Of Mice and Men Thematic Unit- Wiki Style
http://ofmiceandmenhicks.wetpaint.com/

Abstract:
Through my work at the Advanced Institute, I have transformed one of my American Literature Units and moved it into the twenty first century. In order to make this trek, my students will use Web 2.0 tools like wikis and blogs to expand class discussions of theme and create a stage for their writing to reach a greater audience. I truly believe that the use of these 2.0 tools will motivate my students to do more than just read and write. I believe that it will set the stage for my quieter students to enter class discussions, it will build community by empowering the students with the ownership that comes with a class wiki, it will push them to polish work that will be posted for a larger audience, give them the opportunity to learn new technological skills, and most important, it will give them the opportunity to gain the sense of pride and satisfaction that comes with being a part of creating such a large collaborative product. Through our work we will achieve the following:
1. Post Thematic Log Entries for each of our reading chunks in individual blogs.
2. Respond to other students' entries within their blogs
3. Work in groups to create electronic, multimedia collages for each theme
4. Post individual Thematic Collage Analyses in their blogs
5. Compose a 2-4 page thematic/persuasive essay over the novel (To be posted in their blog)
6. Participate in online scoring of sample papers with a partner. And participate in revision/writer’s workshop online (Blog style)


To be brief, I have used some of the Web 2.0 tools that I learned in the RCWP Tech AI to transform one of my American Literature units. This has always been a unit in which my students have been expected to do more than just participate in oral classroom discussions. My students were also expected to share the exploratory writing that they did in their thematic logs. They would trade their papers back and forth and be given time to compose written responses to one another’s ideas. Through the use of a classroom wiki and links to individual student blogs, I hope to up the conversation(s). These two tools will not only increase the volume and number of conversations, it will also make it possible for my students to access all of the small group discussions and work to bring them back into one large, class conversation.
Our wiki will provide kids with many opportunities that my old paper and pen unit could not. In previous semesters, I have spent countless hours redistributing copies of the log assignments, helping kids hunt for their lost responses, and dealing with the fallout of group members being absent on trade/response days. Hopefully, these shall be problems of the past. Under this new design, my kids will have access to all of the assignments at any time. I have posted assignments under each chapter, given a full explanation for both of their final assessments, and even provided some samples for them to look through. In addition to the class time that we will spend looking at all of these, the kids will now be able to access lost assignments, access the work assigned during an absence, and even go back to post late work online whenever they get a chance.
In my original plan, I had hoped that our wiki site could be a place for the kids to post the individual analyses of their group’s thematic collage, upload the thematic discussion logs for each chapter, and use the discussion thread as a place to respond to the work of their peers. After some work with Wetpaint, I soon learned some of its limits. Since much of our work will involve my students working simultaneously in the lab, I need to make sure that large numbers of student are also able to simultaneously post their work. If that isn’t possible on our wiki, then enter the blog. For this unit my students will not only become members and writers of our class wiki, they will also become authors of their own blogs. I think that this addition to my project has a threefold advantage.
First, it will allow my students to draft, revise, and upload their work as others do the same. Secondly, I have learned that the discussion thread part of the wiki is hard to keep organized. If students go directly to one another’s blogs to make comments, then their responses will not get jumbled or lost in the fold. Last and most important, I believe that my kids will enjoy the ownership and empowerment that comes with creating, owning, and authoring their own blog. What I have done is created two sample blogs; one of them is a sample thematic log entry for two chapters and the other is a sample analysis of the thematic collage that I created. I uploaded a link to each of these blogs under the appropriate sections of our wiki. When we begin work in the classroom, my students will create these two blogs and be expected to upload additional links under my own. From there each of my students will have access to their peers’ work whenever they need it.
The final bit of transformation that has occurred in my unit is the addition of the thematic collage. Although I have done something similar before, it is now digital. As we explore John Steinbeck’s treatment of the themes of the American Dream, power, and companionship in Of Mice and Men, I always work to help them better understand the concept of theme. One way to do this is to step outside of the novel and explore these themes in a larger context. For example, we explore the American Dream throughout the semester and look at how its definition changes across time, culture, socioeconomic status, etc. We do more than just use pieces of literature as our vehicles. We also read nonfiction articles, look up statistics of success in America, discuss the lives of Americans who fought for the dream, and dissect the images and messages about this theme that we find in popular culture such as movies, rap songs, television shows, etc. From this work, the kids are expected to write an expository essay that discusses their own opinion of some part of the American Dream.
After some thought, I realized that I wanted to move some of this work into the digital age. Thanks to the power of Web 2.0, I have decided to have the kids use images from the internet, movies, rap videos, etc. to create a collage that represents their idea. During this unit, my students will get into small groups, come up with a central thesis, and create a digital collage that they believe speaks to their idea. These collages (see my sample on the wiki now) will be posted to our wiki under the page “Thematic Collages.” From this work, each group member will then be expected to write their own analysis of the American Dream and discuss how it fits their collage. These, of course, will be done through a second blog that is linked directly to the collage page (see my sample collage and link to my corresponding blog analysis).

Web 2.0 Tools to be used:

1. Wiki (Wetpaint)
2. Student Blogs (Blogspot)

Timeline- I don’t work well with these, but here is my best estimate:
(*Note-The order in which our work is to be done is self-explanatory if you browse through the wiki.)
Week 1: Introduce the novel, thematic log expectations, and basic Wiki skills
Week 2: The students will have read and completed logs for Chapters 1 and 2.
In addition to this, they will also have a day in the computer lab in
which they must read their partners’ entries and respond to one of
them. This will require a day at the beginning of the week to create
blogs, familiarize them with the site, and have a practice entry and
response activity.
Week 3: This will be a busy week. The students will be expected to understand
the routine by now. They will read chapters 3 and 4, upload their
thematic log entries, and respond to their partner(s). In addition to this
work, we will also begin to discuss the thematic collage. (*Note- We
will be about ten weeks into the semester at this point, so the students
will have participated in many, many discussions of the American
Dream.) We will dissect my sample collage, and then discuss the
analysis of my collage that I posted on my blog. From this, the students
will form small groups and begin discussing how they want to tackle
this work.
Week 4: Students will complete all work for Chapters 5 and 6. They will also
have opportunities to meet with the collage groups and be ready to give
me an outline of their proposal.
Week 5: We will discuss the expectations for their essays, look at sample essays,
and revisit the writing rubric (all on the Wiki!). Rather than chalk talk
our thesis ideas for each theme, we will pull these directly off of the
wiki/blog responses, use them to guide our discussion, and possibly
create some digital chalk talk. From here, I will divide the 90 minute
periods up into essay prewriting/drafting time and digital collage pasting
time.
Week 6: Essays will be done, uploaded to their blogs, and scored online by
partners. Their collages will be done at the beginning of this week, and
the students will spend the rest of the week completing their individual
analyses, posting these on their blogs, and responding to the work of
other groups.

“How has my participation in the RCWP Tech AI influenced the development of this project? What am I doing now that I would not have done a week ago?” Are you kidding me? I feel like I just went through all of this. I signed up for the advanced institute as soon as I saw the words RCWP and Tech. I could go on and on about how important it is for me to keep up with my kids and the world of technology that they are born into. Unfortunately, I could also go on and on about how much I have secretly worked to avoid all of the headaches that I know would come with combining my teaching practice with this world. But I won’t do that. You will just have to trust me on this and believe me when I say that ultimately it was guilt that drove me to participate in this AI. I knew that I was doing my kids and myself a terrible disservice by this, and I couldn’t go on with it any longer.
So when I look back at the first question to this section, I still find it absurd. The RCWP Tech AI had everything to do with this project. It created a time and space where I felt supported and had fun doing what I had been resisting for years. When I walked in on that Monday I didn’t know what a wiki was. I had no clue how simple it could be for my students to create blogs. Heck, I was scared to touch the Mac in front of me as it gave me the one-eyed stare. But I soon learned that this was only a built-in camera lens, and that I kind of like Macs. Do I really need to go on here?
The second question here makes me chuckle. (What am I doing now that I would not have done a week ago?) Well, that answer is simple. I am trying to hammer out this assignment so that I can go back to working on the three other wikis that I have started over the past two weeks. I created one wiki for my son’s grandparents, aunt, and godmother to view and then use to upload their own memories of him. I also came home from my annual camping trip in Utah only to begin something similar. Three families have been getting together to do this for thirty years now. Through marriages and births, this has grown quite a bit. The wiki that I have created for this experience will probably have about fifty members over the next week or two. And just as important, I have started to play around with some new ideas for incorporating these tools into a third wiki for the freshmen that I am set to teach in a couple of weeks. Trust me, I wouldn’t have been doing any of this before the AI.


Follow this link to the Wiki. Inside of the Wiki are all of the directions that you will need and links to the blogs.
Of Mice and Men Thematic Wiki