Process
This project is going to give you the chance to "walk around in other people's skin" for a while. You've just finished reading the novel The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle from Charlotte's perspective. Now, you are going to rewrite the story from the perspective of some of the minor characters in the novel, and you are going to design and create the book that contains these stories.
Step One: Select three people to work with.
Step Two: Each group member needs to select one of the following characters: Captain Jaggery, Zachariah, Mr. Keetch, or Mr. Cranick.
Now, split up. Each group member should work independently for a while.
Step Three: For each character, select and re-read one chapter from the novel in which that character is important.
Step Four:Research some background for your character. What would life have been like in the 1830's for your character?
Step Five: Re-write Avi's original chapter from your character's perspective. Try not to change what happened in the original story, but make sure your reader will understand what your character was thinking and why he acted in specific ways. Each chapter should be long enough to tell the same piece of the story as the original novel does.
Now, re-form your group. You need to work together for the rest of the mission!
Step Six: The group should work together to write an introduction telling your reader all about Liverpool, England, Providence, Rhode Island, and a sailing brig in the 1830s, the fictional settings for the novel.
Step Seven: Write a conclusion chapter that imagines what has happened to all of the characters, plus Charlotte and her family 20 years after the original story ends.
Step Eight: Design and create a cover for your book, and bind all of your chapters together inside the cover.
A Woman at Sea
http://www.joycetice.com/diaries/1832annwest.htm
Providence, Rhode Island
http://www.providenceri.com/history/centuries1.html
Liverpool, England
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/344655/Liverpool
http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/localhistory/
Life on a Sailing Ship
A Considerable Branch of Business: Shipbuilding in Durham, New Hampshire, 1756-1950University of New Hampshire Library
Summary: "'A Considerable Branch of Business: Shipbuilding in Durham, New Hampshire, 1756-1950' is based upon several manuscript collections that document Durham's shipbuilding trade." (UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE LIBRARY) View a selection of documents and images on shipbuilding in Durham, New Hampshire.
URL: http://www.library.unh.edu/special/index.php/exhibits/shipbuilding
http://savvytraveler.publicradio.org/show/features/2000/20000708/ships.shtml