Not Your Average Final

Story by: Natalie Tanner

With the end of a trimester, comes the stress of cramming for finals just to throw all that knowledge out as soon as the class ends. That’s not necessarily true for Mr. Snelgrove’s Senior English class. Students chose a British novel to read, and then had to write an analysis paper on it. That’s typical of any English class, but students also got to showcase their creativity by making a visual aid to go with it.

Senior Clark Sutton read the third instalment in the Lord of the Rings series and created a document written in one of the languages J.R.R. Tolkien created for the books.

“I think [the series] is really interesting because Tolkien wrote these stories as a way to escape his life. You can immerse yourself in the story,” said Sutton.

Senior Daylen Dameron chose to read a book that’s more difficult, even for adults. It was Crime and Punishment, and because it was originally a Russian book, he had to get special permission to read it.

“I thought it would be insightful to read the opinion from someone on the other side of the world and I wanted to read something that was outside of the norm,” said Dameron.

In addition to bringing the visual to the class, students are invited to the Snelgrove Show, where they can talk to both Mr. Snelgrove and the class about the book they read. This approach to learning has allowed the students to form better connections between literature and reality.

“There are all kinds of learners. You have your kinesthetic learners who learn more while doing something about [literature], but the more traditional learners still get something from writing the paper,” said Mr. Snelgrove.

Besides making different connections, students now have something to physically take away from the class, which helps them remember what they’ve learned from the class.