How To Research For Mg

How to Research for the Multi Genre Project Goals The goal of this lesson is to inform students about how to research correctly. It also will show them how and where they will be able to find credible and reliable sources. Students will also be shown how to use index cards as a way of compiling research in a non-traditional way and understand how to use a KWL chart. Rationale I decided to make this one of my key lessons for this unit because it is at the starting process of researching and I think students need some sort of guidance and structure early on in the process. I also wanted to model a KWL chart for them because it will help them begin their thinking on which topic they would like to research and tap into their prior knowledge about that topic. This lesson will also serve the purpose of enhancing student’s research skills and abilities to make researching more concise. Assessments I will assess students on whether or not they made their own KWL chart and if they got a start on their index cards. This will show me that they are at least in the thinking and organizational stages of their research. Their KWL chart will be their exit ticket on the way out of class. Standards CE 1.1.1 CE 1.1.2 CE 1.1.4 CE 1.1.8 Standard 1.4 CE 2.1.6 CE 2.3.4 Objectives Students will be able to: • Effectively brainstorm about their specific topic • Start researching on their topic using the method of non-traditional index cards • Differentiate between a credible source and non-credible source • Easily understand how to use power notes for effective research organization Tasks 1. Have students come into class and on a blank sheet of paper have them write down some topics that interest them and that they would like to know more about. 2. Tell students that they need to pick one topic that they have within their list and get it approved by me so they can start the research process (this will be done by me walking quickly around the room and checking off their topic). 3. I will model what a KWL chart looks like and why we’ll be using one. 4. Next, they will brainstorm using their own KWL chart. Students will only fill out the K column and the W column during this class period. 5. I will then introduce and model what good sources look like as opposed to bad sources. 6. Show students a good example of a source (i.e. .gov, .org, etc.) and an example of a bad source (i.e. wikipedia). 7. Introduce students on how to compile information on non-traditional index cards.

8. Go over how to do power notes (3’s support 2’s and 2’s support 1, etc.) 9. Class will then go to the school library. 10. Students will then start researching on their own and use index cards to aid them in this task. 11. At the end of the hour, I will collect their KWL charts as their exit ticket. Materials • Overhead projector • Index Cards • Copies of KWL charts for every student • Transparency of KWL chart • Blank lined pieces of paper • Computer To-Do List • Make sure I have examples for students to scaffold their learning regarding KWL brainstorming. • Have examples of how to write an effective index card. • Have examples of good sources and bad sources ready. References “Generic Research Project.” 23 April 2009. http://writing.colostate.edu/gallery/multigenre/genericresearch.html. Nicolini, Mary B. “Pictures of an Exhibition: Senior Graduation Exit Projects as Authentic Research.” The English Journal. The National Council of Teachers of English, 1999: 1-8. Noisey, Stacie. “Power Outlining and Notes.” Lake Zurich Middle School. 23 April 2009. http://www.lz95.org/MSN/faculty/snoisey/Strategies/power_outlining.htm. Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry Out Instructional Units. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Handouts (Please refer to the “Handout” tab) KWL chart Index card worksheet Outline (optional for them to use it)

Form=Audience+Purpose Goals The goal of this lesson is to inform students about whom are they writing their informative essay for and what the purpose is for them writing it. Another goal of this lesson is to have students understand that asking these two questions are essential for successful inquiry. Rationale This lesson is appropriate during this research project because it will enhance student’s awareness of why and whom they will be creating this project for. Also, having a lesson on audience and purpose will give students the knowledge and the resources when deciding which particular genres they will include in their overall project. Not only will this lesson be helpful for students writing this first required genre of the informative essay, but it will also be helpful for them in determining which other three genres work best for them in terms of audience and purpose. Assessments I will assess the students based on a handout that I will provide that is centered on Form=Audience+Purpose. It will have excerpts of some informative essays and students will have to fill in who the audience might be for this piece and what purpose it was written for. The handout will be completed by the end of the hour. I will also assess on participation points when going over the handout as a large group. Standards Standard 1.3 Standard 1.5 Objectives Students will be able to: • Understand why audience and purpose are important when writing an informative essay. • Identify who and why a certain piece was written via previous student samples. • Effectively write an informative essay on their chosen topic while keeping audience and purpose in mind. Tasks 1. Students will be asked the question, “Why is audience and purpose important to consider when writing an informative essay?” 2. I will then give them a few minutes to jot down some ideas about why this is important (5 minutes). 3. I will take volunteers to answer this question and to get ideas generating in their heads. 4. Give students the worksheet with the sample excerpts from previous student informative essays. 5. We will do the first example together as a class. This will model the activity for the students. 6. Give students about 15 minutes to complete the worksheet with partners. 7. Come back together to discuss the answers they came up with and what a good focus on audience and purpose look like in one of these essays. 8. Introduce the informative essay genre and give them the handout. 9. After reading through it and answering any questions, have them start on their own informative essay for their chosen topic. 10. I will also give students an outline that they can use to organize their information and research on

before they start writing if it makes sense for them to use it. Materials • Copies of Form=Audience+Purpose handout for all students • Copies of informative essay handout for all students • Copies of the outline handout • Blank lined paper To-Do List • Get together previous student sample informative essays References “Multi-Genre Criteria and Examples from Mr. Kappas's Advanced English Class.” 23 April 2009. http://www.kfalls.k12.or.us/ponderosa/staff/kappasm/jessica/page2.html. Nicolini, Mary B. “Pictures of an Exhibition: Senior Graduation Exit Projects as Authentic Research.” The English Journal. The National Council of Teachers of English, 1999: 1-8. Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry Out Instructional Units. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Handouts (Please refer to the “Handouts” tab) Form=Audience+Purpose Worksheet

Print Media and Pop Culture Goals The goal of this lesson is get students thinking about genre #2 of their multi genre project. This genre can be anything within the category of print media. They will begin to understand how media and advertisements shape who they are and their thinking. Rationale Media and society shape the way we live our lives, even if we are conscious of it or not. Students especially buy into all types of advertisements put out into the world by the media. In a way, our students serve as walking advertisements to the public. This lesson will help students recognize the way certain types of media shape who we are. They will also take into account how form=audience+purpose plays into this concept and we will connect this lesson back to the previous one concerning this. It will also help them get started on genre #2 that deals specifically with print media. Assessments I will assess students on their artifact that they brought in to share in the large group discussion about advertisements in popular culture. I will also assess students on their participation during the in-class discussion and whether or not they turn in their reflection and their artifact at the end of the hour (This artifact can also be included in their final portfolio as well). Standards Standard 3.4 Objectives Students will be able to: • Make informed inferences about what advertisements in print media are aiming for. • Utilize the concept of form=audience+purpose to incorporate it into their research. • Construct a print media genre of some sort to express in their second genre assignment. • Understand what it means to be media literate. Tasks 1. Students will turn in their Informative Essay at the beginning of the hour. 2. Have students write down a rationale/reflection as to why they chose to bring in the artifact that they did and give them some questions to think about (5-7 minutes). 3. Arrange desks in a circle like a Socratic seminar and have students voluntarily share their artifacts. 4. We will then take a few of them and discuss whom that particular advertisement is created for and why it was created. 5. We will also discuss what it means to be persuasive and what messages from the media do to get us to buy or use certain products or wear a particular type of clothing. 6. I will then explain the requirements for genre #2. 7. Students will get started on their second genre requirement and will be able to ask any questions they have before class is over. 8. Students will continue their work on genre #2 the following day and turn in their final product on the following Monday at the beginning of the hour. Materials • Extra magazines with advertisements

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Blank paper

To-Do List • Gather a bunch of different magazines to show in class References Slaton, Adie. “The Messages We Send to Our Students.” TE 302. Feb. 2007. Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English by Design: How to Create and Carry Out Instructional Units. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Handouts (Please refer to “Handout” tab) Media Artifact

Work-shopping with Technology Goals This lesson will give students the chance to experiment with technology in many different ways in order to construct their third required genre, a visual aide of sorts that students can also use during their presentations. Rationale I think this lesson would be really beneficial to the students. It will introduce them to new technologies and easy strategies on how to utilize them. Students will also be able to use what they created from this genre and use it as their visual aide for their final presentations. This lesson will expand their knowledge about how to use and implement different computer software such as iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, PowerPoint, Weebly, etc. Assessments I will assess students by the handout that they will turn in that will have them do sample exercises so they can experience using a particular technology. They will hand this in at the end of the hour. Standards CE 1.3.5 CE 1.3.6 Standard 1.5 Objectives Students will be able to: • Expand our definition of literacy to include digital technologies. • Experiment with multiple types of technology. • Understand how to use and learn about digital tools effectively in the composition process. • Choose a particular technology and use it for their genre #3 visual. Tasks 1. Give students a piece of paper with a number written on it when they enter the classroom. 2. Tell students to hold onto that number until later in the class period. 3. Ask students to jot down a few sentences about how much technology they know in regards to computers. This will give me an idea how far in depth I need to go during this lesson. 4. Take volunteers to share how much or how little they know in regards to technology. They will also have been asked to write a number down on their paper (10 being that they know everything about technology well enough to form a genre out of it down to 1 being that they have no idea about technology). 5. After looking over their responses and discussing them, I will do a mini-workshop on the multiple modes that could be a possibility for their genre #3. To prepare for this, I will ask students to get into their groups according to whichever number they were given at the beginning of class and sit at that station with those group members. 6. Introduce iMovie and Weebly. Students will follow along with me while modeling certain steps in order to create a frame of a movie or a website. 7. We will then move onto Microsoft Publisher and PowerPoint to maybe refresh their memories about it or give some insight.

8. After the workshop is complete, students will stay in their stations and play with what they have in front of them until the lights are flashed and signals them to rotate stations until everyone has visited them all. Materials • Computer Lab with appropriate software • Projector to hook up to the main computer • Copies of worksheets To-Do List • Re-familiarize myself with these multiple modes of technology • Make copies of handouts for all students References “How to Make a Website Using Weebly.” DocStoc: Find and Share Professional Documents. 23 April 2009. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/2539789/How-to-make-a-website-using weebly. “Microsoft PowerPoint Tutorial.” Bay City Public Schools. 23 April 2009. http://www.bcschools.net/staff/PowerPointHelp.htm. “Microsoft Publisher Tutorial.” Bay City Public Schools. 23 April 2009. http://www.bcschools.net/staff/PublisherHelp.htm. Molin, Jason & Peterek, Libby. “Create an iMovie Project.” University of Texas, Austin. 23 April 2009. http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/technology/tutorials/graphics/imovie/1create.html. Handouts (Please refer to the “Handout” tab) Technology How-To

Discussion Describe and explain your online genre and how it works. What makes the form you’ve chosen logical given your audience and purpose for the MG Research Unit? Be explicit and give examples. For my online genre, I created a website through Weebly.com. It was really simple to learn how to use and it is easy to navigate around. The templates look clean, polished, and looks as though it could be a professional website. This form is logical for my audience because my students can access this site from any computer in the world. For example, if they forgot their assignment description at school in their locker, they can get on their home computer, type in the link and find it with little to no trouble. My other audiences besides my students are other teachers that need ideas and perhaps the parents of my students. The purpose for making this website is because it can be easily accessible from any computer and goes in detail about the multi genre research project and is open to a large variety of audiences and perhaps may have different purposes for those particular audiences. I had never made a website before because I was scared of this type of technology. So, in a sense this is me taking a risk that goes beyond my comfort level. Usually, I am afraid of technology and everything that could potentially go wrong, but after finishing this, I am really proud of it. Weebly was actually really enjoyable to use because it was so easy. I like it so much, I even included during my technology workshop day a how-to lesson on how to use Weebly. This is now a choice that my students have when picking something out for their visual genre. How does this unit ask students to engage in multiliteracies? What are the strengths and challenges of planning with multiliteracy objectives? Be explicit and give examples. This unit asks students to engage in multiliteracies in many different ways. Students will be required to research their topic using multiple types of sources. For example, they will not be able to use all of their sources from the Internet. They will have to have 3 books, 2 online sources, 2 scholarly journals, and 1 magazine source. This will enhance student’s abilities to research beyond the Internet because it has in such recent years been dominating how secondary students learn and research. I want them to branch out and go back to using books, be introduced to what a scholarly journal looks like, and of course explore reliable sources online. Not only are students using multiple types of sources to research, they will also be using multiple genres to put together their final portfolio. All students will be required to write an informative essay to introduce to their audience what their topic is about. Next, they will have three more genres to complete. One will be from the genre of print media, another from the genre of visual aids, and a final one from the genre of creative writing. Students will also be engaging in multiliteracies by thinking critically about the world around them through concepts of popular culture and how the media shapes them to what a particular genre is trying to say and do. This is the concept of Form=Audience+Purpose. Everything will all be compiled into a final portfolio and presented to their peers and myself at the end. Strengths to planning with multiliteracy objectives is that students will be able to experiment with so many different genres of writing and creating. They will also learn about new technologies and how to incorporate these into their portfolios. Another strength is that students who have different learning styles will be able to be comfortable with what they choose to do. I decided to add some structure as to what genres they can choose from, but within the genres themselves I gave students the option to create their own form of that certain genre. A challenge in planning with multiliteracies is that there was so much to choose from that it was hard to

narrow it down. I wanted to give students a combination of structure along with free reign within the structure to allow them express themselves. It was hard to find that balance when I wanted students to be as creative as possible without being lost in the process. Another challenge was planning how much inclass work time students would get as opposed to working on their research project at home. Since my placement for next year is in a community that is primarily middle class and has very strong parental support, I assumed students would have the basic technology at home to do some research. I have planned for this by giving adequate time to students in class to research, to work shop, to peer edit, to create, and to ask questions. With that said, if students don’t get their in class work completed, they will have to finish it for homework by the due date a certain assignment is due. Using multiliteracies and multigenres are really important at this stage of student’s lives because being in 9th and 10th grade they are saturated with images and being bombarded by society and I think it will be very beneficial to them to raise awareness of these societal issues that greatly affect their lives as teenagers. Reflect recursively on what it means to plan inquiry-based experiences for students. Be explicit and give examples. In planning for this unit, I wanted students to have the choice of picking their own topic for research. When a topic is given to the student involuntarily, it makes it hard for the student to become fully engaged with it and be excited to learn more about it. As long as I approve the topic, students will have free choice on whatever they would like to research. Making inquiry based experiences for students can sometimes be challenging because not all of them know what that actually means. To scaffold this process and to get them thinking about their research topic, I’m having students fill out a KWL chart during the first week of the unit to spark interests in their prior knowledge and about what they would like to learn. The first time around with the KWL chart, students will only fill in the K and the W column. We will later come back in the fourth week and fill in the L column. This will give students a chance to reflect recursively about the process as a whole and will show them just how much information they learned in these four weeks. How does what you planned account for the development of procedural knowledge in your students? How does what you planned on a daily basis connect to the overall plans for the unit and vice versa? Be explicit and give examples. After going through my whole unit again, I noticed that a lot of what I want to teach and have students learn is in fact procedural knowledge. During my four key daily lesson plans, students will learn something that they can take and apply it to their research project. For example, on day eleven I will model how to use certain digital modes so they can take that and use one of them for their visual genre along with their presentation at the end. After modeling how to use programs such as iMovie, PowerPoint, Microsoft Publisher, and Weebly.com, students will workshop and take what they are learning and expand their knowledge on that area. On a day-to-day basis, my four key lessons always revert back to the overall unit goals and essential questions. The most prominent lesson that does this is day six where we will critically engage in the concept of Form=Audience+Purpose and why it is important to consider this while writing or creating tangible artifacts for a portfolio. Hopefully, students will see the connections and think about who they creating a genre for and for what purpose before they dive into it. We also talk about Form=Audience+Purpose on multiple occasions during the unit to stimulate recursive engagement with this concept.

What makes what you’ve planned dialogic? What are you learning about the challenges of dialogic teaching? How specifically could you improve these plans in this regard? Be explicit and give examples. What I have planned is dialogic because I have set aside time to specifically talk about how to research, what makes a credible source, having class discussions about media and pop culture in the form of a Socratic seminar, work-shopping in stations with other peers, and by allowing time for peer editing workshops. It was vital for me to include time for dialogic discussion throughout this unit because it is helpful for students to get to talk to one another about their projects. It is also helpful for students to be able to talk in large group discussions with me so any questions can receive answers. It would also be helpful for me to be involved in my student’s dialogic discussion so I can see where they are at in their research process. I’ve come to notice that there are a lot of challenges when planning for dialogic instruction. Again, the balance between in-class time and work time can be compromised if not given adequate attention to. During the key lessons, there is always time for dialogic discussion. The problem arises on the in-class work days when there won’t be enough time to hone in on those key lessons to get a stimulating discussion going. So, I planned for this by having students do small group work during their research and compilation days. This will help students engage in dialogic discourse with each other without even knowing it. For example, day eight is not one of my key lessons, but students engage in dialogic discussion because they are peer editing each other’s informative essays. Hopefully, by this time in my future student’s educations, they will have the skill set to hold these meaningful conversations and take something valuable away from it while thinking about their research and how it all interconnects.