The+behind-the-scenes

To start with, I want to say that Wikispaces is not my friend. I had so much trouble trying to figure everything out, starting with what to name my page. I’m not sure how broad I was supposed to get, as I thought that the page could just be named after my assignment title, but then I realized that my reflection page would not be a subpage. And if it was supposed to be, I was not sure how to do that.

I typed my assignment in Word and then had a terrible time with fonts and spacing when I copied it on to the wiki page. The table I wanted to use for my calendar in Word worked perfectly, but turned into something not so perfect on my wiki page. The reason I am so concerned with the visual aspect of my assignment sheet is because I believe it really affects students. Students view the assignment sheet multiple times before turning in a final product. It is important to make the assignment sheet easy to read and that imperative information is easily accessible so that students may achieve the desired A.

I decided to gear my assignment towards tenth grade students because I believe they might be very interested in paranormal activity, in a World Literature class, since the video content derives from Africa. I chose to base the assignment around journalism and formal writing. I believe many of my great writing skills resulted from my journalism class that I participated in for three years in high school. In addition to that, there are so many interesting videos that are also informational. These videos can be about many different subjects that are often not English related. All of that information can be combined into a formal product that does not have to be the typical run-of-the-mill research paper. Students can decide what type of information they want to include in their article and which topics to focus on. In this specific assignment, I also allow for a bit of creativity by encouraging students to embellish on rational details. This will show me what part of the video students really took into consideration- whether they questioned information, saw opportunity for enhancement, or simply needed a segue way to other topics. I believe I give students the ability to decided themselves on whether they want to extend the assignment even more. Those students who decided to extend themselves will be creative when choosing sides and their word choice will reflect on how they, as a writer, feel about the topic.

Students may ask if they need to use actual interviewees from the video for their quotes and interviews. I did not clarify in the assignment sheet because I originally thought that would be the route they would take. However, some students might want to embellish that aspect of the article. Another hypothetical situation I foresee is the students who would gear their article more on outside research rather than the video. I do not see that as an issue because it would show that students were very interested in the topic. I would see this as an extension of the assignment for those students who want to be more challenged and work with not only information that is provided from the teacher, but also information they seek out on their own.

Of course, from a teacher standpoint, I also see issues with students who might be fearful of paranormal activity or parents who would not appreciate the viewing of a video that contains something that goes against their beliefs. For these cases, I would have a similar alternative assignment with a different video.

My concern regarding challenges mostly revolves around technology resources at home. Students who do not have computer or internet access at home would have difficulty viewing the video as often as they may need it. For these students, I would open my classroom for computer usage before and after school and also during lunch time, with special permission. This would also help students who have difficulty typing papers, or in this case articles, at home. I will give the students two half days of class time to workshop on this assignment. The first day focuses on getting started, initial ideas, and research. The second day focuses on peer review to avoid grammar and spelling errors.

GPS Standards:

__ The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of the purpose, structure, and elements of nonfiction and/or informational materials and provides evidence from the text to support understanding; the student: __ b. Analyzes and evaluates the logic and use of evidence in an author’s argument.
 * ELAWLRL1 The student demonstrates comprehension by identifying evidence (i.e., examples of diction, imagery, point of view, figurative language, symbolism, plot events, main ideas, and cultural characteristics) in a variety of texts representative of different genres (i.e., poetry, prose [short story, novel, essay, editorial, biography], and drama) and using this evidence as the basis for interpretation. **


 * ELAWLRL4 The student employs a variety of writing genres to demonstrate a comprehensive grasp of significant ideas in selected literary works. The student composes essays, narratives, poems, or technical documents. **

a. Explores life experiences related to subject area content.
 * ELAWLRC4 The student establishes a context for information acquired by reading across subject areas. The student **