Use the diversity and varied interests of your students to inspire your projects.
Instilling a love of literature is an important aspect of high school English, but it's often easier said than done. Rather than assigning reading and relying on in-class lectures, develop a series of interactive and dynamic literature projects. Creative projects can help engage disinterested learners and revive bored students. Be sure to inform your peers when assigning a large literature project. This information can strengthen horizontal integration and help other teachers plan their assignments for the semester.
Voice Stealing
Instruct students to write a prologue, epilogue or chapter in the voice of a specific writer. This assignment might take one to three weeks to complete depending on the intensity of the workshop process. Consider having students share their work with a small group. Each group may engage in self-directed discussions of the original text and their individual interpretations. This project will indirectly draw notice to the grammar, style and voice of the assigned literary work.
Blogging Books
Blogs are online journals that enable students to write and publish reaction papers. Have students sign up with a free service such as Blogger, WikiSpaces or WordPress. Be sure to consult the school technology usage and public release forms to verify that this is a permissible activity. Prompt students with discussion questions -- i.e., "How do the themes of the novel relate to your life?" or "How did the rhyme of the poem affect the voice of the speaker?"
Podcasting Project
Student-created podcasts may be published internally to other classes or as free public downloads through the school website. These radio shows might be formatted as a weekly show providing book reviews, literary discussion, writing tips, corrections for common grammar errors or interviews with real authors. This project requires regular access to computers. Consider making equipment reservations with the audio-visual technician well in advance. You might even be able to get assistance setting up, recording and publishing your first show.
My Favorites
At the end of the semester, have students bring in a collection of items that symbolizes or represents their most and least favorite literary works. Searching for and presenting these objects will encourage students to think critically about plot, voice, character development and style. Set parameters for the project -- i.e., you cannot bring items that are actually found in the book, label each item with a paragraph or diagram that shows it's relation to the text. For example, a student might bring a ring pop and rubber band to represent "The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The large ring would symbolize the decadence of the 1920s, while the rubber band could describe Fitzgerald's style of expansive then specific descriptions, expanding to describe New York then compressing to show the lives of Nick Carraway's neighbors, the Gatsbys.
