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  Exploring "The Story of an Hour"

  This week we’ll take a look at a short story and see what creative fun we can have with it! Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” (http://tinyurl.com/4c3hn ) written in 1894, is in the public domain and is part of many reading lists, so we thought this would be a good story to use. I find that my students really enjoy retelling stories and episodes from novels from a minor character’s point of view. So, rather than asking traditional discussion questions, think about the online tools you like to use and respond to the story in our Shelfari forum. Here are some suggestions:
  
  1. Write a blog entry for Brently Mallard the day after the ill-fated hour. (or for Richard, or Josephine, or the cat/dog/bird/fly that was in the room with Mrs. Mallard)
  2. Write a series of Twitters (or a chat) between Jospehine and her friends.
  3. Imagine the speech Louise Mallard’s doctor will give at TED talks (www.ted.com) on heart disease. Provide the text (or better yet, make a podcast or video) of the anecdotal evidence he uses regarding Mrs.Mallard.
  
  Feel free to write the entries on your blogs and send the url or simply imagine the scenario and write it directly on the forum. Other ideas? Add those to the forum as well. Have fun!
  
  The next few days we are all travelling, so bear with us if comments take a few days to appear!
  
  Jane, Mary, Carla, and Cris
  

  Jane started this discussion 1 year ago. ( reply )

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  Birgit (edited)

  As nobody so far has sent in any additional suggestions, let me suggest the obvious. This story is a perfect candidate for the activity I mentioned in another post on having students complete the story. If you give the students the story to read up to "Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was..."
  
  1- they read the story at home and think about how it might end
  2- in class they get into groups of 4 and discuss the possible endings those in the group have come up with, choosing the one they like best
  3- they write up a dialog for the end of the story
  4- they practice and act out their dialog in front of the class (these performances can be recorded and uploaded to the class webpage & shared with another class who has been given the same assignment)
  5- they vote on which of the endings is the most believable, the most original...
  6- they read the real ending - which group came the closest to guessing the real ending?
  7- going back to their alternative endings, each of the students at home writes a blog entry, letter or e-mail from the point of view of the character they portrayed in the dialog and posts it on the classroom blog or wiki
  8- students read through their classmates' contributions and either add comments to their blog entries or respond to one of the letters or emails - always from the point of view of their character
  
  Why do it this way instead of jumping right in at step 7? Well, I find that some students find it difficult to do these kinds of creative writing tasks - they simply can't think of anything to write - and it helps them to first brainstorm or discuss the topic in groups.
  
  - Birgit

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

  show 1 reply

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    Jane 

    Very nice suggestion Birgit and thank you for the detailed description! Another variation, for classes comfortable with recording equipment would be to make a video or audio recording of the ending and post it on a class blog--and then respond in character. It would be interesting to see how the ending would change the story's message (or the author's intent)
    

    posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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  MaryH 

  Dear Jane and Birgit,
  
  Your ideas for The Story of an Hour are really wonderful! I have used this story for my humanities class the past two years, but now I have some great new ideas for next year! A while ago, I found a video on YouTube that is based on The Story of an Hour. I think it would be great to share with students and have them compare the video with the story, or to critique the video, or even to make their own videos to show their interpretations of the story.
  
  Jane collected a link to this video and some other resources related to The Story of an Hour, and I've put them into Diigo Webslides. Please have a look at these creative ways some people have used technology to bring literature to life!
  http://slides.diigo.com/list/mhillis/livinglitkatechopin
  
  Hugs,
  Mary

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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