“Because never in my entire childhood did I feel like a child. I felt like a person all along―the same person that I am today.”

 ― Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game 

Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

My general reaction to the project so far.

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year?  What has made it a positive experience for you? 
The research checks, they do me the most good. I sort of take a day to scour the internet looking for things I might be interested in surrounding my topic. I leave all of the links on a doc and every week for research check I just take two of the links I have saved. During research check when I’m writing notes I add extra notes an questions for myself for the topics that interested me most. Right now, thats’s the most important thing to me. I want to know what, specifically, I am going to be learning about. I really like the freedom of the sources. For example, I can get a lot of information about an author from an interview with them. It makes it easier to compare their writing to their personality when I can hear their voice and tone. I also really really REALLY like the fact that I know that my essential question can be more creative and less formal and stifled.

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project?  How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you?  How might the senior team help?

Since the senior team explained that our essential questions can be a lot more creative than last years, I’ve been having trouble knowing my limits. During the summer I made an essential question that was more formal. I used what I had seen from last year as examples of how to write it. It hadn’t made me very happy because I felt that my senior project wasn’t interesting anymore. But now, I don’t know how to write it. How creative is too creative? Can I ask questions like “what does the inside of an authors head look like when writing a book?” or is that too out there? What if I want to ask “How does a person choose a book to read?” but I want to talk about the readers opinions, not the analysis of book covers and sales rates? I want my project to be creative and filled with ideas and opinions. I want to present and feel the excitement and intrigue, something I felt was lacking last year. I want to know if I will still be able to come up with a good essential question and keep my creative ideas alive.

And more on that subject, what if the answers I find at the end of my project are more opinion based? Writing is not something that can be put down as fact. Writing styles are always changing from author to author. Even the rules of grammar can shift after a few years or an especially influential book is released. Do my answers need to be based on fact? Wouldn’t that mean that I would need to change my focus to something more definite?

"Lower the bar from "best seller" to "would not make someone vomit"

- Chris Baty, No Plot? No Problem!

"There is a theory which states that if everyone discovers exactly what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable."
"There is another which states that this has already happened"

- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

Blog 4 - House Advisory Prep 1

What do I expect out of my senior topic? To be honest, I chose my topic because I knew I could use it as an excuse to read about my favorite authors and say it was for educational purposes. I wanted to take advantage of this year to answer my never ending questions about creating stories and characters and plot lines and everything.  It actually does work out that way because my favorite authors just happened to have written books on telling stories and explaining their experience as authors. 

Blog 3 - First Interview Preparation

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  Why?

I am going to interview my mentor professor Alison Baker because I want more information about my topic before I narrow it down and she is pretty experienced and I think the conversation will be great.

2.  Five questions will be assigned to all seniors to ask.  What additional questions do you plan to ask?  Ask open-ended questions.  

• How did you end up in your field? Did you always love books and stories or did you just fall upon it later in life? 
• Have you ever felt a really strong connection to a story or book or quote? 
• What was it and how did it make you feel?
• Do you think you could be an author? If not, why not?
• What do you think it takes to be an author? 
• How important do you think language is when telling a story?

Blog 2 - Summer Mentorship

1. Mentors:

• Connie Estrada, Broad Oaks Preschool Teacher 

1(562) 639-4965

• Alison Baker, Cal Poly Pomona English Professor

(909) 861-2738

• Annabelle Cortez, Lewis Library Volunteer Coordinator

(909) 574-4533

• Brianna Quintero, Graduate Assistant Advisor

    (909) 754-6224

2. Mrs. Estrada is the lead preschool teacher/college student trainer at Broadoaks children school in Whittier. She has lots of experience in teaching children and in teaching others how to teach children. She was able to teach me ways to more effectively teach my students and keep their attention.

Alison Baker is an english professor who teaches at Cal Poly Pomona. She mostly teaches about literature and Folklore but she also has experience teaching  Children’s Lit. Her teaching methods will be very helpful for me because she uses old texts (such as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and King Arthur)and has her students read them aloud to understand them better because they were originally often read to illiterate audiences.

Annabelle Cortez is in charge of the children section of the Lewis Library. She is also the coordinator of the volunteers.

Brianna Quintero has been involved with IEFL since 2006. She has repeatedly returned as a volunteer and moved her way up to her current position. She has been the Graduate Assistant Advisor for two years now. She taught my fellow GAs and I how to be a proper GA. This included teaching us how to talk to the campers, how to respond to different issues and how to keep them involved and inspired throughout the week. 

3. What is it like for an author to see a small idea turn into an entire world full of characters and problems and life?

How does an editor know if a story is good enough to sell when it’s based on their opinion alone?

Why does a director change the original storyline so much when adapting a book into a movie?

4. I think the most important thing I have learned is that english teachers are very generous. My mentor, Professor Baker, supplied me with links and contacts and books for my research before she had even agreed to be my mentor.  Another professor, also from the english department, did the same even though it didn’t work out. He said that he would be too busy to be my mentor but that didn’t stop him from sending me his syllabus with every book he knew that could help me find what I was looking for. Even our own Mrs. Edwards was very generous. She assures me that she can help me with my project during the year by helping with my Independent Component. 

5. I know that my topic is going to be in the area surrounding books. Where as at the beginning of the summer I was sure it was going to be specifically about language, I am now not so sure. 

This summer I let myself explore a few other options besides the Art of Storytelling. I went to a camp called IEFL where I was a councilor for young teens. I have always gotten along with other kids fairly easily and I thought maybe I could focus on the job of a councilor or the importance of knowing your culture. I could have even focused on the importance of college, seeing as that is one of the biggest focuses at camp. It was a great experience and I got to see what it was like to be the adult for a week. Yet, even though I loved it and I am definitely returning next summer, I know that I will not be using it for my senior project. It just isn’t the kind of thing that would keep me interested all year. I also tried being a tutor for two kids in grade school. Again, I learned a lot but it just wasn’t going to work for my senior project. So I decided to stick with my topic, the Art of Story telling. Only, now that I have talked to my mentor about my topic I realize that I am more interested in the Author’s view of the story than I am of the language used. So I think I am going to have to change my EQ, I’m just not sure what it will be exactly.

 Link to summer hours