Project Premise
For nearly seven months (count 'em!) we've examined the purpose and power of stories. To many, they're a test of and a testament to the power of creativity. For Aldous Huxley and other dystopian storytellers, they're a way to confront our anxieties about our present society or to caution those in the future about repeating our same mistakes. For actors, teachers, audiences, and yes--many students around the world--the stories of near-mythical writers like William Shakespeare are considered cultural currency and universal expressions of what it means to be a living, loving, doubting, and mortal human being.
For Chimamanda Adichie, stories have both a responsibility and a unique power to display the many facets of a person, a place, or even a culture. And finally, for Ishmael Beah, stories can keep us connected to the brightest spots of our past while also supplying us with resilience, hope, and even understanding when faced with incredible challenges.
You began this school year by telling one of your own stories in your college essay: a single story of a moment from your life that demonstrated a piece of who you really are and what matters to you. As we draw close to the end of your high school self, you'll explore this concept from a different angle: by sharing three other "stories" that played a role in shaping who you are today.
For Chimamanda Adichie, stories have both a responsibility and a unique power to display the many facets of a person, a place, or even a culture. And finally, for Ishmael Beah, stories can keep us connected to the brightest spots of our past while also supplying us with resilience, hope, and even understanding when faced with incredible challenges.
You began this school year by telling one of your own stories in your college essay: a single story of a moment from your life that demonstrated a piece of who you really are and what matters to you. As we draw close to the end of your high school self, you'll explore this concept from a different angle: by sharing three other "stories" that played a role in shaping who you are today.
Requirements
Select Your Stories
Select two "stories" that are connected to key memories, events, or people from your life and that played a role in shaping who you are today. Stories can include any of the following:
- a song
- a movie
- a children's book, novel, essay, or other work of literature
- a family story
- a story important to your cultural heritage
- a video or board game
- suggest something else that's not on the list (check with Mr. Neff or Ms. Arington to confirm)
Create Your Reflections
Each selected story should be accompanied by a written or recorded reflection of 250-500 words or 2 to 4 minutes (1/2 to 1 page single-spaced in 12 point standard font). Use well-organized, conversational but articulate style. This isn’t research writing, but you should present yourself as an intelligent, thoughtful, and mature individual.
Your reflection on the story’s importance in your life can be narrative, explanatory, or a combination of both in form, but it should include the following elements:
Your reflection on the story’s importance in your life can be narrative, explanatory, or a combination of both in form, but it should include the following elements:
- Open with a compelling hook (this could easily be connected to the next element, so read on...).
- What is the "story" you're focusing on (the song, movie, children's book, etc.)?
- Describe or summarize its content.
- What important memory (event, success, failure, person, challenge, learning experience, etc.) from your life is this story connected to?
- What particular emotions, images, details of the memory does this story evoke? Point to specifics in the chosen story (lyrics, scenes, etc.) and in the memory or event itself ("The line ... reminds me of the time when my best friend and I first ...").
- Why is this specific story important in telling the larger story of your life? Why does it matter to you or what does it reveal about you?
Add Your Media
Each reflection should be accompanied by at least one artifact: some form of media that's representative of the story (e.g. a link to the audio and lyrics of a song; a Youtube link to a representative scene from a film; a collage of images of a person; an image of a representative page from a storybook)
Publish Your Work
Choose a tool for publication that you're familiar with, but it should be interactive and allow you to easily display the aforementioned requirements. I recommend using a website or blogging tool such as:
- Weebly (used here: includes many templates to choose from and uses a drag and drop interface)
- Google Sites (a bit easier to use than Weebly, but a bit more limited; use the New Google Site option if you choose this)
- SparkXL (you've used it before so it should be familiar after a few minutes of reviewing its features!)
- Get the Google Slides ebook templates here
Evaluation
You'll be evaluated on the content of your reflections (50%), the style and conventions of your writing and/or speaking (25%), and the style and conventions of your media design (25%).
Nirvana / "In Bloom"
The first time I heard those crunching, distorted guitars, it was a revelation. Then the vocals began: melodic but ominous, they soothed me into the first thirty seconds of the song. Finally, that immortal Cobain scream let loose and the guitars followed suit with Dave Grohl’s punishing drums speeding them along. This was my introduction to Nirvana’s “In Bloom,” and it was the first song that ever changed my life.
Nirvana and Kurt Cobain would go on to dominate my teenage bedroom walls (and ceiling), but perhaps most importantly, they became a common bond for my best friend Devon and me. Neither of us had grown up with siblings but our mothers had known each other forever, and we had grown up like brothers from two different families. Nirvana was the first band that we both obsessed over, and I can still remember his mother driving us to the mall to go to the music store where we used our respective allowances to buy our first Nirvana tapes (yes…tapes). Even at that age we approached our work with efficiency--“Ok, if you buy ‘Bleach,’ I’ll buy ‘Nevermind’—then we can just trade!” These are the names of the first two Nirvana albums we ever bought, and as we soon discovered, playing them on the car ride home when at least one mom is present is the quickest way to put your new musical tastes in jeopardy. I could write the entire history of my adolescent years as told through Nirvana lyrics (I won’t, but I could). Nirvana did more to influence my musical tastes than any band since, and informed a lot of my other interests and friendships. I was hooked by the quiet/loud dynamic of their music: melody and introspection in some songs, hair-scorching aggression and guitar-driven rage in other parts. The sensitivity and poetry of some of Kurt’s lyrics contrasted with the ambiguity and ugliness of his other songs, and his words probably served as the first moment in my life where I really wanted to dive into an author's writing and figure out what it all meant. Really, Nirvana for me was a series of firsts. The first song I learned to play on guitar was a Nirvana song (I can’t name it here, but fans will know that it begins with “Territorial…”) and I learned it with another friend of mine. The first new friendship I ever made in middle school began with a loaned Nirvana tape. And most indelibly, the drug problem and tortured artist stereotype come true that ended with Cobain’s terrible suicide was the first time I, at 10 years old, ever really had to grapple with the permanence of death. All of these are the reasons why, no matter how many times I hear the opening E A G C of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" come from a classic rock station, I can still feel the bite of the guitar strings on my fingers. Nirvana will be forever interwoven with some of the earliest memories of my childhood, some of my earliest challenges, and some of my closest friends. (517 words) |
He's the one |
Maurice Sendak / Where the Wild Things Are
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"And he sailed off through night and day. And in and out of weeks. And almost over a year to where the wild things are.” |
Ralph Waldo Emerson / "Self-Reliance"
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There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion . . . The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.” |