University High School, Normal, Illinois
Project submitted by Kathleen Clesson
The goal of this medieval literature unit was to tap into Web 2.0 technologies - notably web pages and podcasting - to move students from consumers of knowledge to creators of knowledge, sharable in multi-media format. Junior and Senior English Literature and Composition students accessed and read from the twenty-one-book collection of the Arthurian legend. Each student selected a book and two chapters to read, comprehend, interpret, and bring to life via audio performance. Each student prepared a written summary/précis of the first chapter content in contemporary language. For the second chapter, students wrote old time radio-style scripts to be performed and recorded using Audacity, a free/open source audio editor and recorder program. All three pieces (summary, podcast transcript, and rendered mp3 podcast file) were then uploaded to a class website designed using FrontPage for this purpose.
The pedagogical goal was to harness the read/write web in the service of teaching and learning. In the process, state goals for English language arts, NETS standards, and performance-based objectives converged. You may visit the Arthurian Legend website at http://www.uhigh.ilstu.edu/english/arthur
"Arthurian Legend" | "111 Eavesdroppers" | "Stories in Motion"