Discussing Sarah Shun-lien Bynum’s Short Story

Welcome to our first thoughts on fiction!

In this week’s module, you have explored a little about the eight “elements” traditionally associated with fiction: Setting, Theme, Character, Conflict, Plot, Structure, Tone and Style.

For some, this has been a welcome refresher, for others, this may have been a new, culturally-specific way of thinking about stories and story-telling. 

As we know from our study of poetry, there are hundreds of ways to make our way into a text! For this week, let’s open the familiar doors!

Directions

1. Start by reading Sarah Shun-lien Bynum’s short story, “Many a Little Makes,” which you can find on the following page of through the above link. 
2. As you read, you can either annotate a download of the text, or keep a running list of your reactions in a separate document, or on a separate piece of paper. (The story was published in 2020. Without giving anything away, I’ll say that it is a reflection of its cultural moment! Try to identify its theme).
3. Make notes on Shun-lien Bynum’s imagery, the development of her characters, her use of flashback, her use of different “voices;” try to identify the story’s structure. What is its main conflict? 
1. You’re welcome to post a video of yourself asking your question. Include a typed version of the question along with it!

STEP ONE: Post your initial “Reply” by Thursday at 11:59 p.m.

You initial “reply” will be ONE question for your classmates. (Each of you will answer two classmates’ questions).

DO’s

Best questions are ones that require some analysis. Link the question that you compose to one of the eight “elements of fiction” – 

For example, “What effect did Bree and Imogen’s “hazing” of Mari have on you as a reader? – Character development/reader response” or “Why was it so important that Mari listened to the adults’ conversation? Conflict” or “Why did Shun-Lien Bynum decide to use text messages in her short story” – Voice).

Create a question to which you really want to know the answers!

DON’Ts

Make sure that your question cannot be answered with “Yes” or “No,” or with a few factual details from the text! For example, a less effective question would be “Did Mari and Bree stay friends?” (This can be answered with “Yes” or “No,” so will not require much thinking!) Another ineffective type of question is one that asks for a factual answer such as, “How many girls were at the sleepover?” Again, this won’t require much thinking!

Post your answers to two of your peers’ questions (each peer will post one question apiece) by Saturday at 11:59 p.m. 

1. Search through the questions that have been posted by your peers. (If you want a true variety, look through them AFTER the Thursday night due date of the initial post.)
2. Choose the two questions that are most interesting to answer for you.
1. use evidence from the text to support your answer’s claims;
2. do not repeat what others may already have said in their answers; add your thinking to theirs to expand the conversation going on in the thread!
3. Responses should be a minimum of 200 words each.

In this post, the like response has been activated, so you’re invited to “up vote” the questions you think are really good.

Post your reflection by Monday at 11:59 p.m.

By 11:59 p.m. on Monday of Week FIVE, post a reflection in which you talk about what you got out of answering one or both of the questions you chose. You can also compare your experience of answering your two chosen questions – was one harder? did one require more re-reading of the story? did the questions have something in common? did you feel a sense of achievement after answering one of the questions? did it deepen your sense of the story’s power? was this engagement with your peers’ thinking fun, eye-opening, provocative, or??? was this assignment frustrating? useful? What would you change?

Offer any reflection that you feel echoes your authentic experience. I learn from them!