Raptors Rest, Relax, and Read
Summer Reading Assignment
This is a list of projects; you may choose any one project to complete for your summer reading assignment. Additionally, you may use technology to create, enhance and/or develop any project on this list.
This project is due to your English teacher when you return to school in August.
1. Change the time of the setting to the present. Write a paper discussing how the events and the characters in the story would be changed.
2. Write a chapter or scene that you think would happen directly after the story ends.
3. Make a collage that represents major characters and events in the book you read. On a card attached to each model, tell why the object was important in the book.
4. Imagine that you are a prosecuting attorney putting one of the characters from the book you read on trial for a crime or misdeed. Prepare your case. Be sure to give all your arguments and to support them with facts from the book.
5. Make models of three objects that were important in the book you read. On a card attached to each model, tell why the object was important in the book.
6. Complete each of the following seven ideas with a one paragraph response for each statement. This book made me . . . with that, realize that, decide that, wonder about, see that, feel that, and hope that.
7. Develop and create a newspaper or magazine that would be read at the time of your novel. Be sure to include appropriate items of interest and news from the novel's plot. Editorials can refer to specific issues of themes dealt with in the novel.
8. Develop and create your own original art project based on your novel. Color must be used, and if you are using physical materials, it must be larger than a piece of notebook paper. Include a written explanation of your project and its relationship to the novel.
9. Prepare a publicity campaign for your book. You might design posters, write a radio or television script, plan newspaper ads and reviews, design a book cover and write the jacket "blurb," or write a publicity letter to accompany a complimentary copy of the book sent to a potential reviewer.
10. Sketch or paint the characters as you imagine them.
11. Design costumes that one or more of the characters might have worn.
12. Write a "talk show interview" with a character or the author.
13. You have been selected as a casting director for the movie version of your novel. You must submit to the director and producer, in writing your choices of the actors/actresses to play the lead roles. First, write a description of the characters from the book. Include appearances, age, values, attitude, speech, feelings towards others, and how others feel towards him/her. Then, identify the actor/actress you feel would best fit the role. Explain why they would be perfect for the role and be sure to include other film credits.
14. Character astrology signs: after reading descriptions of astrology or sun signs, figure out which signs you thing the main characters from your book (at least three) were born under. Write an explanation of why you think they fit the sign, drawing on their actions, attitudes, and thoughts from the book.
15. Create the childhood for a character: if your main character is an adult, try to figure out what he or she would have been like as a child. Write the story of his or her childhood in such a way that explains the character's temperament in the novel.
16. Critique from the point of view of a specific organization. Select an organization that might have a lot to say about the actions or portrayals of characters in the novel you read, and write a critique of the book from its point of view. For example the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals might have a lot to say about Lennie's treatment of animals in Of Mice and Men.
17. Social Worker's Report: If the events in the novel merit it, write up a report as a social worker would on the conditions in the home and whether or not it's a good environment for a child.
18. College applications: Create the application that a character you have just read about could write and submit to a college. Use all the information you know about the character and infer and create the rest of it.
19. Scrapbook: Think about all the kinds of mementos you would put into a scrapbook if you had one. Then create a scrapbook for your character, cutting out picture from magazines or drawing the mementos he or she would have in a scrapbook.
20. Poetry. Write at least three poems in response to the novel. The poems can be about the characters where the book took place or the themes in the book. Include a paragraph with each that explains how the poem ties into the novel.
21. Family History. Create the history of the family of one of the main characters in your novel.
22. Photo Album. Which scenes, or pictures, from the novel would your character want you to remember? Then create several of these photos for a collection. You may use digital photography, traditional photography, or even drawings of the photos. Arrange these pictures as you would for a photo album.