I have a blog on which students can share reviews of books, films and music. They can collect brownie points if they write something, but I have also used it for obligatory class assignments. Students have also used it to share the work they have done in relation to a class reader. The benefit: No one is forced to this, they can improve their grades, and be proud of their work.
Another tool I have used is Facebook, where students had to upload a photo and a short text related to a book. I was genuinely surprised by how much effort the students put into it and would definitely use it again.
- Malorie Blackman’s Noughts & Crosses: Students could choose from a variety of tasks and made a portfolio. On this site they shared their best pieces: Supervarious DBS – Noughts & Crosses
- John Green’s Looking for Alaska: The students had to make a video related to the book. As the main character is obsessed with famous people’s last words, one possible task was to come up with the last words of the book’s characters. Another task was to make a video about young people’s worries and concerns today: Supervarious DBS – Looking for Alaska
- Tommy Wallach’s We All Looked Up: In the book one of the main characters starts a blog about society’s demise in the face of the impending doom. The students’ assignment was to take a picture that captures life’s beauty, write a short description of the photo and why it shows that the end is not near, and then share it in a Facebook group (only visible if you have a Facebook account). And the coolest thing: even the author himself took the time to leave a comment. The students were over the moon about this interaction with the author – as was I 🙂 Facebook – Apocalypse Postponed
I think there are many ways in which you can involve social media in your literature class. What I like about is that students can create something, share it and be proud of themselves.
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