Semester Literary Project - Room 103



Three Books Project

American Literature Honors

This project is designed to encourage college-bound juniors to do independent reading and thinking.

Option One: Students will read three works by the same American author. The author must be a recognized canon writer. (Variation: one work about the author and two by him/her.)

Option Two: Students will read three works by different American writers from the same time period (examples: Romanticism, Naturalism, Realism, Modernism, Post-Modernism)

Option Three: Students will read three American works with a common theme from different time periods. (A “work” is defined as a novel, three plays, a volume of poetry, an autobiography or biography, a collection of short stories, or a collection of essays/other nonfiction.)

Each of the works chosen will be one of the outside reading choices for each six weeks. Students will present a project and write about each work. The fourth project will present the student’s analysis of differences and commonalities among the works.

Sample Projects

• Read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, and Puddn’head Wilson, three works by Mark Twain. Analyze Twain’s writing style, considering themes, sense of humor, and depiction of characters. What does Twain’s writing reveal about America at that time? (Other possible titles include short stories or any other novel by Twain. Other possible writers include canon writers such as Hawthorne, Poe, Thoreau, Wharton, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck, Hurston, Vonnegut, or Morrison.)

• Read three from this list, all published during about the same time period: The Great Gatsby or other novels/stories by Fitzgerald; The Sun Also Rises or other novels/stories by Hemingway; Winesburg, Ohio or other stories/novels by Anderson; Elmer Gantry or other novels by Lewis; O Pioneers! or other novels/stories by Cather; Their Eyes were Watching God or other works by Hurston; The Grapes of Wrath or other works by Steinbeck; The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington. In what ways do these novels reflect the beliefs of the time period and writers who produced them?

• Read Dandelion Wine (novel), Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and Broadway Bound (three plays by Neil Simon), and The Bluest Eye (novel). Complete a project on growing up in America in the 20th century. In what ways do children still go through the same things, and in what ways do the works suggest that adolescence has changed? (Other possible titles include Little Women; Tom Sawyer; My Antonia; Penrod; A Girl of the Limberlost; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; I Know why the Caged Bird Sings (nonfiction); Red Sky at Morning; Good-bye, Columbus; Peace Like a River; Betsey Brown; The Bean Trees; The Secret Life of Bees.)

• Read a volume of poetry by Longfellow, one by Dickinson, and one by Langston Hughes. Compare and contrast the styles and viewpoints. (Other poets may be substituted, such as Whittier, Whitman, Frost, McKay, Eliot, Plath, Collins, and Komunyakaa.)

• For a project on science fiction, read books from three different time periods. Possible titles include A Voyage to the Moon by George Tucker, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court; selected short stories by Edgar Allan Poe; Looking Backward (early SF); I, Robot; The Martian Chronicles; Player Piano; Alas, Babylon; Foundation; A Canticle for Liebowitz; Dune (middle SF); Neuromancer, The Man in the High Castle (contemporary SF). In what ways has science fiction evolved over the years?

• For a project on horror fiction, read books from three different time periods. Possible authors include Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, H. P. Lovecraft, and Stephen King. In what ways has this genre developed over the years?

• For a project on women, choose three books from different time periods. Possible titles include these: The Scarlet Letter, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (nonfiction), Country of the Pointed Firs, Their Eyes were Watching God, Sister Carrie, Song of the Lark, Summer, A Girl of the Limberlost, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (nonfiction), Beloved, The Color Purple, The Joy Luck Club, The Bean Trees, short story collections by Freeman, Jewett, Cather, Welty, Wharton. In what ways have the roles and expectations of women changed? In what ways do they remain the same?

• For a project on deception, read three books from different time periods. Possible titles include these: The Scarlet Letter; Puddn’head Wilson; The Age of Innocence; Elmer Gantry; All My Sons, The Crucible, and Death of a Salesman (three plays); Native Son. Do the authors draw any conclusions about deception?

• For a project on ethnic identity in America, there are two options. First, you may select three works from the same ethnic group but different time periods. An example might be reading Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave; Souls of Black Folk; and the plays Fences, Piano Lesson, and/or A Raisin in the Sun. In the second option you may select three works from different minority groups. An example might be reading three of these: A Lesson Before Dying (African-American), House Made of Dawn (Native American), Snow Falling on Cedars (Japanese-American), Jasmine (Indian-American), and The Joy Luck Club (Chinese-American). Many other titles are possible for both options.

• For a project on traveling through America, choose three of the following: Signtalker (Thom), Life on the Mississippi or Roughing It (both by Twain), Travels with Charly (Steinbeck), Blue Highways (Heat Moon), The Lost Continent, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, or A Walk in the Woods (Bryson).

• For a project on war, consider three works about three different wars, such as The Red Badge of Courage, Cold Mountain, or A Stillness at Appomattox (Civil War), A Farewell to Arms, Johnny Got His Gun, One of Ours, Three Soldiers, The Guns of August (WWI), Catch-22, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Naked and the Dead, Brave Men (WWII), The Things They Carried, Dog Soldiers, A Rumor of War, In Country, Born on the Fourth of July (Vietnam). Other titles are also possible. A second approach to this topic would be to read three books about the same war and compare/contrast viewpoints.

• For a project on American humor, consider three works from different time periods to show a trend. Authors might include Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Ring Lardner, William Saroyan, James Thurber, Dave Barry, Garrison Keillor, P. J. O’Rourke, Erma Bombeck.

Time Periods for this Project

A) pre-Columbus – 1800, B)1800 – Civil War, C) Civil War – 1900, D) 1900 – 1930,

E) 1930 – 1960, F) 1960 – present

Criteria for selecting works

• Works selected must be of a reading level appropriate for high school students.

• Authors must be American and must be canon writers (no Nicholas Sparks, Danielle Steele, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, etc.). Exceptions may be made for specific titles at the teacher’s discretion.

• Works must be at least 200 pages long. Exceptions will be made when good cause is shown. Example: if your first book is Grapes of Wrath (619 pages in paperback), you may read something shorter for your second work. Second example: if your copy of The Great Gatsby is only 189 pages long, I will approve it anyway because of the very high status of the work.

• Content must be such that your parents do not object.

• Of the three books you read for the semester, one may be a book you have read before.

Students are encouraged to come up with their own approaches to this project. Please make your proposal to me before investing too much time in it, however.

**Handout/Phrasing/Ideas adapted largely from Carla Beard

English/Language Arts standards from Indiana Standards 2000 addressed in this project include the following:

11.3.2 – Analyze the way in which the theme or meaning of a selection represents a view or comment on life, using textual evidence to support the claim.

11. 3. 3 – Analyze the ways in which irony, tone, mood, the author’s style, and the “sound” of language achieve specific rhetorical or aesthetic purposes or both.

11.3.4 – Analyze ways in which poets use imagery, personification, figures of speech, and sounds to evoke readers’ emotions.

11.3.5 – Analyze recognized works of American literature representing a variety of genres and traditions that: [sic]

• trace the development of the major periods of American literature.

• contrast the major themes, styles, and rends in different periods.

• evaluate the influences of the historical period for a given novel that shaped the characters, plot, and setting.

11.4.2 – Demonstrate an understanding of the elements of discourse, such as purpose, speaker, audience, and form, when completing narrative, expository, persuasive, or descriptive writing assignments.

11.4.6 – Use language in creative and vivid ways to establish a specific tone.

11.4.10 – Review, evaluate, and revise writing for meaning, clarity, achievement of purpose, and mechanics.

11.4.11 – Edit and proofread one’s own writing, as well as that of others, using an editing checklist.

11.5.2 – Write responses to literature that: [sic]

• demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the significant ideas in works or passages.

• analyze the use of imagery, language, universal themes, and unique aspects of the text.

• support important ideas and viewpoints through accurate and detailed references to the text and to other works.

• demonstrate an understanding of the author’s style and an appreciation of the effects created.

• identify and assess the impact of perceived ambiguities, nuances, and complexities within the text.

11.5.6 – Use varied and extended vocabulary, appropriate for specific forms and topics.

11.6.1 – Demonstrate control of grammar, diction, paragraph and sentence structure, and an understanding of English usage.

11.6.2 – Produce writing that shows accurate spelling and correct punctuation and capitalization.

11.6.3 – Apply appropriate manuscript conventions in writing including title page presentation, pagination, spacing and margins, and integration of source and support materials, by citing sources within the text, using direct quotations, and paraphrasing.

11.7.18 – Deliver oral responses to literature that: [sic]

• demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the significant ideas of literary works and make assertions about the text that are reasonable and supportable.

• present an analysis of the imagery, language, universal themes, and unique aspects of the text through the use of speech strategies, including narration, description, persuasion, exposition, or a combination of those strategies.

• support important ideas and viewpoints through specific references to the text and to other works.

• demonstrate an awareness of the author’s style and an appreciation of the effects created.

• identify and assess the impact of ambiguities, nuances, and complexities within the text.

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