Dickinson Sites Galore!

I seemed to have been falling in a rut the last week and a half.  I felt bored, and the students had to be feeling the same - one student in particular fell asleep twice last week.  We had to shake up the dull-drums . . . therefore, I created a project last night that will not only challenge the Accelerated English juniors, but it will also place the learning process in their hands, giving them choices for the products of their learning.  Students will be creating Google Sites to demonstrate the importance of Dickinson's writing and the impact of her writing on American Literature.  Throughout the process, students will study the effects of Dickinson's life on her writing, her writing style, the themes of her writing, figurative language she used in her writing, critical reviews of her writing, and other writings by Dickinson such as letters of correspondence.

In doing the project, students will not only learn about Dickinson's writing, buy they will also use skills in research, writing, critical thinking, collaboration, communicating through various forms, and using technology as a tool to create a product for others to reference.  Student are grouped into teams of three (there is one group of two in each class because of numbers).  Teams will first fill in the blank cells of the Project Plan below and share the document with me.  Afterward, each team will submit a timeline and workload plan.

The American Literature Sites Project is as follows:

  American Literature Sites

Students will collaboratively work with partners to create a Google Site analyzing Emily Dickinson's writing.  Mr. Langley's Digital Classroom will link to the site so people may view your work in progress.  One Google Site per partner group will be created.  The project due date is March 31, 2010.  Project Plan:

Emily Dickinson - need to know topics & assignments	How to Address the topic or assignment	How to Support & Give Credibility to your work on the topic and/or assignment	Product within the Site that will demonstrate this topic and/or assignment
Effect of her life on her writing
Dickinson's writing style
Themes of Dickinson's writing
Figurative Language commonly used in Dickinson's writing
Critical reviews of Dickinson's writing
Analyze ten Dickinson poems
Other writings by Emily Dickinson (letters of correspondence, etc.)
Which literary period does Dickinson's writing reflect?
Why is Dickinson and her writing significant to American Literature?

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Grading Rubric:
The project is worth a total of 45 points in the Report category of your 4th quarter grade.  Each Product withing the Site will be scored on the following Expectations and scale:

1	2	3	4	5
Well Below Expectations	Below Expectations	Meets Expectations	Above Expectations	Well Above Expectations

Expectations:

• Project partners will submit their Project Plan to Mr. Langley via document sharing.
• The product demonstrates understanding of the topic/assignment
• The product thoroughly, effectively, and accurately addresses the topic/assignment
• The product is a credible reference tool for others
• Credible sources are used and referenced
• Web sources are hyperlinked with a text link.  Print sources are referenced with in-text parenthetical citations (a works cited page in the site is present)
• Whenever applicable, project partners research how to use the tools necessary to create the product.
• Project partners establish and maintain respectful and cooperative working relationships
• Project partners seek feedback from multiple sources from outside Mr. Langley's English classes (a Google form is a quick survey tool).  Feedback results are presented to Mr. Langley via gmail or document sharing.
• Project partners constructively use feedback from multiple sources to make improvements to the product.
• Project partners organize a timeline for each project and submit the timeline to Mr. Langley via gmail.
• Project partners organize a work-load plan for partners and submit the plan to Mr. Langley via gmail or document sharing.
• Project partners maintain and complete their agreed upon workload according to the timeline submitted or document sharing.