Final project info for 1st semester 2008-2009

Below find info on the final two major projects of the semester.

The first is one last 1-page essay to wrap up the modernism unit. We'll be reviewing the rubric and expectations as soon as classes resume. This essay is assigned to get you back into the academic groove, and to help you begin the process of looking beyond the 5-paragraph format to a more polished essay writing style.

Due Date: Jan. 8, 2009.

Gatsby Essay

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The second is the final project assignment itself. Two things to note:

A) The project will require that you read one complete work of fiction - your choice which on - prior to beginning work on the project itself. The two short novels are available all over the place (including for free from Mr. Van Hof) and the play - "A Raisin in the Sun" is available in the textbook.

B) The project has two key components: an essay and a presentation. Read the document for more info on the presentation. Be aware that this essay is far more substantial in scope and scale than the previous class essays. We will discuss grading and rubrics once classes resume.

Due Date: Jan. 14, 2009.

Final Assessment

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Hawthorne Music Video?

Here's a student project YouTube video. Seems they had to make a video related to Nathaniel Hawthorne's book "The Scarlet Letter."



If you had to make a music video for "The Minister's Black Veil," what song would you use and why. Leave a specific and detailed comment for extra credit. (You'll only get credit if the song is relevant and if your answer is clear in stating what the relevance is.)

Super-Mega-Bonus extra credit if you make an actual music video related to the story and link to it in the comment.

Transcending our assumptions

We often think of writers simply as odd, reclusive figures that have no other role in society. That is even more true when we think of Henry David Thoreau and his reclusive life on Walden Pond. Read this short article. (Audio for this article is located here.) Then post a comment here that answers these three questions.

1. What is significant about the fact that Thoreau walked away from the financial gain his inventions could have given him?

2. Given what you know about Thoreau, was turning away from that wealth a good move?

3. Why do you think it is so rarely mentioned in English classes that Thoreau was a successful business man and inventor?

The Hudson River School

The Hudson River School was not really a school - it was a group of artists centered in New York from the 1820s to the 1880s. The group was the first major American art movement, and focused primarily on landscape paintings inspired by the Catskill mountains. The artists lived mostly in New York city, in a neighborhood that would later become known as Greenwich Village. Click here to learn more about the movement, and see some of the most famous Hudson River School paintings.

The paintings you see in the video below are representative of the dominant artistic pieces during the time that James Fennimore Cooper was writing.



For Extra Credit: now that you've read about and viewed the works of some great Hudson River School painters, look through magazines in your house and find a photo that resembles the work of a Hudson River School artist. Cut it out, attach a note card explaining how the photo is like the typical work of a Hudson River School artist, and turn it in for 5 points EC.

Washington Irving

The third author in our Pre-romanticism unit is Washington Irving. Famous for his humorous short stories and depictions of life in up-state New York, Irving was the first American author to find writing to be a profitable venture.

Learn more about Irving here.

Now check out this trailer for the 1999 film based on Irving's most famous story.



For extra credit - get your parents' permission to rent the movie (it's rated R for violence), watch it, and write a 1-page compare/contrast between the modern Hollywood version and the original text.