Final Assessment

Your final project for the semester is to synthesize four (or more) texts or class elements and to draw
conclusions from that synthesis. You may choose any three elements from the class that you see fit, provided
that at least one is “A Raisin in the Sun” (in the text book), “The Pearl” (from Van Hof) or “Old Man and the
Sea” (from Van Hof). The end result of your synthesis will be a project that will be presented to the class on
January 21-24. The project can take any form you see fit (poster, power point, website, etc.), but should be
engaging to the class as it is presented (it should be more than just an explanation of a poster – it should
involve the audience in some way).

The backbone of the project will be a 4-5 page essay that verbally synthesizes all of the various topics of your
project into a cohesive whole. The presentation may as simple as a reading of the essay you write, or it may
draw from the content of the essay and present it in a different way. Either way, all all students must submit an
essay and must present the contents of that essay to the class.

A word on synthesis: remember that synthesis does not mean compare and contrast. Think about the old
1980s synthesizers. Musicians would use them to combine diverse sounds (trumpets, cowbell, piano, drums,
more cowbell) into one unified and unique musical sound. That’s what this project needs to do – take very
diverse elements (Romantic short stories, modernist novels, Puritanical plays) and pull out threads from each
that combine to form a new and original thought. For example, using “Raisin in the Sun,” Tom’s statements in
“The Great Gatsby,” James Fennimore Cooper’s descriptions of slaves and Native Americans, and Tituba in
“The Crucible” what can we learn about this nation’s attitude towards non-whites? How have race relations
changed? What are the differences between whites' views of minorities and minorities’ views of themselves?
Are there any lessons of history that went unlearned and are being repeated?

Another way to think about synthesis that some students found useful is to distill down various texts read in
class to one word. For example: in thinking about Hawthorne, Stravinsky, Langston Hughes and Hemingway
what can we learn about the concept of hope?

In the end, here’s how you’ll be graded on your final presentation:

______ Brief (but complete) summaries of the texts being discussed

– 10 points

______ Clear identification of the elements from each text upon which you will focus
– 10 points

______ Intelligent combination of these various elements into a new concept that adds new ideas and new
lines of thought to the narrative of this class (this is the essay grade)
– 60 points

______ Presentation (7-10 minutes) that engages the audience in some way
– 20 points