Week 2: Ancient Near East Topics: Gilgamish - Ancient Egypt

Storybook Project: Brainstorm Topics

For your Storybook project this semester, you will choose one topic that you will focus on for the entire semester. You will do resesarch online to find traditional stories related to your topic, and you will create a Storybook containing your own versions of those stories. Last week, you got to look at some previous Storybooks when you did the Storybook Favorites assignment.

This week, you will BRAINSTORM about four possible topics that you might want to do. I'll give you some feedback about each of those topics, and then next week you will choose which topic you will work on for the rest of the semester. So, this week you will brainstorm about four possible topics - and then you will choose one topic to work on for the rest of the semester.

To get started, take a look at this list of Storybook Subject Areas and Topics in order to get some ideas about the kinds of topics that you can use. Make sure you provide a specific topic. For example, "Animal Stories" is a general subject, but a specific topic would be something like "Cherokee Animal Legends" or "Stories about Spiders from Around the World."

For this assignment, you will discuss FOUR DIFFERENT, SPECIFIC TOPICS that you might want to do for your Storybook.

I've provided some suggestions for where to find stories on this Storybook Subject Areas and Topics page, but I can also give you more specific advice about story sources online for the specific topic you are interested in. If you would like some advice about looking for stories online for a specific topic, just send me an email and I'll send you some suggestions for where to look for stories! (Please don't put this assignment off until the last minute if you want to email with me back-and-forth before you turn in the assignment).

For EACH of these four possible topics, please make sure you include the following:

• Storybook Topic: You can put this in the form of a possible title for your Storybook if you want.
• Comments: Explain why you are interested in the topic, what you know about this topic already, what you would like to learn by working on this topic, etc.
• Possible Stories: What are some possible stories you could include? (You may need to do some research to answer this question; you do not have to choose your four stories now, but you need to be confident you will be able to find at least four stories you can use.)
• Sample Story: You need to find at least one story you think you would like to use for this topic. Read the story and then comment briefly why you chose this story and what you like about it.
• Bibliography Information: Provide full Bibliography Information for the story that you include as your sample story.

IMPORTANT: So that you will understand just what you are supposed to turn in, make sure you take a look at this Sample Brainstorming assignment. If you take a look at this sample assignment, it should help answer any questions you have about just what is expected this week. If you are not sure about how to do this assignment, please contact me and let me know.

When completed, this assignment should be at least 400-800 words in length, and you should spellcheck and proofread it carefully before turning it in (see these notes about Spellcheck, Word Counts and Saving Your Work). When you are done, send the assignment to the instructor in an email. For the subject line of the email please say Myth-Folklore Storybook Topics. Please do not send a document attachment. Just cut-and-paste the assignment into the message body of the email.

NOTE ABOUT TURN-AROUND TIME: As these assignments are turned in, they go into a stack, and I read and respond to them in the order that they are received, Monday through Friday. I do not respond to assignments over the weekend. Just how quickly I will get back to you depends on how many items there are in the stack. You can check on the contents of the stack if you want to make sure I have received your assignment. If you want comments back quickly, turn your assignment in early! If you turn it in the day that it is due, I will be much more slow in getting comments back to you because of the large number of assignments that will be in the stack.

A Note About Project Deadlines. Everybody is strongly encouraged to complete their assignment on Monday, by the noon deadline. The only way you can get full credit for the assignment (10 points) is if you turn it it on Monday, before the Monday noon deadline (that's CST, Norman time). Late assignments. You can receive partial credit for the Storybook assignment if you turn it in late, based on the following schedule: assignments turned in on Monday after noon can receive up to 9 points credit assignments turned in on Tuesday can receive up to 8 points credit assignments turned in on Wednesday can receive up to 7 points credit assignments turned in on Thursday can receive up to 6 points credit assignments turned in before noon on Friday can receive up to 5 points credit No Storybook assignments will be accepted after noon on Friday.