Out of Bounds and Lovely Charts

"Out of Bounds" is the story of Rohan, a presumably Indian boy living in Durban. He isn't happy when squatters set up camp down the hill from his house, destroying his hideouts in the process. His parents aren't happy either, but for different reasons. Rohan eventually goes "out of bounds," making a new friend and learning some valuable lessons about the universal nature of humanity in the process.

One of my favorite stories in the anthology (along with "One Day, Lily, One Day"), I felt this was a prime opportunity to encourage students to make connections to the text. I chose to use the popular and research-based strategy of making text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections. And I decided that a webbing tool would be an interesting way to visually organize those connections. I'm familiar with several web 2.0 tools that can be used to create webs, and I decided to try out Lovely Charts to do so.

Here's my connections web for "Out of Bounds":

That's pretty much impossible to read, but you get the idea of the layout. (Updated: After I published, I learned that you can click on the image and view a full-sized version.) Unfortunately, the free version of the tool does not allow you to embed or share via a web link - you can only export as a jpg or png file. So here are my connections, written out in case you are interested:

Text-to-Self

• My siser and I used to create hideouts in the woods near our home when we were younger. I would have been sad and upset if they had been taken away, just like Rohan was.
• I remember visiting Durban when I went to South Africa. Just like all the other cities, there was a big difference between the rich and the poor houses and neighborhoods.
• I also remember seeing wire crafts and visiting African Craft stores at the malls. It seems odd (and sad) to think that the people who actually made the crafts wouldn't be allowed in.

Text-to-Text

• The idea of taking a risk and befriending someone outside of your culture reminds me a little of the novel Summer of My German Soldier that I read for class in 7th grade. Even though it was a very different story, it was still about going "out of bounds" and the power of friendship to work against stereotypes and prejudice.

Text-to-World

• A cyclone is just like a hurricane. I remember when Hurricane Katrina caused all the damage and flooding in New Orleans. The cyclones in the story must have been like that.

While I do like the webbing layout for making connections assignments, I can safely say that I won't be using Lovely Charts again, and wouldn't use it in my classroom. First of all, there's a fairly high learning curve with the tool. I consider myself pretty web savy and I had to refer to the "Help" menu four times as I created this simple web. Students would become easily frustrated and I can only imagine the classroom management issues that would occur as a result.

I was also very frustrated with the limited functionality offered to free account holders. With so many web 2.0 tools out there, I expect to be able to embed and share, even if I haven't paid for a subscription. Other free tools (such as Mind42, Webspiration, and Bubbl.us) also provide the ability to work collaboratively on a single web. I think that this really underscores the collaborative nature that is so essential to the web 2.0 concept, and also lends an effective social dimension to the assignment. I can imagine that the number of connections made would grow exponentially if students had the ability to work collaboratively and share ideas.

In my next post, I will try out the three other mapping tools - Mind42, Webspiration, and Bubbl.us with the same assignment and discuss their pros and cons.