I Am Still Learning

Today in class we did pre-writing for a new piece of personal writing.  We’ll be writing a “When I was Young” pieces, modeled after the children’s story “When I was Young in the Mountains” by Cynthia Rylant.

Today in EN102 we voted on a name and decided on a theme for the WV website we’re working on.  The title will be “Stairway to Heaven” and the tagline is “Almost Heaven”.  The blog theme is regulus, the one which was gold and blue.  Remember that this week we will be posting our work on the new website, and making our links work, so be sure to get last and final revisions and edits accomplished ASAP. 

For those of you who don’t remember the epic hero discussion, or who missed it in class, here’s the power point we used that day.  Use it well — L.t.

the-epic-hero-and-his-journey.ppt

In English 12, fifth period, we’re working on a Heroic Quest unit.  The main project file can be found on the links to the right.  Presentations will begin next Monday, April 7, 2008.  Remember that you must have a rubric with you in class on the day you present, or I will not gradethe presentation. 

 To:  En102 Students

Fr: L. T. Baisden

Re:  West Virginia Web Site/Blog Project

Date:  3.21.08

I hope everyone has a happy and save Easter and spring break.  I wanted to let everyone know the final decisions we made about the West Virginia blog project we began this week.  This email contains:

• 1. The list of topics and who partners with whom on them
• 2. The work schedule for the project
• 3. Preliminary thinking about final evaluations, and ideas about what quality work looks like.

I don’t want you to worry about this project tremendously over spring break, but do pay attention to what the assignment is for when we return to school.  Over spring break you and your partner are to plan the work and be ready to report out to the class what you want to do.

I also hope you will take a few days off during spring break, and rest and re-coupe yourselves.  It feels a lot like end of the year, but it’s still far too early to begin coasting to the end.  We have several more weeks of productivity ahead of us, and I want you to come back to school ready to get involved in a final project.

I will be available on a very limited basis over spring break, as I too plan to take some much needed time off. 

Here’s what we decided about work schedule:

WV Project work schedule and benchmarks

March 31 – partners should be able to report to the class what their plan is.

• Have a work plan ready to discuss with the entire class.
• Be able to share what your work schedule is.
• Be able to name contacts who you will consult with.

Points:   150 points for this

April 7 -partners should show evidence of research – beyond internet or books.  /the personal face of the story should be clearly apparent.

• Have some drafts/versions of work to showcase
• Be able to clearly say specifics about your section of the resource and how it stands
• Make clearly apparent the work is well underway and you’re meeting the challenges that show up.

Points:  150 points

April 14 -have first draft of work together and ready for response groups-whole draft

• Draft should be complete and look like you imagine the final will look
• Partners should say clearly how they envision their work pieces will look like on their section of the website.

Points:  500 points

April 21 – begin posting to the website and getting materials up. 

Here are the notes about ideas for making the end product – the website, have high quality:

West Virginia Project Evaluation

• Graphics and Images
• o Graphics are not “lifted” illegally from other sources but belong to the person who put them on the site.
• o Images are relevant to the topic
• Willingness to apply, adapt, learn and use a variety of technologies
• Organization
• Grammar & Mechanics
• o Standard rules for writing are observed in all text
• Integrity of information
• o Can be verified by more than one source
• Wide variety of information
• Interesting for an audience not familiar with WV
• Provides a creative and innovative presentation
• Information is clearly based on research
• Use of appropriate links
• Students contribute equally to the work load
• Uniqueness of the presentation

Finally, here is the list of work groups and topics:

West Virginia Projects