Final Project

For my final project, I have created the wiki englishz (z for Zobitz) to use for my Mythology unit. I have never taught mythology before, so I was creating a unit from scratch and decided to use it as an opportunity to implement several of the Web 2.0 tools we have been studying this semester. My final unit has four components:

1) Reading a fantasy or mythology book and keeping a blog
2) Creating a graphic map to organize the Greek gods/goddesses
3) Researching a Greek god/goddess and collaboratively creating a wiki page for that Greek god/goddess
4) Writing an original graphic novel

I had a specific purpose for each component in order to give my students a balanced understanding of Greek mythology. I chose a fantasy or mythology book for their outside reading assignment, so they would get additional exposure to this genre as we study Greek mythology in class. We have been using the book Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of the Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin as our classroom text.
My goal was to provide my students with a general understanding of Greek mythology as a whole, as well as specific knowledge on a Greek god/goddess. To accomplish the general understanding of Greek mythology and how the Greek gods/goddesses are connected, my students have been creating graphic maps of the Greek gods/goddesses discussed in our text. They had the option of using bubbl.us or inspiration. I am having them print their graphic maps for display; however, once my school has Moodle available I will alter this assignment and have them attach their link or document to the Moodle site. Their assessment is based on depth, organization, and visual appeal.
To gain specific knowledge of a Greek god/goddess, they will collaboratively create a wiki page for a Greek god/goddess. I plan to assess the content of the page based on the specific criteria on my wiki and additionally assess each student’s contribution to the page. The concept of working collaboratively will be a new task for my students and therefore, I have provided specific criteria for them.
The final assignment in the unit is to create an original myth as a graphic novel. I currently have my students re-writing the story of a god/goddess in the form of a graphic novel because they wrote original myths for me last year. I also have them drawing the artwork by hand because I wanted to incorporate an art project into this assignment. However, I think that next year I will implement this as an original myth for a creative writing assignment and I will have them create their graphic novel using one of the comic strip technologies.
I have put all the assignments and their assessments on the wiki page, but I primarily set this wiki up as a tool for my students to create a collaborative wiki page. I created a page with a list of many Greek gods/goddesses and I created links from each god/goddess to their own page. Additionally, I have attached the unit assignments to the handout section of the wiki. I think this will be helpful for absent students or students who have lost their assignments.
My current classroom unit of Greek mythology didn’t involve all of the pieces on the wiki, but I hope to use the wiki in full next time I teach this unit. As I have implemented different aspects of this unit, I have already found things that I would revise next time. Additionally, when Moodle is available in my district I hope to incorporate it along with the wiki.