Project Overview

“I have a dream,” were very famous words spoken by one of the great visionary Americans, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This dream was most influential in bringing about change in discriminatory laws and policies, but most importantly, it brought about change in the hearts and minds of all Americans in the late 20 th century. The dream is so powerful that it has been picked up and carried by others, and is remembered even after the dreamer and martyr for his dream is gone. President John F. Kennedy pushed forward the race for the moon with an inspiring vision that outlived the man, by saying, “We will go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” These two men, and other amazing people and events in history can teach one very simple, yet very important life lesson – to get anywhere, and accomplish anything, you must be realistic and know where you are, your starting point, have the dream or vision to achieve, to the point where you see your vision as reality, and you must have a mission, which is the action plan, the work behind your vision.

I have worked at an alternative high school for the last five years. Many of the students I work with on a daily basis are students who are frustrated, disanimated, and discouraged. For one reason or another, most of the students are credit deficient and their graduation is in serious jeopardy. Many have difficult family situations, or are suffering from the consequences of their own recklessness with drugs, pregnancy, or simple laziness and apathy. Other students at the school are there because they choose to have a different type of format for their education. These students find the large comprehensive high schools to be a format that does not work for them for many different reasons.

Regardless of what the reason is for a student to attend an alternative high school. Every student needs to discover that spark that gives them a glimpse of the greater vision of their life. They need to have a reason to care, and discover how to put together a mission plan so they are not working hard with no direction or thought. In an effort to combine this goal with the numerous examples of people and events with vision found in the content of the history curriculum, I have created this Vision Paper Project and Power Point Presentation Project.

The students will complete the following tasks as they plan, research, write, edit, and publish their work.

Brainstorm

Research: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary sources from various forms of media.

Gather and evaluate information using Note Cards

Cite information using correct citation form (Turabian, APA, or MLA are acceptable)

Synthesize the information in a 5-10 page double-spaced, 12 font document.

Edit and Revise the writing.

Present, publish, and celebrate the paper through a class presentation

Prepare and teach the content learned by creating a Power Point Presentation

Evaluate the learning of the class through a Power Point Quiz or Game

Lesson Objectives

Writing Objectives

1. Students will organize their ideas and content by using a form of graphic organizer.

2. Students will use various forms of printed and other media as sources for their paper, finding at least 25 different supporting details for their thesis.

3. Students will evaluate their sources as Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary, and look for any bias or errors.

4. Students will cite their sources correctly using, Turabian, APA, or MLA style citation.

5. Students will write, edit, and revise a 5-10 page paper based on the Seven Traits guidelines.

6. Students will present the content of their paper by creating a Power Point Presentation to present to the class.

Technology Objectives

The Utah State Office of Education standards and objectives read as follows:

STANDARD 0000-06:

Students will access on-line information resources. Each student will be able to perform the following tasks:

Objective 1: Use the alphabetical browse and keyword search functions, including Boolean connectors [operators] (AND, OR), of a library on-line catalog to find author, title, and subject information.
Objective 2: Download Internet resources stored at World Wide Web sites.
Objective 3: Evaluate the quality of information on web sites (i.e. compare conflicting sites, assess the site’s legitimacy, identify, bias in a web site’s content.

STANDARD 0000-08

Students will create an electronic presentation. The presentation should include the following items:

Objective 1: A variety of slide layouts
Objective 2: Transition and automatic timing.
Objective 3: Graphics and text.
Objective 4: Proofread and correct language mechanics errors (grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word usage) in the presentation.

STANDARD 0000-09

With the cooperation of a teacher in a different content area, students will create and implement an integrated project.

Objective 1: Students will use any or all of the following in a project to be presented for grading to the Computer Technology teacher and a cross-curricular teacher: document processing, spreadsheet, electronic presentation.

( Utah State Office of Education, 2003)

Strategies

Students will use the brainstorm worksheet to come up with several possible topics, choosing either a person or event the includes the ideas of vision and mission. The note cards will be used to collect, organize, evaluate, and create the coreect paranthetical and bibliographic citations. In order for the students to organize their ideas and content, a graphic organizer, such as the five paragraph essay orgainzer will be used (see PDF file below).  The seven traits ruberic will then be used to help the student evaluate, edit, and revise the rough drafts (see PDF file below).  When editing and revising are complete, the student will use a word processing program and their internet cite to publish their finished draft. As a conclusion, and a chance to celebrate and teach what the student has learned, the student will prepare a Power Point presentation that will aid in teaching the content of the paper to the class. As a final evaluation of the students' teaching, a Power Point quiz, or game will be created and presented to the class as a final quiz.

Evaluation Plan

The students' work will be evaluated using the seven traits ruberic, and the assignment check list and grading sheet. (see PDF file below)

Vision Project PDF File

Graphic Organizer PDF FIle

Reflection

This project has been a work in progress since my first year in teaching. I actually took some training in setting and accomplishing goals. The main focus of the course was having a vision and a mission or plan to accomplish that vision. The training tied in perfectly with many of the historic figures I love to study.

The first year I used this project, the project involved the writing section, a teaching presentation, and a quiz. Although this general format has not changed, the delivery system has. The writing section has remained generally untouched, however, I am curently working on some instructional design projects that will create some type of technological instruction in this area, especially citing and evaluating sources correctly. The presentation portion has changed. Originally, the students had the option of creating a teaching game, a simulation of some sort, a presentation with some type of visuals: realia, poster boards, overheads, video clips. However, when the technology teacher in my school approached me about some new standards in the state curriculum, that called for an integrated technology project, we decided to use the Microsoft Power Point presentation idea as the integrated project between what the students were learning in the Information Technology course, and my history courses. The connection has worked perfectly, because the students find the technology integration makes the presentations not only more interesting and exciting, but also the technogloy helps to create a finished, publishable product that is a lot more professional. In the future, we are looking to have the students publish their work in an on-line portfolio.