Goals

 

Details

Assessments: Student writing

 

Description

After closing out the book with an excellent exploration on the notion of Choice, students were asked to take one last look, a 'final examination' if you will, at their learnings before beginning work on the Interdisciplinary Exhibition Project with Science and Digital/Visual Arts.

Throughout the semester we looked at the stories we have read as allegories, (stories with a message or moral), where the characters, events, and environments represent deeper truths than what is seen in the surface of the story. We talked about how the stories can be understood on more than one level and how the more profound meanings, (religious, moral, political, or personal), are usually of greater importance than the story itself.

Students were asked to consider that for the 2nd half of the semester we got a little lost living in the world of Neverwhere... of London Above...and of London Below, and like Henry David Thoreau once said, "Not until we are lost, do we begin to find ourselves." By writing a Fantasy novel that presents us with different worlds, different realities, and different truths, what did Neil Gaiman help you to think about? What did you find for yourself? How is Richard's Choice similar to the Choice we must all make in our own lives?

Please refer to the assignment, "A Final Exam" in the Resouces section below for a full description of expectations.

A Final Examination
A last, reflective look at not only a study of the novel, but a preparation for moving ahead....
Download (72K)

Author Reflections

This was a nice assignment to not only close the study of the novel, but to ask the students to think of their whole semester thematically. The work students did on this piece was revised and included as a part of their Exhibition Project.