Denomme,+Kyle+G.

Fairy Tales and Advertising

Kyle: The proposal should include why you are interested and what you know about the genre already. "Fairy Tales" is more of a genre, whereas "advertising" is a purpose which any genre can meet.

Bill

I have chose to switch my genre to journal entries. The part that interests me is the reflection that takes place on personal level. My goal for this project is not to look at how to make a journal entry but what makes a good journal entry and how can I as an instructor prompt good journal responses. I do not journal but have had intructors assign them to me in high school. These unfortunately were, "Why did Scout do this?" as opposed to something that I could seriousily reflect on in my own life.

By the way I switched a while ago just for got to make the change here. I hope this is ok.

Kyle: I am a little worried about the journal entry, because a journal could be most anything. It has very few restrictions, so is difficult to define. There are some varieties you could study such as: learning logs, blogs, reader response journals. These genres have very specific goals, so they could be studied. I wonder if there are some genres associated with skate-boarding that would interest you? e.g. skateboarding blogs, product reviews, biographies, etc.

Bill

Kyle Denomme

How to Make a Character Voiced Reader-Response Journal Reading response journals have long time been a source for reflection used by many teachers and students. Character voice journals are a relatively new take on this traditional method for processing a book. This type of journal, character voiced, is a deeper more analytical response to reading because the students prepare a response to the voice of the character of their choice or the teacher’s. This process forces the student to identify key character traits and values in order to respond to a prompt in character. It also creates identification with the character on a more personal level as opposed to the reader’s opinion. Lastly the writer of the journal most also look at the diction, character description, and the conflicts and emotions involved in their descriptions. This culminates in a better understanding of the reading all together. As well as a method for looking at characters as individuals as opposed to judging them on their actions; the reader must look at the characters motivations. __ How-To Article __ First read! In order for a journal to be possible you must read the text. Note that as you read highlight certain piece of the text that will assist you in the process of profiling a character or characters. Some things to look for while you read: · Dialog o Dialog reveals a lot about a character because it is a direct source. Especially if the story is in first person narrative because the narrator could present a one-sided view. · What does your character look like? · What does your character act like? · How do others in the text react to the character? Another idea is to write a list of ten adjectives you would choose to describe the character. Next we want to create a character map so that we can see these traits and begin to create boundaries for writing. Boundaries refer to certain aspects that make the writing more realistic. For example, if you were to create a character voiced journal for Soda Pop from S.E. Hinton’s novel //The Outsiders,// you wouldn’t write perfect standard English because he would not speak or write in that manner. Finally it comes to creating the character-voiced reader response journals. First we want to look at a situation in the text to write on. This could be a huge momentous event or a small mundane happening, the choice is likely yours or the teachers. Focus on the preparations above to shape your response to be in character. The structure is loose because it is a journal but you could choose a variety of ways to become your character. These options are possibilities: interview, personal account, letter to another character. Focus on becoming your character though so that you may see situations from an alternate perspective then the text presents. Most of all have fun with it but make sure you write within your boundaries. __ Annotated Bibliography __ Barile, Nancy. "Preparing a Character for a New Job: Character Analysis through Job Placement - ReadWriteThink." //Homepage - ReadWriteThink//. Read Write Think. Web. 16 Oct. 2010. . This is a lesson plan involving preparing a character for an interview. It is very similar in the process of analyzing a character then role playing with those findings. Gardner, Tracy. "Become a Character: Adjectives, Character Traits, and Perspective - ReadWriteThink." //Homepage - ReadWriteThink//. Read Write Think. Web. 16 Oct. 2010. . This is another lesson plan but focuses on use of adjectives to analyze character traits. Specially found the worksheets involved with this lesson very helpful in developing a character profile. Gardner, Tracy. "Book Report Alternative: A Character’s Letter to the Editor - ReadWriteThink." //Homepage - ReadWriteThink//. Read Write Think. Web. 14 Oct. 2010. . This lesson plan’s focus is similar to the ones above. But it involved writing a letter to the editor as opposed to a interview. But from this lesson I thought of a assignment involving writing a letter to a character. You could even have the students then write back. Or the could exchange letters an write back as their own characters. Ollmann, Hilda E. "Creating Higher Level Thinking with Reading Response." //Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy// 39.7 (1996): 576-81. Web. 8 Oct. 2010. . This article focuses on the benefits of using reader response journals and what they can accomplish. Gordon, Heather G. "Using a Reading Response Journal." //NCTE//. Web. . This source focused on the benefits for reading response journals. The main point I took from this article was the idea of deeper thought. Instead of asking, “What happened in Chapter 2?” the teacher asks, “Choose a character we have read about so far that you feel most resembles you. What do you see in him that is similar? What is different? The response will not be a summary of the chapter but what the reader understands about the character and themselves.

Unfamiliar Genre Project Kyle Denomme __ Character Voice Journals  __ Character: Soda Pop Why do feel Darry scowls at Ponyboy for walking alone after the movie? Well Darry is just scared for Pony. You see when my parents died the cops told us if we get in any trouble they will split us up. Darry just feel responsible for Pony and don’t want to see him go away or anything. Pony makes some hair brain moves every once in a while. Like walkin home from the movies by his self. He knows he cant just be walking around by his self when the Socs are out lookin to jump him. But Pony is a big boy and Darry needs to treat him like one. I mean Pony was just watchin a movie. He is a good kid but he aint street smart like the rest of us is. He is kinda dumb when it comes to stuff like that. He is though a really smart with school. I think Darry sees he can get out of here if he stays good with school. Darry can’t go to school cause he needs to work for all us. I dropped out to help Darry plus I aint much a school guy. It was just a pain. I like cars and gym but you aint going any where with that. It is better I just work with Steve at DX till Pony gets outta school then I can marry Sandy then who knows. But Darry just wants better for Pony then we have now. He is proud of Pony and loves him he just don’t show it the right way.Pony wants to be an adult today and doesn’t realize what Darry is doin for him. Darry coulda went to college on football scholarships, he coulda just let me and Pony end up in a home. But he didn’t! He got a job and fought with the police till the let us stick together. That is why I dropped out school is a waste for me. Might as well help Darry out with the bills. Pony is a kid still, just fourteen! At fourteen and being through all he seen it aint no surprise he doesn’t get it. He will one day. They will come around if Darry doesn’t kill him first. Character: Johnny Why do you think Pony ran away? Oh Pony just having a tough time with Darry but it aint nothing. Darry loves Pony he just worries about him cause he knows they just waiting to break them boys up. Plus Pony is smart he could go to college on scholarship he so smart. Darry don’t want him to die from the Socs or catch trouble. But Darry shouldn’t hit Pony they family. I wish I had a family like the Curtis brothers. My parents beat me and ignore me all the time. The gang is my family. When I got jumped by all the Socs that day the gang was there to take care of me. I am scared to be with out them now cause I aint ever going to get roughed up like that again. I wish I had someone like Darry who cared bout me like that. Pony don’t see it but Darry and Soda are better then any parents most us have. He will he still young like me. It aint Pony’s fault that the Socs are always trying to rumble with us. They just looking for a fight! That one day was the scariest day in my life. They just kept beatin me and beatin me. I have caught a whopping from my dad with a two by four and those Socs beat me worse then I ever have been. It wont happen again it cant. I got a blade now, 6 inches. I am not sure I wanna use it but if I have to I will. No Soc is going to get away jumpin me like that. Those Socs should watch it cause Dally and Darry can beat any em up and if they keep beatin up on Pony man they going to regret it. Dally is tuff, he use to be in gangs in New York and seen jail. If the Socs want to mess with him man that is a mistake. Pony and Darry will make up their Greasers and brothers. You have fights with each other but they are no big deal. Like Two-Bit said, “Us greasers usually stick together, but we do fight among ourselves.” They will be cool again tomorrow Pony just need some time to chill off. Character: Cherry Valentine Why do you tell Ponyboy that he shouldn’t expect you to say “hello” to him in the hall? It is because we are different. I am a Soc and Pony well he is a greaser. Pony is nice and Johnny is adorable like a puppy but that is where it ends. My parents and Bob would kill them and me if we were seen in public together. It was nice talking to them at the movies. I always felt that those boys were curiously dangerous, especially Dallas Winston. He lived up to his reputation of a tough and mean. But the way he just let Johnny and Ponyboy be after they talked back showed he can be soft. I was scared half to death when I splashed him in the face with my coke. But at the same time he has a reckless attractiveness to him. Not in the same sense as Bob either, to me Bob can be an idiot especially when he drinks. That is the difference Dallas is reckless with purpose, he is out to prove he is free and wild. Bob is just bored and wants to be viewed as cool by our friends. He is fake and a wannabe. That is true of most Socs. But the greasers are different. They are real because they have to be. It is not about impressing your neighbors like it is for us. On the East Side community is survival. Even though Johnny and Pony didn’t agree with what Dallas was doing they still have a strong alliance to him no matter what he does. Socs are only there for you if it benefits them. Pony thought it was the money at first, but I disagree. It is about this superficial need to conform to our friends. Money is a part of the problem but in the end it has to do with emotion and feeling. Greasers are loyal out of necessity. At the end of the day though, I am a Soc, Pony is a greaser and that’s that. If he came to me at school not only would I be looked at but Pony would be in danger from Bob and his moron friends. It is too bad because he really seemed sweet. Maybe one day we can watch a sunset from the same side of town. Maybe together, regardless a part of me hopes Dallas Winston is there.  <span style="font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif';">__Reflections on Genre__ The biggest aspect that over looked in this genre was evidence. In order to correctly write in character voice you have to substantial evidence to support what you discuss. It is the biggest confinement of the character voice journals because the writer can easily develop something that is not accurate to the text. In addition to evidence, character analysis is crucial for these journals to be validated. Because you must know everything you can about the character. It is really something that is developed through analysis and textual evidence to support your addition to the story or in creating an truthful portrayal of the character. 2. What mode of writing is most demanded by this genre? Narration is a key aspect of the writing process because you are reflecting on an event from the text from another characters vision. The key is truly adapting the diction, grammatical abilities, and the personality of the chosen character. Exposition is also important to the genre because the writer is giving an explanation of the character therefore the production is insight. The genre is something of a opinion because it is a lense for which the reader is able to process the character, narrate what they find to be their story with textual evidence to back it up, and lastly the writer is using the character to expand on something the reader questions. 3. What conventions other than standard written English distinguish this genre? The major distinction for the writer to consider is the diction and description of the character. To fully capture the voice you must use the same slang, dialect, and any other form of voice. For example with Soda Pop I used a lot more slang, incomplete sentences, and dialectal pronunciations because he was a high school dropout. I also used the dialog from the book in order to see how far he was from the standard written English. Whereas with Cherry, she is from an upper class area of town therefore her speech would be a lot closer to standard written English. 4. Would a writer have good reasons to abuse the conventions of this genre? What reason? It would be easy for a writer to abuse the convention in the sense of preparation. But the important aspect of evidence really restricts the writer to the rules of the genre. In a classroom setting this is the teacher’s best tool. In almost every journal you can ask why. The “why” and “where is this in the text” force the writer to stick to the conventions and support the students in their reading because finding the evidence is not an accident. 5. Other discoveries about this genre? I read about this method of journaling in my 409 class. It was a huge motivating factor because I thought as a student, “This would be so easy to fake but useful in the right context.” How to prevent the fakes and develop the journaling process into more then just summaries of chapters was my goal. I succeed in my opinion because the character analysis and the textual evidence really gives the writer a view to the characters thought process. It also develops the reader to be more empathetic towards the other side the book doesn’t explicitly say but implies. It was really cool to see unique themes come through that had not been previously considered. I am now huge fan of this type of journal. I may not have written it down but it helped me while I read // The Bluest Eye // by Toni Morrison in my LITR 421 class. It helped in my understanding of the characters conflicts because you identify a lot of the complex themes it may be hard to see at first as a reader.
 * 1)  What did you overlook about this genre before you began writing it?