Choice Book Mini-Projects
(based on ideas from Ms. Smith, from Erika Saunders, and from Rhona Scoville)
Hello, all! My goal for this assignment is to let you show off your knowledge of your book while stretching your skills. Because we all read differently and because we all have different interests, skills, and ways of looking at the world, I’ve tried to offer some specifically different choices. They all tie to the book, however, because my underlying goal is for you to 1. show off your knowledge and understanding of the book you’ve read, and 2. use that knowledge and understanding to support your ideas.
Choose THREE of these options. If there’s something you’d LOVE to do that you don’t see listed, ask me, and we can probably come up with a option!
Soundtrack: pick three specific moments in the book (how ‘bout beginning, middle, and end?). For each moment, provide a brief quotation from the book to give us a feeling for what’s going on, and then choose a song with fits the mood or events of that moment. Write a brief paragraph to explain your choice.
Note: if you choose to share this project, you need to choose songs with school-appropriate lyrics.
Advice Column: Write three requests for advice from your protagonist, at three different times in the book. Write back as some advice-giving person--Dear Abby, Doctor Phil, or whoever. Be sure to provide the page numbers for each point in the book that you’re discussing.
Movie Pitch: You’re a movie producer, and you think your book would make a really good movie. Write up a quick movie proposal: suggest and provide pictures of the actors who’d fit at least four main roles, and
Issues Research: choose a social issue or topic that your book involves in some way, and research it a little bit. What is the issue? Use at least three quotations from the book to show how the book presents the issue, and then provide some research to discuss how true, helpful, realistic, etc. that presentation is. Be sure to cite the sources for your research!
Poem: Summarize the plot of the story in rhyming verse (at least twenty lines). Be sure each line has the same number of syllables.
6. Book Cover: create an attractive new cover (front and back) of the book. IT MUST BE ORIGINAL--and it must include cover art that relates to the book in some way, the author’s name, the title, a brief bio of him/her, a brief original summary of the plot, and two reviews, one by you!
Learning: List ten things you learned from the book. For each, provide a passage and a page number to show your learning.
(Another) Letter: Write a 1 page letter to a character in the book as if s/he were a real person. Discuss his/her actions or decisions, give him/her advice, scold him/her, explain how you are the same/different.
Possessions: Describe the protagonist’s room OR the protagonist’s vehicle. How would s/he express him/herself through decoration or type? Use at least three quotations or specific references to the book to support your points.
Keynote: Choose FOUR key moments in the plot: and I mean MOMENTS! Make a slide for each moment, and then follow each up with a slide explaining (neatly, quickly, briefly) why you chose that moment. You should have about nine slides: title and author slide, then four sets of moment/explanation pairs.
PLEASE REMEMBER: show your best work on your final draft. I can edit quickly, and your final draft should show your ability to
* 1. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
2. Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
Thanks!