Portfolio Guide

Anansi the Spider

Anansi the spider is a full of wisdom and knowledge to be shared, but he is also a little bit of a trickster. Although he has traveled from West Africa to Jamaica, this story follows Anansi on a new adventure to America in the pre-Civil War era where he warns of evil lurking.

The Adventure of Lewis and Clark

You may know a little about Lewis and Clark and their travels across America, but their next adventure in West Africa may split them up! Will one find treasure and the other misery?

The Terrapin Turtle's Great Escape

This story introduces some Cherokee Nation culture through a folktale about a Terrapin turtle that escapes a pack of wolves after killing a member of their pack.

The Voyages of Baham

Following in his father's footsteps, Baham goes on another adventure across the seas in his pursuit for family fortune, but suddenly his journey takes an unexpected twist! Will this be the last adventure for Baham?

Famous Last Words: Dead Week

The Last Words Spoken By Famous People - BoredPanda.com
Link

     There has been a plethora of information about writing styles, editing styles, how/when/where to write, and more, when it comes to doing the work through this class.

     My Famous last words are:

"Work diligently and meticulously, slacking and excuses never got me anywhere"

     I have faced many of things that made me feel as if I wasn't able to work through this class or unable accomplish tasks due to personal issues or lack of time. But the one biggest thing I learned/took away from this class was not something that I learned from the course, but learned from within myself. It sounds so cliché, but I learned that when life serves you lemons, you make lemonade. So, after my car accident, loss of a friend, and loss of a family member, I made like Beyoncé and got in formation (information?) I found that through all of what life was throwing at me with school work, attempts to graduate on time, personal struggles, etc. etc. etc. (because the list truly does go on), I've learned that if I want to be this badass Mama Jama now and in the future, I've got to persevere and find the strength within myself to get it done. 

This in no way is meant to reflect the feelings of other students or encourage students to do things outside of their realm of possibility.

Class Improvements

Ahhhhh.... The end is near

The duration of my time in this online class has been both interesting in more ways than one, educational on various platforms, and ultimately creative.

I think the first option of changing Review Weeks to Planning Weeks is an excellent idea. I don't have much more to share because I think that it is already well rounded in its intent.

For expanding the Story Planning option, I think this is a MUST starting next semester. I never really took advantage of the opportunity, primarily because I am a single draft kind of person, but it is an awesome critique. My suggestion would be to actually make students go through the planning process the first couple weeks in order to have them become accustomed to drafting before submission. I think it will alleviate a lot of grammatical issues and encourage students to continually reread and edit their assignments. But for students like myself, it also feels like busy work. Just some food for thought!

I'm not a fan of audio recording/tutorials on writing. But I am also a Gaylord student so I feel as if I have already been put through the ringer in types of writing and editing challenges. Maybe make this a bonus option in certain weeks and have students write a blog about it?

Best of luck with the additional changes and next semester!

-A

Story: The Terrapin Turtle's Great Escape!

A Diamondback Terrapin Turtle - 2016
Link

The Terrapin Turtle's Great Escape!

The Terrapin and the River Rat go together every morning to collect persimmons from the tree tops. The River Rat scampers up the tree, picks the fruits, and flings them to the Terrapin down below. The Terrapin picks them up from the ground, puts them in their bag, and keeps them safe. But on this morning as the River Rat tossed the first large fruit he found into the air, a Wolf came from behind the bushes and snatched it from the Terrapin. Without noticing, the River Rat continued to pick the fruit and tossed it to the Terrapin.

"WAIT!" yelled the Terrapin.

"Mister Wolf, do please find another set of species to torment. The fruit, here from this tree, is not for you," said the Terrapin.

"Ha," barked the Wolf, "I run across these marsh lands every day searching for easy food. Today just so happens to be your unlucky day."

The River Rat overheard the discussion from below and pulled out the large bone that he carried with him. He picked another large persimmon from the tree, poked the bone through the center, and tossed it into the air to the Terrapin. The Wolf jumped up, snatched the persimmon into his mouth, and then fell to the ground and choked to his death. The River Rat shimmied down the tree squeaking with laughter.

"That'll show 'em! Try'n' take our fruits 'n' not asking. Leave his body here for Vulchas," said the River Rat.

"Be it fine by me. I'm going to cut off this ears first. I will let them bathe in the sun until they harden, then I will soon use them for hominy soup spoons," said the Terrapin.

The Terrapin cut the ears off the wolf before splitting the portions of the fruit with the River Rat and headed home.

---

After a long morning of gathering persimmons, they decided to call it a day. On their way home, the Terrapin stopped by his neighbor's house, the Opossum, and invited him over for some kanahe'na gruel.  The Terrapin and the Opossum then walked over to the Terrapin's house.

"Thank you for in the invitation. Where do you keep your leafy spoons for the soup?" asked the Opossum.

"Now, don't I have a treat for you?" said the Terrapin.

The two sat together and stuffed themselves with gruel using the ears of the wolf as spoons. Word of the delicious flavor of the Terrapin's gruel due to the ears of the wolf quickly spread across the town. All types of animals in the town began to interrupt the Terrapin's and the River Rat's morning routine and demand to taste his kanahe'na gruel with the wolf ear spoons. The Terrapin dismissed each rodent, bird, lizard, and creature that bothered him. But by the afternoon, a pack of wolves stopped the Terrapin on his way home. They captured him in a clay pot and brought him deep inside the woodlands. The wolves held a council meeting to decide how to kill the Terrapin. They quickly decided that they were going to use him to make a Terrapin Stew.

"If you roast me over the fire, I promise that I will break the clay pot beneath my feet," said the Terrapin.

"HA!" laughed one of the wolves. "You will fall into the flames of the fire and burn to a crisp."

"You fools. With my durable shell I will survive and crawl away to freedom," remarked the Terrapin.

The wolves pondered some more of the proper way to kill the Terrapin. They ultimately decided that they would would bury him alive in the deepest hole by the river. The wolves took the Terrapin to the river, dug a deep hole, and buried him.

"The Terrapin cannot survive the depth of this hole. He has no claws and will not be able to escape," said one of the wolves.

After being buried, the Terrapin felt the dirt around him turn to mud. He started pushing the dirt behind him and soon found himself escaping to the river. He surfaced to the water, swam across to the bank across from the wolves, and laughed as the wolves were struck with awe.

---

Some say the Terrapin was picked up again from the other side and thrown against the rocks and then his shell broke into a dozen pieces. But the Terrapin sang a medicinal song after the wolves had gone:

Gû'daye'wû, Gû'daye'wû,

"I have sewed myself together, I have sewed myself together!"

(Link)

And each piece of his shell came back together. That is why all turtles now have the scars on their shells.

Author's Note:
I wanted to keep the story theme and not alter the Cherokee culture throughout the story. I added more dialogue for more characterization to the characters. There wasn't much on the wolves and I didn't want to add to much dynamic to the story, because I wanted the main story to focus primarily on the Terrapin. I changed the persimmon hunting partner to the Terrapin, but in the original story it was the Opossum. I thought the River Rat would allow me to explore more characterization and be a character that juxtaposes the Terrapin Turtle. I also included links in this story so readers could learn more about the items and because I didn't want to take away from the story by adding more explanations of the different aspects. Like the soup, I figured it would be easier to click and follow the link to better understand in comparison to explaining it in the story and take the reader's focus away.
Fun Facts:

Coypu - 2016
Link

The River Rat is properly known as a Coypu. They are large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodents that live alone riverbanks in burrows (Wikipedia).

A Diamondback Terrapin is a species of Turtle native to coastal swamps of the eastern/southern parts of the U.S. They look much like their freshwater relatives, but with evolved traits to adapt to various salt levels in water/salinities (Wikipedia).

Bibliography:

Title: Myths of the Cherokee
Author: James Mooney (1900)
Link to reading

Story: Bugs Bunny and Laffy the Duck

Once upon a time and a forrest not far from Storybrook, there was a bunny names bugs and a duck named Laffy. The two grew up together and were inseparable. One day, they decided to take a journey together to the other side of the forrest. Bugs built a beautiful red carriage that hooked to the mice that Laffy found to pull the carriage.

During their journey, Bugs and Laffy ran into their old friend Elmer Fudd.

"Where are you fellers headed?" asked Elmer.

"We're headed to the other side of the forrest in exploration of the beyond," replied Bugs.

"Would you happen to have some room for me, too," asked Elmer.

Bugs and Laffy agreed to have him and continued their way to the other side of their forrest. As they made their way through the forrest, they also picked up a cat, a crow, an egg, and a millstone. The carriage being pulled became awfully heavy with everyone in it. But the mice decided that they would keep on with the journey in order to make it to the other side of the forrest.

After some miles, the mice grew extremely weak and needed to rest for the night.

"Just up here is Herr Korbes home, we came rest there," said Bugs.

When they reached the house, Herr Korbes was not home. So each of them found their own resting place within Herr Korbes home. The cat rested in the warm ashes of the fireplace. The grow perched above the kitchen cabinets. Bug fluffed his tail and curled up on the doormat. Laffy found a large bucket of water to crawl into to rest. The egg rolled her way around until she found a towel on the floor, where she rolled herself up to stay warm. And finally, the millstone laid down above the door and Bugs. They each fell asleep peacefully and soundly.

The next morning, Herr Korbes came bursting through the door. Bug yelled as Herr stepped on his tail, which caused the millstone to slam down on his foot. In a fit of pain, he ran to the cabinets to fetch his splint. The crow was started by the slamming of the cabinets and began to fly around the house cawing and clawing at Herr. infuriated, he ran to the living room and reached for the the pitchfork by the fireplace. Startled, the cat hissed and threw ashes into Herr's face. Blinded by the ashes, Herr ran to bathroom and grabbed a towel to wipe his face. The egg rolled out, cracked, and glued Herr's eyes shut. As he ran to the pantry to fetch the pale of water, Laffy jumped, honked his nose, and bit down on Herr's nose. Without a care to give at this point, Herr grabbed the bucket and dumped it onto his face. He released a loud yell as the water hit his face and everyone ran out of the house and all in different directions.

It was a hard day for Herr Korbes.

Author's Note:

I stayed true to the original story, but changed some of the characters within it. I picked Bugs and Laffy because they are more modern characters from Loony Tunes, which would help connect readers to their personality types and spark their interest into the story. I kept the egg, the cat, and the millstone from the original story and their role in the house. There was a duck in the story, so i just named his Laffy to add more of a tie in for readers an then I changed one of the characters from a pin to Bugs Bunny, because he is the counterbalance to Laffy. 

Reading Notes: Part B Brothers Grimm (Ashliman)

The Fox and The Cat
- this found be an easy story to retell, just adjust the dialogue a bit and explain the scenery and the characters more

Steinhowel's Aesop
LINK

The Little Lamb and the Little Fish
-  this would be a super interesting story to tell using a little more imagery and more depth. There isa link of a photo to be used. LINK

Simeli Mountain
- tell this story as two brothers separated at birth, and then how come up with a plot as to how the reconvene.

Lazy Heinz
-  tell this story from the angle of the sheep. Provide insight to the original story through the narrative of the sheep.

The Duration of Life
- adapt this story so that all the animals and men and women in the kingdom came forth in a line to receive their duration of life, but one man never went forth, turned into a sheep, and because afraid to tell God of what he had done. This will seem lengthy, but try to keep it short and concise.

Death's Messengers
- I feel like this would in a way relate to the previous story, but make the messengers a search party looking for the sheep

Eve's Unequal Children
- not a fan of this story at all. It just doesn't provide any depth of interest to rewrite.

The Gift's of the Little People
- This story is LONG with details. I wouldn't suggest trying to rewrite it.

The Hare and the Hedgehog
- another long story, but worth considering. You will need to cut down on the dialogue and be more concise in your paragraphs in order to keep it under a 1000 words, all while still providing a descriptive experience for the audience to connect.

Bibliography:
Dan Ashliman's translation of Grimm Brother's Children's and Household Tales (1998-2013)
LINK

Reading Notes: Part A Grimm Brothers (Ashliman)

Cat and Mouse Partnership
- could be told from the side of Tom and Jerry to make it more modern

The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids
- haven't read or heard any stories like this before, but it was interesting. Would need to cut down the length when writing it.

Little Red Cap
- would be something to rewrite, but would need to find an interesting twist or a better way to describe the story.

The Elves
- use this story but change the main character from a shoe maker to like, something that could possibly tie in with Pinocchio, and maybe how he became a real boy?

Herr Korbes
- change the characters to Bugs Bunny and Laffy and have them exchange dialogue

Illustration by Walter Crane
LINK

Rumpelstiltskin
- tell this story about a girl who invades cinderella ball and wishes to marry the king and how she is able to spin straw into gold and have rumplelstiltskin enter and teach her the ways and she live happily ever after... or would she? since she now owed Rumple a favor that will indent her forever.

Bibliography:
Dan Ashliman's translation of Grimm Brother's Children's and Household Tales (1998-2013)
LINK