so I had to get used to doing these things. My weaknesses in life I think include playing it safe and comparing myself to others. To grow and improve myself I need to change the way I think so that I can start planning ahead in the class and start thinking of myself as an individual to stop comparing myself to others!

Week 8 Reflection

(Reading)

After reading back through the reading notes I have written this semester I have realized a couple of things. The first of which is the stories I have chosen I have not only enjoyed, but they have been very varied in their written styles and their topics which is a good thing. I have been able to experience many different authors and topics because of the stories I have chosen to read, and even though they are different it has not made me dislike any of them. The reading I have enjoyed the most has definitely been from week 1 and was Cupid and Psyche. This was because I really enjoy Greek mythology stories and it allowed me to read the original story that Beauty and the Beast was based on. My reading schedule and reading place have both been good and have allowed me enough time, and a quiet place to read each week. Each week after my morning classes I go to the library and complete my reading and reading notes. My reading notes started out making it easy for me to transition into writing stories but as the weeks went on I noticed I began to write more of a summary than ideas for my story that week. So that's something I need to work on for the second half of the semester.

Reading Notes, Nigeria, Part B

I noticed that in this collection of stories, they all are organized the same. They are all basically why an animal does something. That's not necessarily a bad thing it just gets boring to read after a while. So my favorite story in this second part was The Election of the King Bird. In this story there was a wealthy powerful King. This king, although wealthy did not own any slaves and instead called upon animals to do the work he needed. To do this efficiently he crowed head chiefs of each species. Elephant for land, Hippo for water and when it became time to crown the air chief, he didn't know which bird species to choose. So he held a contest. The birds competed against one another, until finally all agreed that the fishing eagle should be the king of the skies.

(African Fish Eagle, Arturo de Frias Marques)

Reading Notes, Nigeria, Part A

Last week I chose to read Asian folklore's so this week I chose African folklore's. My favorite story in this part was Why the Bat Flies by Night. A bat and a bush rat were really good friends and always ate together but the bat was jealous of the rat. When asked how the soup they ate (that the bat cooked) was so good, the bat said that he boiled himself in the water and the sweetness of his flesh added to the soup. The bat jumped in a pot of warm water to show the bush rat. The rat then went home and told his wife he knew how to make the best soup. And so he boiled water and jumped in it and died. The wife grew angry at the bat and reported him to the king, who gave orders that the bat should be a prisoner. The bat escaped and to keep from being captured had to change his habits so that he slept during the day, and hunted during the night. I think it would be cool to retell this story as like a front page headline in a newspaper.

(Why the Bat Flies by Night, Christie Allen)

Bibliography: "Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria" by Elphinstone Dayrell link to reading