To Kill a Mockingbird Multi-genre Essay

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

“—there is one institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockerfeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court.”

Atticus Finch, Chapter 20

 

Your reading for this novel will be done in class, and some days in the unit calendar are devoted entirely to reading. Please have your TKAM packet with you each day. There will be class time provided for your project work, but you will need to work on your project outside of class also.

Unit Objectives:

·        Students will read Harper Lee’s classic novel: To Kill a Mockingbird.

·        Comprehension will be assessed using webquests and blogspots

·        To demonstrate understanding of writing skills and the novel, students will produce a multi-genre essay

·        A novel packet will be provided to help students develop thoughts about characters, keep the events of the plot in order, and to think about ideas in the novel in preparation for discussion.

Multi-genre Essay

This essay has multiple parts:

·         Main essay; see topics below
·         Two genre pieces that support, expand, help develop ideas in the main essay; see choices   below
      The main idea of the essay is supported in two ways:
·         You give evidence from the text, quoted passages that support your ideas/claims.
·         Your support genres.

THE ESSAY

Choose one of the following topics

·         Courage
·         Some people serve as moral compasses for the rest of us
·         Growing up/loss of innocence
·         Loneliness
·         Racial prejudice
·         The symbol of the mockingbird (which characters are “mockingbirds”?)

Writing your essay:

·        Develop your essay fully (500-750 words)
·        The ideas in your essay need to be supported with evidence (quotations/passages) from the text. Don’t forget to cite page numbers.
·        The essay needs to be organized logically.
·        You need an introductory paragraph as well as a concluding paragraph.
·        The body of the essay may be two to four paragraphs, depending upon how much you have to say.
·        Write a really bad first draft.
·        Then, look critically at your work, and allow others to do the same, for a sound revision.

Making it Multi-genre

·         The main text of your essay will be supported by two additional pieces of writing from a variety of genres (you choose). Each supporting genre will add to, explain, or support in some other way a significant idea/theme in your main essay.

·         When you choose a genre, think first of what else you need to say. Think of whose voice is not expressed in the main text of your essay. Think of what the characters you write about would say if they could be more free. Think about what your characters might say in the future or from the grave.

o   Choose genres based on what you need. Do not try to fit what you need to a genre.

o   For example, say your essay is about the role of women in the novel. You have written that Scout is not a typical girl even though her aunt wishes she would be. You could include a separate page in your essay where you have written a speech from Scout as a grown woman who talks about important things for women to do. Or it could be a poem in which Scout complains that everyone seems to be trying to make her into something she’s not.

·         Each genre page needs an introductory sentence or two. The purpose is to set up the piece. For example, you might write (for the example above): Scout is invited to be the commencement speaker at Maycomb High School in 1965. She speaks to the graduating class of her alma mater about women’s rights.

Genre Suggestions

For each supporting genre page, put an appropriate title or heading at the top of the page. Also, for each of the two genre pages, you will need a short introduction that explains what your reader is seeing.

1.   A character study of one of the main characters.

Character study

Choose one of the main characters and using words, paint a word portrait of him or her. Write about any of the following: interests, relationships with other characters, personality, problems that face him or her, and or anything else that you think will help your reader understand that character better. To help you get the information you need, first fill out a chart like the one that follows. This chart would not be included in your essay. A character study is written in third person; you are the author who knows everything about the character. Think about sentence fluency as you write. Read your character study aloud to make sure it reads smoothly and that it sounds good.

What does this character look like? How old is he/she? What is his or her name?
Give examples of this character’s speech/words.
Give examples of this character’s thoughts.
Give examples of this character’s actions.
How do other characters view this character?
What does this character do for fun or for personal interest?
What would this character want if he/she could have anything in the world?
What are the relationships to other characters that this character has?

     2.   A letter from one character to another

Choose one character from column A below and write a letter from him or her to the character you choose from column B. The letter should be written as a personal letter and should include all the important details you think that a person would include in a letter. To help you decide what to write about, ask yourself what person A has to say and why. Also, why did you choose person B to get the letter. In other words, the relationship you create between these two characters will help you know just what to write in the letter. What does the one have to say to the other?

A	B
Scout	Atticus
Jem	Tom Robinson
Dill	Mrs. Dubose
Atticus	Arthur Radley
Arthur Radley	Scout
Miss Maudie	Calpurnia
Calpurnia	Mayella Ewell

    3.   A newspaper article.

A good news article answers the basic questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how. It also uses direct quotes from people who were there and witnessed an event or who know something about the event. A good reporter will report both or all sides of the story. Use a real news story as your model for writing this story. Create a headline for the story also. For this assignment, focus on one event from the novel, such as the trial or Bob Ewell’s harassment of the children. To get examples, read the stories on the front pages of newspapers to get the sound structure of a common news story.

    4.   A poem using two voices from the novel or one character from the novel and something else.    

    5.   An obituary or a eulogy.

An obituary is a newspaper account of a person’s death and life. It generally includes the main events of his or her life, the person’s family, and any special accomplishments form his or her life. If the person’s death was “famous,” there might be details of the circumstances. The audience for the obituary is the general public. A eulogy  is similar to an obituary, but it is a speech instead of an article. A eulogy is given by someone who knew the person well or by someone in his or her family. The eulogy is generally more personal and the audience is all the people in attendance at the funeral or memorial service. In writing either, the main purpose is to honor the life of someone who has died.          

   6.   A comic strip (8 panes) that illustrates a major event from the novel.

    Use a comic strip from a Sunday newspaper as an example of how to set up the title, the drawings, and the character’s voices.

    7.   A monologue from one of the main characters that reveals his or her feelings about an event from the novel.

A monologue is a part in a play or dramatic narrative where one character is talking alone. What he or she says represents his inner thoughts and feelings. He or she may not have an audience other than the reader or the theatre audience. In other words, the other characters in the play or narrative do not usually hear the words of the speaker. When you write this monologue, choice of character is very important. Decide what he or she is thinking inside. What is he/she feeling? What would he/she tell the world if it would listen? Also, set the scene. Before the monologue, in a short paragraph, tell who the speaker is, where he/she is, and tell what has happened in the life of this character so far. Just write from the character’s heart, and you will know what to say.

    8.   A fictionalized journal entry (from the perspective of one of the main characters).