A Wiki Gives a Worthy Book New Life

We teachers are so spoiled. Just about everything we need is available online, from lesson plans and printables to book reviews and quiz generators. Or so I thought.

This summer, while working with a colleague, scouring the Web for a lesson plan on Meja Mwangi’s middle-grade novel, The Mzungu Boy (Groundwood, 2005), I encountered a rare black hole. Not a single teacher-created lesson plan could be found for this story. This seemed incredible given the quality of the book, a charming, yet riveting tale of two boys seeking friendship and adventure spanning cultural divides. Set in colonial Africa in the 1950s, the book follows principal characters, Kariuki, a Kenyan native, and Nigel, grandson of a brutal British landowner, who embark on the adventure of a lifetime. But what they find will change their lives forever.

This powerful novel begged for further exploration in the classroom. Determined to help my teacher colleague, who will be introducing the book for the first time to her fifth graders this fall, I decided to create my own lesson plan for her (themzunguboy.wetpaint.com).

I designed it as a wiki—an online format that allows users to freely create and edit its content—using the free software Wetpaint (www.wetpaint.com). Ideal for collaborative learning, a wiki allows students to engage the novel beyond the pages of the book. And Wetpaint makes it easy to use, and best of all, it’s ad-free.

Students can use the wiki to research, outline, draft, and edit a collaborative project on the book. They could also organize articles, site links, video, and other resources there for students locally and even in Kenya—just think if they can find a participating school! Users can discuss the book, share papers for peer feedback, and so on, all using the wiki.

I added some links about Kenya, including still images and video of children, villages, and the struggling school system (www.nanyuki.org). Learning fun, new words is always a favorite among students, so I provided links to Dictionary.com for relevant terms such as “puff adder” and “turaco.” Of course, an online project is just one way to inspire learning. While our novel study starts with the wiki, it ends in the kitchen! For some hands-on fun, our students will get to make and eat ugali (www.recipezaar.com/140779), an East African staple with which the mzungu—white—boy, Nigel, falls in love. You’ll have to read what happens after he gets caught eating it.

But our experience with the The Mzungu Boy—a story rich with ideas for learning—begs the question: Why do some books have related online resources for the classroom teacher while others do not?

Take Deborah Ellis’s book The Breadwinner (Groundwood, 2001). Similar in scope to The Mzungu Boy, it’s about a family trying to survive through tumultuous times. The only difference: there are lessons galore for The Breadwinner.

Teachers love having readily available online resources, and when they have both a lesson and a dynamic book, it’s a win-win scenario. Worthy books get a longer shelf life and teachers spend less time writing the lessons themselves.

These titles, too, need online lesson plans:

Snow Falling in Spring: Coming of Age in China During the Cultural Revolution by Moying Li (Farrar, 2008).

A true story of one girl’s ambition to persevere during China’s Cultural Revolution. Grades 7 and up

Wings by William Loizeaux (Farrar, 2006)

A beautifully illustrated story of a young boy’s experiences in the natural world learning about nurturing, love, and loss. Grades 2–5

Angel by Cliff McNish (Carolrhoda, 2008)

A teenage girl’s obsession leaves her torn between two worlds: her friends and her angels. A novel for teens.