RUN+MT

1. First complete the **chart below** comparing the narratives of the two stories. How does the story start? || The story starts with Mrs. Morrison telling the class that they have an assignment to bring in a picture of what they're most thankful for. || This new story starts out with an explanation of the way of life in the elephant sanctuary and who is best friends with who. Tara just so happens to be best friends with Bella- a dog. || What has changed? || In the beginning, it was about getting a picture of what they were most thankful for, but at the end, he got it, although it was also about teaching a bully a lesson. || In the beginning, it was about how an elephant has come to terms with being best friends with a dog. But when it ends, it was about the fact that they're so close that they wouldn't leave each one's side. || How is this achieved? || The story has a narrator so there is no definitive point of view. They do this by the narrator "following" the characters (mainly Gus) around and viewing his thoughts and actions. || This story isn't seen from one point of view. They do this by gathering the thoughts and perspectives of all the people in the sanctuary and also following the animals. ||
 * Copy the information below and paste it onto a new wiki page that you create called RUN //initials//.)**
 * || **Happy Thanksgiving Gus ...** || **Assignment America ...** ||
 * What is the opening situation?
 * What is the problem of challenge that is posed? || Gus has no idea what one thing he's most thankful for because he's thankful for a lot of stuff. Also, the place he's going to is "harboring" someone he doesn't especially like. || Tara is an elephant which makes being best friends with a small dog a lot more difficult. ||
 * How does this create conflict between characters? || The person Gus doesn't like is Billy and Billy keeps causing bad things to happen to Gus and Bean. || The conflict between these two characters is that one is so much bigger than the other and they could hurt each other. ||
 * How is this resolved? || This is resolved by the friends sticking together and the turkey knocking Billy into the mud. It also helped Gus get a picture of what he was most thankful for. || The animals developed a strong sense of trust with each other and took care of each and stood by their side. ||
 * How is the closing situation different to the opening situation?
 * Do you see the story from one character's point of view?

2. Then, by paying particular attention to the visual images in the stories and the ways in which these provide clues to the meaning of the stories, write a paragraph explaining how you "read" the stories to get the full meaning of each of the stories. You may find it useful to consider some of these factors: //**Feliz dia de Gracias, Gus!**// **Paragraph Here**: When I was reading this story, I noticed that (to go in order) that the color scheme was oranges and yellows. This represented the theme of Thanksgiving Day. The framing shows that the pictures take up about as much space as the text. This is so as to not overwhelm the reader with lack of pictures or lack of words. I found the pictures very helpful to aid me in discovering the meaning of the sentences. The composition showed friends who are worried about a school assignment and in a way I could relate to the characters. I was able to understand the thought process of the main characters. The size of the book was that the characters took up the space in the pictures with details of the background just like the type of shot. The type of shots were almost always medium shots to explain that there are things going on around the characters and we should understand that. The subject matter contains young "animals" who are still learning whom and what to trust and that provided some comic relief for me. The setting was in a northern are where it was cold and they grew pumpkins. This let me in on why there were so many pumpkins and actual animals so I could understand the exposition better. I enjoyed that it was set somewhere else because I was able to "travel" there and be a part of it. The lighting interested me because it was bright and sunny which I smiled at, especially since it's supposed to be gloomy. I got from that this was supposed to be light hearted and helped me to understand that this should be an easy book to read. The pose was "energetic" which means that they were excited about that day, but it was also "slouched" after Billy ruined their day. After taking into consideration the audio and words I decided that they were definitely for kids since the voice over spoke in different voices for each character. I got the full meaning of who was who from these voices.
 * color
 * framing
 * composition
 * size
 * type of shot
 * subject matter
 * setting
 * lighting
 * pose
 * text (or voice)


 * //Assignment America// Paragraph Here**: Since this was a video and not a book, it was a little harder to decipher some factors. For example, color. Although, I can tell from the video that this took on the look of a desert type of land or even a certain place in Africa if the desert idea is possible. The colors were dull, like camouflage green, aeneous (a bronze color), and dull yellows. The framing of this new story was easier since there was almost no text and the picture filled up the entire frame. I could tell that this was not informative; it is more of just entertainment. The composition was an enjoyable one. It was also about two friends, but these were two friends that would stick together no matter what. That was really nice and I completely understood what it was about. The size of the video was that they had the people they were interviewing take up most of the space and this made sense. The types of shots they used were medium shots and wide shots. This helped tell us what the people and animals looked like and where they were. The subject matter contained caretakers and elephants and a dog who take care of each other and depend on one another to help them. The setting was in an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee and this helped set the scene for me because I knew what the state was like and what the animals were. The lighting was bright but it was dimmed down to accentuate the weather. I think this was supposed to make it seem like a desert to the elephants. The poses for the animals were lazy because they don't have to do anything since they're retired, while the workers were active since they needed to nurse the elephants until the day the animals died. The voice meant to be informative but somehow it twisted into an entertaining way. I understood how important this story was from the lesson it taught: We may look different but we can be the same underneath.