Lesson 7

Objective:

For surrealists, the question they often consider is “what if?” and they pay little attention to the “what is” of society. In today’s lesson student’s will read a short story and will hopefully begin to ask themselves “what if?” They will also have the opportunity to view another perception of dreams presented in surreal text, as well as question how surrealism can be used to extend the rationale that exists in our everyday lives. This lesson will ask them to take traditional ideologies and to create new perception for them.

 

Procedure:

Have students read “The Sweepers of Dreams” by Neil Gaiman. This text creates a fictional character, the dream sweeper, to show what happens if you anger him so that he leave you and you are forced to live in a world of dreams.   This text implies that many of the people that we label as mad or crazy, are actually not crazy, but instead those who have been forced to live, “in the wreckage of their dreams.” This is a very short text, so have students volunteer to read a paragraph at a time. Then have students read a second short story (it’s only a paragraph long) called Nicholas Was… This story by Gaiman describes Santa Claus as an old man who is condemned to live his life in the Arctics and who is forced by the elves to deliver the gifts that they had made once a year. The reading of both passages should take about seven minutes.

 

After the text has been read separate the class into small groups of three or four. Then assign each group a fictitious character (i.e. the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Man in the Moon, Mother Nature, Father Time, the Sandman and the Genie in the Bottle.) . Ask each group to create a story that offers a new perspective on this fictitious character. They can think of their own fictitious character if they would like to. While creating their short story they should pay attention to Gaiman’s use of unusual descriptive phrases that make the character unique and vivid. Their story should contain some of the elements of surrealism that have been portrayed in the previous texts they have read.  Once they have finished, a representative from the group will be asked to read the story aloud to the rest of the class.

 

Assessment:

Students who are able to work together to create a story that uses surrealist elements to create a new perception of a well-know fictitious character, have understood the point of the assignment, and will receive full credit.

 

Homework

Go to http://www.daligallery.com/?source=Overture a Salvadore Dali online Gallery, and look at the posters of Dali work. In a few sentences respond to these posters and he presents everyday objects and transforms them into something new so that they force their viewers to ask themselves the question “what if?.”