Semester Projects--Fall

Project Guidelines

·         Sample Paper

·         Sample Bibliography 

Research Topics                   Project Ideas

 

Soldier Ants                                              

The Jungles of South America                          model of a soldier ant

Life in the Yukon                                                 snow scene                 

The History of New York City                             model of NYC

The Life of Jack London

The Life of Jack Finney                                     a map of Thebes

The Life of Sophocles                                       a Greek mask

The History of the Theatre                                 model of Antigone’s

Greek Burial Rites                                                 wedding veil

The Suffragist Movement                                  protest banners

Equal Rights for Women

The Life of Mary Freeman

The Life of John Steinbeck                               model of covered wagon

19th Century New England Farm Life

The History of the Short Story                           map of author’s birthplaces

The Life of Edgar Allan Poe                              19th cent. handkerchief

The Life of Washington Irving                           drawings from stories

The Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne                       model of Poe’s 7 rooms

The Industrial Revolution

The Holocaust                                                    maps, models of prison camps

The Life of Elie Wiesel

The Life of Sinclair Lewis

The Life of Anton Chekhov                                maps, drawings of authors and/

The Life of Guy de Maupassant                           or their countries

The Life of George Eliot                                    replica of a stone cottage

A Weaver’s Life in the 19th Century                  model of a loom

The History of Coins                                          Silas’s money bags

The History of Language                                   8 parts of speech posters

 

You may also research the life of any other author that you studied in this class (book report authors included).  Use your “advanced” imagination to find additional ideas!!                                                                       

 

 

                                                                  

 

Semester Project Guidelines

            Your semester project counts as ¼ of your 2nd nine weeks grade.  Therefore, it is vital (necessary for life) for you to do a good job on this assignment.  To receive a passing grade, you must (1) create a project that relates to something we have studied this semester, (2) write a report that includes at least 3 hand-written pages of information relating to your project, and (3) write a bibliography that contains at least 3 sources.

 

1.      Project ideas include the following:

a.       a clay map of the U.S. depicting birthplaces of American authors

b.      a Greek mask from Antigone

c.       a covered wagon made of craft sticks (from “The Leader of the People”)

d.      a model of a loom from Silas Marner

e.       a model of a thatched-roof cottage from Silas Marner

f.        an audio tape of a scene from a story

g.       a video tape portraying an author discussing his work/life

2.      The report must include the following:

a.       a title page, with your name, period, and date in the upper right-hand corner and the title of your report/project centered in the middle of the page

b.      at least 3 pages of researched information relating to what we have studied this semester.  Begin your report with a short ¶ (no more than ½ page) summarizing the story we studied.  Then start a new ¶ immediately afterwards about the life of the author or other related information.  Do not skip lines between ¶’s.  Use transitional sentences to move from one subject matter to another.  Your report may be typed, but it must include a rough draft written in your own handwriting in the back. This includes a rough draft of the bibliography page as well.  If you type your report, it must be doublespaced with a font size of 12. If you do not type your report, you are still required to include a rough draft at the back of your final paper.  (In other words, 2 copies of the report are required.)

Do not number the first page of your report.  All other pages should be numbered in the upper right-hand corner.

c.       a bibliography page in which you must list at least 3 sources used in your research.  Proper bibliography format, including spacing, order, and content will be strictly graded.  If you are not sure how to use the correct format, then ask!  You may also find specific examples in the high school handbook. No encyclopedias of any kind are allowed for this report.  You may use internet sources, but only if you have already used the 3 required sources.  Reference books are primary sources; the internet may be used as a secondary source.  The bibliography page should be a separate page which is numbered consecutively with the report.

 

 

(See below for the beginning of a sample paper and bibliography.)

 

 

 

 

 

The Works of Edgar Allan Poe

 

          Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death” takes

 

place in Italy in the 1300’s.  The main character of this story is an eccentric

 

man named Prince Prospero.  While a deadly disease is devastating his

 

country, . . .

 

          The writer of this story was the most important short story writer in

 

the history of literature.  Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in

 

Boston, Massachusetts. . . . Poe died on October 7, 1849.

 

          Poe used many literary devices in his works.  Of all these literary

 

devices,  symbolism is probably the most important.  Symbols occur in

 

literature when an author chooses an object or character to stand for

 

something else. . . .

                                                                             4

Bibliography

 

 

Brooks, Cleanth, and Robert Penn Warren, eds.  Understanding Fiction.             

          New York:  Appleton-Century Crofts, Inc., 1959.

 

Howe, Irving, ed.  The Literature of America:  Nineteenth Century.  New

          York:  McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1970.

 

Perrine, Laurence, et al., eds.  Adventures in Appreciation.  Orlando:

          Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1979.

 

 Rogers, Jacob. Edgar Allan Poe:  A Product of Early America.  19 January      

          1995. Available online <http://www.xyzpoe1849/>.

 

 

 

 

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