I will provide a brief overview of Project 3, and we will spend the class looking at examples.

Course Request Reminder

Please be sure to see your advisor and sign up for the courses that you want to take in the spring. Class availability depends upon whether people sign up to take the course. Check the course descriptions for more information on what each teacher plans for the spring. I am teaching English 3844 (this class) and English 3764 (Technical Writing, online sections) in the spring.

Halloween Party

Please make plans to drop by the 2015 English Undergraduate Research Conference’s Halloween Party on October 31, from noon to 2 PM in Shanks 370/380.

There will be food, sweets, and drinks—along with information about the Undergraduate Research Conference, which will take place in the spring. Plus I shall provide an extra credit bribe if you provide evidence that you attended. More on the bribery next week.

Overview of Project 3

Project 3 is your chance to retell a story (fiction or nonfiction) with digital tools. I want you to rethink the story in some way and to update the way it is told by choosing digital tools that will help accomplish your goals.

For the most part, your choices are wide open. You have to choose some kind of story, and it needs to be classroom appropriate. Beyond that, there are some guidelines that you need to keep in mind to ensure the project goes well:

1. Choose a story that you like. You will be working with that story for the next six weeks.

2. Choose a story that you don’t mind “ruining.” You will be working with that story for the next six weeks.

3. Choose a story, form, and design that will be fun. If you are doing something for six weeks, it needs to be fun.

4. Choose something new that you will learn as part of your project. Six weeks is a long time if you are just doing the same old stuff.

Sample Projects

On the first day of class, I shared some of these projects students completed in the spring:

1. The Three Little Scholars Broadcast
2. Chamber of PostSecrets
3. Rapunzel
4. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
5. Green Eggs And Ham Remix A Story
6. ‘Same Love’ by Macklemore as told through The Gay Rights Movement – final edit
7. Calvin & Hobbes – Attack of the Deranged Mutant Monster Killer Snow Goons Story Remix
8. What Happened to Little Red Riding Hood?
9. Music Man Remix
10. Once Upon a Times
11. HOLLY GOLIGHTLY
12. Game of Thrones Red Wedding
13. Robert Griffin III Trade
14. The Little Mermaid
15. Boston Tea Party
16. Don Quixote and the Giants
17. Cat Identity (Winnie the Pooh)

Homework

1. Read chapter 3 of Writer/Designer, to help begin thinking about the genre you will use for your story.

2. Choose your story and do some preliminary research. Go to the library or go online and find at least three different (and credible) versions of the story you will explore. Evaluate the credibility or your sources with the information on pp. 58–60 in Writer/Designer.

   Stories are told by many people and from many different perspectives. Your goal is to have plenty of source material to choose from as you create your new version. Think of the resources you locate as your inspiration, as the base from which your adaptation will begin.

   Your main source should be a text that relies primarily on the linguistic mode. Your additional choices can use other modes of communication. You may also choose more then three sources if you desire.

Examples:

• The person who did the Don Quixote animation choose the original novel by Cervantes, an art exhibition at Georgetown University in 2005, and a TV miniseries released in Spain about the first part of the book.
• The person who did Little Red Riding Hood choose the original version of the story by Charles Perrault, a Disney cartoon, and the ABC TV show Once Upon a Time.
• The person who did the Boston Tea Party video originally chose the Schoolhouse Rock BTP episode, PBS Kids show "Liberty’s Kids" BTP episode, and ushistory.org.

Schedule

Wednesday, October 22: Office hours are cancelled today. Talk to me before you leave if you need anything please.

Friday, October 24: Class will not meet on in order to give you time to go to the library (or elsewhere) to conduct research. Office hours are cancelled on Friday as well. If you get confused, panicky, or lost, email me.

Monday, October 27: You will informally propose your topic in class. We will go over the assignment in more detail, and you will end the class session by writing a blog post that tells me the story you have chosen and that provides bibliographic citations and/or links to at least three sources that you will use as you work on your project. If you do not post your sources in class on Monday, I will assume you did not do your research.