For example, before we started The Scarlet Letter, I asked students to write about three places that characterize their hometown. The purpose was to see how Hawthorne did the same thing for the Puritan settlement of Boston. The other two were inspired by Huckleberry Finn. I asked students to describe a stereotype of their culture, race, or country. This was in preparation of a study of Twain's depiction of Jim and the country yokels in the novel.
Students are now in the process of choosing which of the three papers to revise.
Then we will post them. We have an American curriculum, although we offer some specialized courses like South Asian Studies. All seniors do a senior project on some aspect of Bangladesh that interests them. They do research and write a 25-page paper. They also do a presentation in front of an audience and a panel of adults who ask questions.