Summative Assessment For Adventure Awaits

Ana June EDUC 203 

UNIT: 9-10th grade English

READING, WRITING, AND UNDERSTANDING LITERATURE

 

Adventure Awaits is a curriculum unit based on Joseph Campbell’s theory of Monomyth. Per Campbell: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man” (From The Hero with a Thousand Faces).

 

Monomyth is the pattern that underpins not only the mythology and story from every culture, but also the real-life human experience. We are called to adventure, and we resist the call because we resist change. When we were persuaded or forced to accept the task, we go through a series of hardships in search of a treasure...we come up against forces that want to kill us, but though a part of us may die, we survive and are changed. When we return to our regular lives we bring with us the wisdom gained from the journey.

 

As a writer, I love monomyth because it is the fabric of stories I read and stories I write. As a human being, I love it for its universality. For what it offers up to our aspirations and our hopes... We are all the hero of our own lives.

 

I feel very strongly that a unit such as this should be assessed on the actual work and learning done, rather than by some test. While certainly they have their place, tests in my opinion tend to be an artificial measure of learning, the nature of which inherently provokes stress in the student. Tests are mysterious and powerful entities, that are so often disempowering to the learning process. I want to assess the process of my students’ learning, and I feel that is best done through a portfolio evaluation.

 

The rubrics reflect this sort of assessment­—my students will assemble a small portfolio in which they will place their original short stories and accompanying collateral (outline and character sketch) along with their favorite story analysis poster diagram. The two rubrics reflect the expectations of the story and the diagram, and I feel best assess the learning that I hope will be inspired by this unit.