Ernest Gaines WebQuest

There is a new AI feature coming out. It will tell you the exact day you are going to die. Do you go and find out?

Ernest J. Gaines says, "We all know-at least intellectually-that we're going [to die]. The difference is being told, 'Okay, it's tomorrow at 10 a.m. 'How do you react to that? How do you face it? That, it seems to me, is the ultimate test of life."



Ernest J. Gaines was born in 1933 on the River Lake Plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, the setting for most of his fiction; he was the fifth generation in his family to be born there. At the age of nine he was picking cotton in the plantation fields; the black quarter's school held classes only five or six months a year.



When he was fifteen, Gaines moved to California to join his parents, who had left Louisiana during World War II. There he attended San Francisco State University and later won a writing fellowship to Stanford University.



Gaines published his first short story in 1956. Since then he has written eight books of fiction.  A Lesson Before Dying, his most recent novel, won the 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award. 

Use the following links to Answer Questions from the Assignment Page

1. Read about Earnest J Gaines
   1. The Ernest J. Gaines Center
   2. The History Makers
   3. The African American Registry
   4. Louisiana's Ernest J. Gaines gets his own LOA edition
   5. Earnest J Gaines Interview [PBS]
2. Read about the Death Penalty to learn more about its use:
   • Death Penalty Information Center
   • Amnesty International [anti-death penalty organization]
   • Criminal Justice Legal Foundation [pro-death penalty site]
   • Pro & Con Arguments  [PBS]
3. Read about Jim Crow Laws:
   • Jim Crow Museum
   • The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow [PBS]
   • The History of Jim Crow
   • Jim Crow Law [Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. NPS]
4. Read about the role of the Black Church
   • The Black Church [PBS]
   • Introduction to the Church in the Southern Black Community
5. Read and/or watch Other Resources:
   • Angel on Death Row [PBS]
   • The Scottsboro Boys
   • The Saga of the Scottsboro Boys
   • Sister Mary Prejean

As you explore these sites, take notes by answering a few questions. These are your notes, so they should be brief and in bullet format. You will then use your notes to create a Facebook Profile page for Ernest J. Gaines. 

Build a Facebook Profile or an Instagram Profile for Ernest Gaines. 

• Remember- this is his page, so everything you post is from his point of view
• Get Creative!!!!
  • change the background
  • change the font
  • have fun learning

Rubric

1. Questions with response                                                  51 points
2. Profile                                                                                 10 points
   1. Picture                3 pts
   2. Username           2 pts
   3. Demographics   5 pts
3. Friends                                                                                  4 points
4. Hobbies                                                                                 4 points
5. Family                                                                                    4 points
6. Dreams/goal                                                                          4 points
7. Quotes                                                                                   5 points
8. The Death Penalty                                                                6 points
   1. Jim Crow                                                                     6 points
9.  The Church & The African American Community            6 points

Creative and Unique +10 points

                                                                                  Total           100 points

Your reflection on this quest.

Ernest Gaines WebQuest Class Act Press