Guidelines for Projects

English 207, Appalachian Literature
Fall 2006

Dr. Tina L. Hanlon, thanlon@ferrum.edu

Ferrum College

Children's Literature Course Home Page
Appalachian Literature Course Home Page
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General Guidelines:

• Your project topic and date of oral report must be approved no later than Nov. 10 (Nov. 3 if you are presenting a poster at the Environmental Symposium; you will present the poster on Nov. 10 if selected for the symposium).
• Your project can focus on any topic that involves Appalachian literature. It can involve research and reading in any topic related to Appalachian literature and/or a creative work that you produce.
• A conference with the professor before your oral report is recommended, to review plans for your class presentation. Come in as often as you like to consult on progress on your project, or e-mail me about it. You can write in your journal about progress on your project.
• Oral Report: Your oral report time will be restricted to 7 minutes per person. If you design a web page for the class to view, your oral report can be shorter (but let us know the url ahead of time). Be sure to plan carefully so that you cover your topic within the time limit, rather than being cut off unfinished. Obviously, you will have to be very brief. Spend about one minute each on the author’s life or background information (or other applicable information on the origins of your main sources), a summary of material you studied, your analysis of the work, and your evaluation of the work. Place the emphasis in your oral report on whether you would recommend the material you examined to other members of the class and why. Avoid telling the class how a story ends if that would spoil it for future readers or viewers.
• You can use Powerpoint or any other technology or audio-visual aids.  Be sure the needed technology or materials are available and working before the time of your oral report.
• The audience for your project is this class. The class will be asked to offer comments and questions after your report, as time allows.
• For one of your formal writing assignments in this class, you can write a 3-4 page paper on the topic of your oral report, and it can focus on your process of working on the project if you wish. Other options for paper assignments will be posted on a separate Web page. Papers may be turned in before or after oral reports, depending on the date for your oral report. See below for more guidelines on contents of web pages or papers. If you do not write a paper on this project, submit a bibliography of your sources for the project. You may also want to submit an outline of the project or any other supporting materials.
• DO NOT PLAGIARIZE in oral reports, Powerpoint displays, or other written materials.

Suggestions for Choosing Topics for Projects:

• Study any Appalachian author in more depth than we have studied that author in class (reading other works not assigned for the class)
• Study any Appalachian author that has not been assigned for the class.
• Your project could focus primarily on studying one novel not assigned for the class or a film about Appalachia, or a nonfiction book about Appalachia.
• Study a particular theme in Appalachian literature. Use the subject headings in the Higgs anthologies or the List of Themes posted for this class.
• Look through the web site AppLit and think about how you could contribute material to any section of the web site.
• Study the Blue Ridge Institute exhibit on moonshine and any literature or stories or songs relating to that topic.
• Talk to a faculty member who has expertise on a topic you might be interested in research in relation to Appalachian literature. For example:

•     Dr. Crow on oral history or issues relating to modernization in Appalachia or fiction by Lee Smith or Denise Giardina
•     Dr. Whited on the Frankie Silver legend and literature written about it, include Sharyn McCrumb's novel
•     Dr. Grimes on fiction by John Ehle or Bill and Vera Cleaver
•     Dr. Mead on cultural diversity in Appalachia, Affrilachian poets, and issues relating to sociology
•     Dr. Stephenson on folktales and adaptations or dramatizing Franklin County and Southern history
•     Ms. Becky Mushko (retired from Ferrum last year), writer of stories and humorous articles set in this part of Appalachia
•    Mr. Loveland on social justice issues and labor relations; you could report on his book Under the Workers' Caps, about a NC paper mill that was taken over by the workers to keep the mill open and protect their jobs. 
•     Dr. Hanlon's specialties: folktales and adaptations in all media; use of dialect in literature; picture books and other children's books, including authors Virginia Hamilton, James Still, Ruth White, George Ella Lyon, etc.
•    Environmental science faculty on environmental issues (if you aren't doing a poster for the symposium, you might get ideas during the symposium and you could talk to faculty members the following week).

• Creative projects: If you want to create your own story, poem, picture book, artwork, song, folktale or folklore adaptation, you will present it to the class and your grade will be based on your account of the work you did to produce it and the connections you make with Appalachian literature we are studying.

General Resources for Topics in Appalachian Literature:

These resources may be useful for getting an overview of different topics or finding additional sources.  Remember that the professional  librarians are faculty members who are available to help you with research.

Appalachian Studies Association Bibliography (online)

Appalachian Studies Bibliography Cumulation 1994-2004, WVU (online)

Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Eds. Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell. Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2006. Entries are arranged alphabetically within each section, such as Cultural Traditions: Folklore and Folklife, Cultural Traditions: Humor, Cultural Traditions: Language, Cultural Traditions: Literature. (In our library's reference section.)

On reserve for this class: Edwards, Grace Toney, JoAnn Aust Asbury, and Ricky L. Cox, eds. A Handbook to Appalachia: An Introduction to the Region. Knoxville, Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2006. Excellent introduction to regional studies by a variety of scholars, including a section by Roberta Herrin on children's literature.

AppLit: Resources for Readers and Teachers of Appalachian Literature for Children and Young Adults

See the page Posters for Environmental Symposium or the Resources folder in Angel for links to bibliographies on environmental issues and Appalachian literature.

Use the following format if you would like to submit a proposal in writing by Nov. 10, the deadline for having your topic approved.  Even if you don't use this form, you should be thinking about these same aspects of your project.

Proposal for Project in Appalachian Literature

Name:


Topic:



Statement of Purpose of Project:






Scope or Parts of Project (indicate how your portion fits into whole project if working with a group):











Procedures and Methods to be Used:











Resources to be Used (may include people and written sources):







Final Form in which Project will be Submitted:
(Must include oral report and notes or outline or essay)

11/17/2006

Posters for Environmental Symposium