Lesson Overview 

The Harmony of War  - A Creative response to All Quiet on the Western Front:  The guidelines here are pretty loose.  I do give some example mediums - but students can come to me and get any medium approved.  In all the years that I gave this assignment, I never turned a student down - though sometimes we worked together to refine what and how they were going to make their creative response.  

Many paintings, Illuminated Texts, journals,  and dioramas were created - but, amazingly students all created cakes (in the form of the two sides with edidble barbed wire and a trench in between).  There was one student who was a competitive figure skater and she choreographed, practiced, and filmed her skating response (which had the class in tears).  There were original songs (performed for the class), poems, and more than I can possibly remember.  All wonderful.  I did ask that the students devote at least 8 hours to the project (on their time), and that any graphic images were omitted.  

They could work with a partner (few did) if they had a project that needed one.  I remember one project that two students did together, where one student wrote a fictional war journal - and the other student illustrated it.  There were also Illuminated Texts that were done together (the students had experience with this).

Presenting in Class

Students presented their work during class (usually it took 2 periods to go through everyone) and I  had them submit a sheet to accompany their project and I put the grade on that right away.  The sheet includes a space for a description of the project as well as how they spent the time they say they did on the project.  Judging and giving grades for creative projects is always difficult.  However, in this case you hope that most students chose a medium that they could work well in.

Here is the main prompt (also found below in the handout).

Do you remember in Candide, how the narrator describes the beautiful harmony of the bloody battle that Candide is involved in?  In this project you will use your creative side to convey some of the ideas that we’ve covered (or that you’ve discovered) from All Quiet on the Western Front.

You will have a great deal of latitude in how you accomplish this.  In order to give you some structure, I have presented you with a number of options (though if you have another idea come see me, I am quite open to suggestions).  You will be graded based on the amount of time that has been shown that you put into this project with about 6 hours being considered the base amount of time.  I will put some of the videos that have been done – up on our website (though they may contain spoilers – so probably not a good idea to view them until you finish the book).

In the handout, I list some possible genres: Writing, Art, Illuminated Texts, Performance - and an invitation to  come see me if they want to do something else.

Here are some of the points to remember that I also list (taken from the handout):

• Your project should reflect 8 hours of work.

• Remember, it’s not the technology – it’s the idea.

• If you have a partner choosing that partner is the most important step – choose someone that you know that you can work with and that will do their share of the work.

• Make sure  you follow the guidelines for earlier assignments (such as Illuminated Texts) that apply here.

• Get started now!

• Remember to be true to the theme of your project – a good presentation of this sort is like a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

• Have fun and show your creative side!