Identifying Thesis and Supporting Claims

Today, we looked at a hilarious, but well-structured "This I Believe" Essay.  Even though Elizabeth talks about Rice Krispies as heroes, this essay is a GREAT example of what I am looking for in your personal reflective essays. Be sure that you are elaborating like she does about each of your examples and character traits. 

Check out these articles about Real-Life Heroes from CNN. These articles are much more thorough, detailed, and researched but still offer insight into writing your own personal essay. See if you can identify the theses and main supporting claims in the articles!

Personal Hero Essay

For your first major writing assignment, you will be reflecting on a personal hero or on what makes a hero. Ordinarily, you would not use first person voice ("I," "me," my," etc.) in a formal essay; however, this essay is reflective. Use first person as appropriate! 

Choose one of the following topics:

HEROIC QUALITIES:

• You must choose THREE specific characteristics of a hero for this topic. You may choose three categories of hero qualities if you want to include a broader definition (i.e. “moral fiber” includes honesty, sacrifice, and commitment to personal beliefs).
• Include examples of each characteristic/category.
• Explain why each characteristic/category is significant and meaningful.

PERSONAL HERO:

• Use one paragraph to enumerate character traits of and your personal connection to the hero.
• The two following paragraphs should provide specific, demonstrative examples of this person as a hero. You can choose to group general behaviors as one paragraph, but you MUST have at least one SPECIFIC incident in which you can identify this person as a hero.
• Be sure to include explanations to the why these behaviors and actions constitute this person as a hero rather than just a good person.

Remember, you need to MLA format this paper and either type or write in pen. Check your work against the format and rubric I've given you on your assignment sheet. If your paper matches the format and is complete on Monday, I will give you 10 Bonus Points, as it was the original due date. We will go over a good 5-Paragraph Essay on Monday, so the true due date is Wednesday, August 27th.

Check out these resources for enhancing your paper!

• A (Hilarious and Detailed) Overview of the 5-Paragraph Essay
• Blog post (with video!) on how to write a killer hook and thesis!
• Blog post (with video!) on how to write an introduction and conclusion!
• MLA Formatting Resource
• Downloadable MLA Google Drive Document
• Video Instruction on LOADS of Writing Tips/Step

POP QUIZ: Post-Quiz Review

"Alley" Jacob Lawrence

Today, we had a "pop" quiz about "The Hero's Journey!" I hope you enjoyed reading "The Rights to the Streets of Memphis" by Richard Wright. I know that you did AWESOME on the quiz if you have been paying attention in class the last two weeks.

Remember that you started brainstorming your Personal Reflective Essay today after the quiz. You will need to have this finalized, in pen or printed, with proper grammar and usage on Monday. Remember to follow the formula I have outlined on the assignment sheet. You can do this!

"A Sound of Thunder"

Today, we begin to read Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder." In addition to thinking about The Hero's Journey in this text, consider some of the following literary traits:

• the effect of genre on the Hero's Journey
• the importance of a text's title
• an author's tone
• the use of suspense in a short story
• foreshadowing as plot development
• what theme the author is trying to convey

Freshmen Hero's Journey Homework

Remember that today or tomorrow, you should create some sort of visual representation of one of the twelve steps of the hero's journey (Hero's Journey Post).  Be sure to include at least two sentences describing what you have drawn and telling why it is a good representation of the journey step.

1st and 6th Period: Choose your own step.
2nd, 3rd, and 5th Period: Remember your number assigned from class!

The Hero's Journey: Archetypes and Characters

Yesterday, we talked all about the plot side of the Hero's Journey. Now, it's on to character archetypes.

From the Storybuilder User's Manual, "an archetype is a prototype or model from which something is based. A significant character's role can often be associated with one of these archetypes."

For the main archetypes, check out this explanation video from the awesome YouTube Channel of Gloves and Boots:

Check out this website that describes each of the main archetypes.

For a more detailed list of archetypal characters, situations, and conflicts, check out this resource.

Here is a fun chart from The Boston Globe that illustrates some character archetypes in popular films.

The Hero's Journey

All of us are used to the tired, boring mountain of a plot diagram. The following should look all too familiar:

It's time to UPGRADE that basic plot diagram. Joseph Campbell wrote The Hero with a Thousand Faces in 1949 after appearing on PBS with compelling lectures of the same topic: ALL stories follow the basic plot line with similar characters and events. He went on to label these steps and archetypal characters to create what we now refer to as "The Hero's Journey."

Chris Vogle summarizes Campbell's theory in this paragraph: "Campbell is a mythographer -- he writes about myths. What he discovered in his study of world myths is that THEY ARE ALL BASICALLY THE SAME STORY -- retold endlessly in infinite variation. He discovered that all story-telling, consciously or not, follows the ancient patterns of myth, and that all stories, from the crudest jokes to the highest flights of literature, can be understood in terms of the 'HERO MYTH;' the 'MONOMYTH' whose principles he lays out in the book."

Here is a detailed look at Campbell's Hero's Journey.

And now, let's apply Campbell's terminology to an inverted plot diagram. (Initiation=Rising Action; The Pit=Climax; etc).

We are going to identify these steps in various fiction literature, so keep this chart handy. There are also TONS of resources about the Hero's Journey on the interwebs, so be sure to search Google, Pinterest, Hollywood news, and plenty of college websites to learn and explore more!

Check out the following lesson, "The Hero's Journey: Archetypes and Characters!"