Instructify

If you’re teaching Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and you get the feeling that some of your students would rather be stranded on the island than reading about it, steer them toward the Chasing Crusoe Multimedia Project. This is a beautifully done site where you can check out facts about the marooned men who were the inspiration for Defoe’s character, watch visualizations of the construction of Crusoe’s residences on the island, play the “Marooned” trivia game, and much more.

You don’t have to be reading the book to make good use of this site. It’s completely bilingual, with text and audio, so it would be a great resource for a Spanish class (and it’s a whole lot more interesting than “Destinos”). Or, if you teach Social Studies, you might want to draw on the “Isla Mas a Tierra” section, which gives a vivid description of life on the impoverished Robinson Crusoe Island.

I know teachers are crafty as castaways, so if you think of another cool use for this site, let us know in the comments! -MARIELLE PRINCE

Chasing Crusoe

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Great Literature, Now With Road Maps