Introduction

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Famous author coming to town! This is front page news and because your newspaper is the best source for breaking news it is the job of you and your fellow dedicated group of reporters to get the word out to the general public before he or she arrives!

The Task Top

Your assignment is to research the life and one literary work of an author from the list provided in the next (process) section and create the front page of a newspaper based on the author you choose. Each group member must write one article about this author's life or one article about a literary work that your choosen author wrote. You will also need to put a picture of your author on the newspaper. Each article should be no less than 80 words. The picture may be drawn or photocopied from a book or a document off the internet. The newspapers will be put up around the room for the rest of the semester. You will work in groups of three.When you are finished with this assignment you should each know a brief history of your author's life and be able to list at least three of your author's literary works.

The Process Tops

1. First you'll be assigned to a group of 3-4 students.
2. Once your group has signed up for a famous author from the list you will begin your research during class. Two groups may go to the library at a time while the other groups search using the internet. You are not limited to just the site listed next to your author, use search engines to come up with other credible sites as well.

   List of Authors:

   Charles Dickens

   William Faulkner

   Lewis Carroll

   Ernest Hemingway

   Sylvia Plath

   Edgar Allan Poe

3. Gather as much information as you can on your author.
4. Once you have gathered all the information you can meet with your group during a scheduled class time and discuss what each of you has found out.
5. Decide who will write which article for the newspaper and what you want it to look like.
6. Write a rough draft of your article
7. Have your group members proofread your article for you. (don't forget to title your article!)
8. Type up your articles using microsoft word (class time will be provided).
9. Your group will have two class hours to title the newspaper, put the newspaper articles, and draw, download or paste the photo of your author together.

Evaluation Top

Your Newspapers will be evaluated on creativity, spelling, grammer and puncuation, and accuracy of facts as well as group participation. You will recieve a grade as a group so don't forget to help each other out!

	Beginning 5	Developing 10	Accomplished 15	Exemplary 20	Score
Correct Spelling, Grammar and Puncuation	10 or more mistakes, group members did not proofread each others articles	5-9 mistakes, group members proofread each others articles but not carefully	1-4 mistakes, group members proofread each others articles	No mistakes, group members proofread each others articles
Accuracy of Facts About Author	Student Cannot Prove That Source is Credible	Student Can Prove Upon Request That Source is Credible	Research Is From a Credible Source that student has Listed Seperatly and Turned in With Assignment	Research Is From a Credible Source and Source is Included In Student's Article
Creativity	Group Did Not Complete Assignment	Group Completed Assignment, Paying Little Attention to Layout, Appropriate Attention-grabbing Headlines and a Picture of the Author	Obvious That Some In-class Time and Effort Was Spent On Layout, Appropriate Attention-grabbing Headlines and a Picture of the Author	Obvious That Alot of In-class Time and Effort Was Spent On Layout, Appropriate Attention-grabbing Headlines and Drawn Picture of Author
Group Participation	Not All Members of Group Participated	All Members of Group Participated, But Not Equally	All Members of Group Participated Equally	All Members of Group Participated Equally, Helping Each Other With Individual Parts of Assignment

Conclusion top

When you finish this assignment you should have a good understanding of who your author is/was and why the author is considered one of the best literary authors of their time. You will also know how to reseach a subject using the internet and the library.

Credits & References top

Http://www.fidnet.com/%7edap1955/dickens/

http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/%7eegjbp/faulkner.html

http://www.lewiscarroll.org/carroll.html

http://ehfop.org/life/index.html

http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=11

http://www.eapoe.org/index.htm