Trimester Projects

ALL STUDENTS MUST COMPLETE A TRIMESTER PROJECT.

ALL HONORS STUDENTS MUST COMPLETE A BOOK PROJECT.
TRIMESTER PROJECT PRESENTATIONS DATES ARE MAY 28-30 with JUNE 2 added in HONORS CLASSES. SEE MRS. DONNELLY or MR. MORRIS for your presentation date.

Trimester Project Guidelines

Gingerbread and candy cathedral found here.

Each student is required to complete a trimester project as a way to engage with their areas of interest! Students are only limited to the time period studied during the trimester. For third tri, that is Late Middle Ages to French Revolution. This is a variable point project - the more you put into it, the more you get out of it! It's a fantastic way to raise your grade as well! Each student must receive approval of their project by March 31st. Projects will range from 50-200 points. Presentations of the project (3-5 minutes) are 25% of the grade. Presentation dates will be selected through lottery, later in the trimester.  Students who do not present on their selected date, unless it is missed due to extreme circumstances (illness with a doctor/parent note, etc.), students will possibly lose their presentation points! Exception: students may always present earlier than their presentation date. You must tell Mrs. Donnelly your project plan by Monday, March 31.  This is worth ten points. 

Some ideas:

• stained glass window - a how-to link is here.
• model of cathedral, castle, Globe Theater, etc. (Might I suggest candy, pasta, duct tape, or legos as building materials?)  
• A Facsimile weapon --- here's a link to a DIY English longbow 
• Minecraft model of cathedral, Globe Theater, guild, etc. 
• Guild sign - check out this pinterest board of guild signs for inspiration!
• Renaissance clothing - another pinterest board of Renaissance clothing and accessory patterns.
• a cartoon, story, poem, rap, song, movie, or drawing of something within the time frame
• Plague Doctor Mask - visit this post for inspiration and links to how to guides!
• Or, if you like to crochet like Mrs. Donnelly, how about crocheting a knight helmet? 

  

  knitted viking helmets - notice NO horns!

• Cake models, stained glass cookies, traditional foods, a suckling pig.... as long as you bring enough for everyone and plan on cleaning up the mess! Check here for my post on edible projects.
• See other examples in the classroom! This is not an inclusive list - the options are limitless!

Honors Book Project Guidelines

Mrs. Donnelly/Mr. Morris Honors

Third Trimester Reading List

Students must read one of the books below or an alternate approved by Mrs. Donnelly.  A lottery will be held to determine presentation dates.  One factor in the presentation date will be the length and difficulty of the book.  Every student MUST keep a reading log, giving a one to two paragraph summary in student’s own words of what happens in each chapter.  Failure to keep a complete reading log will result in massive point loss.  Several books below require parent approval because of mature (PG-13) themes.  All books are upper high school or college level.  If you start a book and it is too difficult, you come talk to Mrs. Donnelly.  You must tell Mrs. Donnelly what book you are reading by Monday, March 31.  This is worth ten points. 

1.       France, Anatole, The Gods Will Have Blood.  The main character becomes a councilman in the French Revolutionary government of Robespierre and watches the paranoid rise and fall of Robespierre and the French Revolution.   75 points.  Mature themes, parent approval needed in writing.

2.       Erasmus, In Praise of Folly.  Enlightenment philosophy.   100 points 

3.       Duffy, Eamon, Voices of Morebath.  Irish historian’s study of a medieval village after the plague and during the rise of towns of an English village.  150 points.

4.       Defoe, Daniel.  Journal of the Plague Year.  About the 1665 Plague outbreak in London. 75 points

5.       Camus, Albert.  The Plague. Medical workers join together as the plague hits... again. 100 points.

6.       Camon, Ferdinando.  Memorial.  Memories from an Italian peasant farmer who goes to a town in a rising Italian city-state.  75 points

7.       Paine, Thomas.  Common Sense.  American Enlightenment Philosophy.  100 points

8.       Voltaire.  Candide.  Wickedly sharp social satire from the greatest French satirist. 100 points

9.       Occam, William of.  Occam’s Razor.  Occam’s philosophy on the nature of nominalism (giving something a name that gives it additional meaning). Precursor to Luther's 95 theses and the Protestant Reformation. 150 points

10.   Cervantes, Miguel de.  Don Quixote.  A Spanish nobleman down on his luck decides to return to the age of Chivalry.  200 points

11.   Lamballe, Princess.  Diaries of (or Secret Memoirs of).  Diaries of Marie Antoinette’s noble lady-in-waiting during the French Revolution.  125 points  (Mature Themes, Parent Approval Needed)

12.   Hugo, Victor.  Les Miserables.  (Only if you have never, ever read it).  The great novel of the French Revolution's legacy.  200 points. It's not about the French Revolution?!

13.   Kant, Immanuel.  Book of your choice with teacher approval.  Modern philosophy. Considered the father of modern thinking.  The idea that using reason is the best way to advance.  125

14.   Bolt, Robert.  A Man for all Seasons.  A play about Thomas More’s showdown with Henry VIII. 75 points

15. Cushman, Karen. The Midwife's Apprentice. A homeless girl finds out who she is as she becomes the apprentice of a Midwife. 75 points.