BIN-01 Skills I: Class Blog, Oral Communication 1: Mid-Term Examination

Mid-Term Examination

Posted by Jonathan - Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Introduction

As we have worked in class with the short stories from our textbooks, you are going to analyze a short story, -a Greek mythological tale-, for our Mid-term exam which is taking place on week #8 of the quarter. The Greek tale that has been chosen for this particular test is "The Golden Fleece," whose protagonist is Jason.

Task

This pre-test activity will help you know about this Greek myth before you actually take the test, and get ready for it. You will have two weeks to explore this tale, so on the mid-term exam, you will have to analyze the story thoroughly.

Process

To start getting ready for your exam, you are to work individually or take some time to get together with one of your peers to discuss what the story is about.

In your look for information about The Golden Fleece and Jason, try to answer these questions that will be re-formulated on the actual exam:

As the protagonist of the story, what are Jason's personality and physical traits?
Who are the members of Jason's crew? Regular people? Greek Heroes? What kind of people are they?
Analyze the tale's plot indentifying the conflict, climax, rising action, and resolution.
Prepare a short account (summary) of what the story is about.
What does the "Golden Fleece" actually symbolize?

You may also prepared a set of index cards with information that you can actually use during the test. Yet, please do not copy directly from your sources; use your own words.

Resources

To get general information about the tale, visit the following links and watch the video:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Fleece

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/g/golden_fleece.html

To find information about Jason, the protagonist of the story, visit these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason

http://www.pantheon.org/articles/j/jason.html

Here you will find the story:

http://www.mythweb.com/heroes/jason/

Evaluation

The results of your Web search will be integrated into the mid.term exam. In other words, to verify that you actually worked on the story, similar questions, and other questions about the story, will be asked during the test.

Conclusion

Through this set of tasks, you will have learned not only about the Golden Fleece and Jason but also about the beginnings of storytelling. This part of the test will also provide you with a better and vast understanding of short stories and tales, which is going to help you either when you take BIN-08 Reading Skills II or the Literature courses you have to take in subsequent quaters at Universidad Latina.