English 1160
English Composition
Instructor: Joan Latchaw
Spring 2004
A MOO Debate Instructional
Guide
Original Document: Joan Latchaw
This activity can be used in a composition course in the traditional classroom or in a computer
classroom. It has worked well and combines speaking skills with literary and composition skills.
Teachers could easily adapt this activity to other texts, both literary and non-literary. I used
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” to teach library research. This unit took
about a month to complete and the students were evaluated on an annotated bibliography, the
debate itself, and the reader responses.
Preparation
Students wrote several reader responses to the story as we were discussing gender and social
issues. The assignments asked students to respond to a particular prompt, such as, “Trace some
of the images and symbols of the wallpaper (fungus, yellow stain, bulbous eyes) throughout the
story and analyze how they reflect the narrator’s social position, identity, and psychological
state.”
Next, the students and I decided on the debate questions, such as “Did the narrator write as an
escape or to change social conditions?”, or “Was the narrator insane?” Each person was then
asked to do library research, which could include biographies of Gilman, her own essays, novels,
and social commentaries, social, psychological, or medical information about the 19th century,
and literary criticism of the story.
The MOO Debate
The MOOs could be chosen with consultation from the wizard (the manager of the MOO) and
receive help designing the space, if the students and teachers want to take the time. Either
graphically or verbally, students could design the space where the debate will occur. This might
include a room with the yellow wallpaper, characters inside or outside the room, inside the
wallpaper (narrator’s other persona), outside in the garden, etc. These options are only possible
in this environment and thus would expand analytical possibilities beyond the traditional
classroom.
Each team would then debate their topic for a specified period of time with the other class
members as the audience. After the debate, the class can discuss issues raised. Because the
MOO will be logged and archived, actual text can be “resurrected,” which is not possible in the
traditional classroom. Other students can also evaluate the debates.