3. Meeting the Mentor

Today you will concentrate on the stage of the journey: MEETING THE MENTOR

Start by finding a SYMBOL for the mentor online. What is a symbol?  A symbol is an image or sign that represents something of greater value.  For example, what is a dove a symbol for?  What does the image of an owl often represent?  The symbol you choose should represent the role or the purpose of the mentor. Place this image somewhere in your post. Be sure to add a link to the original source of the image. Do not select a hand as your symbol.  We will be using this on our own class mural.  

This week's blog post is meant to help you further connect to this stage of the journey: 

Start your entry by describing the role of the mentor in general. Go back to your handout for the stages of the journey to help you with this description. (Remember that a mentor can be willing or unwilling.) 

THEN: As the body of your blog post answer the following questions:

1.  Who plays the role of the mentor to your main character (pick one character to discuss)? Which three important characteristics does their mentor have? What specifically does this character help your protagonist do or achieve? Ultimately - HOW significant is the mentor in the journey of your character?

(IF YOUR CHARACTER DOES NOT HAVE A MENTOR . . . yet - you can also discuss why they might NEED a mentor and discuss the qualities that their mentor would need to have to help the character do or achieve something...)

2.  Make sure that you use at least ONE DIRECT quotation from your novel to help you support your thinking. Following the direct quotation, be sure to add an in-text citation (Author, Title page).

2. The Ordinary World

2. The Ordinary World

This week you will connect to the ordinary world and call to adventure of the character in the novel you are currently reading.

FIRST: Set up a GADGET or a PAGE to help you identify for your blog followers the books you are reading this year in grade 9.  

You can do this in a few ways:
1. You can add a links list: add a link to the cover of the book or to a website that reviews the book. (You will need to go into the LAYOUT option on your dashboard and select ADD A GADGET.) **I have done this with blogs you went to for your first few assignments.

2. You can add an image (of the book cover) and a caption. (You will need to go into the LAYOUT option on your dashboard and select ADD A GADGET.) NOTE: I have done this in the side bar of the class blog. **I have also added a poll you can take today.

3. You can add a PAGE on which you post images of book covers and short reviews about each book. (You will do this through PAGES on your dashboard - your PAGES will show up across the TOP of your blog.) **I have added one to the top of the class blog called "Books I am reading".

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THEN: You can work on your new blog post connecting your novel to the ordinary world and the call to adventure. 

1. How is the character in your novel's ordinary world conventional OR unconventional?

2. Which sources of conflict, change, circumstance, longing, pain or sorrow lead or force the character into a ‘Call to Adventure’ OR compel the character to stay put in their ordinary world and ‘Refuse the Call to Adventure’?

3. Why does the character LEAP or BOIL?

Post #1: Your First Blog Post

Today we will begin blogging. Please remember that all of your posts should go on your own blog rather than the class blog. The class blog will be used only for instructional purposes.

A few words about your blog posts. Because we are dealing with an online audience, your posts should be concise and relatively short (between 100-150 words). This will mean that you will have to be very precise in your writing. Get to your point quickly, adding only those details necessary to describe or explain the main focus for your entry. Before you begin writing, take a look at a number of blogs written by teens about books and reading; there are numerous sites on the internet.

NOW, find a quote on the internet that displays well your feelings about books, or your relationship with books. Once you have found a perfect quote, make it the subheading of your blog (give credit to the author of the quote as well).

NOTE: To do this you will need to go to your dashboard where you will find your 'Settings' button. This will allow you to change your title and add the quote as your blog description.

THEN, as your first blog post explain why you selected the quote you did. Make a personal connection to the quote and what it tells your readers about you and your relationship to reading. Be sure to include the quote itself as well as the author and a link to the source you borrowed it from.

An example of a level 4 response to this assignment:

"In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you." 

-Mortimer Adler http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/22395.Mortimer_J_Adler

        I do not read books as if it's a competition to see who can get to the end the fastest. It doesn't even have to be books, they can be articles, myths anything written. For you can read something quickly countless times but still know nothing of what it is saying. Instead why don't you take a few extra moments, read it slower, then you take in all of what the words are saying to you and then later you don't keep having to flip back to the text saying: I read this in this part, but what did it say? Then you have to spend more time on it. I know people who race through many books a week and  enjoy them, but then you ask them what it meant, they don't know. Some people are okay with not knowing exactly what the book was trying to convey, but that's not me. I would rather read one book and take it apart word for word. If I don't do that, then I don't see a point. Books are written to serve a purpose. If books don't tell you something or if they don't give you that feeling that hits you deep down, then it's not the author's fault, it's yours. So search for it. And  let the meaning get through you.

Welcome to the world of Blogging!

Welcome to the world of Blogging!

TASK ONE: Before you begin blogging, take a look at the "Get Your Blog On!!" list in the sidebar to your right which will link you to a number of blogs written by and for teens about books and reading.

Click around...see what blogs are out there, then come back to this page to get your TASK TWO instructions!!!

TASK TWO: Click on the page found in the tool bar above entitled "Introduction to Blogging" to begin your journey into the weblog world. When you are done reading what is required on each page, follow the instructions at the bottom to complete your next assignment. 

Good luck and have FUN!!!