What response did you have to your chosen character’s transformation? How did exploring that transformation better help you understand that character? How does your newly expanded understanding of your character connect more broadly with Persian values?

Assignment Question

Hide Assignment Information EXTRA CREDIT: Complete the assignment below and up to ten points will be added to your final grade for Writing Assignment #2. Purpose: Throughout the first three units, we have discussed the ways in which characters have transformed, often in connection with (and as a consequence of) various journeys. For this extra credit assignment, we will explore the concept of transformation in more depth, as well as how it expands your understanding of the epic as a whole. Background: Why is transformation such an integral part of the epics we have been reading in this class? Epics have lasted for hundreds, even thousands, of years precisely because they are memorable. A story without transformation, where the good characters are always good and the bad characters are always bad, is boring and does not last. Sure, there may be a few moments of dramatic tension in the fight scenes, but the characters and the plot itself would not be particularly interesting. How do characters in the Shahnameh change? What response do these changes provoke in you? How do they help you better understand both the epic and the culture that produced it? Tasks: In Digital Storytelling in the Classroom, Jason B. Ohler lays out eight specific levels of character transformation. See this chart, and use its descriptions and hyperlinked video examples to help you to identify how characters in the Shahnameh transform during the course of the epic. Be aware that characters may change in more than one way, and characters do not necessarily progress through the levels of this chart linearly. Select one character (major or minor) from the Shahnameh who transforms in some way during the epic. Directly connect that character’s transformation to one of the kinds of transformation identified by Ohler in the chart linked above. Describe in a well-developed paragraph that character’s transformation, drawing upon at least three quotations from the text to support your argument. After you have completed the first four tasks, answer the following three questions in an additional well-developed paragraph: What response did you have to your chosen character’s transformation? How did exploring that transformation better help you understand that character? How does your newly expanded understanding of your character connect more broadly with Persian values? What new insights do you have? How do your new insights affect your understanding of the Shahnameh epic as a whole? You may want to sketch out your initial thoughts in lists, a concept map, or whatever note format helps you the most. Structure and revise your initial response to the questions listed above into several robust, well-developed paragraphs. Edit carefully, and support your claims with evidence from the text. Criteria on which you will be graded: The passages that support the main argument and analysis in your first paragraph have been selected thoughtfully and intentionally You’ve answered all questions in task #5 and have evaluated how your own understanding has changed and developed Your writing throughout is clear and well-organized Submit Assignment Files to submit (0) file(s) to submit After uploading, you must click Submit to complete the submission. Add a FileRecord AudioRecord Video Comments Paragraph Lato (Recommended) 19px (Default) SubmitCancel

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