Twitterature (edna)

This idea came to me when i recalled one of those things i read online about Mrs Dalloway being "Twitter before Twitter", and i thought about the book, Twitterature, which i once browsed briefly at a bookstore.

Travesty, i know.

And i thought, it might actually be an interesting alternative way to do assessment in class. So here's the link for examples of Twitterature online: http://www.twitterature.us/us/ex.htm

For those who aren't familiar with it, Twitterature is a compilation of classic books that have been condensed into tweets from a particular character's point of view. So the Hamlet in Twitterature, for example, would consist of @EmoDanishPrince going about his existential crisis in a series of 140 character messages. Travesty, possibly, but i think it can actually be a great way to teach characterisation.

Blame ICT group project, but it made me more aware of the fact that our students are going to be more well-versed with social media than they are with their books, and they enjoy things like that Shakespearean lyrics Twitter account that "translates" modern day pop lyrics into pseudo-Shakespearean language.

So, why not let students create their own Twitter/Facebook/[insert new social media fad] version of a literature text, where they take the position of a character in the novel/poem/play, and work on coming up with a series of maybe 10 Tweets or a Facebook post complete with comments, all while in character?

It would be entertaining and informal, of course, but it would allow students to engage in characterisation. When i was in secondary school, we used to work in groups where each group would be assigned a character from the text, and we would have to present our findings of our character to the rest of the class. These presentations, however, were quite rigid in the sense that we would look at a character, pick out his/her traits, and given token evidence from the text to support our findings.

Twitterature, however, would mean that students really have to be engaged in the character, because their tweets would have to translate both the character's point of view, and the language the character would use.

This would be particularly useful for analysing characterisation in plays, for example, i can foresee students having a great time working on Shakespearean characters, because the characters are usually really diverse, and students have to rewrite soliloquys. With Tweets, you also get a very concise rewrite of the thoughts and dialogue, so students would have to filter out the most salient points they feel would contribute to a character's characterisation, meaning we can assess how well they have understood a character from what they choose to include in the Tweets.

As with any alternative assessment that students could see as "fun", there are potentially lot of things that can go wrong, so there should be accompanying instructions that restrict and guide what they can come up with, such as "tweets have to be strictly in character" so they don't end up using it as a platform for personal attacks towards another group working on another character when it doesn't happen in the text, just because they have free reign of internet language to use. Or "tweets should not contain vulgarities and obscenities" because some of the examples on the website above (and in the book) do make use of them, and while i am sure Heathcliff would have been filling his Twitter with loads of intense f word tweets if he'd had a Twitter, we obviously can't have that in class for our students.

Finally, a Twitterature project will not consume too much class time, because the point of twitter is for messages to be transmitted really quickly, so the presentation will not be a long one. Students also don't have to make use of the actual online platform to do it, as teachers can provide templates for them to fill in like a worksheet as a group. That way, all they have to do is present their work to the class using the visualiser, allowing their classmates and teachers to be educated and entertained by their work, and minimising potential ICT muck ups.

Of course, teachers can make students write a report justifying why they wrote this and that in their tweets, but if the characterisation has been done properly and students have really thought through their tweets as they are supposed to have done, the tweets should be self-justifying in the first place. (Also, i'm sure teachers will still have to make students do formal writing for formal assessment later on anyway, so let's not make them do it here.)

So, here's a summary of why Twitterature might work as alternative assessment:

1. Students can engage in characterisation through adopting characters' POVs and language.
2. Concise format of Twitter means students have to pick out most salient points --> good for testing students' understanding of characterisation.
3. Informal and familiar platform for students to engage with, as opposed to making formal presentations about a character.
4. Allows for group work, so that (ahem) collaborative learning can take place and students can learn about other characters in a more in-depth manner (and teachers don't have to mark bad handwriting)
5. It's not as time consuming as group powerpoint presentations (theoretically.)

Possible bonus benefit:

Students may or may not be better prepared to take on Virginia Woolf in the future.