Grad Project Show-n-Tell!! June 11 - 12

On Thursday and Friday, you will be sharing your graduation project progress with the class. Tuesday and Wednesday are planning days for your presentation (and any finishing up of your proposal/action plan).
Your presentation should include the following:

• Your topic idea and why you chose it (10 points)
• What your "action plan" will be (10 points)
• Two-three websites that will be the most useful to your project (10 points)
• Your collage and blog (10 points)
• Any challenges you are facing or successes that you've had, etc. (10 points)

Your presentation will be worth 50 points and your participation as an audience member is worth 50 points.

Week 6 - What should I be doing...???

At this point, you can use the following list as a checklist of what you should have completed so far on your project:

1. You have a solid topic
2. You've developed your Essential and Foundation Questions
3. 10-15 Key Terms and definitions are a gadget on your Blog
4. Your collage is a gadget on your Blog
5. "Did you Know...?" statistics and/or Unique Facts are posted on your Blog
6. You've turned in your Webliography

Now, we are turning our attention to writing a proposal and trying to lay out the answers to 3 major questions:

1. What is your project/What is the focus of your project?
2. Why are you doing this project? Why did you pick this topic? What do you hope to learn, show, or accomplish with this project?
3. What will your project look like in the end?

Ongoing things that you should be doing:

1. Blogging (what's happening good/bad with your project?)
2. Note taking - this should be the major focus to find the answers to your Foundation Questions - use the template, note-taking rubric...

Did You Know....??

Today is "Did you Know...?" day. Your task is to go through your sources or search for more sources which will give a list of 8 - 10 statistics or unique facts about the focus of your topic that will make a viewer/reader say "Wow! I didn't know that!"

Logon to Edline to get the note-taking template that you will use to collect the "Did you Know..." information and for future notes that you will take on your project.

• Save your notes and the note-taking template to your H:/Drive
• Add any new sources to your Webliography
• Post the "Did you Knows..." to your Blog!
• Remember I want to be "Wowed!!"

PhotoShop meets Graduation Project

Now that you've selected your Graduation Project topic - what images come to mind when you think of your topic? An effective way of begin your research is by designing a collage that represents images that relate to your topic. When you are done, upload your collage to your blog. (It must be saved as a .jpg or .gif)Requirements:

• A collage of images
• 800 x 600
• In color
• Text is allowed but it should not over-power or be larger than the images
• “Bells and whistles” – put all of your skills to work, be as creative as you can
• Typos/spelling errors = Failing Grade

Rubric:

• Readability: Be creative with your graphics, but make sure your fonts, word art, and positioning of the text do not make the text hard to read.
• Use of color: Make sure that you can see/read the text clearly. Do your pictures make a visual statement?
• Spelling and Grammar: You should have absolutely no errors on this sign! Grammar or spelling mistakes will make your sign unacceptable.
• Relationship to research: Are your pictures appropriate for your topic?
• Appropriate size: Your size must be 81/2 x 11.
• Visual appeal: Your sign must be appealing and readable from a distance.
• General neatness and skill level: Your sign should look like you spent some time on it. It should be visually appealing.
• Use of space on the page: Your sign should fill up the page. Make use of the space available to you.
• Overall creativity: Did you go out of your way to find interesting graphics? Have you created a sign that stands out from your peers, either through the artwork or through your master of computer skills?
  

Next Steps

Last week, 3 beginning pieces were due on Friday (May 8th) on a Microsoft Word document:

• identified topic
• Essential Project Question
• At least 3 web sites which will offer background information (this should be a list of web titles that are hyperlinked

Next step:

• The list of 3 should grow to 10 websites
• Start getting an understanding of your topic - Read through the websites you've collected to build a list of Graduation Project Key Terms:
• Generate a list of 10-15 key terms that have to do with your graduation project.
  These terms could be important words necessary for a full understanding of your topic, unfamiliar terms that are part of a special vocabulary, and/or jargon/specialized terminology related to your topic.
• Write a complete definition for each of your terms.
• Post the list of words/definitions to your blog - (Add a gadget)
• Foundation Questions - question your topic and your essential question - what questions do you need to ask to help you answer your Essential Question? Try starting with a simple 'What is....? question. You need to develop about 10 Foundation Questions.

Zooming in on a Topic!!

Selecting a topic can be a difficult and sometimes scary task. Use your time today to really try to "zoom" in on a topic for your project.

• If you don't have a topic, try working through an Interest Inventory. There are 2 different inventories on the front table available to you - try them out!

• If you think you have one or more topic ideas, start searching for websites to gather Background Information. The first thing that you want to find out is if there is enough information available for you to pull from.
• Find at least 3 websites that relate to each of the topics that you are thinking about and post links to them in your blog. Note: Don't just give the address (url), give the title of the page before the address.
  

Blogging in Class???

Welcome to the City High Class of 2010 (Trimester 2) Graduation Project Blog!Before you get started, you should learn something about this blogging business.

1. Read the New York Times article about blogging, "For Some, the Blogging Never Stops".
2. With the person next to you, answer the following 8 questions on a separate word document.

Answer in complete sentences.

• What is blogging, according to the article?
• How many blogs has the blog-tracking company, Technorati, counted?
• What percentage of online users uses blogs, according to Jupiter Research?
• What reason does Richard Wiggins give for writing blogs?
• How does Scott Lederer justify the time he spends blogging?
• What does Jeff Jarvis mean by "the obligation to blog"?
• According to Barabara Quint, what is it about blogging that makes it more attractive than cash?
• What are some of the pitfalls to frequent blogging?

3. Independently: Answer the following questions and post them as comments to this post:

• Do you think constant blogging indicates signs of an unhealthy obsession or a harmless, spirited pastime? Why?
• What makes another person's blog worth reading?
• By what "rules" do you think fellow bloggers should abide, and why?