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.

One Day, Lily, One Day and Tagul

"One Day, Lily, One Day" is one of my favorite stories in the anthology. It is set in 1960 and explores the confusion and mixed emotions of a young white girl whose parents are supportive of the black South Africans (called Africans or natives in the story). Her father is jailed for his efforts and she encounters difficulty at school with other children whose parents are not sympathetic to the cause.

For this assignment, I used the reading comprehension strategy of determining importance. As I read, I kept a list of phrases and words that I felt were important to the story. I then used the list to create a word cloud in Tagul.



I also customized the cloud to include many of the colors from the South African flag. Even though it didn't exist it 1960, I thought it was a fun and colorful way to personalize the cloud!

I think word cloud tools like Tagul and Wordle are great for helping students determine importance or analyze the theme of a piece of writing. Teachers might choose to use this assignment as is, or to create a word cloud for the students by copying and pasting an entire story (or passage) into one of the tools. Students could use the word cloud to make predictions and analyze the text in a visual way. In addition to promoting comprehension, I think these types of tools can increase visual literacy skills.

There are a few differences between Tagul and Wordle. Both are free. Wordle is more simple (and student friendly) while Tagul is more sophisticated. Wordle allows you to save your cloud to a gallery or print, while Tagul saves your work in your own account and lets you embed the cloud in a web page or blog. I'd recommend experimenting with both to determine which tool will best meet your students' needs.

The Noose and Glogster

The second story in the anthology is "The Noose." Set in 1955, it tells the story of a Colored family preparing to move because of government redistricting. When the father is reclassified as a African, the ten-year old boy's eyes are opened to the realities of apartheid.

From the opening line, "The year I turned ten, apartheid gripped me fully by the throat for the first time," to the last, "And for the first time I felt I knew what Uncle Richard meant by the 'noose around all our necks'," the story is rich in imagery and metaphor. I decided to explore this as a middle school student might by creating an online poster with Glogster. I searched and selected images brought to mind by the text, and added quotes from the story as way of explanation.



You can also view my poster within the Glogster site itself.

I kept my poster fairly simple and literal, but students could be infinitely more creative. A teacher might challenge advanced students to not use images taken from the text (for example, the noose). Students might also add their own explanations instead of quotes from the story. They might use a single image and then add more text. Glogster also allows for the use of video as well as images.

Creating a glog is much simpler than a comic strip, although it too has a learning curve. It does raise the issue of copyright and fair use images as students will most likely want to pull images from all over the web. Teachers should provide guidance in terms of using images appropriately, both for this assignment and as a life-long skill.

Like the comic strip, Glogster allows students to comment and review each other's work. The ability to embed glogs into a blog or web page would allow teachers to share work with parents and guardians.

The Dare and ToonDoo

The first story in the anthology is "The Dare." Set in 1948, it tells the story of a young girl who is dared to steal a flower from a pointsettia bush on a neighbor's land. As she attempts to complete the dare, she witnesses the beating of a young black boy caught stealing oranges from the same man. While she is also stealing, she is not punished because of the color of her skin. Through the story, readers are immediately introduced to the racially-motivated politics of apartheid-era South Africa.

For this story, I chose to create a comic strip using Toon Doo, an online comic strip and book generator. Instead of retelling the story, I decided to make the comic an assignment to support metacognition and reflective reading. My character represents myself (a middle school student) and the dialogue and thought bubbles record my thoughts, feelings, questions, and connections during my reading of the short story. Note: In creating my identity as a middle school student, I assumed that I was reading the piece within the context of a South African history unit.

The Dare by jfriesgaither | Make your own at www.toondoo.com

You can also view my comic within the ToonDoo site itself.

While comic strips are an obvious choice for a retelling activity, I feel that i has a great deal of potential in encouraging reflective thought among students. The process of creating an "avatar" and representing myself within the comic strip encouraged me (as a fictitious student) to be thoughtful about the story. It could also be an interesting cooperative assignment to have pairs or small groups create a single comic strip in which they discuss a story. I like that it preserves the thinking and discussion around a story. It also is a more engaging approach than the traditional double entry journal that is typically used.

On the technical side of things, there was a bit of a learning curve in constructing the actual comic. I didn't like that you were limited to a three or four panels. I had to create four separate strips and then combine them into a book to have enough space to record all my thoughts. However, there seem to be many fun tools and functionalities within the site, and students would have the ability to comment on each other's work - an essential component of web 2.0 in my opinion. Sharing work is easy with the ability to email or embed comics into a blog or web page.

Teachers looking for a simpler interface might check out Make Belief Comics instead. The amount of time involved to create the strip also means that this would not be a regular activity in a classroom. However, I do believe it is worthwhile and can encourage creativity, motivation, and reflective thought.

Welcome!

Thanks for stopping my blog! It was created for Introduction to Children's Literature (EDTL 467), a class I'm taking this quarter per state licensure requirements. I've decided to explore the intersection of children's literature and technology, with a special emphasis on web 2.0 tools that have the potential to revolutionize our pre/during/post reading framework. I hope to continue blogging after the class is over, but for now, I'm focused on my course assignments.

I'm using a YA anthology of short stories called Out of Bounds: Seven Stories of Conflict and Hope by Beverly Naidoo. Here's an annotation, courtesy of the Barnes and Noble web site:

Naidoo, B. (2008). Out of bounds: Seven stories of conflict and hope. London: Puffin Books.

Seven stories, spanning the time period from 1948 to 2000, chronicle the experiences of young people from different races and ethnic groups as they try to cope with the restrictions placed on their lives by South Africa's apartheid laws.

I used this anthology with a sixth grade class as part of a semester-long seminar on South African history and culture that I developed after participating in a Fulbright-Hays seminar abroad to South Africa and Botswana in 2005. The seminar was very successful, but did not utilize a great deal of technology. I decided to revisit the work for my midterm and final projects for this course.

For the projects, I'll be creating eight assignments using various web 2.0 tools - one per story, and a final assignment encompassing all seven. In doing so, I'm assuming the role of a middle school student reading the book as part of a unit on South African history. I'll post a separate entry for each assignment, sharing my work as well as a description of the purpose and my reflection on the tool and its potential use in the classroom.

If you're reading this, feel free to share ideas and insights! I hope you're inspired to read Out of Bounds or check out some of the tools I'm exploring through this project!