Reading Notes: lagoo, the Story-Teller, EC

American Indian: lagoo, the Story-Teller
Author: W.T. Larned (1921)

This story was about a lagoo that told the best stories. People would come from near and far to hear his stories.

lagoo knew all the secrets of everything. From the forest to the ocean, lagoo knew everything there was to know.

One evening, he placed logs in a circle for everyone to sit. He was going to tell a story, and everyone wanted to hear.

Of all the people that enjoyed hearing the stories, the children enjoyed them the most. As they were sitting around on the logs, the wind came whirling in and scared some of the children.

lagoo assured them that the wind couldn't hurt anyone and would soon be scared away by the fire.

Logs

Reading Notes: Coyote's Eyes, Part B

Coyote's Eyes
Author: Katharine Berry Judson (1912)

Main characters: coyote and a bird

The story started out with a bird taking out and throwing its eyes into the air. When the birds eye returned, they were brighter than before.

The coyote witnessed this and wanted to try. The bird took the coyotes eyes and threw them up into the air. His eyes were much brighter than before. Coyote was so happy with how his eyes turned out that he wanted to try again. The bird refused, but coyote persisted.

The bird took coyotes eyes and threw them up into the air and they never came down. Coyote demanded that they return, but bird never returned them.

Annoyed at his constant complaining, the bird took gum and shaped it into a ball and shoved it into coyotes eye holes. He was never able to see again.

Coyote and Bird

Reading Notes: Coyote, Tortillas, and Mesquite Beans, Part A

Coyote, Tortillas, and Mesquite Beans
Author: Katharine Berry Judson (1912)

This story was mainly about outsmarting and listening to directions.

There was a flood and a woman was walking through the water. She was carrying a basket of tortillas above her head. As she was walking, a coyote that was in a tree was watching her. He asked her to come close and give her the tortillas or he would shoot her with a bow.

Scared that she was going to be shot, she approached the tree. When she was close to the tree she told coyote to come down and get the tortillas. The coyote saw that the woman was only ankle deep in the water, not knowing that she was standing on a tree stump, so he decided to come down from the tree.

The water washed the coyote away. Upon the waters going down, the coyote came across an elder brother that told him not to touch the black bug and not to eat the mesquite beans. Coyote failed to listen and ate both. The bug and beans swelled and killed the coyote.

Coyote In Tree

Week 10 Story: Prom Night

Prom Night

Prom! Prom! Prom! That's all Joelle and Laurel could think about. They have been dreaming of this day since they were little girls. They both wanted prom night to be magical, like a fairytale from a book.

Both girls had already found the perfect dress. Joelle's was baby blue with rhinestone all around, and Laurel's was lavender with a floral pattern covering the top. They were eagerly awaiting the day to come.

There was one problem though. Neither of them had a date. They had talked about this before, and if neither of them had a date then they would just go with a group of friends.

Prom was a few weeks away and the girls decided to give it one last go at finding dates. There was a cute senior boy, named Jackson, that Joelle had her eye on. She had always wanted to go with him to prom but never had the courage to ask him.

Laurel had a secret crush too, but never told anyone. She always admired Jackson, the senior boy at her school. She wanted so badly to go to prom with him, but could never gather the courage to ask him.

Neither of the girls knew about the others secret crush, until one morning on their way to school. Joelle brought up the idea that she had to about wanting to ask Jackson to prom. Shocked, Laurel said she wanted to ask Jackson too. "We can't ask the same boy," said Joelle. "How about we both ask him and whoever he says yes to gets to go with him?" asked Laurel. Hesitant at first, Joelle agreed. "Fine, may the best one win," Laurel said in a firm tone.

Later that afternoon, Joelle was thinking of a way she could ask Jackson to prom. Did she want to text him or ask him in person? Should she make a sign or send him a gift? She didn't know what she was going to do.

Laurel was also thinking of how she was going to ask him. Should she send him a note? Or, should she ask him to hangout and then ask him? She didn't know what she was going to do either.

Later that day, Laurel decided she was going to ask Jackson to go to the movies with her tonight. The new Twilight movie was out and she was so excited to see it.

Coincidentally, Joelle was going to ask Jackson to go eat frozen yogurt with her tonight. There was a new place that she wanted to try.

Usually, the girls would go try the new frozen yogurt place and go watch the new Twilight movie together, but they were too focused on winning Jackson over. There was a weird tension between the girls that neither of them wanted to admit.

After lunch the next day, Joelle stopped Jackson in the hallway and asked if he wanted to go grab frozen yogurt with her later on tonight.  To her surprise, he agreed!

A few hours later, when Jackson was walking to his car, Laurel stopped him. She asked if he wanted to go see the new Twilight movie with her later tonight, and he said he would!

Both girls were thrilled that they had a date tonight with Jackson, they couldn't wait to ask him to prom. The only thing in the way was that neither of them knew that he was going to say yes to both of them...

Later that evening, Joelle and Jackson were enjoying their frozen yogurt when Joelle asked if he would want to go to prom with her. She was so nervous that he was going to say no, but to her surprise he said yes! "Wow, really?" Joelle said. "Sure, I'd love to go together," said Jackson.

Jackson dropped Joelle off at her house and headed toward the move theatre to meet up with Laurel.

Once they both found their seats, Laurel shyly asked him if he wanted to go to prom with her. Looking a bit confused, he said "sure." 

Not fazed one bit by his hesitating, Laurel was so excited that she was going to get to go to prom with Jackson.

Prom day was finally here! The girls hadn't spoken since they decided to compete with each other and try to win the date with Jackson, so they were getting ready on their own. They had always planned on getting their hair and nails done together, but since they were fighting they decided to get ready by theirselves. 

The limo pulled up to Joelle's house and out stepped Jackson with a corsage in hand. He looked so handsome and the all white tuxedo that he was wearing paired perfectly with her baby blue dress. They got in the limo and headed to prom, or so she thought.

She noticed that the limo driver was taking them a different way than she expected, but she didn't care because she was going to show up with her handsome date.

A few minutes later she noticed that they pulled up to Laurel's house. "What are we doing here?" Joelle asked. "We're picking up Laurel." replied Jackson. Joelle couldn't believe this. Did Jackson really plan on going to prom with both of us? 

Jackson stepped out of the limo and out walked Laurel in her floral patterned, lavender dress. We match perfectly, thought Laurel when she saw him in his all white tuxedo.

As she got in the limo she saw Joelle sitting in the seat across. 

"What are you doing here?" asked Laurel.

"I'm going to prom with Jackson, what are you doing here?" replied Joelle.

"Jackson said he would go to prom with me," said Laurel.

"No, I'm going to prom with him," said Joelle.

"Ladies, ladies, ladies, calm down. I'm going to prom with both of you," said Jackson.

Frustrated and confused, the girls realized that neither of them had really won the date with Jackson.

They both learned that compromising their friendship wasn't worth it and they learned a valuable lesson that day. 

Disco Ball

Author's Note: I took the original story "Two Fast Runners," and added my own twist. In the original story, a deer and an antelope were trying to settle an argument. Both of them thought that they were faster than the other, so to settle this argument, they decided that they were going to race to determine who was faster.  The first time they raced, they bet their galls. This race was to take place on the prairie. The antelope beat the deer and took the deer's galls. Unsatisfied, the deer suggested that it wasn't a fair race and that they should race in the timbers. The antelope agreed. This time they bet their dewclaws. The deer won this time and took the antelope's dew claws. In the end, both animals realized that each of them were faster in their own territory. In my story, there was a feud between two friends that wanted to attend prom with the same boy. They both decided to compete with each other to try and win a date with the cute boy at their school. In the end, they realized that fighting with each other and compromising their friendship wasn't worth it. Although they got to go to prom with the boy they wanted, neither of them truly won.

Story Source: Blackfoot: Two Fast Runners

Author: George Bird Grinnell (1915)

Reading Notes: The Huhu Gets Married, Part B

Cherokee: The Huhu Gets Married
By: James Mooney (1900)

A widow was wanting her daughter to get married, but didn't know anyone that would be the perfect fit. She wanted a man in the family to help with the field.

A man came to the house one day and was told that he could only marry the daughter if he was a hard worker. He claimed he was and they married.

The new son-in-law was to take a hoe and go into the cornfield to work the field. He was to come and eat when he was called by the mother. Whenever she would yell and call for him, he never came.

When she went to check on him, she saw a small spot that had been cleared away but no sign of her son-in-law.

After a  few days of him claiming he was "working hard," the mother fired him and sent him on is way. He wasn't hard working and he wasn't the man for her daughter.

Field

Reading Notes: Two Fast Runners, Part A

Blackfoot: Two Fast Runners
By: George Bird Grinnell (1915)

Characters: antelope and a deer

In the beginning, the antelope said he could run faster so they raced and the antelope won.
Later, the deer said the antelope only won because they were in the antelopes territory/ land, so they went to where the deer lives and raced there. The deer won this time.

Prizes?
When the antelope won- took deer's gall
When deer won- took antelope's dewclaws


They were each able to beat each other when they were on their home ground.

Moral of the story: never underestimate someone and their abilities.

Checkered Racing Flags

Week 9 Story: The Jealous Girl

The Jealous Girl

Rivers and Penelope were the best of friends. They did everything together. They went to the same school, had the same style, and even drove the same type of car. They knew they were going to be best friends forever.

Becoming best friends came so naturally to them because their parents were also best friends. Both of their mothers had known each other since a young age, so it was pre-determined that their children were going to grow up together.

Although they did almost everything the same, they did not look the same. Rivers had short, dark brown hair and the darkest brown eyes that you've ever seen, and Penelope had long, blonde hair with the lightest blue eyes that you can imagine.

They even liked the same type of things. They both loved shopping, watching movies on the Hallmark channel and hanging out with their friends on the weekends. Both of them even shared the same interest in the cute senior varsity football player, Brett. Brett received a football scholarship to the University of Oklahoma, so he was super popular in their small town. Since they both liked Brett, they vowed that neither of them could ever go out with him. It just wouldn't be fair.

One afternoon, after the final school bell had rang, Rivers was waiting for Penelope in the parking lot. Penelope had to stay after to discuss an upcoming project with her science teacher, Mrs. Smith. While Rivers was waiting, she was looking down at her phone, scrolling through Facebook. As she was scrolling, she sensed someone walking towards her. To her surprise when she looked up she saw Brett! "Oh my gosh, how is this happening?" thought Rivers. The cute senior varsity football player was standing right in front of her.

"Umm hey" she said very shyly.

"Hey, how's it going?" asked Brett.

"Oh, I'm just waiting for Penelope to get done talking to Mrs. Smith" replied Rivers.

"Cool!" Brett replied excitedly.

"Why aren't you at football practice?" asked Rivers.

"Coach let us out early today since we have a game tomorrow night" responded Brett.

"Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot about the game tomorrow" Rivers said hesitantly.

"It's okay! You should come to the game tomorrow night. After, a few of us are going to a party if you'd like to come." said Brett.

"A party? That sounds like fun! Do you mind if I bring Penelope?" asked Rivers.

"For sure, the more the merrier! Hey, I have to go, I promised my mom I'd be home early today. See you tomorrow." said Brett.

Rivers couldn't believe what just happened. Did Brett really just come up and talk to her? She couldn't wait to tell Penelope what just happened and that they got invited to a party.

Penelope was finally done talking to Mrs. Smith and began walking to the parking lot.

"You won't believe what I have to do for this science project" said Penelope.

"No time for that, Brett invited us to a party tomorrow night!" said Rivers excitedly.

"Oh my gosh! A party? Awesome!" responded Penelope.

"Wait, you talked to Brett?" asked Penelope.

"Well, he came up and talked to me" responded Rivers.

There was an awkward pause after Rivers responded. Nobody said anything, but you could sense the jealousy coming from Penelope about the fact that Brett had talked to Rivers and not her.

The next morning, they both decided to skip school so that they could go to the mall and get new outfits to wear to the party.

Later that evening they were at the football game, cheering loudly for Brett and the rest of the football team. It was no surprise that the team won the game. They had been undefeated for two years and had won the state championship back-to-back. It was probably because they had Brett as the quarterback for the team, thought the girls.

After the game was over, Rivers and Penelope eagerly drove to the party. When they got there everyone was dancing and having a great time. "This looks like fun" Rivers said. "Yeah, why don't you go find Brett" Penelope said in a sarcastic tone. "I think I will" responded Rivers with a smirk on her face.

You could tell there was some tension between the girls. Penelope was trying not to show it, but she was jealous that Brett was showing interest in her best friend. All she could think about was the vow that both of them took to never act on their interest in Brett.

Once Rivers gathered up the courage, she went and found Brett. He was by the punch bowl getting a drink. "Hey! Would you like some punch?" asked Brett. "Sure, thanks!" responded Rivers as she took the drink from Brett. "I'm really glad you were able to make it tonight" said Brett. "Yeah, me too" Rivers said.

After talking for a while, Brett went to play video games with some of his friends. Rivers started to feel guilty for leaving Penelope to go talk to Brett. She decided she was going to find her and apologize. 

After looking for what seemed like an hour, Penelope was nowhere to be found. Rivers tried calling and texting her, but no response.

Rivers went upstairs to look for Penelope and to her surprise found Penelope kissing Brett! "What is going on here?" said Rivers. Penelope smirked and said "If you break the vow, then so do I." Rivers couldn't believe what was happening. Here she was trying to find Penelope to apologize for leaving her and she finds Penelope kissing Brett.

Rivers left the party in disbelief. Penelope on the other hand, let the jealousy get the best of her. She broke the vow that the girls had made and took it one step too far.

The next day Penelope tried calling Rivers to talk about what happened the night before, but Rivers didn't answer.

Football

Authors Note: I took the original story "The Jealous Wife," and made it my own. The original story is pretty gruesome, so I wanted to make it a more happy story while keeping some similar aspects from the original story.  In the original story, there were two wives who were both married with children. Their husbands were often away to find work. While away, the wives were to look after the children, keeping them from harm and never leaving them unattended. While their husbands were away, the time had come for one of the wives to leave and go gather food. The elder wife went first, while the younger wife was to watch after the children. After a few days of gathering and smoking the fish, the eldest wife had returned. It was now time for the younger wife to go. While the younger wife was away, the eldest wife had grown jealous that her child wasn't as bright or intelligent as the younger wives child. She had planned to kill the intelligent child. When everyone was asleep she sharpened her knife and went and killed the child, or so she thought. Come the next morning, she realized that she had killed her own child. She picked up her deceased child and ran into the woods. There, she nursing ad rocking the child back and forth. Upon their return, the husband could not believe what he was hearing, so they went to the woods to look for his wife and dead child. In the woods they found the wife sobbing while holding the dead child. The husband gave his wife casca (highly poisonous) and watcher her die. They then set her on fire and watched as her ashes burned. As you can see, this story doesn't have a happy ending. In my retelling of the story, I changed the scenery and the characters completely, while modernizing it.

Story Source: The Jealous Wife 

By: Richard Edward Dennett

Reading Notes: The Jealous Wife, Part B

The Jealous Wife
By: Richard Edward Dennett

This story was a bit hard and criminal than previous stories I have read and taken notes on.

There were two wives, both had children and were married. These wives were to look after the children while their husbands were leaving to go trade, or in other words work.

There were to be someone looking after the children at all times, they could never be left alone.
The oldest wife left to go gather food for a few days while the other watched after the children.
When she returned, the other wife left while she stayed and cared for the children.

The younger wife had a child that was much smarter than her child, so one day, the older wife decided she was going to kill the the child. The older wife went in and killed what she though was the other child. It turns out that she had killed her own child thinking it was the other one.

She took her deceased child into the woods. She rocked and nursed her dead child, hoping it would bring the child back.

The husbands found out about this upon their return and found her and the child in the woods. They took and buried the child and fed the mother casca, which killed her. They lit her body on fire and watched as the ashes burned.

                                                                         Woods

Reading Notes: The Squirrel and the Spider, Part A

West Africa: The Squirrel and the Spider
By: William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair

This story had two main characters: the squirrel and the spider.

The squirrel had worked very hard to plant and grow his farm. The only thing he didn't have was a roadway that led to his farm, because he used the trees to climb to be able to access his farm.

The other character, spider, thought that since there wasn't a roadway leading to the farm that he could take it and make it his own. He did this by allowing his family to help out and take the corn from the farm.

One day, the squirrel found out and decided to take the spider to court. The court ruled in spiders favor, so he was now the owner of the farm.

As the spider and his family began taking the harvest, it began to storm. They were forced to put down all that they were carrying and take shelter.

When they returned, a crow had had claimed the bundles. After bickering back and forth, the crow ended up keeping the harvest.

In the end, the spider learned a valuable lesson.

Squirrel

Week 8 Progress

Looking back on my progress, I can say that I feel pretty accomplished. I've been able to stay on schedule and complete all of the assignments in a timely matter. I wouldn't say I have a good weekly routine, I kind of work on the assignments when I have some free time.

Some pitfalls that I'm going to try and avoid is making sure that my comments that I'm leaving on other students blogs are actually showing up. I ran into that problem last week, so hopefully I keep a close eye on it from here on out.

Looking forward, I hope to start taking better notes on the stories that I read and reading more on how to do so. I think taking better notes will allow me to write better stories and come up with different creative ideas to incorporate into my stories.

I think one thing I might work on changing is my overall theme and layout with my Portfolio. I'm not 100% happy with how it looks right now so I might be changing it here soon.

Determination

Week 8 Comments and Feedback

The quality of feedbacks that I have been receiving have been very helpful! I have gotten some useful tips that have allowed me to better my story telling skills. Some of the most useful comments that I have received are when classmates validate my stories and leave comments saying that they liked or enjoyed reading my stories. Although the critical and suggestive comments are extremely useful, it's nice to read the comments saying that others have enjoyed reading my retold stories. I think it's more of a confident booster more than anything!

I think the quality of comments that I have been leaving have been helpful. All of the stories that I have read so far have been great! It's interesting to read all the different stories that others are writing.

I think something that I might try differently is work on reading to understand the stories rather than just reading and commenting on them. I think trying to understand the ideas that have been put into retelling the story will really help me understand the overall plot of the story.

I chose the picture below because it accurately represents me on a daily basis. I am always making mistakes or doing things in the most complicated way when I'm sure there are easier ways it could have been done. I think this picture allows us to see that it's okay to not be perfect as long as you're trying.

Imperfectly

Week 8 Reading and Writing

When reflecting back on the past eight weeks, I'd have to say I'm pretty proud of how far I've come since week one.

When I learned that we were going to be blogging for this class I panicked a bit. I barely knew what having a blog even meant, let alone starting one of my own.

So far, I'm pretty happy with my blog. I just changed the colors and the overall layout to something different. As for my Portfolio, it can use some work. Every other day or so I try and change the layout to find a theme that I like best, but I haven't quite found one yet. I've also been using some of the different images I find on Google Sites.

So far I'm pretty satisfied with how my stories are turning out. I feel like each week I come up with more and more creative and unique ideas to incorporate into my stories.

One of my favorite readings so far has been How Sun, Moon, and Wind Went Out to Dinner. I think I have liked this reading the best because it teaches a valuable life lesson on putting others needs before your own.

I chose this picture below as one of my favorite because being at the beach is one of my favorite places to be. I love laying in the sand with the sun beating down. Hearing the seagulls chirp and the waves crashing onto the shore is such a soothing and relaxing sound.

Palm Trees by The Sea

Looking forward, I plan to continue working on coming up with different and unique ideas to incorporate to the different stories that I retell.

Tech Tip: Logging Back Into Blogger

I was having trouble figuring out why the comments that I was making on stories weren't publishing.

Every time I would make a comment, it would redirect me to a page that read ERROR.

To fix this I had to do multiple things. First, I cleared all the cookies in my browser. Figuring this out was a mission in itself.

Secondly, I logged out and then back into Blogger. After these two steps, I tried to make a comment on a story, IT WORKED. I was able to publish the comment.

After this I tried to publish another comment...it didn't work... ERROR again.
I then tried clearing the cookies again and then logging out of Blogger and then back in.
This worked, but not for long... I was back to being directed to the page that read ERROR.

Lastly, I switched to Google Chrome. I also logged out and then back into Blogger. After doing this, I tried to make a comment and it worked! Thankfully it has worked since I switched to Chrome. Hopefully it stays that way..

Error

Week 7 Story: The Bird That Could Sing

The Bird That Could Sing

Chirp the bird loved to sing. He sang all through the day and all through the night. None of his friends sang, so most days he sang alone. Chirp's mother praised her son for his joyful voice. She enjoyed listening to her son make beautiful music.

Harmony, Chirp's mother had a small bakery in the town. She was known for her famous scones. She had the most popular bakery in the town. Everyone loved going there to get all the delicious treats that she bakes.

Chirp's mother was his biggest fan and he knew how proud his voice made her. There was one problem though. The town that they lived in was very small and Chirp had such a loud voice that it overpowered the whole town. It often times made the townspeople angry that his voice was so loud. Many of them had a hard time focusing on their work each day.

One afternoon, Chirp was singing as he usually does. He was at the top of the tallest tree in the town, singing his little heart out. "La la la la la" Chirp sang.

Even though he had a beautiful voice, the townspeople were becoming more angry as the weeks went on. The loud singing was starting to get on their last nerve. The townspeople decided that something needed to be done. They all made the decision to have a town meeting without Chirp and Harmony knowing.

At the meeting, all of them started to express their concerns about the noise and how it was impacting their work. "Something needs to be done" said one of the townsmen. Everyone was agreeing that something had to change. One of the townspeople suggested that Chirp be banned from the town and only be allowed back if he promises not to sing ever again.

The decision was made. Chirp was to be banned from the town unless he promised to never sing again. The townspeople shared the news with Chirp and his mother. Hearing this news made them incredibly sad. Chirp thought that everyone loved hearing him sing. He didn't realize that he was upsetting so many people.

"I can't stop singing" Chirp said to his mother.

"I know, we will just have to pack our bags and move elsewhere" replied his mother.

"What about your bakery?" Chirp said in a concerning voice.

"I'll have to shut it down" said his mother.

After packing up all of their things, Harmony had one last thing to do. She went to her bakery and put a sign on the door that read "Closed" and her and Chirp left town.

Later that day, all of the townspeople saw the sign and realized they had made a big mistake. Banning Chirp from the town meant that his mother was leaving too. They couldn't live without Harmony's famous scones.

The mayor of the town called Chirp and his mother asking them to come back for a meeting. "Surely we can work something out" said the mayor on the phone.

Chirp and his mother arrived at the meeting a bit confused. "You ban Chirp from the town and now you want us back?" asked Harmony. "We realized we have made a huge mistake by banning your son and then forcing you to close your bakery" responded the mayor. "We want to make a deal" added the mayor.

"How about we allow Chirp to sing at designated times throughout the day" said the mayor.

"What do you mean designated times?" asked Harmony

"I want to be able to sing whenever I want" exclaimed Chirp.

"Let's hear what the mayor has to say" responded Harmony.

"How about you sing in the morning, afternoon, and evening of each day?" asked the mayor.

Hmmm Chirp though to himself.

"You can be everyones alarm clock in the morning, waking everyone up with your beautiful voice" said the mayor.

"That sounds like a plan" said Chirp.

Although he didn't quite get what he wanted, Chirp was still excited to no longer be banned from the town. His mother was excited too! She could reopen her bakery and start making her famous scones again.

Chirp

Authors Note: I took the original story "The Lightning and the Thunder" and added my own twist. In the original story, the characters were quite different from my story. In the original story, the thunder was an old mother sheep and the lightning was her son, who was an angry ram. The lightning was very mean and often times destroyed the homes of the people that lived in the town. He would destroy everything in his path when he went on a rage. At times he would become so angry that he would use his lightning power to strike people, which ultimately killed them. He had an angry rage that couldn't be tamed. His mother didn't know what to do. She couldn't control her son, despite her efforts of yelling at him and attempting to stop him. The only option was for the lightning and thunder to leave the town. The king of the town forced them to leave the town and never come back. I changed the ending of my story a little form the original story. In the original story, the lightning and thunder weren't able to come back, but in my story, the two main characters were able to come back to the town.

Story Source: Nigeria: The Lightning and the Thunder

Author: Elphinstone Dayrell