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Musings
By Alyce Wilson |
September 4, 2009 - Found Mammoth Hunt |
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While walking Una yesterday, I found a piece of notebook paper with an intriguing paragraph. Since it ended abruptly, I assumed it was a first draft of something that the writer started over again, possibly a class assignment. A little girl's name was written at the top. It reads:
"Well, that's cute," I thought. "And creative, in a quirky sort of way." I found myself wishing that I could find more of the story. Today I could not believe my luck when, walking on the opposite side of the street, I noticed a piece of yellow lined paper. At first glance, when I saw that it was also about a mammoth hunt, I thought it was a continuation by the same student. But then I found another page nearby. And another. And another. All by different students, and nearly all about this fictional mammoth hunt. Clearly, this had been a class assignment. A few of them were dated "September 30" and one was dated "September 30, 2008." Perhaps the teacher put them in the trash, and they blew away? The assignments range in details and technical ability. I believe the paragraphs were written in response to the children learning about ancient humans. It seems they were asked to imagine a mammoth hunt and to write about it as if they'd been there and were writing in a diary. The next one is also by a little girl and is dated "Semp 30," her mistaken abbreviation for September. This author seems to be a bit timid about the idea of killing her food. She managed to spell "mammoth" four different ways and also seemed to believe they resembled deer:
The next student, this one a boy, seems to have misunderstood the assignment and written, instead, a diary entry about his real life. Or at least, that is, if he really does have two bears. Either that or he imagines that, even in prehistoric times, there was TV. Clearly, this was spelled out phonetically. If you read it aloud, it makes more sense. It also sounds exactly the way a child might speak.
The next one is written by a boy but from the point of view of a girl. Despite some misspellings, it's quite well-written, including some ambitious vocabulary, a drastic injury, and even a "scrumpcios" recipe.
The next one is very difficult to read because it's in closely-written, light pencil. I had to adjust the contrast in PhotoShop before I could figure it out (although some of it was still unreadable). In this version, killing the mammoth is a family affair, and the protagonist, a girl named Little Lamb, is more concerned about making clothes out of the hide than about eating the mammoth.
Hands down, the most entertaining one was by the final student, a boy. Entertaining, that is, because it sounds like it's written by the crocs in the comic strip "Pearls Before Swine." There are two different versions of the story, on two sides of a piece of yellow lined paper. I'm going to start with the one on the back. It reads:
Actually, rereading that, I think that the crocs' command of the English language is superior. But the second one made me laugh out loud, partly because of the fractured grammar and spelling (although if you read it aloud, it does make sense), but mostly because of the postscript, which reads as a "note to self" about one last important task that should be accomplished before eating the mammoth.
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Moral: Copyright
2009 by Alyce Wilson |
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What
do you think? Share your thoughts |
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