Project Summary

 

Background 

In Spring 2008, my College Writing II students received worksheets which allowed them to start generating content for this wiki (and some students worked on a similar project for the Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy).

The first group assignment was to create a study guide for the first 79 pages of the novel. To do that, each group was asked to identify the characters, the setting, basic plot and conflicts, motifs and/or imagery, and the strongest passages/most memorable quotations. Finally, each group was asked to compose 3-5 questions that they, as readers, had about this section of the novel. The stipulations were: the question had to be open-ended, the question should be answerable by examining the text (not engaging in research via the internet, for example), and it should be a question that could be used on an exam or quiz. Students collaborated in class and submitted answers in writing, which I then posted to the wiki.

The second assignment or phase was similar to the first; the assignment sheet was relatively the same, with minor additions (and new questions pertaining to the second section of the novel), but students typed answers and submitted electronic files which I then transferred to the wiki.

The third phase began in a computer lab on campus. The handout was the same (again, reflecting new questions for the third installation). Students received brief intro to wikis (Plain English, common craft video) and then a walk through of our wiki (with their content already present on the wiki, it looked somewhat familiar) in order to show how to edit and save a page.

During Group Assignment 4, we departed from the former study guides to focus on linking, editing, collaborating in order to bring some order and finesse to the sight. The students discussed how to reign in the material, thought a bit about how to make the sight more user-friendly and academic. Since the movie was released on DVD at this time,, we were able to watch it and have groups working outside of class to refresh our thinking and planning in regards to the wiki, the content, the projects, etc. Each group was then assigned to choose an "element" of the story which corresponded to a page in the wiki that they thought they could re-design and edit to meet our new vision.

The fifth installation returned to teh content-generating format of the first three phases. The students created material for the study guide and began editing the site.  This was the  final addition of content related to the "parts" of the novel.

The original syllabus called for a group presentation regarding the novel; however, the class, through discussion and the planning started in the third assignment, chose to continue fine-tuning the wiki by redesigning pages, synthesizing the content, and proofreading/editing. We then called this the final wiki project.

In the summer of 2008, my online 1102 students added more material to the Tess study guide.

Now, in the fall of 2008, I have deleted all the Tess-related material. I did not do this lightly as a lot of work went into the development of those pages; however, I now have all my students reading one novel.  At this point, I have moved all the links to the old Study Guide so as to offer my new students a clean slate to work with. As we progress, I may move some of the old content into the new pages if they fit the direction and discussion of this semester's work.

Thank you to all the students who worked so hard to build the original Kite Runner Wiki.

 While this wiki will be primarily a place to display student-generated content, we welcome outside participation and comments! Anyone interested in editing can email me for the access code. The goal is to create a definitive source for the novel, The Kite Runner, as there is not currently an over-abundance of comprehensive resources online.