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"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” Voltaire
In Our Time - Exam & Readings : There are many reasons to give an exam - in this case it is not only to see if the students were processing what we did in class during this unit - but I also wanted to see how they studied - and indeed, if they had the proper notes to study, from what we did during the Hemingway biographical lecture. As always, the exam is a critical thinking, multiple choice exam. Because I know that the test won't take the entire period - I have some readings for the students as well - for things that we didn't cover: a high school story written by Hemingway (it's really bad - so it's great for the students own self-judgment of their own writing) and an article about the real Big Two-Hearted River and Hemingway's time on it. See my page on Quizzes & Exams
Lesson Overview
Lesson Overview
There are many versions of this exam - this one has less stories in it than some, and covers the stories that are gone over on this website. It is more than possible to write an exam that requires thinking and does not try to "trick" the student - but rather to try and assess how much the student has been paying attention in class to what's been going on. It is also important to give thoughtful multiple choice exams because it is the kind of thing that the students may encounter again and again in their academic lives - starting with their ACT/SAT tests - and later in college. For my exams - I always try to give 5 possible answers - 4 of them plausible - though only one is correct - and one that is a kind of joke. First, to make it easier, second to put them at ease. While my quiz average for students that did the reading hovered at about 92% - my exam average was usually around 70%. I don't think that makes it a bad exam - I think it is another tool to try to get students to study and to process what happens in class.
The Exam
The Exam
There are 40 multiple choice questions and 10 True or False answers. See above for my approach in writing these exams or my separate page on these. Again, a good portion of this exam is based on the two day lecture that I give on Hemingway's life.
Two Readings for Post Exam time
Two Readings for Post Exam time
A short story that Hemingway wrote as a senior at Oak Park - River Forest High School. Sentimental with a twist ending (like his hero, Ring Lardner - it gives hope to the still developing high school creative writing student.
A travel article about fishing Hemingway's "Big Two-Hearted River" and why the stretch of water is - beyond its literary merit - so legendary.
Remote Enhancements
Remote Enhancements
I did give these exams during Remote Learning - it was trickier and will try and find more material on how I did it.
Thoughts on the Lesson
Thoughts on the Lesson
It's nice to take a breather after the exam and give students some time to read in class. The first of the two reading, "Judgement of Manitou" really is a not very good piece of writing by Hemingway, when he was the age of the students in my class. They may see an echo of the story in the weakest of the In Our Time stories - "My Old Man" - but it also gives them (the students) a chance to reflect on their own writing - and how it can change.
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