DYSTOPIA / UTOPIA / POST-APOCALYPTIC PROJECT POSTERS

Poster Instructions

On a two-sided poster board, you will illustrate your novel and provide important information about it so that other students seeing the poster may be interested in reading the book.

  • The value of this project will be 250 points. (The rubric explaining point values is detailed below).
  • The finished poster is due Monday, February 2. (This means you need to read your chosen book quickly and start gathering your illustrations immediately).
  • Most of the materials for this project will be available in the classroom. You may need to bring in some things from outside of class to create the poster you envision.

Poster Illustrations (50 points)

On the left side of a folding poster, you will create a colorful collage of images that depicts important events, themes, or shifting tones in the story.

  • Your images may come from magazines, the Internet, or very good drawings you have created outside of class.
  • You should strive to find or create at least five good images.
  • You might consider using the hero journey map in your illustration.

Poster Information (180 points)

On the right side of the poster, you will provide the following information:

  • Novel Synopsis:Write a synopsis of the novel in your own words. Be sure to spell-check your work. Include an MLA citation for your information. (20 points)
  • Author Bio:Write a short biographical sketch of the author explaining what influenced him or her to write the novel. Again, this explanation should be in your own words, spell-checked, and anchored to an MLA citation (20 points)
  • Novel Analysis:Write an explanation of the “ism” or ideology mirrored by events in the novel. Most utopian, dystopian, and post apocalyptic novels are based on the authors’ knowledge of real world governments like Russia or China or the United States. Your research should provide some background information about your novelist’s inspiration.If the novelist wanted to expose the hypocrisy of communism, fascism, Nazism, capitalism, Marxism, or some other political, economic, or militaryagenda, then a little bit of research should reveal this goal. Again, anchor your claim to an MLA citation. You should also draw conclusions – based on research – about whether your novel is a utopia, dystopia, or post-apocalytic. (70 points)
  • Novel Themes:Describe a few themes explored by the novel. You may be able to draw your own conclusions about the themes; otherwise, web sites like Shmoop, Sparknotes, or JSTOR may provide you thematic analyses. If you use a source, cite it MLA style. (20 points)
  • Hero Journey Archetypes:Describe some of the hero journey motifs and archetypes explored in the novel. You may be able to figure this out for yourself, but there are dozens of web sites created to describe these things for you. Cite them if you use them. (30 points)
  • Similar Stories:Provide viewers of your poster with a short list of novels, short stories, poems, songs, and non-fiction articles that explore similar themes. Just use URL links in parentheses for citations. (20 points).

Poster Aesthetics (50 points)

Your posters should follow the layout and design principles that will be demonstrated in class. Aesthetics will be graded as follows:

  • Strong visuals, well aligned text and images, effective communication of ideas (50 points)
  • One flaw in strength of visuals, alignment of text and images, or communication of ideas (40 points)
  • Two flaws in strength of visuals, alignment of text and images, or communication of ideas (30 points)
  • Three flaws in strength of visuals, alignment of text and images, or communication of ideas (20 points)
  • Missing visuals, alignment of text and images, or communication of ideas (0-10 points)

Printing Criteria

  • Students who brought in paper, or paid $3 for reams of paper, will get free black and white printouts. Others will be charged 10-cents per page. The other option? You may get your work printed someplace else.
  • Students who want color copies will have to pay $1.00 per page because it is going to come out of my personal printer. You can get printing done elsewhere for less.