Reading Evaluations

What readings did you like best?
I think it might be easier for me to tell you out of the sections that I read which ones I liked the least because I basically like them all! I did readings starting in week two and ending in week 11, and out of all of those the ones I disliked were 22 Goblins, it was far too long and repetitive, and the riddles weren't good. I also disliked some of the stories and elements of the Eskimo Folk tales Unit, the same things kep happening over and over again and every story involved the same things- seals, whales, ghosts, cannibal, wrongful killings. I also thought the Native American Hero Tales unit could have been better labeled as something else, I didn't find what many of the characters did to make them worthy of being called heroes.   
 
* What reading diary strategies were most effective for you?
It was most effective for me to try to sum up the plot in a sentence or two and then type down my analysis of the story. I also tried to let my min run free in the moment and I would try to write down storytelling ideas immediately after I read the originals. This was super beneficial because I could come back the next day and pick one of the retelling ideas I had already thought of.
 
* What did you think of the overall balance between reading - writing - commenting in the class assignments?
I thought the balance was spot on. I liked that we got a mixture of all three throughout the week and that there were also bonus point option for all three each week as well. I will say I did often find the 150 word comments to be a little hard to do in a good way.

* As you look back from the end of the semester, what advice about the reading do you have for students who will be getting started next semester?
I would advise them to take the time each week to read part one and part two of their selected story unit. I did this each week, and although it was a little time consuming, I learned so much more about the culture that the stories came from. Also, reading and documenting your thoughts on both parts gave me so many more options to choose from when it came to retelling a story. Another bonus- I often found the perfect story each time that I was super eager to retell.. this made writing the 500-1000 word story a breeze!  

Course Reflections

I have thoroughly enjoyed taking this course over the last semester. I wasn't sure what to expect when I signed up, I just knew that the course title sounded interesting and I had some friends tell me they really enjoyed it. Well starting with our first mythology and folklore readings in the second week, and upon rewriting my own story tale I knew I was going to gain so much from this course.

I think I am most proud of my work on my storybook. This was basically a semester long project where I created a storybook site and then filled it with a few story retellings that had a common theme. I started off very worried about not being able to pick a good topic or to make things flow, but then my mother suggested a storybook about garden creatures. I started playing with the idea and my professor for this course, Laura, loved it as well. Now as I am doing my last round of final revisions for the whole storybook, I am so proud of this project. I plan to leave it online for forever. And, I will be showing my family the next time I go home, I know they will be super proud too!

Some other things from this course that I will take away with me are a strengthened intellectual curiosity for the cultures and history of other places and people groups. Simpler than that, another thing I will take with me is all of the nursery rhymes and short stories that I learned. I hope to be able to share lots of these with my own kiddos and with my friends kiddos one day. I also learned over the past couple of weeks how to plan out your work time and then I got better at sticking with my schedule and getting my work done early. I also think that I have made some good friends in this course and that I got to know more of the OU student body. One of the things I will remember most though is my teacher, Laura. We didn't physically interact with her in a classroom setting, but I was always so excited to get an email back from her because I could tell she was a kind soul that genuinely wanted us to have fun and learn a lot in this course.

So, thank you Laura Gibbs! You rock and this class was a million times better because of your passion for the subject matter and your constant encouragement and guidance.