She's getting all As, except in Math, where she has a D. She's reading at 7th/8th grade level, but prefers younger books. She disturbs her teachers with her huge vocab and talk of death, dismemberment, and ghosts--they even called us in to have a talk about it and her slipping grades (I guess the As are wobbly). She hates doing things she's not interested in
Deena, you know how I used to joke that Kara is the younger version of me? Perhaps it's not a joke. I need to send her a letter telling her that if she ever thinks about not doing her math homework for a year, just to see what happens, IT'S A BAD IDEA.
Plus, I should send her another babygoth care package.
Hey, all, need to pick the hive-mind.
I'm making (heh, heh) my students write a compare/contrast essay, selecting an epic hero or a modern superhero to whom to contrast/compare Beowulf to.
I want to give my student a good starting-off list of hero/ines to brainstorm from. They can select who they want, but some of them might need a little inspiration.
So far, I have:
Odysseus
Gilgamesh
Luke Skywalker
Frodo
Neo (The Matrix)
Blade
Batman
Superman
Spiderman
Wonder Woman
King Arthur
Xena
Frodo
Aragorn
Harry Potter
Hercules
Aeneas
Percy Jackson
Simba (The Lion King)
Dean or Sam Winchester
The hero/ines need to hit most of the characteristics for epic heros:
1. Represent their culture's ideal of what qualities a hero needs to possess.
2. Have superhuman qualities (strength, skill, powers, determination, etc)
3. Have some kind of divine/supernatural parentage or history.
4. Be on some type quest for something -- an extrinsic quest, or an intrinsic quest.
5. Oppose larger-than-life or superhuman/supernatural villans.
6. The story contains elements of the divine or supernatural.
Any additions you can make would be great, especially ones from pop culture than 16-18 year old African-American kids would be familiar with.
- Buffy's not on the list, because I am using her as my example to model all of the steps of the writing process. :)
(x-post with Natter)
Erin, I was all excited to add Wolverine, but he doesn't have any divine aspects. Eh.
Deena, you know how I used to joke that Kara is the younger version of me? Perhaps it's not a joke. I need to send her a letter telling her that if she ever thinks about not doing her math homework for a year, just to see what happens, IT'S A BAD IDEA.
I'll second this suggestion, since I also did that experiment as a kid.
God, maths homework was my favourite. What's with you people?
maths homework was my favourite
I was definitely not you, that's for sure.
They don't have to hit ALL the characteristics.
Wolverine has "other" powers -- he's def superhuman.
His quest would be...finding out who changed him? I can't quite remember the X-Men reading I did in the 80's.
A student who was familiar with his mythos could do a pretty good comparision/contrast on him, esp. since Beowulf wanted to (a) protect people but mainly (b) establish his own rep as a mighty warrior.
finding out who changed him
This was my thinking. Finding who 'cursed' him is more to the point of what popped into my mind. It's a quest for revenge/redemption.
