Mark Twain Project How to Succeed

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Mark Twain ProjectHow to Succeed
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Most Important

• Be well prepared. Read your novel!
• Generate enthusiasm and sound like you care about
  what you are saying.
• Do not bore your audience!

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What makes a book good?

• Should be well written (style, narration,
  figurative language etc.
• Tells a good story / is interesting and enjoyable
  to read
• Gives insight into human behaviour,
  psychology,philosophy.
• Gives the reader something important to think
  about.
• Provides real-life lessons that can be applied to
  real life.
• Causes you to question yourself and your own
  behaviour.
• You can relate in some way to the novel/its
  characters (emotional/personal attachment).

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Your True Purpose

• Prove that you have done a close reading of your
  novel.
• Prove that you have understood important thematic
  aspects of your novel.
• Prove that you have actually thought about things
  in your novel and have made connections to real
  life. (your personal advantage will be the
  important things your novel made you think about)

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THOUGHTFUL READERS

• The people who actually think about their novel
  tend to do better presentations.
• They connect their thoughts to being a literate
  grade 12 reader
• If you personalize your reading and response, it
  will be more ineteresting for your audience.
• No summaries or internet crap

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Twain Project Presentations

• There is no part of the instructions for this
  project that ask for a plot summary or character
  explanation. Do not spend much of your time on
  this.
• TIME It is a 7 to 10 minute presentation. It
  is your job to stay within the time limit. This
  means you must be well rehearsed and cut the
  unnecessary.

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Presentations

• The directions state, You must explain the
  personal advantage you gained from reading it.
  This is an important part of the presentation
  (the controlling idea) and should make up a
  significant portion of your 7-10 minutes. AGT
  This personal advantage is really just you
  explaining what you gained/thought about from
  reading the novel. For the most part you will
  talk about what the novel made you think about
  and how you personally related to the novel.
• You must utter the words, personal
  advantage!--AGT
• Then, you had to say something relevant and
  meaningful.
• If you do a good job here, you will prove that
  you have done a close reading of your novel.

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Your Passages/Quotations

• Be sure to provide context for your quotation
  before you read it (enough info so that what you
  read will make sense to your audience)
• After you read the quotation be sure to
  explain how the quotation is supporting the
  purpose of your presentation PERSONAL ADVANTAGE

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General Comments

• Learn to follow directions with precision. Your
  responses should help to prove that you read and
  understood your novel.
• Use all directions, rubrics, samples, etc to help
  create your final product.
• If you like, you can use PowerPoint to guide your
  presentation. limit the amount of text you use
  on you slides.

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Outside Sources

• I am always looking to see if what I am reading
  is material from outside sources. (internet,
  movies etc)
• Cite any outside source you use for any idea in
  this project. Simply tell the audience where you
  got the idea/information.
• Only you know for sure! I am always watching for
  this and will be trying to protect the innocent!

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Oganization

1. Establish context for your novel (not a plot
   summary)one or two minutes
2. Explain the personal advantages you gained from
   reading the novel. Use at least one quotation to
   support your assertions.
3. Vow to try to read good books!

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Letter Format

• Business letters are not essays (purpose and
  audience)
• You have to follow the business letter format
  that I gave you.

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Letters

• AGTconvince your English teacher that the novel
  you read should be used as a class novel in
  English 12.
• You must connect each main body paragraph to this
  AGT so that your controlling idea is strongly
  presented.

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General Comments

• Wording and word choice must be both precise and
  accurate. This is an editing/revising task
• Theme and wording
• Novel vs book
• You must always use the three steps for inserting
  quotations! (MLA citations)
• It is your job to choose the BEST QUOTATIONS and
  text support to support your argument (agt)

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Twain Project Letters

• a. g. t actual given topic (?)
• c.t.t. connect to topic or connection to topic?
• CheckmarkI am happy about something I see
  (insert your own positive comment1)

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Writing Scoring Guide

• See your writing guide rubric. It explains four
  important categories to consider every time you
  write. I grade your written work using this
  rubric.
• Thought and Detail
• Organization
• Matter of Choice
• Matters of Correctness.