Below you will find six different novel study projects that can be used together or as separate assignments to explore themes and characters from The Future of Us. Please be aware, these projects are designed to be completed after the entire novel is read, but with the right adaptations, these projects could be used during reading as well.
Final Novel Study Project Options:
1. One of the final novel study projects that students can work on is a creative writing assignment. This assignment will have the students write a wedding announcement that would appear in the local newspaper. This will reinforce the method of choosing words wisely since a wedding announcement is only a small space in a newspaper and this will also help students think about the audience they are writing to (among other things). Students will be complete this activity after finishing the last chapter of the novel since the last scene leaves the reader imagining what will happen with Josh and Emma. Students will be given a blank sheet of paper with markers and they will be given 30-35 minutes to work on the announcements (depending on class size and ability levels). Then, students will informally present their announcements to the class, and I (as the teacher) will collect all the announcements and combine all of them into a pamphlet the whole class will receive so everyone else can see their peers' announcements!
2. Another final novel study project can be a Retelling activity (Beers 152). Students will work in a group of 2-4 students (depending on class size and the scene the students will retell) and the group will pick one scene from the novel to retell (act out). Students will need to select a scene that is significant enough to be worthwhile to retell. Then, students will need to write the script of the scene they will be retelling. Students must combine both quotes from the text, as well as lines they will write themselves. Then, students will perform these small skits in front of the class (everyone in the group must say at least one line) and the students in the audience will need to guess what scene from the novel the students are retelling. Students will be graded on their script as well as acting the script out in a coherent manner. **Please see rubric in the Final Assessment page for an official list of what will be graded.**
3. Another final novel study project can be Writing With a Partner. Students will choose a partner and switch off writing lines of a story of their choice. The story can be any version of a story they have heard before, or it can be a story they have made up; but the students will each write a minimum of 10 lines in the story. Students will take turns writing a line until the end of the story. After the students are done with their stories, they will share them with the class. I will then display the stories around the classroom. In the novel The Future of Us, the authors, Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, co-wrote this book so this project allows students to connect with the authors and understand how co-writing works. **Please see the rubric in the Assessments page of this website for exact grading criteria.**
4. The Future You on Facebook is another option for the final novel study project. Students will fill out a Facebook page template that is given to them by me (the teacher) of what they hope their Facebook page will look like in 15 years. Students can do this by writing what they hope to be when they grow up, where they want to live, if they want kids, etc. Students will fill in their name, “About You” information, interests, basic information, relationship status, etc. They will put a picture of what they hope to look like in the profile picture space. Students will then fill in their timeline. Their timeline can consist of activities they hope to do or people they hope to interact with. In addition, on the side of the students' Facebook pages, students will fill out advertisements for products their future selves would be interested in. **Please see the handout created for this project on the Handout section of this website.**
5.The Film Adaptation: As you know, The Future of Us is soon to be turned into a movie. Since almost all of us has had a favorite novel turned into a disappointing film, here is your chance to get it right. This assignment requires four steps:
First, cast the novel. Pick the actors who should play: Emma, Josh, Kellan, and Tyson. Make sure your choices are appropriate for the characters. Nicole Kidman and Bruce Willis are just wrong for Emma and Josh! Next, you will have to decide what aspects/scenes from the novel to leave in and what to leave out. Second, pick out five things that happened in the novel that must be kept for the movie. Remember what we talked about in class with movies being filmed in scenes. You want to think of the book as a collection of scenes. Third, pick out five things that happened in the novel that can be cut from the movie (and the story will still make sense). Again, remember what we talked about in class with movies being filmed in scenes. Think of the book as a collection of scenes. Fourth, write a paragraph defending your choices of what to keep from the book and what to cut.
6. The Future of Us ends with Emma and Josh in 1996, together, happy, and uncertain of what their future is going to be like in 2011. They have had glimpses of possible futures but now Facebook is gone. You will go farther than fifteen years in their futures and think about the rest of their lives. You will be writing two obituaries: one for Emma and one for Josh. Follow the sample obituaries that we looked at in class. Think about how these characters’ lives would change over the years. Write about what happened to them after 1996. Also, think about how you would sum up these characters: who they are and how they lived their lives.