Introduction:
First, here is what your final exam is NOT:
•A test to trip you up on interpretation:
Why does Billy never zipper his jacket despite the snow?
What is the significance of Doria going to see The Lion King?
What is the significance of the “cream soda” in Master Harold?
•A recapitulation of all the thinking, writing, and talking we have already done so you just give it back to me;
No thank you. Been there. Read that.
•A task to keep you busy for a few days so you won’t think English is easy.
Here is what the exam IS:
This exam is an opportunity to show your thinking about the readings and films.
Why?
We read to discover ideas about ourselves and about human experience. As my esteemed colleague, Don Kaplan, recently wrote on a teacher’s blog:
Literature gives students a chance to see beyond the facts and patterns. In literature, we have so many opportunities not afforded by the other disciplines: a chance to empathize, a chance to see into other's thoughts, a chance to see beyond the obvious differences. Literature gives us stories that help us make sense of our lives, our world, and our experience.
I couldn’t have said it better. Literature allows us to explore what it is to be human—in all its complexity, contradiction, joy, sorrow, frustration, struggle, excitement, and fullness.
From the very beginning of the term, we have talked about how writers “create meaning” for defined audiences. Here is your opportunity to create meaning out of the readings and your own experience in a way that makes most sense to you. The assignment for the exam is for you to “make sense” or create meaning for an audience who has read the works.
Guidelines:
1) Work by yourself. I want to see what YOU make of the readings. So, you should do all the preparation and thinking by yourself. You may, of course, consult with your peers and with me. You will acknowledge that help in the exam. But otherwise you are to have no assistance. this means help from the web, from Cliff, or from anyone else.
2) Have some fun. Yes, fun! This exam is like the concert! The performance! The title game! The speech! It’s the culmination of all your work, practice, and thinking. Of course you’re a little nervous, but you also have to admit the challenge can be fun. This assignment should get you excited, get you thinking, get you pumped.
3) Relax. This is only one piece of work in a long year. Do your best, and don't worry about the rest.
4) Remember to breathe.