Door+in+the+Wall

Final Project Ideas

Sign up for your project below. See all the [|projects here]. media type="custom" key="3674467" Here is a sample final project for exploring a theme for the novel The Door in the Wall. media type="custom" key="3674479"

Below is the essay I wrote to accompany my photostory

During the course of //The Door in the Wall//, a young boy discovers that life does not always follow the path he expected. All his life, Robin and his family have planned for him to become a knight. When he is just days away from beginning his training, a sudden illness robs his legs of their strength. Unable to walk, he is forced to re-think just who it is he will be. Fortunately, he is not alone but has good friends who help him discover “the doors in the wall” or the paths through the seemingly tremendous obstacles he faces. Once Robin opens these doors, he finds that there are other ways than knighthood to become a valuable person in society.

I chose a photostory to illustrate this theme of finding your way through a situation. I chose four doors that I see nearly every day to represent the idea that some paths are not unusual or difficult to find. Others are more hidden. Both are important. The first door in my photostory is the door to my home. When I walk in this door, I am coming home to my family. The opportunity to be a part of my family is a gift and a challenge to me. I want to be a good wife and a good mother, yet in so many ways those roles are not turning out exactly the way I imagined they would when I was young. Doing my best for my family is something that I have to work on every day. Needing to work to improve his physical condition was an obvious “door” for Robin. Just as Robin had to work every day on getting stronger so that he could do his best to walk with crutches, I need to work every day on listening to my kids and showing them that I care about them.

Brother Luke teaches Robin to read. While literacy was not widespread during the middle ages, it was not rare either. Learning to read was a door to another type of life for Robin. Education is every bit as important a door today, so I included a picture of the classroom door in my photostory. Not just because I teach, but because I am also a learner in this classroom. Learning new things is one of the best parts about being a teacher and is definitely one of my “doors” in life.

The next two doors in my photostory are a little different. These doors represent the opportunities in life that we might overlook if we aren’t careful. One of the pictures is of a door portrayed in a painting that hangs in my dining room. I am not a very artistic person, so sometimes I forget how important creativity is. In //The Door in the Wall//, Robin learns how to whittle. The whittling represents a door in several ways for Robin. Robin feels proud of himself when he successfully makes a toy. In addition, when he makes a doll for a little girl who doesn’t have one, Robin learns the joy of helping others less fortunate than himself.

The last door in my photostory is the door of a dollhouse. In the novel, Robin learns how to play with other boys even though he cannot do everything they can do. Playing with the boys is a door in the wall for Robin both socially and physically. He needed to learn how to treat others well without having an adult tell him what to do. Play was also good physical exercise for Robin. Both of these “doors” show how something that seems unimportant, like play, can really be a door in the wall. I need to remember to play sometimes!