Old Yeller Project

We have just finished reading "Old Yeller"-- and your student has chosen a project to complete. See below for the list of projects with their requirements. Each project must be a minimum of one page typed (double-spaced) or hand written.

Projects are due Friday May 17th, but students are encouraged to turn them in before then.

Topics for Research and Writing Projects- Old Yeller

1.     Do some research about daily life in rural Texas in the 1860s. Imagine you lived then instead of now and describe what your day would be like. What aspects of life in the 1860s do you think you would like? What wouldn’t you like? What would you find hardest about living in the frontier days?

2.   Continue this story where it leaves off. Describe what you think happens when Travis takes Little Arliss and the pup on a squirrel hunt.

3.    Travis’s mother plays an important role in this story—she runs the house while Travis’s father is away and she is there to help out Travis every time he runs into trouble. Research the role of women in the 1860s. How do women’s roles today compare with the role of women then? Do you think women had it easier or harder then than now?

4.    Pick five scenes in the novel that you found particularly interesting or exciting and draw a picture of them. Write a paragraph for each illustration explaining what is happening and why you feel it is an important scene in the book.

5.   Travis spends some time in this story thinking about what it means to be a man. Write an essay about what you think it means to be a grown up. Are your criteria for becoming an adult different than Travis’s? How? How much do you think a person’s age has to do with being able to take on responsibility? What about the effect of the time and place in which a person lives?

6.   Write a short story about an adventure you’ve had with an animal that you loved. How did the adventure make you feel closer to your animal friend?