9th Grade Online Leadership Academy

Project/Exhibition Resources

1. WHAT IS AN EXHIBITION? -- Great explanation and basic directions
2. Project and Exhibition Grading Rubrics
3. The America Project: What Does It Mean To Be An American?
4. The Huck Finn Project
5. Censorship and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain -- Some great project and activity ideas
6. More Project Directions
7. Personal Project Intro
8. Other Projects
9. Presentations
   Workshop Approaches we will use in class and On the Web

   Assessment Workshop

10. Rubrics! -We will assess many of our workshop activities adapting these rubrics
11. Writing Portfolio Assessment >How To Assess Your Portfolio
12. Learning Logs -- A simple, powerful form of documenting and assessing your learning
13. Double Entry Journals and Learning Logs
14. Test Maker Tool -- We will attempt more authentic kinds of assessment than the typical paper-and-pencil tests. One of the options you can consider is to develop both a "typical" test and a "Correct Answer Key," almost like a catechism of questions and answers. We will also investigate other improvements in assessment, including self-assessment and a practice used in current business, called 360 degree feedback.
15. Student Self-Assessment: Making Standards Come Alive
16. Authentic Assessment -- 23 excellent articles from the Coalition for Essential Schools that can help us develop far more authentic assessment and learning in this course.
17. Exemplars of Good Student Work
18. Reasons Not To Plaigiarize

    Team Talk

19. Shared Inquiry
20. Conversations Intro
21. Literature Circles -- Description of reading discussion tool we will use
22. Fishbowl Discussion -- discussion "in the fishbowl"--in chairs, in the center of the room, surrounded by spectators in their desks
23. Socratic Seminars - Tutorial -- Excellent procedures and guidelines
24. Courageous Conversations -- Guidelines and advice for having "Courageous Conversations" about, racism, ageism, sexism, and other issues that tend to raise defensiveness in participants. Useful, too, in confronting, or "carefronting" friends and authorities.
25. The Collaborative Classroom -- Theory behind the practice
    Acting Out Workshops

26. Using Creative Dramatics
27. Acting Workshop Links
28. Character Immersion Guided Reading and Writing
29. Creative Drama Guidelines
    Writing Workshops

30. The Write Source (Writers INC) Home Page
31. Student Writing Models
32. Publish It!
33. The I-Search Process
34. More on the I-Search Paper
35. The Writing Process
36. Internet Writing Workshop -- You can now submit works in progress on-line for feedback!
37. Online Journal Writing Workshop
38. Free-Writing -- Also note the techniques called "Looping" and "Cubing"
39. S.C.O.R.E. Activity Bank -- Note Journal options here!
40. Pre-writing: Keeping a Journal
41. Writer's Resource Center -- fabulously fertile site aimed at the real writer in you
42. The Five-Paragraph Essay -- "Because the five-paragraph essay is a chosen vehicle for measuring a student's writing proficiency, it is essential that each master this patterned format writing to score well."
43. Guide To Writing A Basic Essay
44. Revising Writing -- A PowerPoint presentation; you can advance slides by pressing the keyboard's spacebar
45. Composition Resources from Colleges
46. Writing a Research Paper -- "Despite the illusion, the research-paper writing process (as with any writing process) is quasi-linear at best."
47. Write Your Novel Now -- "A Professional Writer is an Amateur Who Didn't Quit"
48. Writing Fiction: A Beginner's Guide -- from Creative Writing for Teens
49. Writing Mysteries and Suspense
50. Mystery Writing
51. Creative Writing: A Google Directory
52. Creative Writing Resources -- from the Awesome Library
53. Character Development Center -- Creating and understanding character is key to writing and reading fiction. This is a great resouce site.
    POETRY

54. The Poetry Room - Unconventional prose poet Louis Jenkins, an intriguing source for study
55. Poetry 180 -- A poem a day from Billy Collins, our 2003 Poet Laureate of the United States
56. Modern American Poets -- 161 companion sites for poets in the Anthology of Modern American Poetry
57. Poet On-Line -- poems on different topics, poetry tips, a poetry contest and more
58. Poetry for the 21st Century
59. A Poetry-Lover's Guide To the World-Wide Web, Post-1950
60. A Poetry-Lover's Guide To the World-Wide Web, Pre-1950
61. Shakespeare's Sonnets
62. Links to Other Poetry Collections and Poetry Guides
    Study and Test Prep Resources

63. Study Guides & Strategies -- Study skills are shown to result in higher readings skills than reading instruction!
64. Dictionary for Students (Merriam-Webster)
65. Dictionary and Thesaurus (Merriam-Webster)
66. Vocabulary University
67. Academic Vocabulary List
68. An Abundance of Word Info about English-Vocabulary Sources -- Roots and suffixes from Latin and Greek are key to advanced vocabulary.
69. College Board Advice on Essays, etc.
70. High School Standardized Test Preparation -- Flexible, well-constructed site from Chicago Public Schools with numerous tips ALL teachers should use in coaching and encouraging students.
71. Open Response Questioning Strategies
72. Regents Exam Prep Center -- A rich New York state site
73. Constructed Response -- Students must use critical and creative (higher order) thinking in these test items, a new "state of the art" aspect of current testing.
74. Writing Constructed Response Items
75. FreeTranslation.com -- Free translation of web sites and text for Spanish, French, and German to English and English to Spanish!
76. Careers.org
77. Bull's Eye Business Writing Tips -- FREE weekly business writing tips will help you improve your business writing. An amazingly resourceful collection of tips and self-tests.
78. WritingEnglish.com -- Go the the bottom of this page for links to great, brief advice on cover letters, resumes, and common errors. The top portion advertises their for-a-fee service.
79. How To Interview -- "Your resume will get your foot in the door but your interview skills will decide whether you get the job or not."

    Acknowledgements

The following rubric describes what you must do to earn each grade. These grades are course grades, not six-week “progress report” grades. Thus you have approximately four months to meet these standards.

Students who earn an A:

• Always arrive on time, with the necessary supplies, and are ready to work.
• Maintain at least a 3.0 grade point average (GPA) on rubric scores and assessments.
• Demonstrate development of leadership abilities.
• Develop and demonstrate familiarity with at least 7 American writers and their work.
• Complete work assigned/committed to in this class, including web work accessible any time from any Internet connected computer.
• Keep portfolio well organized with selected exemplars and Overview Narrative ready for periodic review.
• Work well independently and with others, and contribute to the workshop groups and class.
• Read at least 1100 pages in progressively more difficult books by semester’s end.
• Improve reading speed, and increase stamina significantly, and grow in fluency, flexibility, originality and quality of writing
• Do at least one major project/exhibition with noteworthy originality and elaboration.
• Show creative adaptations and critical awareness in assignments and projects/presentations.

  Students who earn a B:

• Consistently arrive on time, with the necessary supplies, and are ready to work.
• Maintain at least a 2.5 cumulative GPA on rubric scores and assessments.
• Demonstrate development of leadership abilities.
• Develop and demonstrate familiarity with at least 5 American writers and their work.
• Complete nearly all work assigned/committed to in this class to the best of your ability, including web work accessible any time from any Internet connected computer.
• Keep portfolio organized with selected exemplars and Overview Narrative ready for periodic review.
• Work with more independence and improved ability to collaborate and contribute to both workshop groups and the class.
• Read at least 800 pages in progressively more difficult books.
• Improve speed, and increase stamina measurably, and grow in fluency and quality of writing
• Do at least one major project/exhibition with adequate originality and elaboration.
• Show ability to translate ideas and concepts in assignments and projects/presentations.

  Students who earn a C:

• Usually arrive on time, with the necessary supplies, and are ready to work.
• Maintain at least a 2.0 cumulative GPA on rubric scores and assessments.
• Demonstrate development of leadership abilities.
• Complete nearly all work assigned/committed to in this class, including web work accessible any time from any Internet connected computer, but the quality varies.
• Develop and demonstrate familiarity with at least 3 American writers and their work.
• Do at least one major project/exhibition with fluency and elaboration.
• Portfolio spottily organized with selected exemplars and Overview Narrative not fully ready for periodic review.
• Work with limited independence; collaboration and contributions to the workshop groups and class are often unproductive.
• Read 600 pages in progressively more difficult books. Improve reading speed, and increase your stamina minimally, and grow in fluency of writing
• Show basic mastery of course tasks and content in assignments and projects/presentations.

  Students who earn a D:

• Rarely arrive on time (or often absent); with the necessary supplies, and are ready to work.
• Maintain at least a 1.5 average on rubric scores and assessments.
• Demonstrate adequate development of leadership abilities.
• Complete few assignments in this class; minimal effort and low quality prevent success.
• Portfolio spottily organized, with missing drafts and Overview Narrative, not fully ready for periodic review.
• Develop and demonstrate familiarity with at least 2 American writers and their work.
• Do at least one project/exhibition with fluency.
• Rarely work independently; often distract others and undermine class discussions and workshops.
• Read 400 pages in progressively more difficult books.
• Show no measurable or observable gains in the area of reading and writing
• Show minimal mastery of course content in assignments and projects/presentations.

  Students who earn an F:

• Chronically absent and/or tardy; rarely have the necessary supplies; are not willing to work.
• Have a cumulative GPA below 1.5
• Demonstrate inadequate development of leadership abilities.
• Portfolio poorly organized, with missing drafts and sketchy Overview Narrative, not fully ready for periodic review.
• Complete few assignments in this class; make no observable effort to work or improve.
• Cannot work independently; routinely distract others and undermine class discussions.
• Read less than 350 pages.
• Show no measurable or observable gains in the area of reading and writing; performance may even decline.

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