Project/Presentation

Name____________________________________

 

SCARLET LETTER  PROJECT – SCORE

 

Choose any project or combination of projects to equal 100 points.  Turn this paper in with your final project.

 

10 pts. possible:   Each of these responses should be approximately ½ - ¾  page, typewritten, double-spaced,  interesting and fun to read, include details that help me to see that you read and understood the novel.  Few if any grammatical or spelling errors.

 

______                        Discuss how one of the main characters is like a person you know

______                        Pretend you’re Hawthorne and describe the part that was the most fun or hardest to write.  Explain why.  If this assignment goes to a full page and has good details from the book, it can be worth 15 points.

 

______                        Describe an experience you’ve had that was like the experience of a character in the book.

______                        Write an obituary for one character (facts from the book - not made up)

15 pts. possible:   Each of these responses should be approximately one  page, typewritten, double-spaced,  interesting and fun to read, include details that help me to see that you read and understood the novel.  Few if any grammatical or spelling errors.

 

______                        Write any kind of poem (minimum 16 lines) about your book

______                        Explain how a character in the book changed from the beginning to the end.  (If this doesn’t take a full page, it will be worth 10 points.)

 

______                        With expression, read a passage from the novel aloud to the class and play some appropriate music in the background.  Explain why your choice of music fits that passage.  (4-5 minutes.  Present Dec.1.)

 

______                        Make a crossword puzzle (NOT a word search) from your book.  At least 20 words/clues.  This should also include a typed answer key or a second filled in crossword that serves as key.

 

______                        Do a collage of a major events of the novel or one that illustrates certain parts of the novel.  On the back, include an explanation of the choices you made.  This should be thoughtful and attractive.

 

25 pts. possible.    Each of these responses should be approximately two pages, typewritten, double-spaced,interesting and fun to read, include details that help me to see that you read and understood the novel.  Few if any grammatical or spelling errors.  Scrapbook or timeline will be graded on applicability to the novel, neatness, creativity, completeness.

 

______                        Write a review of the novel wherein you try to get someone else to read it.

 

 

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______                        Tell what you think happened before the story began.  These ideas should lead up to the novel’s beginning

 

 

______                        Write another part of the story where you describe what happened to the main character after the end.

 

______                        Write a different (better?) Ending for the story.

 

______                        Write two articles for a newspaper published at the time of a major event in your book.  The articles should be about events from the novel.

 

______                        Write several diary entries made by one of the major characters.  (These should include events from the novel.)  If you prefer, you may tell one of two events from several different characters’ perspectives.

 

______                        What problems did the major characters have and how did they solve them?

 

______                        Write a test to cover the book.  It should include various types of question and should total at least 100 points.  An answer key should be included.  You do not need to write out an essay if an essay question is part of it, but you should tell what major points the essay should include.

 

______                        Pretend you are a character in the novel and describe the other characters and what you think of each of them.  Explain why.

 

______                        Make a scrapbook of pictures of the main characters and events from the novel.  You could cut out pictures of people, places, etc.  that you think look like the characters, events, settings in the book.  Or you could collect magazine and newspaper articles that connect to the novel.  This should contain a minimum of five pages, and each should have a brief explanation of the pictures chosen.

 

______                        Create an illustrated time line of the novel.  All major characters and events should be included.

 

40 pts. possible.  These projects should be creative, visually attractive, detailed, and clearly connected to the novel.   They should contain abundant evidence of time and effort.

 

______                        Draw a color map of where the story takes place.  Label the major landmarks or points of interest.  Also include a key that explains what happens in each location.  This should include all the major events and characters from the novel.  (Show at least 20 events/people – you can list more than one event for a location.)

 

______                        Make a video tape about part of the book.  (At least 10 minutes of video.)  This could be acting out part of the book or presenting a history behind the writing of the novel.  (Should be fact-based, not made up)

 

______                        Create a beautiful embroidered letter.  It does not have to be the letter A, but it should be in the style Hester would sew.  Include a one page journal entry about your process and how this project connected you to the character of Hester.

 

______                        Create at least three pieces of art related to the novel.  Each piece of art should contain a brief “statement of intent” explaining  how it relates to the book and what the art is attempting to reveal.  (Artistic ability is important for this one.)

 

______                        Create a board game based on the book.  It must review major character, places, and events from the novel.  Should have at least 25 questions or question cards. 

 

______                        Create a comic book with at least 15 frames to tell the story of the novel.  All major events and characters should be represented.

 

______                        Create a 50-word vocabulary list for the novel, including a minimum of two vocabulary words from each chapter.  Include the page you found the word on, the sentence (or part of a sentence) the word was in (correctly parenthetically referenced), and a definition of the word, including the part of speech.  Then create a vocabulary test based on your list.  Provide the key for the test.    

 

100 pts. possible.  This project should be something I could give a student teacher and he/she would have almost             everything  s/he needed to teach the novel successfully.

 

______                        Created a unit plan for teaching The Scarlet Letter to a high school English class.  Think of how you could make this interesting for the students.  Everything needed to teach this novel should be included:

4-5 pre-reading questions (things to get students thinking about the themes, etc. in the novel before they start), background information,  discussion questions (3-4) for at least three class discussions,  3 writing/journal assignments, quizzes (one 1/3 way through; one 2/3 way through), final exam, and two activities that would add interest and make the novel fun to study.

 

Extra Credit:  You cannot get more than 100 points on this assignment, but if you do more than the amount required, you could get some back-up points that will cover you if you should lose a few points on one of the sections here and there and help guarantee than you get the full 100 points.

Journal/Citation

Summary and Citation Journals for The Scarlet Letter


Requirements:

1. Write a 2-3 sentence summary for each chapter.
2. Write one vocabulary word you found in each chapter. Include the sentence in which you found the word (parenthetically referenced), the definition of the word, and what part of speech it is.
3. Copy exactly a 1-2 sentence citation for every two chapters. Choose something you think is significant. It may explicate character, introduce suspence, show symbolism or theme, foreshadow, or it may be an example of beautiful language or interesting syntax. You will have 12 citations when you have finished. Use correct punctuation and parenthetical referencing for each citation.
4. Write a response for each citation, explaining the context and why you chose it.
Basically, you need to offer a careful, close reading of the citation. Be specific, detailed, and thoughtful. Examine diction (word choice) and syntax (sentence structure) as well as content.
5. Type-written, please, 14 font, Times New Roman, double-spaced

SAMPLE JOURNAL: Chapters 1 and 2

Chapter 1 "The Prison Door"

Summary: This chapter describes the prison and its ugly surroundings. The only thing of beauty in the setting is a rose bush in full bloom. The author says he will pick for us one of its "sweet moral blossoms" to symbolize something good that may come out of a tale of sorrow.

Vocabulary Word: ediface

"Before this ugly ediface, and between it and the wheel track of the street, was a grass plot..." (1). Ediface is a noun, meaning, a building.

Chapter 2 "The Market Place"

Summary: The setting is established as Boston during the Puritan times. Hester Prynne comes out of the prison door carrying her baby, a child born out of wedlock. Because of her sin, Hester has been sentenced to wear a scarlet letter "A" embroidered on the front of her dress as a symbol of her adultery. For the most part, the townspeople are very critical of her and don’t think her punishment was severe enough—especially the women in the crowd.


Vocabulary Word: sumptuary
"...but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony" (7).

Sumptuary is an adjective, meaning regulating or limiting personal expenditures.


Citation from chapters 1 and 2:
"Finding [the rosebush] so directly on the threshold of our narrative, which is now about to issue from that inauspicious portal, we could hardly do otherwise than pluck one of its flowers, and present it to the reader. It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow" (2).


Response:
In this passage Hawthorne talks directly to the reader and points out that the rosebush, which was growing by the threshold of the prison is also on the "threshold of our narrative," i.e. at the beginning of the story. Just as the rosebush is a bright, sweet spot in the dismal surrounding of the prison, so there might be a bright "sweet moral" to be found in a dark and dismal story. He tells us we are going to read a tale of "human frailty and sorrow," and it is interesting that he says, "let us hope" {the rosebush] will symbolize a sweet moral blossom, as if he is joing the reader in trying to find something "sweet" in the "darkening" story he is about to share.