DWRL Lesson Plans - Mapping

This classroom project is absolutely necessary for my Rhetoric of Tourism course, but it would be useful in any class that involves research projects and/or readings about travel or that are based in unfamiliar settings. My students tend to talk about the locations relevant to their chosen tourism controversies as if everyone in the classroom knows where these places are. Often, even the student writing about Jakarta isn't clear on where exactly it is!

Have students work in pairs to figure out the new GoogleMaps website, but have each student complete their own map. Avoid demonstrating too many GoogleMaps features on the projector; left to their own devices, students will figure out how to use the website collaboratively.

Begin with a short introduction in which you describe the assignment and show students how to create a new GoogleMap that will save itself as they make alterations to it. (I found that this was the part of GoogleMaps that my students had the most trouble figuring out. They must be logged into a Gmail account to create a saveable map.) After describing the instructions and expectations to the class, give them at least forty-five minutes to complete the assignment. Then have each student email you a link to their map and present their work to the rest of the class.

I set aside one and a half class days for this assignment: one full day to create the map, and one half day to present the maps.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

You will want to thoroughly familiarize yourself with the new GoogleMaps before you assign this project. There were some functions that my class could not figure out on their own, like how to draw a simple line on the map.

I created a sample map for my class that I could display on the projector and that they could explore on their own browsers.

Instructions For Students:

Most of the controversies we're working on in class are concerned with unfamiliar parts of the world. While some of us have had the opportunity to travel, we probably haven't traveled to all of the same places as our classmates, and most of us haven't been to any of the key locations of some of these controversies. The goal of this assignment is to help us all visualize where current tourism-related controversies are occurring.

For this assignment, you will create a Google map. I'll demonstrate how to begin and save a map before we start. You will then add things to the map, concentrating on points that you think will be helpful to the rest of the class. If your controversy spans several different parts of the globe, include them all! You can use this as an opportunity to demonstrate distances between various locations.

Your map should:

1. Include at least five locations relevant to your controversy. These could be points at which various events occurred, or they could be part of a timeline showing a related sequence of events.

2. Include the travel routes that are part of your controversy. You can even include a travel route from Austin to demonstrate distance or time.

3. Include several photo pins that help to contextualize your controversy.

4. Use descriptive labels.

Once you've created and saved your map, you will click "share" to obtain its URL, which you can then post in the comments section of today's PbWorks page. make sure that you change your map's privacy settings to be viewable to people who have the link. You will need to present the map to the class when everyone is finished, with descriptive commentary about the content. This should be fun and interesting, especially finding photos of your relevant locations, but it should also be instructive. Try to focus on locations that need to be understood in order to shed light on your controversies.

Evaluation Suggestions:

I don't grade this assignment, but it counts as a completion grade towards a group of assignments making up 20% of the grade.When students present their maps, I am always prepared to prompt them for more information, ask them to zoom out to show more context, etc. I try to involve the whole class in a discussion about geography and the relevance of various locations to their controversies.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

I haven't had any issues with students not completing this because it isn't graded; both semesters they've enjoyed the map assignment and it's clear that the whole class learns quite a bit. In my experience, students are pretty unclear about lots of geographical locations, particularly in Eastern Europe, India, Africa, and South America.

Course Type:

Introductory Writing Course

Tags:

Mapping

Google Maps

Mapping Poetic Word Choice to Discover Literary Themes

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:45:03 +0000

Author:

Dustin D. Stewart

Image Credit:

"Magnetic Poetry" via surrealmuse's Flikr stream

Brief Assignment Overview:

Type of Assignment:

In-class Exercise

Assignment Length:

One-Two Class Periods

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Close Reading

Literary Criticism

Oxford English Dictionary (OED)

Poetry

Textual Analysis

Word Choice

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Open Access Software

Presentations

Visualization

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

Research

Organization/Arrangement

Close reading

Assessment of literary themes

Media Requirements:

Media Console/Projector

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

In-class computers (optimal but not strictly necessary)

NovaMind Pro (or one of several freeware alternatives)

Student access to a web browser and a printer

Document camera and/or computer-linked projector for sharing results (again, optimal but not necessary)

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Early in the Semester

Mid-Semester

Full Assignment Description:

The assignment allows students to discuss their literary close-reading essays with each other, while also attempting to coordinate those close-readings with larger thematic issues discussed in class. The idea is to use individual words to learn more about global concerns in a literary text. In my case, the text was John Milton's Paradise Lost, and the activity asked students to use mind-mapping and word-cloud tools.

Each student has written a formal close-reading essay that focuses on a particular keyword in a passage from John Milton's Paradise Lost. Using a computer-connected projector or a document camera (a chalkboard will also suffice), the class creates a list of all the words used in their formal essays. (This should require no more than 5-10 minutes.)

Then, students are divided into smaller groups. Each group is assigned to articulate between three and five large thematic questions that preoccupy Milton's poem. The questions should emerge both from their independent reading and from our shared in-class discussion. (This will take some time, perhaps 10-15 minutes.)

Next, students are asked to arrange the listed keywords under the question(s) that best suits each term. They must coordinate the small-scale focus of their close-readings with the major themes prevalent in the poem. How does the local (an individual word) fit within the global (a big thematic question)? (This is the crux of the activity and requires the most time, probably 20-30 minutes.)

My class used NovaMind Pro mind-mapping software for this activity. Working at an in-class computer, groups of 3-4 students mapped the major questions around the title of the epic poem. Then, branching off of each such question, they listed the keywords relevant to it. Then, as time allowed, they used other features of the software to write short notes explaining why they located each keyword where they did.

As homework for the next class, to continue this emphasis on individual words (but to shift it to considering students' own writing practice), I asked students to use Wordle to create a word-cloud of their own close-reading essays. They brought the results to class and showed them to one another. We then discussed what the word-clouds revealed. Which words were larger than expected? Which were smaller or nonexistent? What can these findings tell us about what our writing is emphasizing (as against what we think it's emphasizing)? (This conversation took up around 20 minutes at the front end of my next class session.)

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Given the reliance on a former assignment (the close-reading essay), this particular version of the assignment will require some advance planning/integration into the course schedule. Additionally, you will want to familiarize yourself with the available mapping technologies.

Instructions For Students:

[Class's list of at least 15 keywords, presented on a projector screen, would appear here.]

Write out at least three or four of the major thematic questions that Milton raises in Paradise Lost. Then use these words (as many of them as possible) as ways to illustrate or to answer the different questions. Think of the questions as umbrellas under which you can place the different words.

Once you're ready, log into a workstation (one per group), and I'll come around and show you how to begin in NovaMind Pro.

Evaluation Suggestions:

I evaluated students' work on this task on a credit/no-credit scheme. I awarded credit on the basis of participation and completion, which thus required students' attendance and involvement over two consecutive class meetings.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

My students seemed very engaged with the assignment, which provided an opportunity for coordinating out-of-class writing with in-class discussion. They also responded positively to the group dynamics required to complete the task.

As so often, I didn't allocate enough time to the mind-mapping activity. Rather than give it half a Tuesday/Thursday session (as I did this time), next time I will apportion the majority of a class session for this exercise.

Additional Resources:

Here is an example of what one of these might look like:

Milton-Mindmap.jpg

Course Type:

Literary Studies Course

Course Description:

E 314L (Honors): Reading Poetry. Topic: Origins after Milton. “A good book,” wrote John Milton, “is the precious life-blood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.” Many poets have come to see Milton himself as a daunting master spirit. Indeed, Milton has inspired an entire tradition of criticism that sees all poetry as caught up in the quest to conquer one’s forebears. This honors section of E 314L: Reading Poetry will explore the kind of mastery poets (and also critics of poetry) try to attain by preceding their predecessors. Designed for potential English majors who are involved in Plan I Honors, the course will begin with Milton’s Paradise Lost. We will consider the work as experimental poetry, meant to contribute to an epic tradition by predating it. Even though he arrives later, Milton wants to come first.

The class will then trace this paradoxical struggle for primacy--pressing farther ahead by reaching further back--through a variety of experimental verse written over several centuries. British poetry will be central, but we will also look at some American and (in translation) European and Asian poems. Readings will move from Milton to antiquarian and spiritualist poetry of the 18th century, then to Romantic and Victorian originalism of the 19th. (This last group will allow us to consider connections between Darwin and poetry.) The course will culminate in 20th-century modernist poems, particularly canonical works by Eliot, Pound, and Stein.

We will read primary poetic texts carefully, cultivating sensitivity to their formal features. We will also enlarge our vision by examining works through such critical lenses as those provided by feminism, psychoanalysis, New Historicism, and theology. Secondary readings will be extensive and ambitious for this honors class, as will be our efforts to place each work in its historical context. Also distinctive about the honors section are its expectations for student research. Enrollees will learn to use electronic tools like the OED, the MLA Bibliography, and the DNB, as well as databases such as ECCO, C-19, and LION. These tools will help students to fulfill the course’s writing requirements and will prepare them for further study in the field of English.

Tags:

Google Mapping Travel Narratives: Lolita

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:27:55 +0000

Author:

Lauren Nahas

Image Credit:

Screen shot of narrative Google map

Brief Assignment Overview:

This assignment asks students to engage in an uncommon form of literary analysis, where the goal is to determine the significance of location and travel in the novel. The entire class collaborates in creating a Google map of all of the places that Humbert Humbert travels to in Lolita.

Type of Assignment:

Course Unit

Major Course Project

Assignment Length:

Multiple Class Periods

Pedagogical Goals - Literature:

Pedagogical Goals - Writing:

Research

Pedagogical Goals - Digital Literacy:

Additional Pedagogical Goals:

The goal is to offer students a new way to consider the process and products of literary analysis. This assignment also encourages students to consider a novel both visually and spatially, and to determine the usefulness of gaining such a perspective on the novel. In addition, it introduces them to a new technology (surprisingly, most are unaware that you can create your own maps using Google). In addition, it’s meant to be a collaborative experience that illustrated the importance of organization, as what can be accomplished by a group.

Media Requirements:

Media Console/Projector

Technology-Based Classroom (computers for each student)

Required Materials:

A Google account (this allows students to create, edit, and share their own personal maps. Without this account students will not be able to edit the map). A course wiki, or some other online location for organizing who maps which parts of the novel, questions or problems that come up during the mapping process, and so on.

Timeline for Optimal Use:

Mid-Semester

Full Assignment Description:

In one sense, I see this assignment as an alternative form of formal analysis. It is basically asking students to take a very close look at the movements and locations of the novel and visually represent them in a map. In this sense, it broadens the concept of literary analysis for students and will give them at least one example of how digital media can be used for literary analysis. They gain technological skills simply through having to use Google Maps, and they gain collaborative skills as we determine as a class how to organize the creation of the map and make decisions about the map’s content.

Suggestions for Instructor Preparation:

Prep: In Google maps, create a map entitled “Nabokov’s Lolita.” Put in place markers and descriptions of the first few places mentioned in the novel to give the students an idea of what the map will look like in the end.

On your course wiki or website, create a table to organize the map. Add columns to the table with the following titles: Place, Page Number, Found by, Added to Map by, Problems. This allows you to keep track to who found what, who added what to the map, and gives the students a place to note any problems that they run into. The students need to be able to edit this table themselves. Here’s a link to the table I created on my course wiki.

In-class: Have the students create Google accounts. Have them send you an email from that account. Using that email, invite them as collaborators to the map.

Explain the basics of mapping a novel (I showed students maps of The Devil’s Highway and Ulysses, and there are many more on the Google Lit Trips website.

Show them the Lolita map that you have created and explain that they will receive and invitation to the map that will allow them to edit it.

Show the students the basics of how to create and edit a map. Have them create a map of their own, add a few places, edit them, etc. You want them to get a feel for the Google maps interface.

Show them the table you’ve created to organize the map creation. Tell them to add locations to the table as they read the novel.

I didn’t have students begin adding locations to the map until we had finished the novel. At that point we had a long list of places. In class we had a discussion of how we wanted to deal with places that didn’t exist, places where the chronology of HH and Lolita’s travels becomes unclear in the novel, etc. We created a key for the map and there were some issues of representation that we decided to deal with after the map had begun to take form. At this point I also reminded them of the “Problems” column in our organizational table on the wiki and that if they ran into any problems with the map, they should note them there.

I visited the map in class every day to encourage them to keep adding and set a soft deadline for adding locations. I also monitored the “Problems” column on the organizational table and dealt with problems in class as they arose. When the map seemed to be completed, I checked through it and brought up any concerns that I had in class.

Once the map has been completed, it deserves a day’s discussion in terms of how it relates to reading the novel. The students will not automatically see the usefulness of the map.

Instructions For Students:

Lolita Mapping Project

In some respects Lolita is a travel novel. Many of the locations mentioned in the novel are real. Because of this, the text lends itself to mapping.

Mapping a piece of Literature is a new method of literary analysis. It has gained popularity with the advent of tools like google maps that allow anyone to create map.

Although not every place mentioned in Lolita is mappable, we will do our best to create what a geographic model of Nabokov's masterpiece. The purpose here is to consider the novel from a completely different perspecive and to see if the map reveals anything of interest to us about the novel. The may also serve as a reading aid or guide to those of you who later choose to write your essay on Lolita.

Map Key

Exists - Icon with Dot
Doesn't Exist - Icon without Dot

With Lolita - Pink Lines & Icons
Without Lolita - Blue Lines & Icons

Content of the placemarkers:

Page number and chapter
Basic description of the significance of the location

Evaluation Suggestions:

I use the learning record, so the map was not graded. They will be graded on what they took from the experience of mapping the novel. That learning could be related to using this mapping tool, collaboration, literary analysis, completing a complex project, and so on. I do not expect all of them to come to significant realizations about the novel from this project.

Notes on Reception, Execution, etc.:

I think the students were initially surprisingly enthusiastic about it. I didn’t make this a mandatory assignment, but they created the list of places and the map itself with little encouragement from me. At this point they seem to be a bit confused about the purpose of what they’ve created. I anticipated that reaction, so in the next week we’ll be taking some time in class to look carefully at the map to consider what implications it has for our reading of Lolita.

Additional Resources:

Here is a list of sources that discuss mapping as a literary analysis technique. They helped me to consider what the purpose of such an assignment was and how it related to my larger course objectives.

Gordon, Eric. “MAPPING DIGITAL NETWORKS From cyberspace to Google.” Information, Communication & Society 10.6 (2007): 885-901. Web.

Moretti, Franco. Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History. London: Verso, 2005. Print.

Ramsay, Stephen. “Special Section: Reconceiving Text Analysis: Toward an Algorithmic Criticism.” Lit Linguist Computing 18.2 (2003): 167-174. Web.

Samuels, Lisa., and Jerome J. McGann. “Deformance and Interpretation.” New Literary History 30.1 (1999): 25-56. Print.

Tullock, David L. “Many, many maps: Empowerment and online participatory mapping.” First Monday 12.2 (2007): n. pag. Print.

Course Type:

Literary Studies Course

Course Description:

This assignment was used in an introductory literature course, E314K Banned Books

Tags:

Visualization Software