This guide contains resources for students completing assignments for Mr. Verbeke and Ms. Snyder on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Raisin in the Sun, or your Bloom Ball which can be about any of your independent reading choices. If you wish to explore a different topic, please consult your classroom teacher and Ms. Brumbach will be delighted to help you locate additional resources.
You can use the overview from Drama for Students to get a reminder of plot points from A Raisin in the Sun to diagram or illustrate for the "Understanding" portion of your Bloom Ball Assignment.
And choose quotations from the articles below to support your thesis.
The American Dream and Dreams Deferred
Gender Roles and Sexism
For your Bloom Ball, you may need to find biographical information about the author of the book you read. If your book is written by a living author who continues to write, they probably keep a blog or official website which would be the best place to start.
For a more objective view, you will also want to look at profiles written by professional journalists. These might appear in newspapers and magazines like The New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, Entertainment Weekly, and others. If you have not heard of the website or publication before, ask your teacher or Ms. Brumbach before proceeding.
Resources like Biography.com may be appropriate for classic and very famous authors like Mark Twain, Lorraine Hansberry, or Stephen King.
You can also use the database Contemporary Authors which offers biographical information on a number of 20th and 21st century authors.
You can use the Overview of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from Novels for Students and/or read: How to Write About The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to remind yourself of plot points to diagram or illustrate for the "Understanding" portion of your Bloom Ball Assignment.
Choose quotations from the articles below to support your thesis:
Slavery and Freedom
Criticizing Racism
For this section of your Bloom Ball Assignment, you will need to find news articles or other information about current events that are relevant to themes in the book you read.
Student Resources in Context is a database that will lead you to overviews of thousands of contemporary issues and links to reliable media sources.
If you choose to search the open web or look to your social media feeds for sources on issues related to your book, don't forget to SIFT!
Stop - Get your bearings and get a general understanding of the topic.
Investigate the Source - If you come across a website or publication you are not familiar with, use lateral reading to determine whether the source is reliable as an authority on the topic or as a reputable news outlet.
Find Trusted Coverage - If you discover a claim about your your issue that seems incredible, look for that claim to be substantiated in one of your regular trusted sources.
Trace Back to the Original - If you suspect a photo has been altered or miscaptioned, use a reverse image search. If you are not sure whether a scientific finding has been accurately represented in a general interest publication, try to find to scientific paper it was based on.
If at any time you are not sure whether the information you would like to use is true and accurate, ask! your instructors and librarians are happy to help.
