When Kayla Evans ’19 first heard that she would be making her own bestiary page in her Latin III for the midterm exam, she had one main question: what is that?

 

Evans soon learned the answer to that question in detail. Over the course of the next six weeks, Evans had the opportunity to create a mythical animal, write a story in Latin about it, and then craft a manuscript page complete with medieval calligraphy and an illustration. “The experience was really good,” Evans says. “The project was challenging in the sense that we had to put effort in, but not in the sense that it was really stressful. I feel like I learned a lot about the culture too.”

 

Evans’ Latin project was one example of what is known as an integrated performance assessment, which the World Languages and Cultures department began using this year as part of the new Upper School midterm exam schedule. Previously, students took tests for all of their subjects in mid-January. This year, however, science and math exams took place before Winter Break, while humanities classes moved to project-based assessments that took place at the beginning of January. The switch is meant to address two needs: to provide students with a true break over the winter holiday, and to align exam types more closely with what students experience in college, according to alumnae feedback – tests for science and math classes, and projects or papers for humanities classes.

As part of the project, Reed’s Latin II and III classes visited the Walters Art Museum to view an exhibition of illuminated manuscripts and other medieval art. They also explored marginalia – pictures and notes made in the margins of manuscripts by scribes and others – for the oral portion of the exam. Most importantly, they wrote and illustrated a page of their own bestiary, including an imitation of their choice of a medieval calligraphy script, known as a ‘hand.’ “We really had to learn a new handwriting,” Evans says. “It was tricky, but it was very interesting.”

 

For her bestiary, Evans chose to write about a centipede with mythical powers. Other student selections included real animals, like dogs and bats, as well as beasts from the “Harry Potter” series. “I think that the end product was really awesome,” says Evans. “I’m really excited to see them displayed because they all look so good.”

 

The bestiary pages will be mounted for display around campus in late February, along with the rest of the projects completed by the World Languages and Cultures classes, which include everything from a collaborative mural about the past, present and future of Bryn Mawr to street art, which takes forms such as grafitti, installations, yarn bombing and more. “One of things we talked about was what distinguishes street art from vandalism," syas French teacher Bethany McAndrew. "It was really interesting to see what types of street art they created. Many of [the pieces] were commentaries on what is happening in the world, or what should be happening.”

 

Ultimately, says Jenniffer Gray, these projects are about creating opportunities for students to apply what they have learned in their classes in realistic ways. “These are exactly the goals of learning a language,” she says. “To go a little bit deeper with the culture, to have more authentic conversations, to be able to read an article online and understand it even though they don’t understand every word.”