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American Literature
Webquest
For the past several weeks we have been working on a unit entitled, "Dissenting Voices in American Literature" in which we have explored several concepts and questions including:
What does it mean to be an American?
What should the governments role be in protecting and/or guaranteeing those rights?
What is a democracy? Do we live in a democracy?
What responsibilities go along with the freedoms and rights that are associated with a democracy?
Your final assignment for this unit will be a webquest in which you demonstrate your learning and the new knowledge that you have acquired over the last several weeks.
What should the governments role be in protecting and/or guaranteeing those rights?
What is a democracy? Do we live in a democracy?
What responsibilities go along with the freedoms and rights that are associated with a democracy?
Your final assignment for this unit will be a webquest in which you demonstrate your learning and the new knowledge that you have acquired over the last several weeks.
Task
For this assignment you will work in groups of three to complete your own collection of American Literature. You will draw upon our class discussion of what it means to be an American and include works that you believe speaks to that question. You may include works that are already frequently include in anthologies of American Literature, but you may also and I encourage you to include works that are frequently omitted from such anthologies. You may also include more recent works, which are often left out of anthologies. You will consult books in our class library as well as Internet sources in order to compile your anthology. You will have both individual responsibilities for this assignment and responsibilities to your group as well.
Your anthology should include:
- Short story selections, poetry, plays, excerpts from novels and speeches by Americans.
- An introduction to each selection that discusses the works technical, stylistic and thematic merits as well as the role that the selection has played in American Literature. The purpose of the introduction is to provide the reader with a brief overview of the text and its history and most of all to convince the reader that the text warrants a time investment on their part. This should be a 2-3 page text for each included anthology selection. Each student must make a minimum of three contributions to the anthology, each accompanied by an introduction.
- Biographical information for each selection's author.
- A contributors section in which each student includes a brief biography of themselves; that means you! Tell the reader about yourself, you interests, accomplishments, etc. Include a photograph .
- A table of contents.
- A title page.
- Short story selections, poetry, plays, excerpts from novels and speeches by Americans.
- An introduction to each selection that discusses the works technical, stylistic and thematic merits as well as the role that the selection has played in American Literature. The purpose of the introduction is to provide the reader with a brief overview of the text and its history and most of all to convince the reader that the text warrants a time investment on their part. This should be a 2-3 page text for each included anthology selection. Each student must make a minimum of three contributions to the anthology, each accompanied by an introduction.
- Biographical information for each selection's author.
- A contributors section in which each student includes a brief biography of themselves; that means you! Tell the reader about yourself, you interests, accomplishments, etc. Include a photograph .
- A table of contents.
- A title page.
Sources
"Dissenting Voices in American Literature" - Home Page
Bill of Rights
Declaration of Independence
Henry David Thoreau - Civil Disobedience
Martin Luther King - Letter from Birmingham Jail
Democracy Now
A Lesson Before Dying - Ernest Gaines
Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
Biography of Malcolm X - Malcolm X
Native Son - Richard Wright
Absolom, Absolom - William Faulkner
Libraries
Television and News
Grammar and Style Guides
Title Page Example
Book Review/Advertisement Example
Press Release Example
| Process | |
| Day 1 1. Get into your assigned groups. 2. As a group review your class notes and your reading or writing journals. 3. Brainstorm - what works did everyone read that the group agrees should be included in the anthology? - what works have you read as an individual would you like to see included in the anthology? You and your group will be able to find the texts to many of these works on our "Dissenting Voices in American Literature" - Home Page, as well as in many of the American Literature Anthologies and other texts in our class library. 4. Delegate responsibilities. Each group needs a: Publication Expert The Publication Expert is responsible for completing the title page, table of contents, checking for accurate and consistent page numbers and overseeing publication. Artist The artist creates a cover illustration and/or design, checks to see that the book is bound and ready for publication and that each individual included a suitable and appropriate illustration or image. Marketer The marketer is responsible for publicizing the group's anthology. This included writing a press release and print advertisement for the work |
As an Individual:
1. You must select a minimum of three anthology contributions.
They may be from any genre of American Literature: poetry, drama,
fiction, history, speeches, etcetera.You may chose from works that
we have read and discussed in class or works that you have read on your
own. You will also consult the Internet sources available at "Dissenting Voices in American Literature" - Homepage
and the other Internet sources available at the source section of this
page. If you chose a longer work you will need to provide an
excerpt
from the work.
2. Write a brief biography about the author of each contribution which includes: date of birth, death, relevant facts about their literary career or their role in American History. 3. An introduction to each contribution in which you discuss the artistic and historic merit of the work. Why did you chose to include this particular work? Why is it important or valuable? Keep in mind our class discussion of what it means to be an American and the role of democracy in American lives. Make sure that you carefully site any quotations or other sources used according to MLA format. 4. You may also include relevant images to accompany your selection. For example, you might want to include a photograph of the author or an image that reminds you of the work. Make sure you site the source of your images according to MLA format. 5. A brief biography about yourself for the contributors selection, accompanied by a photograph of yourself. 6. Consult with your peers during writers workshop about your introductions, author biographies and personal biographies and assist your peers in revising and editing their introductions, biographies and personal biographies. 7. Consult with your teacher once about your selections, introductions, author biographies and personal biographies. 8. Complete your assigned group task (Publication Expert, Artist, Marketer). 9. Complete the rubric for this assignment. * All final selection must be typed using Microsoft Word or another word processing program. You should use the in-class time available to you to type your individual selections. The anthology must be ready for publication upon submission. |
| As a group: - You will be respectful of your peers. - You will work collaboratively and individually. - You will produce a complete, well thought out and planned Anthology of American Literature that is ready for publication that exhibits a high degree of thought and effort, as well as an awareness of the issues and concerns discussed in our introduction to American Literature. Your anthology should be free of careless grammatical and spelling errors. - Does your anthology include works by both male and female authors, as well as persons of diverse backgrounds? |
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RubricWebquest Rubric
Conclusion
Congratulations you have completed this webquest! You have reflected upon your learning in our class over the last several weeks and used your newly acquired knowledge to justify your submissions to an anthology of American Literature in the form of formal essays. You have also worked collaboratively to prepare a work for publication. You have made difficult decisions about the types of work to include, the appearance and format of the anthology and worked as a group to do so; not always an easy task! You have done a lot of hard work. For the rest of the year, a major part of this class will consist of sharing your work and opinions with your peers, myself, the school community and the public at large. You are encouraged to share all of your work with the class during author's chair and now that you have developed the skills necessary to publish your work, I encourage you to submit works for publication to our school newspaper, classroom journal, community newspapers and any other public forums available to you. Congratulations, once again!