Reflection

During this course, I was really able to broaden my creativity and I learned to think outside the box.  I have never taken a course that has made me read a story and then create a story, but I loved challenging myself in that way.  

Honestly, I learned a lot about grammar, too.  I forgot how much I didn’t remember from middle school English until I started writing these stories and messing up a lot of the grammar.  I think I improved a lot on that throughout the year, so I am very thankful for that. 

I feel like I have met and learned about many really interesting people through out the year from the class, and I loved reading about people’s lives in their introductions. 

Portfolio Index

Welcome to my portfolio! These are some of my favorite stories from my semester in Mythology and Folklore. I hope you enjoy them!

Week 5: Storytelling: Big Brother and Little Brother

Dive into the fascinating tale of two brothers as you venture through their life and see the challenges they face from growing up very close and then drifting away as they grew up.  Although they drifted apart and went their separate ways for a time period in their life, they will realize that families and the bond between brothers will always be a part of them.

Week 6: Storytelling: How The Ugly Man Got Married

This old tale is about another boy that did everything he could to be perfect but nothing in life seemed to be going his way.  He heard about a certain challenge from the King, and at the moment, he knew that this was a challenge he had to accept.  Read this story to see if Robert can fulfill the King's challenge and live happily ever after.

Week 9: The North Wind

Have you ever wondered how the seasons were started? It was by the different winds from the north and the south, of course! This is what the fairy tales in the American Indian unit explain.  Read about how a brave and courageous man was willing to risk him life to bring back the nice summer weather for him and the other people in his village.

Week 12: Alice Back In Wonderland

Think about what you would think about one of your best friends coming to school one day and telling you that she fell down a hole and became friends with rabbits and caterpillars.  How about if they told you that they drank a potion that made them shrink and ate some cake that made them grow.  Well, in this story, Alice is telling her friends about this "dream" she had one night that she's not so sure was only a dream. 

Week 12 Storytelling: Alice Wanting To Go Back to Wonderland

Storytelling: Alice in Wonderland

A couple nights ago, the craziest thing happened to me.  I woke up in a frantic sweat from a dream I had about falling down a very deep well and my adventures with a weird rabbit that worried about time too much, a mad hatter who a big giant hat, and so many more crazy people that I have never seen before in my life.

I would have thought it was all just a crazy dream from eating pizza too close to bedtime, but when I woke up with a little bottle from my dream in my pocket, I started to wonder. 

“Could this have been real?” I thought to myself as I looked at the bottle and the little bit of icing on my face from the cake I ate in my dream, too.  This was all way too much of a coincidence to have only been a dream.

I woke up, looked at my clock, and realized I was very late for school.

“I’m late, I’m so late!” I kept saying over and over to myself.  I paused for a second and knew that I had heard that before.  A light bulb turned on inside my head and flashbacks from the white-haired, red-eyed rabbit from my dream raced through my head. 

“It’s all just a dream, it’s all just a dream,” I had to keep reminding myself throughout the day.  I tried to tell my friends about it, but they all just laughed in my face and teased me about it.

“You’re crazy, Alice!” Mariah yelled to my face during my first class.

When I tried telling Becca, she said I should be put in a crazy house because something like that could never happen.  I thought for sure they might believe me at least a little bit.  At that point in the day I knew I was right about all the events that happened that night.  Too many signs reflected what happened that night that it had to have happened. 

Every night since then I have tried to look down the same special well and do everything the same as the night I fell down that deep well and found myself surrounded by bookcases, lamps, and cup-boards.  I didn’t understand why it wouldn’t happen again.  Nothing seemed to make sense anymore.  Nothing lined up to what happened that night. 

It wasn’t until this morning as I was getting on my bike to ride to school that I found something shiny on the ground.  I picked up the object and I knew I had seen this before.  It was a watch, but not a normal watch.  It said the day of the month instead of the time. 

“It’s the rabbit’s watch!” I yelled out so loud that people a mile away could hear me.  This was just what I needed to get back to the Wonderland that I was in before.  It seemed crazy but I wanted to go back.  I needed a land away form earth for a while.  As I picked up the watch, I turned it around and it read, “You’re late, you’re late! Please come back at this date!”

I turned the watch around again and November 15^th was circled in what looked like the strangely colored butter from the tea party I attended.  Why, November 15^th is only a few days away! I couldn’t wait to go back and see what other shenanigans I could get myself into and other weird and crazy friends that I could meet.

[Source]

 Bibliography:  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.  Alice in Wonderland Unit.

Author’s Note:

This story originated from the famous story of Alice in Wonderland that many people are fairly familiar with.  After reading the stories in the unit, I thought to myself about how her friends probably felt when she told all of them about her experience.  I decided to write a story about the situations she probably got herself into after the dream and the aftermath of the experience.  It was important to me while I was writing this story that I added many clues to portray that the story was real.  I was already familiar with the story, so I combined all of it and took my favorite parts out of the story to write about in my post.  I added the part about her finding the watch that belonged to the rabbit with the date on it to venture into the idea of possibly writing a second story to follow this one about her adventures back into Wonderland.  Maybe next time, she can bring someone else with her so they don’t all look at her crazy.

 

Week 12 Reading Diary B: Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland Part 2

A Mad Tea-Party Part 1:

·      Table under a tree

·      The hare and the hatter were there

·      A dormouse was there asleep

·      They acted like they didn’t have enough room at the table because they were al crowded in the corner

·      Sat at a large chair at the end

·      Hare offered wine but there wasn’t any wine

·      Alice didn’t quite get along with them at first

·      Hare offered wine but when alice said there was none, he said it was rude that she sat down at his table

·      Hatter told her she needed to cut her hair

·      So alice began to be asked riddles

·      “I see what I eat” is the same as “I eat what I see”

·      “I like what I get” is the same as “I get what I like”

·      “I breathe when I sleep” is the same as “ I sleep when I breathe”

·      his clock says what day it is but not what time it is

A Mad Tea-Party (cont.):

·      hatter kept making riddles and rhymes

·      everything was about time

·      started singings songs to drift off into sleep

·      Queen jumped up and yelled about the hatter murdering time

·      She wanted his head cut off!

·      It’s always tea time and they have no time in between to wash up

·      They wanted Alice to tell them a story but she didn’t have it

·      Alice asked lots of questions to them

·      Wanted to know why they lived at the bottom of the well

·      Needed more tea

A Mad Tea-Party (end)

·      Got some tea and read and asked again

·      They said it was a treacle-well

·      Dormouse started to draw

·      Dormouse drew a treacle

·      They were all confused about being inside the well and drawing it

·      Drew everything that started with an M

·      Alice got very mad and disgusted

·      Dormouse fell asleep very fast

·      Trying to put him in the tea pot

·      Found herself back in a long hall

·      Nibbled at a mushroom

·      Then found herself in the garden

[Source]

Week 12 Reading Diary A: Alice in Wonderland

Alice In Wonderland: Down the Rabbit Hole

·      Alice with her sister on the bank

·      Sister reads a book with no pictures

·      Wanted to make a daisy chain

·      White rabbit with pink eyes ran by

·      Rabbit was running late and talked and she didn’t think anything of it

·      Rabbit took out his waistcoat pocket watch and hurried down a large rabbit-hole

·      Alice went after the rabbit

·      Fell down a very steep well

·      As she fell, surrounded by cupboards and book-shelves

·      She fell for a long time and wondered how many miles she had fallen

·      She was very smart and learned a lot in school

·      Thinking about how she was going to ask about where she was

·      Still falling

Down the Rabbit Hole (cont.)

·      Fell off into a doze as she continued falling

·      Fell into a heap of sticks and dry leaves

·      Saw the white rabbit still hurrying down the path

·      She was in a long, low, hall

·      Lots of doors but all of them were locked

·      Scared because she didn’t know how she was going to get back

·      Saw a golden key on a three-legged table

·      Key was too small and wouldn’t open them

·      Found a door 15 inches high and it worked!

·      It lead to a beautiful garden but she was too big to fit

·      Began to think that very few things were really impossible

·      Couldn’t fit so back to the table to look for another key

·      Found a bottle that said “drink me”

·      Checked it out to make sure it wasn’t poisonous

·      Smart and remembered to check because she didn’t want anything bad to happen to her by simply not reading the instructions

·      Tasted nice like tart cherries, pineapples, turkey, like thanksgiving dinner

Down the Rabbit Hole (end)

·      She shrunk down to 10 inches high

·      Enters in the garden

·      She forgot the key but by this point, she was too small to reach it

·      Couldn’t climb up the legs because it’s too slippery

·      She gave her self the advise to stop crying and grow up

·      Found a cake in a little glass box that said “eat me”

·      She was hoping it would make her grow bigger again

·      The cake didn’t make her change so she finished it off

  

[Source]

Week 11: Storytelling: The Truthful Bird

The Truthful Bird

It was a dark and chilly night in the season of autumn that I sat alone on the end of a branch in the middle of the forest.  This was not the first time that I sit by myself, all alone, with nothing to do except ponder how life in the city would be.   I have always dreamed about flying over all the bright lights and different colors that fill the sky each day and night.  

I image that there is so much to do in the city and so many friends to make.  Although I have my thoughts and dreams, I know they will never come true to a silly, clumsy, little bird like me.  So I just sit here, day in and day out.  I watch the sun rise and set above the trees like a worm coming out of the dirt and going back in.  

I would do anything to see more birds that I can become friends with, but this far into the forest, all I see are scary animals with bright yellow eyes and plants that I cannot name.  You see, I am not just any bird.  In fact, I have the power to make people truthful.  One might think this is a blessing, but this gift has done the exact opposite for me and that is what landed me in the middle of a dark, scary, and lonely forest.  

Only a year ago, my owner tried to use me in his village in law cases involving crimes.  I can sing my song and magically, the people would have no other option than to tell the truth.  I guess I felt good about helping out the village and locking away the guilty in jail, but after I displayed my gifts, I returned back to my small little box that my master kept in a drawer so no one could steal me.  There was one case in particular that the guilty human fought and fought against my powers until finally, after days and days of arguing, he broke down and confessed the truth.  Since then, he was set out to find me, steal me, and then exile me to a place that could never be found. 

To my dismay, the man paid a little homeless boy to steal me from my owner so he could put me in a place far, far away from the village.  Thoughts were running through my head about my life being over.  I thought he was going to chop me up and make some bird stew.  

When I was taken out of the bag, I opened my eyes to the beautiful lights and sights of London!  I remember thinking that this was all a dream or that I had died and gone to Heaven.  It turns out, the little homeless boy knew what powers I had from peeking through the windows of the courthouse and he knew that they couldn’t go to waste.  He sold me to the King of England and from then on, my life was wonderful.  

I now hang high in the entrance of the castle where I can make many friends.  I sleep on a big red pillow made out of the softest silk.  The castle cooks even make me the best worms I’ve ever had in my life.  I help out with everything I can in the castle and make the country a better place by keeping people true to their word.

Author's Note:

I wrote my story from the Natural History Nursery Rhymes from Britain. The original poem went like this...

"THE winds they did blow;
The leaves they did wag;
Along came a beggar boy,
And put me in his bag.

He took me up to London;
A lady did me buy,
Put me in a silver cage,
And hung me up on high,

With apples by the fire,
And nuts for to crack,
Besides a little feather bed
To rest my little back."

I added a lot to this poem and make it into a story about a magical bird that was trapped in a forest.  I still kept the beggar and being hung up high somewhere in London.  This story did not have much detail to what the "thing" that was hung up in a silver cage so I let my imagination run wild and created a story about a little bird.   

[Source]

Week 11: Reading Diary B: Natural History Nursery Rhymes

Nursery Rhymes: Natural History

·      They had a little dog named Buff but not anymore

·      He was sent to the store to get some snuff (a drug?)

·      The dog lost the bag of snuff

·      So the owner got really mad and didn’t have the dog anymore

~~~

·      A person was asking burnie bee when his wedding is

·      They said if is tomorrow then spread his wings and fly

~~~

·      Some little mice were in a barn

·      A cat came in but the mice were scared that the cat will snap their heads off

~~~

·      The king wanted the grey goose to carry his daughter over the river

~~~

·      Someone asked the little bird what he did

·      He went the months and said what he did

·      May he sang

·      June he changed his song

·      July he flies away

·      August he flies even more

~~~

·      The black hen lays eggs for all the men

·      They came to her everyday

·      They wanted to see the eggs that she laid everyday

~~~

·      A man named Robert barnes is a really good guy

·      He puts horseshoes on the horses

·      He said he could help him out

·      All he needed was a nail and a push and his horse will be set

~~~

·      This animal is telling the birds to eat and eat and not to save any

·      He was just going to stay there and not move

·      But if his master comes then he told the birds to fly away and he was going to run

~~~

·      24 tailors set out to kill a snail

·      but no one could even touch that snail at all

·      the snail sticks out her horns like a cow to scare them off

·      she chances after the tailors and tries to kill them

~~~

·      The poor toad was very hungry because he hadn’t had anything to eat all day

·      He jumps in the garden and eats on the slugs and snails for a meal

·      The frog was jealous and hopped to the next stream

·      He then will eat worms and slugs just like the toad to get full

~~~

·      There was a little bird

·      He started to hop

·      So someone yelled to the bird to stop hopping

·      The bird went to the window and said his farewells and flew away

~~~

·      Maybe the Fall season?

·      A homeless boy put “me” inside of a bag and took me with him

·      Sold me in London and hung me high in prestige

·      With lots of food and a comfy bed to rest in

[Source]