PAP Summer

Summer Reading Culminating Project Choices and Guidelines

Choice 1: Judging a Book By Its Cover Design a book jacket for your novel. Include the title, author, appropriate artwork, a brief author biography, and an interesting “blurb” about the story to get the reader interested in reading the book. The artwork should be neat- you may draw it yourself or you may use pictures cut from magazines. Keep in mind important events, characters, themes, and images.

Choice 2: Book3 Design a six-sided cube that contains scenes from the novel you read (I have the patterns for the cube). The sides should include the following: complete bibliographic entry (MLA format), brief author biography, 1-2 paragraphs providing a brief plot outline, an illustration of an important scene from the novel as well as a caption explain what has been illustrated. The other two faces may be filled in as you wish. Some ideas are a list of the “cast” of characters, additional illustrations, or a plot diagram. You must do all six sides.

Choice 3: Novels! Novels! Novels! Hurry, hurry, hurry before supplies run out! This is your chance to show off your sales skills. You will have two to four minutes to present a commercial for your book. Use props and costumes as appropriate. Your goal is to convince the audience that they MUST read your book. If you wish to do a “live” commercial, you need to schedule class time with me. You may also turn in a recorded version of your commercial, but we will watch it during your class period.

Choice 4: Kids’ Story (Pre-K-6th grade) Adapt your novel into a children’s book. Use appropriate language and illustrations. Your book should be faithful to the story line of the novel, but you may condense or leave out certain scenes or events if they are not imperative to the story. Your book should have a cover, title page, and at least fourteen pages of story. If you prefer, you may use photographs or magazine pictures for your illustrations, as long as they convey the events in the text. Keep in mind a child’s reading ability, vocabulary, and attention span.

Choice 5: Comic Strip Draw a series of panel cartoons and summarize the novel. You must draw at least fifteen panels, showing the essential parts of the novel from beginning to end.

Choice 6: Take on the Author Write a letter to the author detailing how you feel about his/her book. Don’t be afraid to challenge him/her concerning something questionable. OR, pretend you are a character in the novel and write a letter to the author about his/her treatment of you in the story. OR, write a staged interview between you and the author. You might even be able to convince one of your group-mates to play the part of the author and you could interview him/her for the class (with prior approval from me).

Choice 7: Diorama or Model Create a diorama or model of a climactic scene in your novel. A diorama is a three-dimensional miniature scene with figures against a background. For more information, you may want to talk to the Art teacher or consult an art book and/or website.

Choice 8: Design a Game Imagine that you work for a toy company and you have been asked to design a board game. The game should be based on the book you just finished and should include information about the characters, setting, and story. If you choose this project, I have a handout that will help you develop a successful board game.