Final Projects Seminar Sets

Final Projects Seminar Sets

For your final two assignments for seminar sets you will write a paper on American literary traditions in your novel or a short story based on your author’s style and themes and present a group project to the class.

For the paper you should follow the following prompt:

The “American” is an odd beast. We began the year by synthesizing the idea of what it meant to be an American by looking at many points of view and finding connections between American writers. For the end of the year we will narrow the process and analyze how American literary movements are seen in our seminar set novels and analyze if that tells us anything about the United States of America and the people who live there.

Since art reflects our society consciously and unconsciously, American literature should reflect/define some aspect of the American experience.

Ų Write an essay of no more than 1000 words that analyzes how two to three American literary traditions appear in your seminar set and what those ideas suggest about our country. Be specific and focused. Use concrete detail to prove your idea with concrete commentary and accurate context to support your thesis and develop your argument. Use correct MLA style.

Use parenthetical references, correct quotation integration and blending and a reference page. Be brilliant. Use the tools we have developed as writers this year to write a brilliant essay. A hard copy must be turned into me and a digital copy must be turned in to turnitit.com by Friday the 9^th. Failure to do so will cause your paper to be dropped a grade per day (weekends count).

Even though you will only be responsible for a final draft, prewrite, gather information, think about structure and write more than one draft. Edit and proofread!!!

Brevity and brilliance is preferable to bull@#$%$ and overkill. Prove to the reader that you have read the book and thought about it. Develop your own unique ideas and prove them. Stay on track. Form an argument, design a structure that will allow you to prove your argument and use details with commentary for proof.

Go outside my notes for ideas on literary movements. Define the movements, but use only those ideas relevant to your argument. Be logical, creative and concrete. American literature

http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oal/oaltoc.htm

American art

http://www.nbmaa.org/tl-Overview.html

American Literary movements

http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/mcunningham/literary%20movements.htm

More information on American literary movements

Have fun; we are mutts. Americans are made up of a myriad of cultures, philosophies and apparently contradictory ideas that form identity. There are many Americans. Michael Valentine Smith is an American with his transcendental religion and realistic satire of American idiocy. So is Ian in Saint Maybe with his wounded idealism and genuine concern for himself and others. RPM represents out Christ like tendency to sacrifice ourselves, our postmodernist mistrust of formal institutions and the Romantic idealism that the individual can rebel against and change a corrupt society.

Ų If you choose to write a short story the story should not exceed 1,200 words and should follow the style or themes or ideas of the book. In addition you will need to include a one pager with ten quotations, your writing, your images and an analysis of how those quotations show three of the American literary periods.

Ų Your short story will be assessed on how well you show the characters and conflict in the narrative, your use of detail and concrete imagery and the dialogue as it reveals character. In addition your story should clearly connect to a theme, a style or a genre based on your book (mystery for Snow Falling, sci fi for Stranger and Slaughterhouse, post modern realism for Cuckoos nest etc….).

Project: As a group you will need to present a project to the class by Friday, May 18^th. (Because of the AP tests the project due date is negotiable-if you are working hard and doing a good job we could extend the dates for presenting) Choices may be but are not limited to:

Ų A web site with a minimum of six linked pages that include a. character analysis of the main characters, b. description and explication of setting, c. main plot points and structure (determine how the novel follows or plays with traditional story structure based on the traditional story arc, the frame tale, the hero’s journey, the coming of age story, the traditional quest, the revenge tale, the coming of age, the picaresque novel etc.), c. author history, d. pictures of characters from your drawings or found images, e. history surrounding the book, f. relevant style devices (at least six), g. links to a minimum of ten other sites that are relevant to your book and an h. overall aesthetic design of the main page with your writing, music and images that reflects the book’s themes, style and importance.

Ų A movie with a minimum six page script that embeds at least fifteen quotations from the novel. Your script should have a beginning middle and end, accurate characters based on the novel and follow the official scriptwriter’s format. There will be academy awards for best actor, best actress, best script and best use of a midget. You may film a scene from the novel, a script based on the novel that reduces the entire plot to five minutes (tricky but fun), a version of the novel that follows the plot but changes the setting or time period (say Cuckoos Nest set in Cunningham’s class, but then that would not be a movie that would be the truth), a quasi documentary that connects the book to issues ideas you would like to explore from the novel (racism, war, satire, immigration, women’s rights, the hippie movement in the 60’s, etc.) a talk show where you interview the characters abut the book or the themes or ???????

Ų A newspaper with a minimum of four/five articles per person in your group. This paper should not be cheesy but should reflect the ideas and concerns and style of a real paper. You should have a masthead, a name, a table of contents and the articles should weave a minimum of six quotations per article into the text. Articles can include but not be limited to : human interest, editorial, front page straight reporting, historical study, weather, home and garden , entertainment, religion, science and art, local news, international news and ?????

Ų A project of your own choosing cleared by Mr. C. This could be a group mural with accompanying text, a filmed archetypal, feminist, mythological, psychological, historical, biographical interpretation of the text, a documentary on the author’s life with the text used as support, a social justice/service project inspired by the book or ??????

Timeline; Thursday April 26^th :Submit a proposal/choose a writing assignment/share final group discussion with the class. Homework choose writing type and brainstorm/write first two pages/outline/ or two page freewrite….

Monday April 30^th ½ class period to work on script, presentation, Share beginning of writing with idea with class/writer’s workshop

Wednesday May 2^nd ½ class period to work on project/review of rhetorical terms/

Friday May 4^th quiz on rhetorical terms/rough draft of paper due/ writer’s workshop/editing

Tuesday May 8^th Script/ project outline turned in /AP computer science

Thursday May 10^th-^{Final draft paper/work on projects/review for
exam/first half cuckoo’s}nest.

Monday May 14^th-^{review
for exam/second half cuckoos nest}

Wednesday May 16^th-^{AP English Language/omelets
in the morning}

Friday May 18^th-Projects due/ AP Spanish lit

Tuesday May 22nd-The Sound and the Fury