Alice's Cards

A Web Hunt

by John McIlvain

Study Guide HomeLeast Tern

 

Overview ~ Resources ~ Tasks ~ The Game ~ Teacher's Role

Overview - The purpose of this Web Hunt is to gather, share and learn information about the world of Lewis Carroll at the time he wrote Alice in Wonderland. Students will each research at least one specific topic, using the Intranet and resources provided by the teacher. A game will be played, through which gathered information will be shared.

Resources - You should be able to find all of your information at one of the these three sites:

• Lewis Carroll on the Victorian Web
• Lewis Carroll Homepage - a lot of everything
• Lenny's Alice in Wonderland Site - this is especially good for its Origins of Alice in Wonderland section

The Tasks - You will receive from your teacher an index card containing a topic and a card suit symbol (diamond, club, spade, heart).

1. Spend one class period researching your specific topic. All important information should be either typed into a 3.0" by 4.5" word processing document OR neatly written on the blank side of your card. If a picture is essential, print it and attach it to your index card.
2. You are looking for specific, interesting facts - not everything!
3. Your digital information should be printed. Then cut it out and tape or paste it onto the blank side of your card.
4. Give completed cards to your teacher.
5. When you finish, you may assist any member of the class who has a question with the same card suit.
6. The class "deck" is complete when all research cards have been completed.

 

Topics (for the impatient or curious):


Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
Lewis Carroll, Writer
Lewis Carroll, Photographer
Lewis Carroll, Mathematician
Charles Dodgson, Deacon
Rugby School
Christ’s Church, Oxford
Alice’s Adventures Underground
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Through the Looking Glass
John Tenniel
Treacle Well at the Binsey Home
A Horse Chestnut Tree in the Dean’s Garden
Alice Liddell
A photograph of Alice Liddell
Opium use in Victorian England
What it meant to be a gentleman in Victorian England
How women dressed in Victorian England
How children’s lives were different in Victorian England
The Riddle of the Raven
$1.54 million
The servant's life in Victorian England
Tanners and their chemicals
Quadrille
Queen Victoria
Mock Turtle soup
Irish potatoes
Gryphon
What children studied in school in Victorian England
important dates:
1832
1861
1862
1865
1886
1893

The Game - After every class member has completed his/her research, you will gather as a class and play the following game:

• The Object of the game is to run around gathering information about the opposing suits and then see how much you remember.
• How it is Played:
  • Your teacher will deal you your own card(s).
  • Organize yourselves into two concentric circles, clubs and diamonds inside facing hearts and spades.
  • When your teacher gives you the signal, Run - clubs and diamonds run clockwise, hearts and spades run counterclockwise.
  • On the signal, Stop and face the classmate in the opposing circle. Exchange cards.
  • Read the topic and its notes. You may Ask any questions of the card's owner. You now Own that card and its information. Keep it.
  • On the signal, Run. Repeat the Stop - Read - Ask - Own procedure 5 times.
  • Now, clubs and hearts switch circles.
  • Repeat the Stop - Read - Ask - Own procedure 5 times.
• Ending:
  • Your teacher will now collect the cards and review the topics with you, or test you on them.
  • In the end, you should know a great deal more than you did before you played the game.

The Teacher's Role - Organize, oversee and mentor the research and the game. Specifically:

1. Gather materials: at least one 3" by 5" index card for each student, tape or glue stix, pencils or pens, Internet access, black & red markers, a bell or buzzer or musical tape with which to control the 1st part of the game.
2. Download and print the Alice's Cards template (a Word document) or Alice's Cards (.pdf - Adobe Acrobat Reader needed) or - if you can not open either, print the topic list above and write a topic on each card. Assign each topic to a suit by drawing a suit icon in the upper left corner.
3. Suggestions:
   1. These should be notes. Review what it means to write a note.
   2. The final physical size for presenting information is very small. That means focusing and rejecting some of the information found as not interesting or not essential.
   3. Memory will be important - some information will have to be stored in the head.
   4. When you assign topics, note that some are broader and some are very specific and will require more intense research.
   5. Each suit should, if possible, have the same number of cards and the same number of players. If necessary, give some players two cards when you play the game.
   6. Cards are by nature random and chaoic - thus the running game. If you have a class that should not be running, which is probably most classes, or if your space is limited, sit in circles and Pass the cards. You might use both procedures to control the game's ending.
   7. Post the cards, information side out, on a board so that you can refer to them while reading Alice.
   8. After the playing of the game, you could leave the room. Or, you could gather the cards and use them to check how much was actually learned and remembered. A secondary game that involved eating mushroom cookies (for "size points") or a kind of Trivial Pursuit through Wonderland could be played to review the facts. Let the students design these!
4. Note: Additional topics can be added, of course. The resources above are rich with material, as are the Extensions on our Alice site. You might consider including some literary terms (pun, irony) or some word roots.
5. Please let Least Tern know if you come up with a different game.

Least Tern

John McIlvain 2/5/04