Improvement Ideas

I think that changing the review weeks into planning weeks would be a great change to this course. Even though the way it was this semester still worked well, I think encouraging students to plan would be very helpful. This course is very structured, but also very independent. Students get to work (somewhat) at their own pace, so planning is important along with time management and responsibility!

I thought the story planning option was very helpful and beneficial this semester. I, along with most of the other students I presume, was reading things I had never learned about before. It was nice to be able to take my time and really focus on what I wanted to do with my story writing. I think it's a great tool for students to use, and using it again is a good plan!

Audio recordings would be a good option for students to have. Although I do not like to record myself speaking, I can see how some people would like to tell their stories aloud. Also, I think it would be cool for students to be able to connect with you a little bit more through your own recordings!

This class was fun, engaging, and well-organized! You have some great ideas to make it even better! :)

Portfolio Guide

The Tiny Hero
This is another children's tale that I loved so much. It's about a baby bird in unfortunate circumstances... Read to see how he turns it all around! :)


The Foolish Monkey and The King
This re-make of a children's tale tells the story about a king who learned quite the lesson from an unexpected teacher -- a monkey!


When The Time Comes
This story is about a family dealing with the sickness and death of a loved one.


The In-Crowd
This is a story about a girl beginning school in a new place. It follows her adaptations, and her feelings as she gets used to her new surroundings. It tells the story of how she finds her place in her new high school.

The Tiny Hero

Baby quail. Image source: EastValleyWildlife.

Once upon a time, there lived a family of quails. Their nest sat nestled into the highest branch of the biggest tree in the forest where it stood.

Momma quail, Daddy quail, and seven baby quails. They lived happily and peacefully.

At the time, the baby quails were only three weeks old. Their mother was still flying to find food for them, and bringing it back for them to eat. Every day, Momma would bring back insects and worms to make her babies strong, but one baby would never eat them. He only ate seeds and nuts. Momma quail knew this would affect her baby later down the road, but continued to feed him seeds to keep him alive and growing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One day, the family of quails heard a ruckus across the forest; animals crying out, trees falling, and a horrible smell they were not familiar with.

In the distance, Momma and Daddy spotted them… And they knew exactly what was happening. Huge, black clouds of smoke rising from fiery, vicious, red flames. It was a forest fire.

As the flames grew closer and closer, the quails knew what they had to do. All at once, Momma, Daddy, and the six baby quails jumped from the nest and began to fly away. As they flapped their wings as fast as they could, they had no time to look back-- no time to see that the 7th baby had been left and couldn’t fly away with them. His wings were not strong enough. The seventh baby quail did not panic though.

Instead of being afraid and accepting defeat to the flames that were engulfing the nest, the baby quail was brave. He stood tall in his nest, took a deep breath, and began to speak to the flames.

“Mighty flames, you see that I am small. You see that I am alone. Why do you come here? Go back, flames! This is my home. You cannot take it from me,” exclaimed the baby quail to the fire.

The flames froze. It was as if they were thinking, processing what the quail had said to them.

“Go on! Go,” yelled the baby quail once more.

And with his quiet and tiny, but powerful words, the flames disappeared into the night and away from the nest. The black smoke rose into the sky, and there was not a red flame in sight. In what felt like half of a second, there was peace in the forest again.

All the animals of the forest began to come out from their safe places, and smiled as they saw the forest come back to life. The baby quail felt triumphant as he lay down for sleep in his nest, but also lonely as he didn’t know where his family had gone.

The next morning, he awoke to his mother and father and all six of his brothers and sisters surrounding him showering him with love. The family of quails lived happily ever after in their nest.

Who knew a tiny, defenseless baby quail could be such a hero?

Author's Note

This is a children’s tale from Twenty Jataka Tales. The original was called The Forest Fire. Basically, what I did with my version of the story is I just added a lot more details and changed the ending. I provided more back story at the beginning about where the family lived and how they lived. In the original, the story escalated quickly. It started with the mother feeding the babies, then the fire coming. I also expanded on the moment where the flames are by the nest and the baby quail speaks to them. I made that part a little bit more personal. These children’s tales are usually short and sweet, so it’s fun to expand on them even more and add your own little twist. At the end in the original, after the baby quail saves the forest, it just says they he lived happily ever after in his nest. I thought it was sad that he was living without his whole family, so I made them fly back for him. Then they all lived happily ever after! I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did! Let me know what I can do to make it even better!

Bibliography

Twenty Jataka Tales. Link to reading.

Author: Noor Inayat.

Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales Part B

THE TWO PIGS
two little pigs see woman
woman takes pigs oh no
says shell be their mother, is she going to eat them?
she was nice to them
men ask for pigs she says no
omg she’s going to let them take one
pig spoke and everyone listened, no longer drunk
king takes pigs and bathes them in water ?
some powerful pigs
taught the whole land the lesson of love

THE PATIENT BUFFALO
monkey keeps trying to make buffalo mad, but buffalo doesn’t budge
fairy tells buffalo of his strength and power asks why he doesn’t kill the monkey
buffalo says he doesn’t want to punish the monkey he is small and not smart
fairy used powers to drive monkey away

cute story, but too short and don’t know what I could even do with it

THE SARABHA
sarabha is a deer
king wants to catch him, not succeeding
sarabha wants to save king after he falls in chasm while chasing to kill the deer! pretty nice deer
they make up
deer saves king, king is grateful
deer asks that no one hunts in the forest king agrees, happy ever after

i love how animals are always teaching humans lessons in these children tales, its cute and sweet and honestly relatable. obviously a talking deer would never come save and speak words to a human, but idk some how its just easy to connect with

THE GOBLIN TOWN
shipwreck
women cooked for them housed them
then turned into goblins
heard a voice saying a flying horse would save them
those who believed would be saved, those who didn’t stayed on the island

kinda a scary story with a happy ending, teaching to believe

THE GREAT ELEPHANT
beautiful elephant hears men, dying, offers to help
great elephant told them what to do but then disappeared
elephant died for them so that they would have food to eat
happy ever after

sacrifice

THE FOREST FIRE
family of quails, one baby only eats seeds
fire in woods
7th baby who only ate seeds couldn’t fly away (wings never grew)
baby is brave says don’t come this way flames you see i am alone and cannot fly
fire went other way
happy ever after

cute

THE END OF THE WORLD
hare thinking about end of world, hears fruit fall from tree runs and runs and runs because he thinks it was the world ending
all the animals of the forest believed hare and ran with him
wise lion stops them asks who saw the earth breaking, comes back to hares, lion says it must have been a fruit falling
lion took hare back to show him everything is fine
went back to hundreds of thousands of animals and all lived happily ever after

learning a lesson of not making rash decisions, not acting impulsively,

Bibliography

Twenty Jataka Tales. Link to reading.

Author: Noor Inayat

The Sarabha. Image Source: Bable.

The Foolish Monkey and The King

Once upon a time a very powerful king decided he wanted to take over the smaller kingdom that lay just on the other side of the river and through the woods from his. He gathered an army, and trained them for the day they would ruin that small kingdom. Day and night for months the soldiers got bigger and stronger and then the day came that they were ready.

The king and his army woke early that morning and marched all day to get near the kingdom, and then set up a campsite for the night in a dark part of the forest.

They rested for the big day ahead of them. As they fed their horses peas in the morning, the king noticed a small monkey watching from a nearby tree branch. He held his gaze as the monkey jumped down from the tree and scooped up some peas for himself. The monkey swiftly returned to his branch and began eating the peas, enjoying each one.

Suddenly, with the king still watching, the monkey dropped a single pea and watched it fall to the dirt beneath him. He sat for a moment, and then quickly jumped to the ground spilling all of the remaining peas that he had in his hand. Try as he might, the greedy monkey could not find that darned pea.

The frustrated monkey returned to his branch and sat reflecting on his actions. He let his greed control him, and instead of letting that one small insignificant pea go, he lost everything he had trying to get it.

Meanwhile, the king sat, still observing the monkey.

“We are ready for battle, Your Majesty”, said one of the king’s most valuable soldiers.

“We will no longer be taking over this kingdom. Pack your things and we will march back immediately”, the king responded quickly.

The army was confused and frustrated at the king’s commands, but no one dared to question the wishes of their ruler. So, the soldiers packed their things and waited for further instruction from the king.

The king remained pondering over what he had seen with the money. Then he said to himself, “I do not want to be like this foolish monkey. He gave much to gain a little, and lost everything in the end. I will take my army and return to my kingdom, and I will be grateful for all that I have right now. Greed will not guide my actions.”

So, the king and his men marched back to their kingdom and life resumed as it had before.

From that point on, the king no longer pursued the ruining of other kingdoms. He stayed in the bounds of his own land, and enjoyed all the riches and relationships and property that he had. He never took anything for granted as he had before.

To this day, the king still remembers that foolish monkey, and the valuable lesson that it taught him. He will never forget that monkey.

Monkey In A Tree. Image Source: Clipartfest.

Author's Note

This is an adaptation of the story from More Jataka Tales called The Penny-Wise Monkey. I kept a lot of the story the same. I mostly added a lot of details and depth into what happened throughout the plot. There isn't as much dialogue in the original as mine, but I feel that it adds an interesting and intriguing twist to it that I included conversation between the king and his men even though it is brief.  I made the army more a part of the story and gave them more meaning than the original. I also added on to the end. In the original, the story ends with the king deciding that he would go back home and be thankful for what he had. In my version, I carried on to talk about how he would always remember what the penny-wise monkey taught him in that forest. I did this to sort of emphasize the importance of what the king learned that day in the forest. I chose this picture because it is generic, and readers can imagine a painted picture of the scenes for themselves. Please let me know what I can do to make this story better!

Bibliography

More Jataka Tales. Link to reading.

Author: Ellen C. Babbitt.

Week 13 Story Planning: 20 Jataka Tales

Bibliography

Twenty Jataka Tales. Link to reading.

Author: Noor Inayat

THE MONKEY-BRIDGE
monkey ruler, rocks and river and valley and honey
happy monkeys
fruit tree
don’t want men from village looking for it
fruit falls
want to find it
find it, monkeys, king orders to kill and eat monkeys and mangoes
chief finding way to save them
king sees chief break his back for his monkeys, has him come down to bathe and clothe and feed him
rule with love for they are your children
chief dies and king learns lesson

i really like this story but it’s told so well, that I’m not sure that i want to mess with it or remake it. but ***

THE GUILTY DOGS
king with chariot and horses,
dogs come at night and chew leather harnesses
king ordered to kill seven hundred dogs that were in the city
chief dog
wanting to save them
common theme of love, i like it
chief tells king royal dogs did it
wise
proved him right king saved all the city dogs
happily ever after

i could change this into a story about a family, a king being a mom or dad, the royal dogs being ornery brothers chief being sister or friend or something

BANYAN
golden deer
forest
palace
king hunting, not golden ones
doe w baby
more love <3
golden deer takes place of doe, king agrees to never kill another animal and he ruled with love

THE TORTOISE AND THE GEESE
geese carying tortoise
he fell (hearing kids in village laugh at him)
counselor told king that he fell because he could not hold his tongue, directing message at king
king learned only to speak when needed

not so interesting

THE FAIRY AND THE HARE
wise hare teaching others
animals get food for others, hare has nothing
offers himself as food
fairy took place of beggar and hare jumped into flames of fire, fairy created test, flames were fake, hare was honored across the land

i could modernize this make it realistic or keep it as a children’s story and change it up, i like this one

THE GOLDEN FEATHERS
father leaves, promises daughters wonderful things on his return
meets fairy, changes him into a goose with golden feathers
could no longer search for riches
lets family pluck his feathers one by one
mother gets greedy say they need to pluck all the feathers
feathers grew back and he flew away

not a good ending, kinda sad

I am thinking that for my next story, I am going to modernize and change it up a bit. The last one I wrote I just added more details and enhanced what had already been happening in the original piece.
My two favorite stories from this week's reading are The Guilty Dogs, and The Fairy and the Hare. I think I could turn the themes presented in those stories into a modern, relatable one of my own. I am excited to see what I can do with this.

Hare jumping into the fire. Image source: Pinterest.

Reading Notes: Twenty Jataka Tales Part A

Bibliography

Twenty Jataka Tales. Link to reading.

Author: Noor Inayat

THE MONKEY-BRIDGE
monkey ruler, rocks and river and valley and honey
happy monkeys
fruit tree
don’t want men from village looking for it
fruit falls
want to find it
find it, monkeys, king orders to kill and eat monkeys and mangoes
chief finding way to save them
king sees chief break his back for his monkeys, has him come down to bathe and clothe and feed him
rule with love for they are your children
chief dies and king learns lesson

i really like this story but it’s told so well, that I’m not sure that i want to mess with it or remake it. but ***

THE GUILTY DOGS
king with chariot and horses,
dogs come at night and chew leather harnesses
king ordered to kill seven hundred dogs that were in the city
chief dog
wanting to save them
common theme of love, i like it
chief tells king royal dogs did it
wise
proved him right king saved all the city dogs
happily ever after

i could change this into a story about a family, a king being a mom or dad, the royal dogs being ornery brothers chief being sister or friend or something

BANYAN
golden deer
forest
palace
king hunting, not golden ones
doe w baby
more love <3
golden deer takes place of doe, king agrees to never kill another animal and he ruled with love

THE TORTOISE AND THE GEESE
geese carying tortoise
he fell (hearing kids in village laugh at him)
counselor told king that he fell because he could not hold his tongue, directing message at king
king learned only to speak when needed

not so interesting

THE FAIRY AND THE HARE
wise hare teaching others
animals get food for others, hare has nothing
offers himself as food
fairy took place of beggar and hare jumped into flames of fire, fairy created test, flames were fake, hare was honored across the land

i could modernize this make it realistic or keep it as a children’s story and change it up, i like this one

THE GOLDEN FEATHERS
father leaves, promises daughters wonderful things on his return
meets fairy, changes him into a goose with golden feathers
could no longer search for riches
lets family pluck his feathers one by one
mother gets greedy say they need to pluck all the feathers
feathers grew back and he flew away

not a good ending, kinda sad

Golden Goose Feathers. Image Source: Featherbuy.