ENGBO6 (canadian literature to 1900): Creative storytelling assignment
The instructions of this assignment are below:
Choose a location on the northern part of Turtle Island (Canada) that is meaningful to you, and tell your own story about it. (Your location could be a region; a city; a neighbourhood; a street; a building; a wilderness area; a lake or waterway.) You could begin by evaluating the dominant stories that have been told about that place. Whose perspectives, identities, histories, cultures and values do those stories centre? Does a different story need to be told? Why? And how would you tell that new story? Following are some prompts to get you started:
You may want to do some research to find out what kind of literature has already been published in that location, and by whom. How do those stories shape our understanding of that place? You could “write back” to these stories.
You may wish to learn what Indigenous stories have already been told from and about your chosen location. (These are important; we don’t want to erase them.)
Your story may take the form of a personal land acknowledgement in which you offer a history of Indigenous presence in your chosen location, and/or a history of treaty.
You may think about weaving together the voices of parents, grandparents, neighbors and friends in order to tell a story that centres your community’s perspective, voices, histories and experiences. (Practice social distancing in this case; interview people virtually – by Facetime; cell; Skype; Zoom, etc.)
You might want to tell your story textually, orally, or visually. What form suits your story best? You could make a video or an oral recording. You could write a story and include photos, drawings or other visual media. It could be a song. Think carefully about the relationship of form and content here and what form will enable you to tell your story effectively.
ADDITIONAL iNSTRUCTIONS:
Instructions
Choose a location on the northern part of Turtle Island (Canada) that is meaningful to you, and tell your own story about it. (Your location could be a region; a city; a neighbourhood; a street; a building; a wilderness area; a lake or waterway.) You could begin by evaluating the dominant stories that have been told about that place. Whose perspectives, identities, histories, cultures and values do those stories centre? Does a different story need to be told? Why? And how would you tell that new story?
Please include a 1-2pp critical reflection (e.g. 4 pages of story/ 2 pages of critical reflection or 5 pages of story/ 1 page of reflection) at the end of your creative/ research to:
a)Explain your thought process: What story did you want to change? Why? How did you do so?
b)Explain any challenges you encountered along the way and how you met them.
c) Explain what you learned in the process of researching/creating your piece.
d) Explain the formal and stylistic choices you made. E.g., why is a visual/ narrative/ oral mode of storytelling the best form for your story? Explain your stylistic choices (voice, point of view, etc. if applicable).
Rubric
I will be grading your assignments with the following rubric in mind:
1. Critical Thinking (**most important**): quality and rigor of thought; richness of content. How thoughtful is your story? How well does it connect to the concerns of our class?
2. Evidence of effort: does the writing benefit from careful planning, research, and drafting? Or do does the writing seem rushed?
3. Coherence, Language Use and Style: Is language use clear, or do frequent errors interfere with clarity of meaning?
Note: you do not have to write your story in Standard English if representing voices of community members who use global Englishes. This has to be a deliberate choice, one that you explain in the critical reflection.
Storytelling prompts:
*You may want to do some research to find out what kind of literature has already been published in that location, and by whom. How do those stories shape our understanding of that place? You could “write back” to these stories.
* You may wish to learn what Indigenous stories have already been told from and about your chosen location. (These are important; we don’t want to erase them.)
* Your story may take the form of a personal land acknowledgement in which you offer a history of Indigenous presence in your chosen location, and/or a history of treaty.
* You may think about weaving together the voices of parents, grandparents, neighbors and friends in order to tell a story that centres your community’s perspective, voices, histories and experiences. (Practice social distancing in this case; interview people virtually – by Facetime; cell; Skype; Zoom, etc.)
* You might want to tell your story textually, orally, or visually. What form suits your story best? You could make a video or an oral recording. You could write a story and include photos, drawings or other visual media. It could be a song. Think carefully about the relationship of form and content here and what form will enable you to tell your story most effectively.
At the end of the semester we will create our own “ENGB06 Anthology” of Canadian literature that includes material found by you.
NOTE: I would like this assignment to be done in the form of a story (with pictures) where you incorporate all the aspects of the area that are mentioned above in the syllabus. The form of the story and narrative is completely up to you, use your best judgement! But before you start, please tell me what northern part of Canada you have chosen to tell this story about! we can discuss options together.
Also please use 4-5 pieces of literature or articles found online regarding the chosen area and incorporate into the text, whether its demographics, history, case studies of peoples experiences there etc
