Description
This group activity is an in-class game intended to enable students to see connections throughout the text of The Waste Land. It can be adapted to any literary work of sufficient length.
Form teams of two or three students. Provide each team with a text file of "clippings"--excerpts of a few lines--from the poem. Two teams will compete, alternating even and odd numbered turns on the gameboard (link to graffle file, or see an image of the board). Lines link all boxes with other boxes; for each link, the team will have to justify the connection for every link through related imagery, tone, or whatever ground rules you set up. One player for each team should record their team's justifications. These logs should be combined after the game to provide a complete transcript. Since there's no real "winner" these logs are the only real outcome of the game.
Goals: break out of strictly linear readings; stimulate discussion; detect a variety of literary patterns.
Sequence of events: This game takes at least one 75-minute class period. You might ask them to preview your instructions before class so that you have more time to play. Devote the following class period to a discussion of the game logs (also a discussion of the poem).
Rationale: Because students have to justify their moves (i.e. the links), this game leads to discussion and analysis based on close readings of the text.
Instructor Notes: The gameboard was created with OmniGraffle, a Mac-only application. Any interested instructor could create a board with a PC application such as Visio and submit it to the database. The gameboard is the WaterBird Board, copyright Charles Cameron. This and other gameboards are online at
HipBone Games. See a completed gameboard for a version of this game on Eliana Schonberg's site.