Webquest Review for Maus

Cited for 11th and 12th graders. This webquest assignment was very interesting to me but I have some doubts as to its appropriateness for high school students.

The quest jigsaws the class into several groups and asks each group to evaluate the book according to the groups’ field. The groups are: Art teachers, English teachers, Social Studies teachers and Holocaust Survivors. The three teacher groups must decide if Maus is appropriate to teach and the survivor group must decide if Maus is respectful or offensive to survivors.

Students in the groups are further jigsawed to read one of five web based and library based articles that support a position for the group. In the end the group comes together and puts together all their arguments that support or oppose a decision on a provided graphic organizer.

What I like about this webquest: The question seems rather simple but the reading content is rather sophisticated; it tackles everything from textual criticism, aesthetics, historical narrative, classroom standards – college level stuff. I guess that is also why I don’t like this webquest. The reading material is very sophisticated, in some cases the links are no longer there and in other cases the connection between the arguments that students need to make and the reading is a bit disconnected, students would have a hard time extrapolating.

I would appropriate some readings and perhaps one or two questions from this webquest, but I would NOT assign this to a (typical) 10th grade class reading Maus.

Since this is a core book for my curriculum I really wanted to explore everything available. I was surprised to find this is the ONLY webquest available! If anyone knows of an additional one Maus, please let me know!!!