Tempest+Group+Part+2

=Pairing Project, Part Two= Allison Lemley, Sarah Donaldson, Tom Wachtel, Chad Westmaas

=Young Adult Title= Shakespeare, William. //The Tempest.// New York: Simon and Schuster Paperbacks, 2009. Print. Askew, Kim and Amy Helmes. //Tempestuous//. Blue Ash: Merit Press, 2012. Kindle Edition.

[|The Tempest] [|Tempestuous]

=**Connections**= //Tempestuous//, a young adult novel based on //The Tempest//, has many connections to its source material. It connects to the deeper themes of the play, particularly the theme of revenge. The main character, Miranda Prospero, was once one of the most popular girls in an elite prep school. To make some extra money, she set up a service that set up the popular students with the unpopular "geeks" of the school to tutor them. Without her knowledge, these students began using their connections to cheat. When school administration heard about this system, Miranda's then boyfriend was among those who had cheated and to reduce his punishment, claimed that Miranda had orchestrated everything, including the cheating. While Miranda avoided punishment for the cheating that occured within her system, her punishment for setting up the system was to repay all the money she had made, which would then go into a scholarship fund. In order to make reparations, she had to get a job at the local mall's food court. The book follows Miranda over the course of one very eventful night: a massive snowstorm traps Miranda, her co-workers, her ex-boyfriend, and her ex-best frenemies in the mall for the night.

Miranda's relationship with the Ariel/Caliban stand-ins connects to //The Tempest// in an interesting way. "Ariel" in //Tempestuous// is a character by the same name who is a small, cheerful, homeschooled girl who is fascinated with Miranda. In the beginning of the story, Miranda sees Ariel as intelligent, but largely incapable of handling difficult social interactions and incredibly naive. When Ariel proves that she neither socially inept or naive, Miranda allows her to play a part very similar to Shakespeare's Ariel: Miranda sends Ariel out to wreak havoc. Miranda and Ariel's relationship is fairly similar to Prospero and Ariel's; both are in a master/servant context. In one scene, Miranda's thoughts make it clear that even though Ariel is her "supervisor" since she was hired sooner, Miranda is clearly in charge. In the same way, Prospero's powers are inferior to Ariel's, yet Prospero controls Ariel. "Caliban" in //Tempestuous// is Caleb, a surly video game store employee who becomes handcuffed to Miranda for most of the story. Through the storm, Miranda becomes the de facto leader of the employees trapped in the food court while simultaneously seeking revenge on her enemies who have barricaded themselves in the stores on the opposite end of the mall. Caleb and Miranda argue throughout the book, as Caleb despises Miranda's prep school attitude. As he is handcuffed to her, he is essentially forced to do as she asks, making him her slave in a much more real and literal sense than Ariel. In //The Tempest// this is true as well. Ariel has been promised freedom; Caliban's freedom was taken from him. In //Tempestuous//, Miranda eventually comes to see Ariel as an equal and the "Caliban" character Caleb becomes a love interest.

//Tempestuous//’s protagonist Miranda Prospero has always had charm and a penchant for making “magic” happen in times of uncertainty. It is stated that Miranda’s father is overprotective and emotionally distant, but in //Tempestuous//, Miranda takes both Shakespeare’s Prospero role and Miranda's. Themes bridging the two texts include not judging people at face value and giving them the opportunity to surprise you. Young, nearly immediate love shows up in both Shakespeare’s play and //Tempestuous// as well. During the chaos of the evening, it comes out that Brian, like Antonio’s character, was playing all three of Miranda’s former friends. Whitney and Britney stand in as Stephano and Trinculo, drinking and fooled by Ariel’s offer of a cell-phone tan, highlights, and a complete makeover. //The Tempest's// overarching theme of forgiveness reigns true in //Tempestuous//.

Both Ariel and Caleb participate in Miranda's schemes to avenge her betrayal and shunning. The prep school students trapped in the mall have taken over the "best" stores and restaurants, and are guarding their territory with BB guns taken from the outdoor sports store. Among them are her ex-boyfriend and ex-best friends. Miranda decides that this is the best time to get revenge and convinces Ariel and Caleb to help her with a series of plots to ruin her enemies. Miranda has Ariel trap one girl in an elevator with a rabbit (apparently she had leporiphobia, or fear of rabbits) and the other two girls receive "special makeovers." Miranda plays one trick on her ex-boyfriend by covering him in glitter glue, but in the end she gives up her vendetta. She does not reconcile completely with her old friends, but she comes to an understanding about her past actions and accepts her current situation. In //Tempestuous//, Miranda chooses to give up her powers of manipulation and essentially remain on the island. Prospero gives up his powers, but leaves the island to return to his former state; he exchanges one set of powers for another. While in both stories the revenge theme is resolved similarly in that both characters give up that desire, //The Tempest// returns Prospero to his former power. Miranda does not go back to the same social status she held within her high school, but rather stays with the "losers." It can be claimed that in both stories, Prospero and Miranda find their place in the world, whether they regain an old position or accept their current one.

=Research: Online Instruction=

//Cognitive and Social Help Giving in Online Teaching: An Exploratory Study// by Joan L. Whipp and R. A. Lorentz

Whipp, Joan L., and R. A. Lorentz. "Cognitive and Social Help Giving in Online Teaching: An Exploratory Study." //Educational Technology Research and Development // 57.2 (2009): 169-92. Web.

In this study Whipp and Lorentz analyze the ways in which three different instructors incorporate help giving techniques into their online classrooms. The context of the study brings up the difficulty of creating a classroom environment online that is conducive to learning in the same way that a conventional classroom is. Whipp and Lorentz write specifically about learning assistance, scaffolding, and academic help seeking and the challenges of trying to incorporate all these strategies into online classrooms. Through their study of three professors they highlight strategies used which help to overcome some of these challenges and create a flourishing classroom in an online setting.

Whipp, Joan L. and Chiarelli, Stephannie. “Self-Regulation in a Web-Based Course: A Case Study.” //Educational Technology Research and Development// 52.4 (2004): 5-22. Web.

In this study, Whipp and Chiarelli examine the habits and strategies of six highly successful graduate students in an online course. Through interviews with the students and their instructor, as well as reviews of the students' reflective journals, Whipp and Chiarelli explore the method by which the students achieved and maintained their success in the course, especially in the context of how motivational and environmental influences impacted their work. This study includes helpful information for instructors, such as strategies their students can use to excel in their online courses and ways in which instructors can foster motivational support both for the students and between them.

Brescia, William. “A Support Taxonomy for Developing Online Discussions.” //Journal of Public Affairs Education// 9.4 (2003): 289-98. Web.

In this article, Brescia explores both the nature of asynchronous threaded discussion forums and research that shows how the discussion forum can be used as a venue for online education. The forum, Brescia claims, can be a powerful tool for education, since its users are completely unrestrained by time or location: posts can be made and responded to at any time, meaning discussions can take place at the convenience of the users and cannot be disturbed by issues of time. This article includes a number of strategies which instructors can use to successfully incite and mediate online class discussions, rather than simply asking questions and receiving answers, and to promote critical thinking and participation in their students.

=Process= From here the majority of the work that we do will be done collectively as a group rather than just combining work we've done individually. Hopefully the week after break we will all be able to sit down and begin the brainstorming process in regards to the activities and the multimedia work. We will probably tackle the in class activities as well as the discussion questions first to get them out of the way. During that time we'll divide the additional resources section up and each be responsible for finding four or five of those. Then finally we will come together and work on the multimedia piece. Hopefully we will have all but the multimedia piece done by the end of March and can devote some time to only that until it is due.