As I stated in another thread we had our 9th grader do a report on the Harry Potter series after he had finished reading the last book. Here was his assignment. 1. Give a synopsis of the entire series. Briefly go over the entire series. What happened in each book and the outcome of the current adventure. Provide detail and quotes for each paragraph. 2. Analyze Harry as he’s grown from child to young man. How has his attitude towards life in general changed. What has caused him to have this attitude? 3. Explain in detail what the books have taught you. There are many messages in the books that can be taken to heart. What have you learned that you will attempt to apply to your daily life. 4. Dumbledore as a father figure. Do you see good decisions made by Dumbledore in his guidance of Harry into manhood? How has Dumbledore filled the role of father in James' absence? In real life, is it prudent for a parent to both withhold certain information and to 'overshare', depending on the subject? Why or why not? 5. Who would Harrys mother figure be? Same questions. 10 pages minimum typed. Font = Times New Roman. Size = 10. Standard Margins single spaced. Title page, Table of Contents, and reference pages are required but do not count as part of the 10 pages. You may refer to the books or reread as necessary. Have ready to turn in Friday evening. I'm planning on having him read another series or something classic (Moby Dick, Where the Red Fern Grows, etc.) or a Series such as Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc.. Anybody got suggested reading for HS age children that they could get a 10 page report out of?
If you do Lord of the Rings, you may want to include The Hobbit, because it introduces some of the characters & has Bilbo actually getting the ring, etc. Also, the books can be fairly slow-moving at times. There's at least a page describing trees in the old forest. You could also have him read multiple works by the same author or works that take place in the same time period & compare writing styles, plots, themes, etc. The Anne of Green Gables series has 7 or 8 books in it. my dh is reading them right now. I think he's in book 5. Then there's also classics like Lord of the Flies, One Flew over the Cukoos Nest, To Kill a Mocking Bird, The Crucible, The Scarlett Letter, Pride & Prejudice, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Grapes of Wrath, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Dracula, Frankenstein. There's also Eragon & Eldest, though you may want to wait until the third one comes out. Jack Whyte has a series called The Camulod Chronicles. It's an Arthurian legend, but it's more realistic & doesn't contain a lot of the magic many of them have. It starts in Roman occupied Britain with Arthur's ancestors. There are parts that you may feel aren't appropriate for your son, so you may want to read one or two of them first. They're are a few fairly graphic sex scenes. The first book in the series is The Skystone. There's also the All Creatures books: All Creatures Great & Small, All Things Bright & Beautiful, All things Wise & Wonderful, and The Lord God Made Them All. These are a nonfiction account of the life of a country veterinarian in England, the people he worked with & the cases he handled. These are just a few things popping into my head right now. I'm sure I can come up with others once I actually go look through some of our bookcases.
May I ask why the reports need to be 10 pages in length? (not asking to be snotty, by the way--- genuinely curious) Most professors in the English department are in a move toward being more concise and less wordy. Excepting for my senior thesis, my papers rarely went past 5 pages. I know my husband was an engineer and his papers were often long, but they also included a large number of graphs and such that filled in the space.
Because I'm a mean mean daddy In all seriousness there was enough information in the 7 books to get 10 pages easily. If it was a shorter series or just one book I would have him do the appropriate length.
Here is a website that lists the books by alphabetical order , each book has a study/questions section and/or unit studies: http://www.bibliocat.org/ Click on: BOOK UNITS ,in blue on the left-hand side of the page, that will bring you to the page with the book titles/lesson plans. FIY: It is for grades preschool -12 ,so there is something for everyone.
The Free Product at Homeschool e-store right now is a literature lesson plan for covering "Where the Red Fern Grows". You might want to take a look at it. It says it's for ages 11-13, but could be adjusted either up or down as the parent sees fit! https://www.homeschoolestore.com/ca...ts_id=16379&osCsid=djuomilgdvpcq4m2gv2iq1ebv2
THis has been so helpful! I have tons of the books I found on the lists so thats a good thing, I even have a few of the book study books from that scholastics dollar sale thing! So cool!
How about do a unit on British writers and include a few works... Then American writers and include a few works. Maybe compare and contrast the stories... Lord of the Flies A Separate Peace Jane Eyre The Great Gatsby The Sun Also Rises You get the picture... There is some absolutely GREAT literature out there!
Book Rags has lots of free Book Notes as well (Bookrags.com) for things like study questions and plot synopsis. I used it a lot. In addition, after I picked the book I would do searches on the internet for previously posted things from a teacher's actual classroom websites or college professor's websites. I got a lot of cool stuff that way and I didn't have to write all the stuff myself. I found high school English to be the most time consuming subject to teach because it involved so much discussion on my part.
Here is one example of how we do English (12th grade - this year) Dystopia – 12 grade English Lit Book 1- We Schedule For Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We Monday – Biography and notes about Yevgeny Zamyatin and We, definitions, answer questions Tuesday - Entries 1-7 (1-38) Wednesday - Questions for entries 1-7 Thursday - Entries 8-16 (39-91) Friday - Questions for entries 8-16 Monday - Entries 17-23 (92-134) Tuesday - Questions for entries17-23 Wednesday - Entries 24-31 (135-186) Thursday - Questions for entries 24-31 Monday - We, Entries 32-40 (187-232) Tuesday - Questions for entries 32-40 Wednesday – Rough draft due for final essay Monday – Final draft due for final essay Assignment for Yevgeny Zamyatin Unit Read the Intro and notes Write definitions for every word in BOLD letters in the intro Answer the questions for the intro Answer the questions pertaining to the biography and notes Read the book Do the study questions Prepare for final essay by thinking about the topic sentence while reading the book Turn in a rough draft Rewrite the rough draft and turn in final essay [there is a LOOONG introduction to the story here regarding the refusal of the Sovients to publish it, Orwell's take on it etc...that I deleted as I'm sure you get the picture!) Questions Day 1 1.Why wasn’t Zamyatin’s book published in Russia after he wrote it? 2.What year was it published in Russia? (look at the first page of your book) 3.Who are the Bolsheviks? 4.What was the Russian Revolution? 5.What is Dystopia mean? 6.What does Utopia mean” 7.How are the two words above similar? 8.What is the definition of Socialism? Study Questions For Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We Entries 1-7 1.Describe the “Announcement, The Wisest of Lines, and An Epic Poem” 2.What is being completed in 120 days and why is this important? 3.What is the INTEGRAL? 4.Who is D-503 writing this to? 5.Describe “Ballet, harmony Squad, and X” 6.Who is O-90? 7.Who is I-330? 8.Describe “Jacket, Wall, and The Table” 9.Describe “Savage with Barometer, Epilepsy, and If” 10.Describe “Square, Rulers of the World, and Pleasant and Useful Function” 11.Who is R-13? 12.Describe “Accident, damned Clear, and 24 Hours” 13.What is the Ancient House? 14.Describe “An Eyelash, Taylor, and Henbane and Lily of the Valley” 15.Who is S-4711? [etc...etc...until the end of the book] Final Essay Describe D-503’s MOOD in the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story. Use specific examples and quotations from the text to illustrate your point. Include his feelings for I-330 during all of these periods and explain why he told the Benefactor everything at the end as it relates to his feelings for I-330. Your essay should be at least 1000 words.
