Stephen King WebQuest

 

Text Box: Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. He made his first professional short story sale in 1967 to Startling Mystery Stories. In the fall of 1973, he began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels. In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co., accepted the novel Carrie for publication, providing him the means to leave teaching and write full-time. He has since published over 40 books and has become one of the world's most successful writers.
Stephen lives in Maine and Florida with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. They are regular contributors to a number of charities including many libraries and have been honored locally for their philanthropic activities.

 

 

The Quest

 

You are a part of a world renowned journalist team. Your team will be responsible for creating a presentation for the International Council of Literature recommending Stephen King for an award. The presentation will have to contain specific details about King and his works.

Use the internet and books to gather information. You may present the information gathered any way your team deems most effective to your classmates.  You cannot just copy and paste your information from the internet in a word document and call it yours.  It must be an original final product, with any quotations properly cited.

 

Step One— Personal Information

What are 15 interesting new facts you learned about King? Why are they interesting?  Find at least three personal fears of King. How was King's wife responsible for Carrie getting finished?

 

Step Two— Books

List 5 books written by King.  Include a short description of each book and a picture of the book cover.

 

Step Three— Reading

Read 5 short stories or one novel.  Write a review of each short story or novel.

For help on writing a review:

http://www.infoplease.com/homework/wsbookreporths.html

 

Step Four— Movies

Name at least three movies which were based on Stephen King’s novels. Include a short description of the movies.

 

Step Five— Documentation

Compose a list of all the sites you obtained your information from, and make a bibliography (which must be turned in with your final project).

Tips on How-To Write a Proper Bibliography

 

Step Six— Personal Reflection Summary Paper

You will write a one page paper describing your personal reflection to this project.  It should include the reasons why you do or do not feel personally connected to your author.  You should also reflect on the aspects (parts) of this project that you enjoyed as well as those you did not like. Think and write about the things you think you did well and those that you think needed to be improved upon. Click here for some questions to help you get started with your writing of this assignment.

 

Step Seven— Presentation

Prior to the first student presentations the classroom teacher advises students of the three (3) components (parts) of their presentations. 

 1. Manner Presented To Audience:  The manner in which you present your product to the audience (your fellow classmates and teacher.)

Silly, laughing, giggling and getting distracted during the presentation? 

Prepared, organized, and truly did your best to showcase your product in a meaningful way?

2 and 3. Attentiveness and Respect: Amount of attentiveness and respectfulness shown to others during their presentations.

 

Resources

General Information

http://www.stephenking.com/

http://www.stephenking.com/biography_pf.html - A good printable biography

http://www.macmillanenglish.com/uploadedFiles/stephenKing_ads.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King

http://www.stephenkingnews.com/

http://www.horrorking.com/

biography, books, movies

http://people.monstersandcritics.com/archive/peoplearchive.php/Stephen_King/biog

FAQ about Stephen King

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/sking.htm

The A to Z of Stephen King

 

Interviews

Amazon.com interview

Amazing Authors Showcase interview

Amazon Fishbowl with Bill Maher- Stephen King interview  

HorrorKing interview

Stephen King Shop interview

 

Short Story Collections

Night Shift  

Different Seasons

Skeleton Crew

Four Past Midnight

Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Everything's Eventual  

 

Evaluation

Students will be graded on the quality of their writing as well as the content of their final project. Have you revised your writing so that your finished product is reflective of your best effort? Is the final product and presentation informative, and does it invoke a curiosity to further explore the works of the author? Does your book review generate interest in the novel without giving away too many details of the plot which would destroy the story? Is the Personal Information section interesting and accurate? Is your final project visually appealing?  A Student Self Evaluation Assessment is a good way to have students become responsible for their own learning.  While some students will work in groups of two or more on this WebQuest, the personal refection summary paper must be done individually.

 

Conclusion

After completing this project, you will have learned a lot more about Stephen King and his work than you knew at the beginning.  In addition, your project will create interest in the King's work and encourage others to read his works. 

 

You can now continue to expand your knowledge and find some other horror authors you'd like to become an expert on.

 

 

Teacher Resources

 

 

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