Final Project 25%
Due April 24, 2017
Option 1
Movie
Watch one of the movies below that has a central theme of death of a family member. The movies will have other themes but the objective of this assignment is to determine how death impacted the main characters including their relationships and personal growth.
- Critique the movie based on its value related to grief not entertainment. How can this movie be used as a teachable moment to talk to children about death and loss? Identify and discuss six specific lessons that children and adults can learn from this movie about coping with the death of a loved one? Is this a good movie for connecting grief? Make sure that your critique and overview are not the same.
- Identify detailed recommendations as to how the movie can be used for relating children
and grief. What population and what age groups could benefit from watching the movie? Be
specific.
- Provide an analysis of the movie from a grief perspective. Refer to course learning
materials specifically the Week Four PowerPoint.
- List the main characters by name including their approximate ages and their relationships to the deceased
- Describe the nature of the death: When, where & how did person die (anticipated or sudden death)?
- How were the main character’s lives impacted by the death?
- Describe what happened to the family unit by discussing the stability of family life before and after the loss
- Identify and discuss secondary losses experienced by family members (loss of home, school, financial loss).
- Identify any reassignment of roles/responsibilities (Young girl required to take on new roles such as cooking and cleaning)
- Identify the child’s support systems (family, social, community) and discuss how they supported the child
- What other stresses existed in the child’s life? (health, relationships, family problems, school)
- Identify cultural/ethnic traditions, religious background that may influence the grief process
- Identify specific feelings expressed by family members after the death? (For example, anger, guilt, ambivalence, confusion, etc.)
- How is the surviving parent coping with his/her grief and how does that impact the child’s ability to mourn
- Did the children/child have opportunities to express their feelings & share memories? If yes, with whom?
5) Describe how the main characters reacted and coped with the loss. How did the characters
grow and change because of their loss?
6) Identify five lessons that you learned on children and death resulting from the viewing of the
movie. Connect lessons learned with specific learning materials from the course by citing the
source.
Suggestion: Watch the movie once and just take it all in. Watch it a second time and dissect it into learning lessons. Remember you are critiquing this movie on its value related to the grief process not on its general box office popularity or whether you liked it as an individual. The main question is “Can it be useful in helping the viewer understand the grief process in children?”
Option 2
Create a death education course for adults (parents/teachers, healthcare workers) on children and death consisting of five separate one hour sessions. The education sessions should be designed to be taught face to face. Develop a course proposal and include the following:
- Include a detailed outline of educational material to be presented at each session. Be
sure that your material fits into a one hour time frame. Power points are acceptable.
Example of a death education course
You are employed at a hospice or hospital and recognize the need for education for all staff (nurse, chaplains, and social workers) and volunteers on the topic of children and death. The goal of the education course is to prepare staff/volunteers to better support families who have children and grandchildren to cope with the death of their loved ones and the resulting grief. This is a general idea that needs to be developed further.
Option 3
Complete a research paper on a topic related to children and death. This assignment allows students the opportunity to research a topic of interest that was not extensively covered within this course. Topics must be preapproved by me. You must include a minimum of ten credible resources (not Wikipedia) which must be formatted in APA style. Half of the resources must be books or journal articles. Class texts may be used as supplemental resources in addition to the ten required resources.
***All papers must be typed and late papers will be penalized
