Student Engagement in the Work World and with Technology: authentic experiences provided in my classroom
Listed here are highlights of opportunities students have had to see real-world application of skills taught in my English classes at Neville High School:
2003-2004: Phone interviews with Young Adult author Chris Crutcher for regular ed. English students after assigned reading of Athletic Shorts. Crutcher was a previous contact from an Intellectual Freedom Symposium LEH (Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities) grant co-written with Holly Priestley in cooperation with the Ouachita Parish Public Libraries that brought the author to Monroe and give high school students from the area the opportunity to talk about censorship, careers in creative writing, and the process of storytelling.
Artifacts:
Crutcher's web site and photo from September 26, 2002 session
Article written by Teen Friends of OPPL on intellectual freedom
Library newsletter article on Crutcher
2003-2005: Louisiana Folk Life Festival. English students required to volunteer to work at the Louisiana Folk Life Festival as part of writing assignments on folk life that included interviews and photographic documentation of local folk life participants, artisans, artists, and preservation efforts. From 2004-2005, I served on the Folklife Committee under Mike Luster, Head of the program. The Folklife program, unfortunately, was underfunded and cut in 2005.
Artifact: Louisiana Folklife Web Page
2004-present: High School Journalism. Received training at Berkeley University in AP standards, high school journalism issues of law and censorship, layout and publication using web and desktop publishing technology. Since have created and advised award-winning high school newspaper, The Tradition, Journalism staff conceives, writes, and uses desktop publication software such as Quark to publish the newspaper in cooperation with local paper, The News-Star. Students successfully raise funds, contact local businesses for ad support, participate in school events, and recieve recommendations to higher education.
Journalism students are also kept in contact with local professionals through class trips to the paper's offices and printing house, visiting professional journalists, and job shadowing opportunities. Students participate in competition at Northeast Louisiana University's Journalism School in Natchitoches, LA. Yearly attendance of Journalism students from Neville High School includes newspaper competition, workshops, seminars, meeting professional journalists (photo, multimedia, broadcast, news). Students are met with success and recieve awards and recognition.
Artifacts:
Article 1 on 2004 Berkeley Institute
Article 2 on 2004 Institute
Samples of 2008-2009 Tradition online
NSU Press release noting student achievements in journalism
2005-present: English Honors, Gifted, and Regular at Neville HS. Web literacy projects integrated into curriculum have included building web pages with online builders such as freewebs.com, using school-funded online communications interfaces such as Voicethread, and required student use of teacher web site and calendars as well as online portfolios maintained through email communications..
Regardless of specific project, my students are required to implement beginner-level web-based site build technology and protocal to produce class projects (some formally assessed, others for enrichment). Microsoft software for word processing, Powerpoint, and other digital media are used in a Smart Board-driven classroom. Students are required to work in small cooperative groups, assigned roles that include basic web planning, project proposals, information gathering, formatting and editing, and visual design that is then published on my web site.
Research papers also require use of online card catalog, Gale Group databases, and required assessment of web sites for use as legitimate academic sources.
Artifacts:
Various online projects that were graded: Russian literature, poetry
Online enrichment project: "Survival Guide" to my class
