Unit Objectives

• Students will read Harper Lee's classic novel: To Kill A Mockingbird.
• Comprehension will be assessed using Moodle discussion.
• To increase web page skills, students will show their understanding of the novel by publishing a multigenre hypertext essay. (This assignment is a bridge to the big multigenre research project done in 4th quarter).
• Each group will review another group's essay/website using an evaluation tool.
• A novel packet will help students develop thoughts about characters, keep the events of the plot straight, and to think about ideas in the novel in preparation for discussion.

Multigenre Hypertext Essay

• This "essay" has multiple parts:
  • main essay; see topics below
  • two-three genre pieces that support, expand, help develop ideas in main essay (one per each member in group); 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. Review weaving quotations into your essay.
  • Your support genres.

The Essay

Choose from one of the following topics and

• 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"?)
• topic of your own choosing (must be approved by your teacher)

Planning your essay

• Use Inspiration to generate ideas.
• Brainstorm with your partner(s)
• Go the the graphic organizers page for tools to use in organizing your ideas.

Writing your essay:

• Review "Writing Essays."
• Develop your essay fully (about 500-700 words).
• The ideas in your essay need to be supported with evidence (quotations/passages) from the text. Remember what you learned with your Speak essays about weaving quoted material into essays. 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 first draft.
• Then, look critically at your work, relying on each other for a sound revision.

Making it multigenre

• The main text of your essay will be supported by two-three 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 expresed 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.
  • Choose genres based on what you need. Do NOT try to fit what you need to a genre.
• The support genre piece goes on its own page (tkam_3, or 4). You link to each page in the text of the essay.
  • 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 make "typical girl" into a hyperlink that goes to a speech from Scout as a grown woman who talks about important things for women to do. Or it could go to a poem in which she 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.

Making it hypertext

• In the main text of the essay, you will link to each genre page. See model in the multigenre section.
• In addition to those two-three links, add three more links to relevant sites.
  • Remember the value of hyperlinks is in making connections and/or adding information.

Creating Folders/Pages/Links

• Create a folder for these pages. Call the folder tkam.
• In it, put these four pages: main.htm; tkam_1.htm, tkam_2.htm, tkam_3.htm, and tkam_4. Note: if you are only doing two genre pages, you will not make a fourth "tkam" page.
• Set up the pages for the project this way. A simple way to make the pages is to copy the template from the sample page and paste it on your page. Then make your links live and make other format changes.
  • The design must be clear and uncluttered.Keep good web design principles in mind. Think of readability.
  • No unrelated graphics.
  • Use web safe fonts.
• Make a link to your main page on each of your webfolios. Call it To Kill a Mockingbird Essay.
• Make appropriate links on each project page.

Genre suggestions

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

1. A character study of one of the main characters.
2. A letter from one character to another.
3. A newspaper article.
4. A poem for two voices using two of the characters in the novel, or one character and something else. Go to your ThinkBook for a reminder of how to do this.
5. Another kind of poem.
6. An obituary or a eulogy.
7. 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. You will need to scan this in.
8. A monologue from one of the main characters that reveals his or her feelings about an event from the novel.
9. A speech.
10. A fable (a short story that teaches a lesson).
11. A recipe.
12. A fictionalized journal entry (from the perspective of one of the characters).
13. A mandala (man-dolĺ-uh). This is an activity for those who want a creative and intellectual challenge. It is a more time-consuming activity. You must publish your actual mandala and your questions and answers.
14. Something else? You suggest an idea to your teacher.

Genre Help

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 published on your web page. 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.

Letter
Choose one character from column A below and write a letter from him or her to the character you choose from column B below. The letter should be written as a personal letter and should include all the important details you think that 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?

Obituary/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 from 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. Click here for the Sheboygan Press's current obituaries to use for examples. 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.

Monologue
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 (set the scene visually), and tell what has happened in the life of this character so far (very briefly: like "this is after such and such" or "before the blank happens." This link to monologue may help, but if you just write from the character's heart, you will probably know what you want to say.

News 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. Click here for an example of a news story. For this assignment, focus on one event from the novel, such as the trial or Bob Ewell's harrassment of the children. To get more examples, read the stories on the front pages of newspapers to get the sound and structure of a common news story. (News is on the front page. Other types of articles are found elsewhere in the newspaper).

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