Fakebook

I recently discovered a new technological tool which I plan to implement into my classroom as I student teach. This semester, the first novel my eighth grade students will be reading is Of Mice and Men, which we plan on beginning the second week of October. While I personally find this to be a fantastic read, John Steinbeck being one of my favorite authors, I cannot be so sure that my students will feel the same way. For this reason, I have been searching for ideas to infuse into my lesson plans, so as to make the novel both more palatable, as well as relatable- even further, enjoyable!

From my research, I discovered a tool which many English teachers have been implementing with great success, called "Fake"book. Fakebook is a website that imitates Facebook in form, which I plan to use as a unit long project, which aims to focus on character development throughout the novel. While Of Mice and Men is primarily character driven, I believe that a lesson which focuses on analysis of these characters will be beneficial for students' overall understanding of Steinbeck's novel. By using this tool, I believe that the characters will come to life for students via Fakebook, a technology that will make characters and their development palatable and concrete.

My plan is to break up each class into six groups, one group per character (Lennie, George, Candy, Curly, Slim and Crooks). Each group will make a Fakebook for their character, each Fakebook consisting of a "profile picture", an "about me" section, "personal information" (name, age, employment, where they live, relationship status, ect.). The "about me" will be an elaborate written description in the voice of the character, also having specific requirements which will be met by the end of the project/novel. The "about me" will change and become more involved throughout the unit as the character progressively during reading-becoming more elaborate and "layered", along with their relationship with the character. By the end of the novel, the person viewing the profile should have a holistic understanding of the character which coincides with Steinbeck's depiction, according to the novel.

Each character, or group, will be required to post three "status updates" per week. The statuses posted will be direct quotes from the novel (said by their character), which students deem important to the plot, major themes present in the novel, as well as their character's development.

Fakebook allows the administrator (teacher) to link related pages with one another. Each character will "befriend" the remaining five characters, allowing groups to interact and submit posts to one another. I find this a very handy which can be a catalyst for students to think critically about their character, while they will have to pose thought provoking questions to one another each week , answering  the questions in they way which they believe their character would respond- empathizing with, as well as analyzing their characters motives and conflicts as if it were their own.

Any possible way to get students interested and engaged in the classroom is absolutely imperative, especially in an English classroom in which analysis is reached mainly through discussion (not to mention that English does not tend to be most students' favorite subject).The integration of technology in the classroom should be used, in my opinion, only when it is beneficial to students overall comprehension and engagement with the topic (teaching typing in first grade, for example, is unnecessary and excessive to me) and I believe that Fakebook can be used as an effective tool to promote productive group work, character analysis, and deciphering of themes and key elements, which makes it an effective technology to utilize within the classroom.