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The
Handmaid’s Tale
A
WebQuest on the background of the novel (LK E 13)
Designed
by Kurt
Ludwigs
You
are the guide of a group of tourists who are crossing the Sahara
Desert. A sandstorm is coming up. Very soon it becomes so intense
that you can’t see your hands in front of your eyes. The storm is
still raging, but all of a sudden the sound of the wind and the sand
hitting your bus can’t be heard any longer. You have the feeling
that you are not in the same place any more – and you are
right! You
have entered the utopian state of Mytoxa. The Mytoxans are a highly
intelligent race and they only pay respect to those who can be their
match. So they set a test for every stranger that sets foot
on their land. The test is about the Mytoxans’ holy book, The
Handmaid’s Tale, a
novel written by Margaret Atwood. It would offend the Mytoxans’ pride to set a test about the contents of the novel; that would be far too easy! So this test is about the background of the novel, and if a stranger passes it, he will be allowed to go wherever he wants to. Those who don’t pass the test will have to stay in Mytoxa and work as slaves! As
you are the guide, you are most interested in every member of your
group passing the test, as you do not want to leave anyone behind.
So organize the work that is necessary to be well informed about the
background of the novel and to be well prepared for the test! The
members of your group will have to know as much as possible about
the following aspects of the background: ■
Gilead – much more than just the place where the
novel is set ■
Dystopian
literature
– main features ■
The
history of American Puritanism ■
Betty
Friedan
and the feminist movement in the USA ■
Margaret
Atwood
– her life and work ■
Jerry
Falwell
and the fundamentalist right-wing movement in the USA
Fortunately you learned something decent before you became a guide. You received a bachelor in Political Sciences and Literature, so you can provide your group with two links for every aspect, but you know that this will not be enough in order to find all the necessary information. ■ Gilead – much more than just the place where the novel is set http://www.keyway.ca/htm2001/20010827.htm http://www.mtgilead.org/page.asp ■
Dystopian
literature
– main features http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A510922 http://hem.passagen.se/replikant/ ■
The
history of American Puritanism http://www.answers.com/topic/puritanism http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_072700_puritanism.htm ■
Betty
Friedan
and the feminist movement in the USA http://www.pbs.org/fmc/interviews/friedan.htm http://www.ffl.msu.ru/staff/stitova/amculture/Timofeeva.doc ■
Margaret
Atwood
– her life and work http://www.web.net/owtoad/toc.html http://www.motherjones.com/arts/qa/1997/07/visions.html ■ Jerry Falwell and the fundamentalist right-wing movement in the USA http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/falwell/general.htm http://www.salon.com/news/1998/03/cov_11news.html So you tell your group to work in teams of up to four people, with each team studying one aspect. To begin with, you tell them to find another four websites with good information about the aspect they are working on.
There may be some
members in your group who would like to know how to organize an Internet research. They will find some help
here
Others may
feel that their knowledge about finding and processing information
may need a little brush-up. They will find some help
here
And yet there might
be those who would like to learn about an advanced research
strategy. They will find some help
here
Those members of your group
who want to
know where and how to find the meaning of an unknown word that crops
up in a text they found will find some help
here After
that they will have to take notes on the main contents. Every
member of your group will have to pass a test that covers all the
aspects mentioned above. So every
team
will have to inform the
whole group about what they have found out about their aspect.
They may do so by providing a hand-out, a PowerPoint
presentation
etc. While you were studying Political Sciences and Literature, you had to do quite a lot of PowerPoint presentations and eventually you became a PowerPoint freak yourself. So you can provide the members of your group with two PowerPoint tutorials: - a tutorial for beginners (click here) (pdf-Datei) and - a tutorial for advanced users (click here) (pdf-Datei) Make
sure that everybody listens attentively,
because pretty soon they will have to take the test!
Those members of your group who
feel that they need some help on how to give a presentation
should have a look at this.
The
additional links: ■
Gilead – much more than just the place where the
novel is set http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1021 http://www.bibleplaces.com/gileadupper.htm http://www.bartleby.com/108/01/31.html http://www.answers.com/gilead http://chronicle.com/free/v51/i15/15b01001.htm http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/articles/col-dystopia.htm http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/d/dy/dystopia.htm http://hem.passagen.se/replikant/dystopia_categorisation.htm ■
The
history of American Puritanism http://www.bartleby.com/65/pu/Puritani.html http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap1/1intro.html http://www.planetkc.com/puritan/welcome.htm http://www.geocities.com/lrampey/2131/puritan.htm ■
Betty
Friedan
and the feminist movement in the USA http://www.cwfa.org/articles/4178/BLI/dotcommentary/ http://www.answers.com/topic/betty-friedan http://www.jofreeman.com/feminism/liberationmov.htm http://www.amazoncastle.com/feminism/feminism.htm ■
Margaret
Atwood
– her life and work http://www.motherjones.com/arts/qa/1997/07/visions.html http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/generalfiction/story/0,6000,943485,00.html http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0010997 http://www.answers.com/topic/margaret-atwood ■
Jerry
Falwell
and the fundamentalist right-wing movement in the USA http://www.trbc.org/christianresources/falwellsermons.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Falwell http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/religion/televangelists/jerry-falwell http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/14/Falwell.apology Test
So,
let’s hope that the teams that presented their findings did their
jobs well, because profound and detailed knowledge of the six
aspects mentioned above will be vital in the test that for very good
reasons is commonly known as the Mytoxans’ freedom test. |
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Describe
to the learners how their performance will be evaluated. Specify whether there
will be a common grade for group work vs. individual grades.
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