We have started to read The Outsiders in my 8th grade class. I am using the novel to explore the following essential questions:

• Is it ever necessary to question the status quo?
• Does labeling and stereotyping influence how we look at and understand the world?
• What are the causes and consequences of prejudice and how does an individual’s response to it reveal his/her morals, ethics, and values?

One of the main themes we are investigating to gain a better understanding is the idea of a search for self. In the novel, Ponyboy has all the worries of a boy his age; is he strong, brave, or handsome enough to match up to the masculine ideal? In class we are discussing identity and how is created. How do we help create our own identities? How successful are we? How much do other people’s ideas about us influence the way we interact with society?

I asked the student to use Glogster as a way to create a poster that reflects the things that they think are “tuff” In the book Ponyboy explains that “tuff” is really cool.

Here were the basic guidelines:

• Use Glogster for your display-
• fabric samples of tuff materials
• jewelry
• album jackets or jacket copies of tuff musicians
• nail polish and lipstick samples
• titles of tuff books, videos, or movies
• lists or pictures of tuff people in your life
• any other tuff, appropriate ideas you would like to include
• photographs

In effort to learn more about Glogster, I created the following poster:

You can also see it here, if the embed has trouble loading. People can argue that Glogster is nothing more than a glorified poster, but I found the tool very interesting. Easy to use and very intuitive, it can be used in many ways to help students create multi-media presentations showing their understanding of themes and ideas. I found it fun to use and hope they will too.

I am now thinking of other ways to use this tool. Here are some ideas:

Knowledge: arrange, define, duplicate, label, list, memorize, name, order, recognize, relate, recall, repeat, reproduce state.

Arrange and Label a series of words, themes, moods, literary terms with images, video or songs

Comprehension: classify, describe, discuss, explain, express, identify, indicate, locate, recognize, report, restate, review, select, translate,

Students can create short Youtube clips in which they discuss content learned in class and create a glogster where the video clips follow a chain of events. Or they can use a video clip to explain a corresponding image.

Application: apply, choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, practice, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write.

Illustrate the setting of a novel using images, video, and music.

Analysis: analyze, appraise, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test.

Analyze a central film clip with labels, stickers, and other video clips.

Synthesis: arrange, assemble, collect, compose, construct, create, design, develop, formulate, manage, organize, plan, prepare, propose, set up, write.

This one is pretty self- explanatory.

Evaluation: appraise, argue, assess, attach, choose compare, defend estimate, judge, predict, rate, core, select, support, value, evaluate.

Create a two-sided Glog which argues to opposing views with images and video.

The possibilities are endless really. I will be using this tool more in the future. Have you ever used Glogs? If so in what capacity? What ideas can you think of? Final note, as I am sure you will see in the comments, there is also an EduGlogster site.