Name: ______Date: ______Per._____
Honors Option Work Plan
Quarter One
Talk with your parent(s) to help you create a plan to finish the honor’s project on time. When you have completed the plan, have your parent(s) sign it and turn it in to me. I will make a copy and return the plan to you so you can keep track of your progress.
Title of book chosen: ______
If you chose an adult level book, please have your parent read the statement and sign below:
I give my permission for my student to read an adult level book. I understand there may be scenes that are written for more mature audiences, but I believe my student can handle the content.______
(Parent Signature)
Use the calendar below to answer the following planning questions.
September
Sun. / Mon. / Tues. / Wed. / Thurs. / Fri. / Sat.1 / 2
3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9
10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15
Start Reading Book / 16
17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23
24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30
October
Sun. / Mon. / Tues. / Wed. / Thurs. / Fri. / Sat.1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7
8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14
15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20
Finish Book / 21
22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28
29 / 30 / 31
November
Sun. / Mon. / Tues. / Wed. / Thurs. / Fri. / Sat.1 / 2 / 3
Book Project Due / 4
- You will have to get this book on your own, either from the school library, the public library or a bookstore. When do you plan on having the book? (Be sure to check with your parents, as they may have to drive you!) ______
- How many chapters does your book have? ______
- How many weeks are there between when your will have your book and when you need to finish the book? ______
- How many chapters do you need to read per week to finish on time? ______
- Thinking about your commitments outside of school. Which evenings will you have the most time to read? ______
______How much time will you probably have those days? ______
Colonial America/American Revolution
All images, descriptions and rating are adapted from
At or Above Grade Level:Easy or moderate reading difficulty withconcepts targeted to middle or high school
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves, by M.T. Anderson (1060L, 4 ½ stars)
Octavian and his tutor escape from Octavian's master to relative safety in Boston where Octavian finds work as a violinist in a military band. After hearing of Lord Dunmore's promise of freedom for slaves, he enlists in the Royal Ethiopian Regiment. Following a loss at Norfolk, they then take up quarters aboard British ships, barely fending off starvation and smallpox. Octavian's uncertainty and doubt are tangible throughout. His detailed first-person narration is written in the richly expansive 18th-century prose introduced in volume one. He records the story while reviewing (and revealing to readers) his diary entries from the past year, so that "none of this shall pass from remembrance." He endures abuse, shame, grief, and humiliation, and comes close to despair; however, he is ultimately hopeful that humanity can aspire to more than warring and despoiling. Teens will identify with Octavian's internal tumult, how he experiences events as being acted upon him, and his transition from observer to participant, from boy to man.
Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen (870L, 4 ½ stars)
Steering his narrative through an unsentimentalized and deglorified depiction of the American Revolution, Paulsen’s latest work of historical fiction provides a stark glimpse of just how awful the war really was for those who suffered through it. Though his parents are city folk trying to hack out a life on the frontier in Pennsylvania, 13-year-old Samuel is entirely at home in the woodland wilderness that surrounds their little settlement. Soon after word arrives of the uprising in Concord and Lexington, Samuel returns home from a jaunt in the forest to find his home burned down, the neighbors slaughtered, and his parents missing. Samuel tracks his captured parents through the countryside to British-held New York, encountering scalping bands of Iroquois, pillaging squads of mercenary Hessians, and a few hardy, helpful rebels along the way. Paulsen alternates chapters of Samuel’s story with historical notes that illuminate the sobering realities of the Revolution and add some context not found in most history books. Paulsen’s rewarding and fast-paced novel offers an honest assessment of heroism writ both small and large.
The Year of the Hangman, by Gary Blackwood (820L, 4 stars)
In this adventurous, if somewhat unrealistic, novel, Blackwood imagines what would have happened if the Americans lost the Revolutionary War. In 1777 (called the Year of the Hangman "because the three sevens in the date resembled the miniature gallows" and because of all the British traitors hanged), spoiled 15-year-old Creighton is taken from London by force, and sent to the Colonies to live with his uncle. But when Creighton accompanies his uncle, an unkind Englishman named Colonel Gower, to a new post in West Florida, their boat is seized by patriot privateers, led by the infamous Benedict Arnold. They bring the prisoners to the Spanish territory of New Orleans and imprison Gower, but take Creighton to live with Benjamin Franklin. Creighton agrees to spy for Gower, discovering that Franklin publishes a revolutionary paper, but his conscience begins to bother him. Not only are Franklin and his friends kind to Creighton but the lines between what is "good or bad, right or wrong" blur. Jail escapes, duels, code-breaking and more keep the story moving.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (780L, 4 ½ stars)
In the spring of 1776, Isabel, a teenage slave, and her sister, Ruth, are sold to ruthless, wealthy loyalists in Manhattan. While running errands, Isabel is approached by rebels, who promise her freedom (and help finding Ruth, who has been sent away) if she agrees to spy. Using the invisibility her slave status brings, Isabel lurks and listens as Master Lockton and his fellow Tories plot to crush the rebel uprisings, but the incendiary proof that she carries to the rebel camp doesn’t bring the desired rewards. Isabel finds that both patriots and loyalists support slavery. The specifics of Isabel’s daily drudgery may slow some readers, but the catalogue of chores communicates the brutal rhythms of unrelenting toil, helping readers to imagine vividly the realities of Isabel’s life. Overwhelmed with domestic concerns, Isabel and indeed all the women in the household learn about the war from their marginalized position: they listen at doors to rooms where they are excluded, and they collect gossip from the streets. Anderson explores elemental themes of power (“She can do anything. I can do nothing,” Isabel realizes about her sadistic owner), freedom, and the sources of human strength in this searing, fascinating story.
Forge by Laurie Halse Anderson (820L, 4 ½ stars)
This sequel to Chains opens with Curzon, an enslaved teen who was freed from prison by Isabel, recalling his escape and anticipating the future. After an argument with Isabel about where they should go next, the 15-year-old battles the British at Saratoga and winters in Valley Forge with the Patriots. He reveals many details of the conditions endured by the soldiers during the winter of 1777-1778, including the limited food supply, lack of adequate shelter, and tattered clothing. When Curzon and Isabel meet again, they have both been captured and must devise a plan of escape once again. While the Patriots are fighting for the freedom of a country, these young people must fight for their personal freedom. This sequel can be read alone but readers will benefit from reading the first book, which develops the characters and reveals events leading up to the winter at Valley Forge.
The Way Lies North by Jean Rae Baxter (Lexile Unavailable, 5 stars)
This young adult historical novel focuses on Charlotte and her family, Loyalists who are forced to flee their home in the Mohawk Valley as a result of the violence of the ’Sons of Liberty’ during the American Revolution. At the beginning, fifteen-year-old Charlotte Hooper and her parents begin the long trek north to the safety of Fort Haldimand (near present-day Kingston). The novel portrays Charlotte´s struggle on the difficult journey north, and the even more difficult task of making a new home in British Canada. In the flight north, the Mohawk nation plays an important role, and Charlotte learns much about their customs and way of life, to the point where she is renamed ’Woman of Two Worlds.’ Later in the novel she is able to repay her aboriginal friends when she plays an important part in helping the Oneidas to become once again members of the Iroquois confederacy under British protection. Strong and capable, Charlotte breaks the stereotype of the eighteenth-century woman, while revealing a positive relationship between the Loyalists and aboriginal peoples.
Adult Level:Moderate to high reading difficulty withconcepts targeted to high school or adults. Parent permission required!
Caleb’s Crossing, by Geraldine Brooks (Lexile unavailable, 4 ½ stars)
When Geraldine Brooks came to live on Martha's Vineyard in 2006, she ran across a map by the island's native Wampanoag people that marked the birthplace of Caleb, first Native American to graduate of Harvard College--in 1665. Her curiosity piqued, she unearthed and fleshed out his thin history, immersing herself in the records of his tribe, of the white families that settled the island in the 1640s, and 17th-century Harvard. InCaleb's Crossing, Brooks offers a compelling answer to the riddle of how--in an era that considered him an intellectually impaired savage--he left the island to compete with the sons of the Puritanical elite. She relates his story through the impassioned voice of the daughter of the island's Calvinist minister, a brilliant young woman who aches for the education her father wastes on her dull brother. Bethia Mayfield meets Caleb at twelve, and their mutual affinity for nature and knowledge evolves into a clandestine, lifelong bond. This window on early academia fascinates, but the book breathes most thrillingly in the island's salt-stung air, and in the end, its questions of the power and cost of knowledge resound most profoundly not in Harvard's halls, but in the fire of a Wampanoag medicine man.
Rise to Rebellion, by Jeff Shaara (lexle unavailable, 4 ½ stars)
The first of two novels on the American Revolution, Rise to Rebellion takes the reader from the Boston Massacre to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Shaara's sympathies are evident on every page: the Adamses, Washington, and Franklin are his heroes, as is Abigail Adams, who, though she chafes at the restrictions imposed on her gender, supports her family as husband John travels to and from the Continental Congress. Their adversaries are harsh but wavering (General Gage), venal (Governor Hutchinson), and uncomprehending (the monstrous George III). These are not cardboard figures, however, but complicated human beings making difficult decisions in the midst of a crisis for which old wisdom holds no workable answers. Ultimately, what raises this fine novel above jingoism is the author's ability to make our national myths sing and our country's history come to vibrant life.
The Glorious Cause, by Jeff Shaara (lexile unavailable, 4 ½ stars)
Shaara here concludes his epic series on the American Revolution that began with Rise to Rebellion. As with his previous historical novels, this one is told from the perspectives of various historical players. George Washington is prominent, as are Benjamin Franklin, the under-appreciated Nathanial Greene, and, intriguingly, Britain's Lord Cornwallis. Some decry the author's creation of internal and external dialog, but the Founding Fathers were human beings who had doubts and who did not always give speeches or make pronouncements. The dialog rings true, and the history, aside from a glitch or two (grenadiers are infantry, not cavalry), is accurate. Rich, exciting, and compelling, The Glorious Cause will inform and entertain.
A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier, by Joseph Plumb Martin
This is a must read for those interested in the American Revolution. In Martin's memoir, he chronicles the years he spent as a foot soldier fighting against the British, often engaging in the time-honored ritual of griping so familiar to those of us who have served as enlisted soldiers in the armed forces. This is one of the things that make the book so valuable. It's one thing to read in some other history that General Washington had to make repeated requests for funds from the Continental Congress, but when Martin describes the impact of Congress's penury (inadequate or non-existent food, clothing, blankets, etc.) the point is really driven home. It's not all about soldiers' complaints, though. Martin served in most of the major campaigns of the war from southern New England to Yorktown. In writing about his experiences, he doesn't talk about the grand strategies - the common soldiers often did not know what the overall strategy was and sometimes doubted that there was one - but about the emotions and actions of the foot soldier in combat.
Honors Option Book Project
- Create a timeline of events on 11 X 17 paper (or larger) for your choice book. Be sure to cover events from the beginning, middle and end of your story. Note significant events only. You should have no less than 20 events noted. You must illustrate at least five of the events in any variety of ways: illustrations from magazines and newspapers, actual drawings, graphics, etc. Choose the five most important events and write a short paragraph for each, describing the event and its importance.
- Write a biography for one character found in your choice book. Your biography should include a physical description, a history of the character’s life, and a history of the significant events involving your subject, as well as any important contributions the character makes to the story. Please include a brainstorm or a rough draft along with the final draft. It should be at least five paragraphs.
- Act out a scene from your choice book. Write your own script and stage directions; gather a cast and record the performance. This scene must have significant meaning for the characters. You may do this with a partner, but if so, you must also include a written script or a DVD cover you created. If you have a group of three, include both! Use an actual DVD cover as a model of what components to include.
- Create a letter to the editor about why schools all across the country should read this book. First, obtain a newspaper and read many letters to the editor. Although they are shorter in length, they are usually persuasively written and each word furthers the author’s point (your point), creating a concise argument for readers. Come see me if you choose this one. It will be much tougher than it looks.
- Create a scrapbook of the adventures of the main character. Include at least five events from the book in your scrapbook. It may just be one large (12 x 12) page or multiple smaller ones. Be sure to include journaling (written in 1st person) describing the events.
- Compose a song describing the plot of the book. Include a copy of the written lyrics as well as a recording of the song being performed. Instead of a recording, you may perform the song for the class or for a small group.
- Create a book jacket for your book. On the front cover, create cover art for the jacket which must be designed by you. Think about specific parts in the novel that are important to the plot, and use those ideas to work from. Include the author’s name and "Illustrated by: YOUR NAME”. On the inside front flap, include a summary of the book. The summary may continue on the back flap. On the inside back flap, finish the summary, and include a ‘Real history’ section, briefly describing the true background history of the book’s topic. On the spine, include the title of the noveland the author. On the back cover, write a review of the novel. You may not copy anything from the book. You may create reviews by fictitious or famous people.
- Give a character performance speech by becoming a character from your book. You will give a three to five minute speech to the class as that character. Your speech needs to include four methods of how your character is/was developed. How would the author describe you—“I’m 5’ 10” and always wear ratty jeans…” How do other characters think of you in the novel? How do you think of yourself? What actions did you take in the novel that defines your character? You will describe key plot points as if they are your own memories. Use actual dialogue from the novel and the author’s physical/emotional description from the novel verbatim.