World Literature Final Exam

Here's my exam for this year. It's a bit shorter than normal because I had to give my exam during a 42 minute period instead of the regular exam session (due to needing to use the iPads). Shortness didn't seem to make a difference in grades, as the averages were right where they normally fall. I change my exam every year, so I thought it might be interesting to share it.

I like to offer choice in my exams. Show me what you know! I also try to mimic real world situations - students can access the internet freely to check their answers, but they are working within a time limit.

As you can see from the exam, the end of the year was split between two units: Shakespeare and a research paper on a chosen career path. Here's the exam:

Puppet Pals Hamlet - 12th Grade Brit Lit Honors

When teaching Shakespeare, one of my favorite exercises is to have my students condense the text into manageable chunks. I believe this helps students understand the big picture themes. I like to do this at the end of the unit, after we have spent considerable time with the characters and plot lines.

This year, I used Puppet Pals (Director's Pass - $1.50 per device with VPP) on our classroom iPads to accomplish this task and I think it was pretty successful. Some segments are better than others, some make little to no sense at all. But it was a valuable experience and helped my students understand the play better.

The assignment was to take an entire act of Hamlet and cut out non-essential lines to create a 5 minute video. The original language was not supposed to be changed, only edited for time. I started by letting students divide themselves into groups, then groups randomly were chosen to pick the act they wanted to stage. I borrowed a rack of renaissance costumes from the drama department, and we spent much of the first day dressing up and taking pictures for the puppets. The entire project (pictures, filming, editing) took one week of in-class time. A few groups came during study halls to get some extra work done, but the majority were done on time.

The rubric:

One of the reasons I love using Puppet Pals is that it allows students to recite Shakespeare without the fear of standing up in front of an audience. They can hide behind their "puppet", but still learn proper diction. I also wanted my students to think through staging a play - this is why they were given a movement grade. Keep in mind, we did this exercise after reading the play in its entirety as a class, acting out most scenes as we went along. 

*Two students were absent while we created these videos, so I had them do the introduction and conclusion, pretending to be Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

My favorite video is Act V - I love how they created different puppets for different expressions and actions. Well done!

The rest of the videos can be viewed on our class channel (techielitstudents) in the Hamlet Playlist.

Novels in the Classroom. Yay or Nay?

On the English Companion Ning, a forum for English Teachers, there is a thriving discussion on the importance of the novel, especially considering the push towards informational texts in the Common Core era. My thoughts on the issue are a bit jumbled as the school year has just finished and my ears are full of pool water. In English class, we teach so many disciplines: grammar, vocabulary, writing, and reading. I find myself wondering what is the point? Why do we drone on and on about plot development, literary elements, and characterization? If a student enjoys a books, isn't that enough? Are books puzzles that must be solved? Yes and no. Books are a window to the world. Books teach us about ourselves and about others. Through books we explore relationships, career options, and deepest darkest Peru.

My methodology involves guiding students in their reading, with little to no "presentations" about the reading itself. When a student comes back to me a year after reading a book and says something to to effect of: "that book really opened my eyes" I feel a resounding HURRAH! well up within me. Yes. Yes. Yes. That is why we read. We in our own little bubbly worlds need to be challenged and refined to become the best versions of ourselves. Reading can contribute to this.

But does it have to be a novel? I have a student who vehemently hates novels. He would rather read the instruction manual for a toaster than spend time with Mr. Darcy or Okonkwo. This challenged me as a teacher. To this student reading was a pragmatic experience, all else was foolishness. In a way he has a point, given the inane trash that often passes as a respectable novel. But to throw out literature entirely? That's akin to stuffing all the great works of art in a barn and lighting it on fire. What an immeasurable loss. Literature has something to offer this student, and I'm still wracking my brain for ways to communicate and inspire this concept.

Many people have an internal or external list of books that they think every person should read. But all of our lists are different! How can this be? Is it necessary to still maintain a canon to truly produce an educated population? I don't know! Literature is built on literature. To understand and appreciate modern prose, one must have dabbled in ancient mythology and biblical stories. I guess when it comes down to it, being a great reader is akin to being a lifelong learner. It's never fully obtained - always further up and further in. One great read opens Pandora's box to other great reads. And so... we read, and read, and read.

In conclusion, I hope that novels aren't permanently removed from schools. It is good for our students (and for all humanity) to be challenged and inspired.