Our Own Epic a Collaborative Story

Our Own Epic – A Collaborative Story

The majority of the literature we have read this semester has been involved a hero’s quest – quest for glory, riches, truth, and/or love. A long the way our heroes taught us lessons and revealed the values of the given society and/or era. We have also examined our own values and reflected on modern American society as a whole. Now, let’s write our own story!

How? We will use a shared Word document. I have placed a link to the shared document in the Collaborative space under the Section titled “Our Own Epic.” When you click on the document, you will see that I have given you a short beginning of the story to get the group started. The class will then develop the story; we will work on the story periodically untilwe have developed an American epic! How will we know we have an epic? Well, we will need to reflect on the characteristics of the epics we studied: (1) a hero – who may be larger than life or not, depending on the time period of epic the class wants to model, (2) on a quest – for what? Only the class can decide, (3) who embodies the values of a particular society. Obviously our story will need: (1) to be developed with a beginning, middle, and end; (2) to have a conflict that will be resolved by the end of the story (presumably the conflict will involve our hero’s quest); (3) other characters who the hero encounters, and (4) dialogue – our characters are not mute .

When? I will provide periodic homework assignments that require you to add to the story. On days when I assign the collaborative story for homework, you must go to the Shared Word document, review the material that is already written, and then add at least four (4) lines OF QUALITY WORK to our story. You may add these four lines in a variety of ways – write all 4 lines at once, write a couple of lines, wait for someone else to add and then add a couple of more lines, etc. In other words, as long as you contribute four lines OF QUALITY WORK on the day the homework is assigned, you will receive credit. Because it is in a shared Word document, you will see if classmates are on the page at the same time and can work with them as you both add content.

What? I am sure you noticed – I capitalized and bolded OF QUALITY WORK in the previous paragraph. I did this to demonstrate that your contributions to the story MUST ADD VALUE TO THE STORY. When you write your lines, be sure to reflect on the characteristics of an epic and a great story delineated above in the “How?” paragraph.

Note: Please be mindful of grammar and spelling when you write. Do not abbreviate like you would in a text. If you are worried about misspelling something, Word will help you out with its great Editor feature. Most importantly, let’s have fun creating our own story!!

By the way...You can contribute to the story ANY TIME you want. You are not limited to the homework assignments.