World Project Instructions/Guidelines

Latin America (Central America & West Indies)

Total Points Possible: 520 points

This is a multi-week project where students will be creating a minimum 22 page travel book on their assigned
country. The key to making this successful is to organize your time and get the sections done on the days we
work on them. You will only be given certain days to get specific information. It is recommended that you do
this as partners and not individually but the choice is yours. Please be aware of the elements included. This
project is worth 520 points which is of your overall quarter grade. All students must do the assignment if
they want to pass this quarter. This is not optional. 300 of the points are participation 50 points for each day
that we have a class devoted to the project. The final project is out of 220 points (10 points for each section).

Middle School Expectations/Directions:

Students will be creating a travel book which describes the following elements. The travel book should be
colorful, impactful in content, and encourage readers to travel to their assigned country. The minimum
paragraphs for each section is one paragraph. NOTE: Each page has specific instructions to be followed.

High School Expectations/Directions:

Students will be creating a travel book which describes the elements below. The travel book must be typed
with images and should be colorful, impactful in content, and encourage readers to travel to their assigned
country. The minimum paragraphs for each section is three paragraphs. Please remember this is a travel
book to convince your parents/friends to visit your country. NOTE: Each page has specific instructions to be
followed.

Elements to be included:
1. Social Organizations (Families, Social Classes, Social Groups)
a. Create a page with illustrations or pictures, which describe family life in your country. Include details
concerning how people live, where most people live, what they do for a living, what are their views on
children, are there specific roles or jobs within the family?
b. Create a page with illustrations or pictures, which describe social classes or groups in your country.
Include details concerning past social classes as compared to present day, are they the same? What
are social classes based upon, money, jobs, family name, education? Is it possible to move up and
down the social class system? What types of social groups are there in your country? For example, in
the U.S. we have youth groups such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Brownies, Campfire Girls. Are
there groups such as this in your country?
2. Customs and Traditions
a. Write a one-page description of the customs and traditions within your country.
b. Create an advertisement page, which shows people acting out customs and traditions in your
assigned county.
3. Languages
a. Create a graph, which shows the percentages of the people in your assigned country who speak
certain languages. Show how languages are sometimes barriers to understanding one another.
b. Write a letter to the government of your country with suggestions for dealing with language barriers
between people in that country.

4. Arts and Literature

 a. Include a list with pictures of places that tourists should visit on their trip. Include an image from one of
the places, and then write a paragraph explaining what the art shows about the culture at that time in
history.
b. Research an artist from your assigned country, and write a short report about his/her artistic work.
Include images of that artist's work.
5. Religion
a. Add a page which illustrates religious beliefs.
b. Create replicas or use images of religious icons and write a paragraph explaining the significance of
these icons and discuss basic elements of the religion and how it has spread throughout history.
6. Forms of Government
a. Write a report describing the type of government in your assigned country.
b. Create a page showing the different branches of government and offices held.
c. Include local laws that tourists should be aware of when traveling to the country.
7. Economic Systems
a. Explain how the economy in your assigned country compares with that of the United States. Traditional,
Free Market, and Command Economies are three to use in a comparison. What are the major imports
and exports of your country?
b. Find an image of a market place in your country and write a short paragraph about what is happening in
the image (Based on Economic facts within your assigned country)
8. Food and Clothing
a. Research information about typical foods from your assigned country. For example, in China, stir-fry
was created out of necessity. Due to a lack of trees in the area, local people needed to chop their food
into small pieces that would cook quickly and use less "fuel".
b. Compare types of clothing worn by different classes of people. The Gentry, or upper class in China
wore clothes that were very different from people in lower classes. Describe differences between upper
classes and lower classes, or between people of different occupations.
c. Create a page that describes the best places to eat at and what those restaurants include.
d. Create a page that describes the shopping places and what to buy.
9. Music and Dance
a. Describe the types of music from the past and present in your assigned country. Describe this music
and why it is appealing to the people.
b. Include a picture or model of traditional instruments or people dancing and write a brief report
describing the model.
c. Draw a picture or include a picture of people engaged in dancing. Describe what is going on. Are they
dancing for a wedding, religious ceremony, funeral?

Schedule
Prep Day: Read Instructions for project and make a list of questions. Read about the various and answer
questions about the assigned country. Decide as individuals who you may want as a partner and which
country. Note: Partners needs to be based on high school vs middle school.
Day 1: Select Country, Research Forms of Government and Economic Systems, Create skeleton travel guide.
Day 2: Research the Customs and Traditions, Languages of the country, Start finishing assigned pages.
Day 3: Research and write about Social Organizations & Religion
Day 4: Research and write about Music and Dances, Art and Literature
Day 5: Research and write about Food and Clothing
Day 6-7: Finalize and turn in assignment.