1. Introduction: The Impact of Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe was first published in 1719 by Daniel Defoe, and, although it was originally conceived for adult readers, children, and young adults widely embraced it internationally. It became a canonical example of appropriated literature, equal to other literary classics, such as, for example, Defoe’s Gulliver’s Travels (Rivera 50, Devís-Arbona 23). As a literary work, it captivated the imagination of a vast audience, and, due to this interest it raised in young learners, the novel’s potential for pedagogy was soon noticed, and it started to be promoted as a didactic tool as well; an example of this advocation comes from none other than Rousseau. In 1769, he pushed a new trend which considered Robinson Crusoe an example for children:
While Rousseau created a hierarchical relationship between empirical experiences and media representations, and rejected the use of books in pedagogical practices, he indeed recommended Robinson Crusoe as a useful tool for children (…) in order to analyze and observe an unknown world. (Dietz 210)
The resilience and the resolution of this character are among the most appealing and inspiring elements in this novel. He is considered an example of humans’ “ability to survive– and thrive– against the odds” (Ridley 8). Pedagogists around the world were set on a journey to explore all the possibilities that this literary work had for instruction. Nevertheless, they found a number of difficulties; above all, its linguistic complexity. Subsequently, a new phenomenon known as robinsonades emerged exclusively in order to instruct children and young students. Marizzi considers them a plague in the 18th and 19th centuries (2).
Robinsonades were written productions that were designed so “young readers were stimulated to develop an explorative learning style that could be practiced within their own environment” (Dietz 203). There is the example of German author Campe’s Robinson the Younger (1779–1780), a metanarrative in which children are encouraged to perform tasks and experiments, modelling after the young protagonists of the story (Dietz 204). The ultimate educational goal of robinsonades to promote an explorative learning style still inspire nowadays educational endeavors, such as the present proposal, which has the original text as a primary source in order to perform a variety of tasks that might promote useful skills for everyday life and future challenges.
Robinson Crusoe’s influence, nevertheless, has not been restricted to pedagogy or education, the novel has had a durable impact on universal culture. Robinson Crusoe, the character, has transcended Robinson Crusoe; he has taken over the world beyond the constrictions of the novel and has been incorporated into the collective imaginary. There continues to be re-writings of the story, therefore this is a text that provides opportunities to work on and through intertextuality. As Ridley points out, in 2021: “The figure of Crusoe is so pervasive a feature of global culture that it is impossible not to see him” (25).
From popular TV series, such as Lost (2004–2010), and successful movies, such as Tom Hanks’s Castaway (2000) to recent productions teenage students might know such as Amazon’s The Wilds (2020–), Shyamalan’s horror film Old (2021) or Östlund’s 2022 The Triangle of Sadness. Crusoe can be related to reality stranded-on-an-island TV shows, or videogames such as Fortnite (The Island). The trope of the lonely islander is re-interpreted over time and that helps the novel stay relevant. In 2015, Sanjuán claims there are themes in Crusoe that are interesting to universal readers, regardless of their age: friendship, society, animals, personal identity, nature and the wilderness, progress, civilization, ethnocentrism, and more (5). Payne highlights that, among all the themes, “we can all relate to (…) the idea of loneliness” (469). It is so rich, that, along the centuries, the original text has acquired four levels of significance: it is considered an adventure novel, coming-of-age novel, pedagogic novel, and an allegorical novel (Sanjuán 13). All these layers contribute to its current value as a source for didactic material for secondary education students, since, in this age, the students are forging the basic pillars of their future individual and collective identity.
2. Theoretical Framework
2.1 The novel as didactic material
Nowadays, teachers from every corner of the planet still advocate for this novel as the perfect material to support the learning of contents related to every discipline imaginable –linguistics, psychology, philosophy, history, and economy–, to foster relevant skills and competencies in today’s world. As an example, Benfares, in Morocco, proclaims: “Robinson Crusoe is not simply the story of a shipwrecked individual struggling to survive. Rather, it is a story that contains many lessons about management. Robinson Crusoe teaches us some of the major principles underlying entrepreneurship” (11).
Only in the last two years, a substantial number of educational projects and research studies involving Robinson Crusoe and diverse secondary education contents have been published: in Argentina, it is used in a comparative literature project (Caba Beia 53); in China, individual and societal relationships are studied through this piece (Miao 694). In Finland, a first language (L1) teacher introduces some of the original chapters after having read a 1977 originally French robinsonade called Friday and Robinson (Vaittinen 694). In Spain, for instance, Díaz de la Buelga explores the competencies of the subject of Economy through a teamwork proposal inspired by Robinson Crusoe dealing “with scarcity of resources and individuals’ unlimited necessities” (26 my translation) through a game-based perspective. All of them are in the students’ L1.
In spite of this, the search is not as satisfactory if the reader looks for innovative proposals involving the learning and acquisition of English as a Second Language (hereinafter ESL), in the last couple of years, or putting the original text or an adaptation in English into practical use in the ESL classroom. This fact can be surprising, since this is one of the most representative novels in the English language. In the ESL classroom, for example, Danish authors Braselmann et al. recommend using Robinson Crusoe to convey ecological messages and against imperialism (Braselmann 11). Others, like Durga, urge ESL teachers to use it to integrate cultural knowledge and to motivate students, based on the fact that it is undeniable that it is a novel that is still widely read outside the classroom (131).
In a digital and technological era, and although the character stays alive through all the re-writings, one may think that classics like Defoe’s and secondary students reading habits altogether have fallen into oblivion, but different studies have been published that prove otherwise. For instance, in Spain, whose educational legal framework will define this didactic proposal, a 2018 research study by Rivera analyzed the differences among the vast number of publications of Robinson Crusoe available to the young Spanish students/readers in all the main educational publishers such as the Spanish Anaya and Alfaguara or the English McMillan. The idea is reinforced that Crusoe is an undisputable classic in appropriated literature (Rivera 61). From the many titles available to kids and young readers, 73% of them were found to be in English, which shows “a clear intention in the editing companies” (Rivera 60) and an interest in young readers in the foreign language. However, Rivera also clarifies that most of these publications in English are graded readers and all sorts of adaptations –thence, publishing companies contemplate the linguistic challenge inherent to reading this masterpiece and have adapted it to the diversity of learners.
The presence of Crusoe in almost every publishing house shows that there is still an interest in reading this novel. Spanish Schools play a part too. A longitudinal study conducted in Valencia, and published in 2021, shows that, along the years, the students of the master’s degree in teaching in secondary education, the teachers of the future, manifest that Robinson Crusoe is, for them, one of the most influential titles in young adult literature (Devís-Arbona 23). In 2020, a study called “The adolescent as a reader of literary texts: literary reading habits in Secondary Education” was designed to verify, among other variables, if the school was helping in fostering literary education in secondary education in the area of Cádiz. Rivera and Romero identified a relevant area of improvement: world literature texts originally written in English were being extensively used through translations and Spanish adaptations in the secondary education subjects of Spanish Language and Literature (14) but not sufficiently in the ESL classroom, where reading texts were not generally introduced for literary and cultural discussion, but mostly for the “acquisition of linguistic skills” (15). Another conclusion withdrawn from these authors’ research study is even more devastating: they found that students in bilingual high schools had been exposed to and read fewer literary works (15). Bilingual schools in Spain are using less literary texts than non-bilingual ones do, and literature is not being extensively used to support the acquisition of intercultural skills and competences. As a consequence of this, this learning situation has been designed to be applied in a bilingual high school, aiming for the exploitation of other skills and competences than merely linguistic.
Madarova affirms:
Students of English as a second language on the secondary level seldom engage in voluntary reading of English language materials, even though they possess the necessary skills to approach the text. One of the factors that influence this decision is the lack of exposure to the authentic reading input in the ESL classroom environment. (83)
Indeed, ESL textbooks incorporate reading material, usually at the beginning of each unit, always an illustration of the–sometimes forced on the text– given grammar structures and vocabulary, and it often results “somewhat odd and artificial” (Madarova 87), thus, not motivational to the students. Then, there is the nature of the exercises: “Students are well accustomed to this type of presentation –they start with pre-reading activities and after the reading is accomplished, students are asked to work on post-reading activities that consist of a mix of gap-filling exercises, true/false questions and core vocabulary” (Madarova 85). It has arguably been like that for a century, since the structuralists defined their methods. Even in commercial didactic publications which compile authentic reading samples for second language (L2) teachers and students, “few of them are literary” (Madarova 86). In this proposed learning situation, extracts from the original text will be used to connect with the students’ preferred ways of expression, through the use of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), taking into account not only a concern about their present reading habits, but also a new preoccupation about secondary education students’ media literacy.
2.2 Literary and media literacy
In order to be a well-rounded proposal, the novel should be intertwined with the key competencies for lifelong learning defined by the European Union in 2019: Literacy, Digital, Personal, social, and learning to learn, Citizenship, Entrepreneurship, Cultural awareness and expression, and Mathematical, science, technology and engineering (European Commission 5). The Spanish curriculum and the complete educational legal framework have been recently modified to redefine the system and adapt to the times, thence incorporating all the above-mentioned key competences, the specific ones for each subject, and specifying the minimum contents in the distinct levels in compulsory and noncompulsory secondary education. The new Organic Law of Education from 2020, whose curriculum was defined for the higher noncompulsory level of secondary education (the Spanish term Bachillerato will be opted hereinafter in this article) in 2022 through the Royal Decree 243/2022 of April 5th, endorses a cross-curricular approach to the contents in order to develop the above-mentioned competences, and literature, through examples like Crusoe, is a convenient vector.
In this new educational law, on the one hand, teachers are strongly encouraged to foster literary education through guided reading but also in autonomous reading via the subject of Spanish Language and Literature, in which world literature texts are included, always considering they are adapted to the students’ developmental stage and their preferences. Literary texts and intertextuality are contemplated in compulsory areas like Social Sciences and Artistic Education, and the context of the 18th century belongs in the second cycle of compulsory secondary education. The afore mentioned contents re-emerge in the higher (noncompulsory) cycle of secondary education, Bachillerato, where an optional subject solely devoted to World Literature can be studied. Moreover, some of these subjects, in many schools in Spain, are studied through an L2 since bilingualism has been implemented in centers across the country, which makes the upcoming learning situation for ESL in the first year of Bachillerato the more valid as a cross-curricular endeavor in a bilingual school.
Within the ESL specific competences, basic knowledge, and assessment markers, on the other hand, one will solely find a brief mention to literature: students should be able to recognize, understand, produce, and co-produce oral, written, and multi-modal texts, “literary and nonliterary” (Ministry of Education 238 my translation). Promoting literary reading habits in the second language is in the hands of lower curricular level actors, such as centers and teachers. The Spanish secondary education curriculum has given its rightful place to world literature–a spot that was previously reserved exclusively to national texts– (Rivera 51), however, there is still an urge to introduce literary literacy and reading habits in the ESL classroom in ways that might motivate nowadays students. This can be accomplished through the use of the ICTs, through tasks that may reinvigorate Robinson Crusoe’s relevance to the present. Overall, this proposal is adaptable to a variety of realistic educational contexts in Spain, bilingual or not, and internationally, but is originally planned to match the curricular demands in the ESL subject area in the first year of Bachillerato, and to have a strong multi-disciplinary character.
Teenagers have proven to be “open and intelligent and manifest great insight when reading books some consider too difficult for them” (Sanjuán 1 my translation), but there is an intricate complexity to the language used in the original text. Many authors recommend either adaptations or short extracts that may represent less complexity and may favor the students’ interest and motivation, as well as promote an “initial interpretation that emphasizes the living aspects of the text” (Sanjuán 3 my translation), the ones still valid for today’s generation. Having this is mind, short extracts from the original text will be used in this learning situation, utilizing digital, audiovisual, and multimedia support. This is necessary to fulfill the ultimate ulterior objective, that they one day have the skills and desire to read it in its full version–original or translation– (Sanjuán 32) later in life, or as adults, thus promoting their disposition to developing autonomous reading skills and habits.
To ultimately connect with the students’ experience of reality, their own connectivity with the social fabric must be analyzed, a large part of which happens nowadays through the communication media and the use of the ICTs. Nowadays students have highly sophisticated digital skills (Prensky 2), but scholars claim they do not generally use the ICTs in critical or practical terms (Medina 59). Herrero and La Rosa’s study “Secondary Education Students and Media Literacy in the Age of Disinformation”, conducted in Spanish high schools and published in 2022, concludes that students “are mainly informed through social networks, television, and their family or friendship groups but they show difficulties in discriminating between information and opinion” (Herrero and La Rosa 95). Similarly, the 2021 “Study of Media Competence against the Impact of the Youtubers in Minors in Spain” shows they are not critical towards online figures such as youtubers (Conde 261) or streamers, as they are more recently denominated, since the massive success of Twitch.
According to Medina’s “Media Education and Media Literacy in Secondary Schools in Spain” (2017), this is an important challenge upon the current educational system, who should deviate its focus from fostering the mere digital competence onto media literacy instead: “the current model of digital and media teaching-learning in secondary education focuses on the instrumental management of devices and the creation of digital and media content, leaving aside media education” (Medina 43). In the 2018 report “A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Disinformation”, the European Commission encourages all educational systems to promote this competence: “for media and information literacy to be effective, it must be implemented on a massive scale in school curricula and in teacher training curricula” and “should be included explicitly to the list of ‘EU key competences for lifelong learning’” (26).
Consequently, scholars insist on the need for media literacy and media competence to be a part of the educational experience in order to foster critical thinking, and citizenship and responsibility. It implies knowing how to locate, filter, organize and present relevant information obtained through the ICTs, to then be able to produce critically through the same media (Medina 45). This concern permeates the new educational law in Spain, across the curriculum, and particularly the ESL area: the English language is usually the medium for global communication, thence, “developing critical thinking, media literacy and the adequate, safe, ethical and responsible use of technology constitutes a relevant educational element in this subject” (Ministry of Education 232 my translation). Authors such as Cajas state that “using technologies without creativity implies an empty process, nonsensical” (26 my translation), accordingly, in this creative original proposal, media literacy, as well as an appreciation for literary texts, are enhanced.
Lastly, Winocur’s 2009 study on human relations and behavior is to be mentioned, given that it reflects on how young students’ behavior has been affected by the latest communication technologies. This work whose title translates as Robinson Crusoe Has a Cellphone Now is a treaty on solitude. The author does not focus on Crusoe as a literary phenomenon but uses him as a token: If Crusoe had had a cellphone, his story would have been completely different, as solitude would not have been experienced as such, and so, for example, the relationship with Friday would have never been at all (Winocur 157). In recent fictions such as the aforementioned The Wilds, Old, and more, the lack of range and access to the internet is in fact a prerogative for the story to be possible. This work is a reference for the present project, which aims to explore the many applications that a cellphone or the internet may have in a situation like Crusoe’s nowadays.
Winocur states that students are, in general, always connected, but they are talking to invisible people (33), which is why communication and collaborative work are promoted in this project. The Internet, in Winocur, is considered a place for information, but not a place for knowledge, since, lacking proper reading habits (or writing habits, in a creative way) students remain stable in their isolation (36). Through this proposal, there is a search for reconciliation between information and knowledge, incorporating a creative and useful approach to technology, while introducing the students, maybe for the first time, to the adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
3. Robinson Crusoe with a Cellphone: A Task-Based Proposal for Higher Secondary Education
3.1 Didactic objectives
The main objective is to introduce this classic to higher secondary education students, exploring the imprint of this masterpiece’s legacy in ways that might not only be motivational to them but also deeply educational. In addition, an enhancement of both media literacy and autonomous literary reading habits inside and outside the ESL classroom is pursued through the creative use of the ICTs. The ultimate aim is the completion of several tasks and the creation of a final product, an original website.
With regard to specific objectives, it is expected that, during the completion of the tasks proposed, students will be able to:
express themselves fluently and coherently in the second language in the completion of collaborative tasks, participating in cooperative and respectful communicative situations to exchange information, share knowledge and justify their opinion respectfully, both orally and in the written form.
understand, interpret, and value several extracts from Robinson Crusoe, and relate them to other multimodal communication media products, and to reflect on textual organization and practice ways of organizing events.
critically evaluate the contribution of science and technology in the change of life conditions through history by contrasting Crusoe’s world to ours to build up new knowledge.
equally distribute among a group the areas, resources, and responsibilities to re-write and edit the literary text, record sound and video, build up an original website and fill it with useful reliable information and products, gathering and optimizing the necessary resources, which leads to an entrepreneurial experience.
locate, analyze, select, and synthesize information from Google Search tools (Google Maps and Flights) and social media such as YouTube, Instagram or TikTok judging its appropriateness, to later communicate the new knowledge in a creative, respectful, and critical way.
integrate different languages and codes to creatively design and produce audiovisual content through technological tools such as OBS Studio, Wix, Movie Maker or Video Pad to communicate, analyzing the opportunities for personal, social, and labor development they offer.
Rubrics are not included in this article; however, teachers should note that these objectives are related to basic knowledge and assessment criteria and indicators related to the Linguistic Communication, Multilingual, Mathematical, Digital, Personal, social, and learning to learn, Citizenship and Entrepreneurial key competences. The specific competences of the area that are predominantly worked on are Linguistic comprehension and production, Interaction, Multilingualism, and Cultural competences.
3.2 Methodology and previous considerations
The following learning situation is designed, as previously stated, for the first year of Bachillerato in a Spanish bilingual school. The students should have certain level of communicative competence in the L2 in other subjects as well as in ESL, since this proposal has a strong cross-curricular character.
The methodological approach that most imprints this design is Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), as it pursues identifying and satisfying the particular needs in competitive bilingual programs: “effective content learning has to take account not only of the defined knowledge and skills within the curriculum or thematic plan, but also how to apply these through creative thinking, problem solving and cognitive challenge” (Coyle, Hood et al. 29). Through this approach, the language is introduced lexically, rather than grammatically –that is, language functions and forms are dictated by the communicative contexts that generate in the classroom. The progressive acquisition of ESL is subsequently promoted: “in formal educational settings, second languages are best learned when the focus is on mastery of content rather than on mastery of language per se” (Richards and Rodgers 209).
The focus in this learning situation is, as a consequence, the completion of tasks and the reinforcement of the students’ communicative competence. Task-Based Language Learning is an approach that is highly compatible with CLIL’s premises. Tasks are a simulation of real life issues, situations, and activities, therefore they have a clear purpose and intended target audience. They provide opportunities for students to share information and ideas, and they have an outcome that is bound to be shared, in this manner, formative and collaborative assessment is perceived as an intricate and performative part of the learning process: “meaningful tasks imply meaningful learning and end with meaningful communication” (Rodríguez-Bonces and Rodríguez-Bonces 166).
There are certain instances of independent work, but this proposal is mainly collaborative; students work in pairs and small groups, in order to attend diversity. Pre-tasks might also be adapted by the teacher, considering the necessities of their particular group. At all times, students will be encouraged to use synonym online dictionaries, such as Collins or Word Reference, and it is recommended that teachers record short clear tutorials for the use of the computer programs or software students are expected to use. For this matter, it is also recommended that the teacher hands out a questionnaire in order to know whether the students are used to consume and produce digital media contents, and whether any of the students is already a user of OBS Studio or Wix, for instance, as those students could become monitors to help other students in the completion of digital tasks.
3.3 Tasks
There is a total number of eight sessions in this project, although they are open for modification and adaptation. They are bound to be performed over an entire trimester, in weekly one-hour sessions, creating a space along the term for genuine, creative, and practical use of the language. Three whole tasks that are intertwined over eight sessions but may also be done individually with few modifications: from sessions one to three, four and five, and six to eight. In the first and third parts, students will use selected extracts from the original novel; in all three of them, they will use the ICTs. The final product is an original website with several content tabs including media products –some compiled and shared, some originally created– that might be useful for a modern “Robinson Crusoe with a Cellphone”.
3.3.1 First session
The first session starts by connecting with the student’s prior knowledge of Robinson Crusoe’s plot, as they may have certain notions related to it such as the shipwreck, the uninhabited island, etc. To introduce the subject, students will be provided with a selected series of chapter titles from Robinson Crusoe (see Supplementary File: Annex 1) which does not follow the novel’s chronology; the students will review the vocabulary and underline the words with which they are not familiar. In order to illustrate and clarify, a supportive video summary of the story is used; ideally, an adaption suitable for kids, such as the three-minute “Robinson Crusoe Stories” (2015), available on YouTube. Students will be asked to, in pairs, put the chapter titles in order while re-watching the video. Once they have decided an order, a short extract from each of the chapters will be supplied (also in Annex 1), now in the correct order. The last pre-task is to match the titles and the extracts. They will share their answers and the correct order of the events will be determined.
3.3.2 Second session
In this session, they will utilize innovative tools to produce media content, such as OBS Studio, a free computer program designed for streaming. OBS can easily capture video and sound through different intuitive paths. It offers enough editing possibilities for the task given, although the teacher may choose a different, simpler, or more user-friendly program. In groups of three-four people, they will capture the video from session one with OBS to be able to edit it. They will re-record the video sound but adding their own voiceover, taking collaborative turns in narrating the story. They can do this in real time, by capturing the soundless video image and activating the microphone, since the program allows pause during recording.
To be able to do this, the students will use the extracts they have from the previous session. They will select the original sentences they want to include, arranging them in a coherent manner, as in one single text. Editing the text, they will turn the first person into third, adequate all events to the past form, simplify and rephrase, etc. Additionally, they will download at least two creative commons songs to contribute to their montage’s atmosphere. Every sole product will be original in its own way. The teacher monitors every step as this software, although intuitive, implies certain complexity.
3.3.3 Third session
The third session focuses on the many positive uses that technology offers today in a situation like Crusoe’s, and a series of problems that resemble real life situations will be solved through the use of the ICTs. To contextualize, students will reflect upon how, in the 18th century, there was no internet and adventures in sea implied constant uneasiness, danger, and uncertainty. They will be invited to put themselves in the situation presented by the novel, but conserving their–waterproof– cellphone, and ask themselves: ‘What would be the first app I would turn to?’. Defining the route back home will be the first task to be done in class using Google Maps, the most popular Global Position System application.
In the book, the reader never apprehends the exact name of the island. However, there are certain clues in the text which may help the students locate it. This constitutes the key for the following task: Crusoe is travelling from Brazil to Cabo Verde when the storm hits. He, as the narrator, also mentions that he identified a current in the sea that he later learned was caused by the mouth of the Orinoco River. On the island, the protagonist identifies a bigger island that, only after he escaped, he knew was Trinidad. In groups of three-four, they will use the computers and Google Maps to find an island that suits the few details available. The island is Tobago, in Trinidad and Tobago.
After the students have located the island, the next step is researching for a plane ticket to return home. The departure point is ‘Robinson’s Cave’, a tourist attraction located in Tobago. With the same group, or re-grouping, they will search for and identify the nearest international airport: ANR Robinson International Airport (TAB). Consequently, the last step is to find a realistic route from there to Madrid in the nearest dates, first using Google Maps, then consulting the Google Flight options. They are expected to find a feasible route and share the combination chosen. If the distinct groups do not coincide, they will all vote for the cheapest, shorter, or more convenient flight to buy.
As homework, they will think about a mobile phone app that might be useful in a situation like Crusoe’s, which they will bring to class and share in the next session.
3.3.4 Fourth session
Students will share which apps they have thought about in advance that might be useful if you are stranded on an island. There might be many. In order to be able to share this acquired knowledge, not only with the rest of the class, but with the rest of the world –not literally, since outside users are restricted from participation or access–, they will create their own platform through an original website called “Robinson Crusoe with a Cellphone”. To be able to contribute and edit the website, they will be given user and password. On this website, useful tips will be collected and shared to help anybody overcome a situation like Crusoe’s in today world, and in a multimodal way.
To achieve this wholesome task, Wix is recommended. Wix is an online and free website builder designed for nonprofessional users. Wix offers numerous templates and possibilities in order to build and shape a website by helping the creator embed diverse types of resources from other media. Previously, on the site, a tab named “Forum” has been created by the teacher. The students will respond, individually, to the main entry: “What to do with your cellphone if you are Robinson Crusoe”. They all will enter a short comment about the app they have previously selected, clarifying why it is useful for a Robinson Crusoe with a cellphone.
Once they have done this, in groups of three-four, they will be encouraged to create their own welcome or main page, the title being “Robinson Crusoe with a Cellphone”. They must choose their own template, background image, font type and size, colors, etc. The students will vote for their favorite, which will be kept as main page, while the rest will be used as content tabs in the next session.
As homework, they will read everybody’s entries in this same forum and make a short comment on at least one of them, with a couple of simple sentences expressing whether they like the app or not, if they agree or not about its usefulness, or if maybe they chose something similar or the same.
3.3.5 Fifth session
In the fifth session, students will research and filter information from social media such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and the like. In order to fill their website content tabs with useful information for a Robinson with a cellphone, in pairs, students will be asked to search for videos that exemplify useful life hacks or construction tips that may help anybody to make a more easy or independent living. The tab categories could be growing food– preserving food– unknown properties of food, fruits, and herbs– building structures– building gadgets– and others. Once they find a channel or account that suits this, they will incorporate (embed) at least a couple of examples onto the specific tab on their website, with a short caption about their usefulness.
3.3.6 Sixth session
The students will work with extracts from Crusoe’s journal in session six (see Supplementary File: Annex 2). The journal, inserted in the novel, gives the readers an account of Crusoe’s milestones within the first months on the island. The students will be assigned one of these short entries to analyze the main accomplishments to be found in them: surviving the wreck, recovering food and tools from the ship, building a tent, making a chair, digging a cave, or taming a goat.
The goal of this pre-task is to re-write the text, using modern day lexicon and syntax, into a newscast interview that will later be performed, recorded, and shared. In every group, each of the students will pick a role: anchor, reporter, or Crusoe, and they will write a script, transforming the narration into an oral, nowadays, news interview. The anchor introduces the piece, after which the reporter will ask Crusoe about the particular milestone in their extract. The final product may be about 45 seconds to one minute long, therefore, there is enough time in this session to, at the least, have the script accomplished.
3.3.7 Seventh session
In this session, the students will be asked to record the video they started to work on in the previous session, to later incorporate it to the last tab on the website. The teacher creates this last tab, and it is to be edited by the students: “News of the Island”. Their video will have at least three scenes, and they will rehearse and then record it. They may use a cellphone per group or a webcam. They will compile the scenes, and, on this occasion, they will use a video editing computer program such as Movie Maker, which is free, or Video Pad Editor, with a low one-time payment fee. These are simpler than OBS and serve this purpose well enough. The students will be encouraged to use proper transitions and supportive elements (such as fade in and out, or creative commons newscast music).
3.3.8. Eighth session
Realistically, by session eight, there will, in all probability, still be some editing to do. The students will finish and then embed the last videos onto the website. “News of the Island” will be complete and filled with their interviews.
At this point, they will all have access to the different content tabs on their website, which will invite the students to share and evaluate everything accomplished. This will promote a warm, fun, and formative assessment atmosphere.
4. Conclusion
Robinson Crusoe has been popular among young readers over the centuries, while pedagogists have considered it a powerful tool for education. Teachers, nowadays, still find new ways of reinvigorating this novel to connect with a wide variety of students, and they reinvent their approaches to literature to be able to promote a variety of skills and competences in the classroom, with the students’ future in mind.
Specifically, this learning situation has explored innovative experiences to promote literary literacy and reading habits within the ESL area in secondary education in a digital era, particularly, in bilingual contexts. An inter-disciplinary approach to critical thinking and practical and responsible use of the communication media available is reinforced as well, though the conscious use of media production digital tools, which is pivotal in the latest educational law in Spain. Relating original extracts from the novel to relevant information online fosters a substantial number of hard and soft skills that are valuable and necessary for the students’ future.
A task-based project has unfolded to promote respectful communication in the classroom, with a multi-faceted, creative, final product that can be shared and enjoyed by all the students, who might perceive the L2 as a medium for genuine communication in this project, not an end per se. Reimagining a contemporary Crusoe in the ESL classroom provides opportunities to explore the current digital possibilities, enhancing the connection between literary and media literacy.
Additional Files
The additional files for this article can be found as follows:
Competing Interests
The author has no competing interests to declare.