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Class 02 The Elements of Story
Discussion Forum
Post 2.2 Choose one of the following. Post your response to the discussion forum.
(A) Choose three different audience ages to research. (The ages must be between pre-readers and young adult.)
Conduct some research to find out the needs and interests of the three age groups. What are their emotional and developmental needs? What do they like? What do they dislike?
If you're a classroom teacher, you might poll a class of students or the teachers in the faculty room. You might conduct some online research or use some other means.
Post your findings to the discussion forum.
(B) Consider Gregory Orr's poem, A Litany. Conduct some online research to understand why Orr wrote this poem. Why do you think Orr titled it "A Litany?" From a writer's perspective, where does Orr's poem turn for you, make your heart turn over, or make you gasp out loud? Consider, too, Orr's use of concrete language. For example, it's not just soup, but alphabet soup that the brother eats at the end.
Now consider your own "I Remember" poem. Did Orr's poem help you realize anything about craft that you can take to your poem? Are there places where you can improve the pacing or improve the language?
(C) Consider Cynthia Rylant's When I Was Young in the Mountains as a prose poem. How is this story/prose poem also a litany of sorts? Choose three concrete images from to discuss. Did Rylant's poem help you to realize anything about language?