Creating an Author Webquest.wmv

Reflection and Evaluation

Thanks, Pal. I couldn't have done this without your encouragement, leadership, and unstinting kindness. Your tireless efforts on behalf of all of us are very much appreciated.

This is a photo of the silver medal won by Scott Donie at the Barcelona Olympics. His mother kindly brought it to Spanish class so we could all see it and hold it in our hands. Awesome moment. I feel that we L2P3 players have earned something similar, but I don't want to equate it with a real Olympic medal. Maybe ours could be silverplated and made in China.

No more escalators for me. I am in a happy place tapping away!

Analyzing each portion of my project served to rein me in and keep me focused. As you know, I do not think in straight lines but tend to jump around like a hungry flea. I do believe that following a step-by-step format made me aware of how to teach this project so that students will build on the rung of the previous ladder step. It certainly helped me to realize when I had forgotten to do something critical!

I'm not really all that keen on everybody's reading my blog. Some of it is downright pitiful. I hate to be so exposed, but if it makes anyone else feel a bit better about what they're doing, I suppose I can live with it. It does make the process of creating an author webquest using Photostory understandable for someone who has never done it. I like the systematic format of L2P3. I needed the structure.

I plan to share my project and all its life lessons with the English teachers who plan to assign author studies and their students. I believe I can adapt it to other research projects as well. I had wanted to use i-movie, but it was just too much of a learning curve for the short time I had available to work on this project. So--my next immediate multimedia activity will be to make this project using i-movie so the classes can create their author webquest projects using the new Mac laptops! I will add my new struggles to this existing blog. Lucky you....

You-Tubing Down the River of Life

I was able to upload my video to YouTube, but the cautionary advice about copyright and ownership gives me pause. Not sure my project counts as using the information in a new way? That area continues to look murky to me. What does that tell me? I need to do some research and clarify. Putting that on my list of things to do before I die.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYGvADDqOiw

Wow! Weird. I clicked on this link and got only the audio portion of my project. Bigtime boo-boo here. I am so sick of listening to myself! This has been a strange journey some days so I will leave in the link because it might work beautifully some days. Who knows?

I chose "Education" as the YouTube category. Secondary English and language arts classes are my target audience. Tags in YouTube are sbisdL2P3, webquests, Photostory 3, multimedia.

Just realized I had neglected to tag #5. It is a good thing these questions serve as a checklist. You can find my Photostory on creating webcasts on my blog and on YouTube.

It works!

Did You See That? Did You?

My Photostory uploaded to my blog!! I worked on that until the wee hours of the morning and thought the sitution was hopeless! When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was to check on the status of my Photostory, and blow me down and call me Shorty! Well, don't call me Shorty. I really don't like being thought of as short. I think tall; therefore, I am?

The upload always seemed to get stuck about halfway through, and I would get an error message and a dictate to try again later. And later. And later. And later, later, later. It was really annoying me that I couldn't make this work, and I absolutely hated letting it get the best of me.
Reading other blogs and comments had already alerted me to this problem so I didn't feel alone, and the bird woman told me that Photostory and Blogspot or Blogger had been bickering all summer. Still, it wouldn't be the first time that some detail had slipped past my lightning-quick brain.

Ah, well. For now, I am just so relieved because I saw it appear at least once, and I did so want to use it to show the English classes working on their author webquests. I need to ride the escalator before trying to upload to YouTube.





This is the escalator you ride when you are getting nowhere fast.

Thing #5: Trying to Share

Thing #4 bump, bump, bump

Were there any bumps along the way? Indeed. Speed bumps and pot holes and "lions, and tigers, and monkeys, oh, my!"

(image of crying lion by Iwan Wolkow)

Honestly, most of the bumps were of my own making, but I hate to admit that so I am just whispering it.

I realized once again that I am not very creative, but I was able to make a fairly decent lesson

that my teachers may find useful when they assign author studies as they indicated they would.

My flaws are noticeable, according to a pair of fresh, honest, and uncompromising eyes, but the Photostory will still introduce the assignment in a comprehensible manner. My voice is breathy (a whole semester of speech class to no avail), hoarse, and wobbly and will probably be hard to hear even though I used a microphone. Static bursts interrupt my narration which is boring, boring, boring. Will anyone listen to it? Fresh eyes and ears are doubtful. Obviously, it needs refining. Aaaaaand, my credits page is a mess.

But I did it!

Just as Much Fun as Skateboarding!

What is?? Storyboarding, of course!








The white speck in the otherwise empty parking lot is my car. There is only one uploaded page of my storyboard for two very good reasons: (1) it is not a success story and (2) I had time only to scan in one page before getting kicked out of the building Thursday afternoon. Read it and weep.

Only problem is that I am not linear sequential, and I just don't do this part correctly. This would be another example of "Do as I say, not as I do!" Sorry about that because that is a lousy teaching model. Oh, well. Who's perfect?

I don't believe there is just one storyboard template that will work best for everyone. I used the DigiTales template myself because the layout helped me to think in a linear sequential fashion but allowed me to skip ahead a few frames if I felt it necessary. The template for original shot order works well for those who are making their own shots. In my school, the multimedia teacher insists that the students use a storyboard, although there doesn't seem to be anything formal required. I have seen students plan their projects on a notebook page.

The important thing is that planning or outlining occurs before filming. Using a storyboard requires students to plan the shot order, the narration, the music, and the transitions before production begins. Actors and narrators know what they are supposed to do and say, eliminating guessing and the flubbing of lines!

Evaluating Websites for Author Studies

Because the students will be researching authors of current fiction, I decided to evaluate Wikipedia's article on Ellen Hopkins first using the simple, printable checklist and then the Checklist for Evaluating Web Sites from the University of Maryland Libraries. The simple checklist will be sufficient for my purposes because it requires basic information that can be completed quickly and easily, and the vocabulary is explained in greater detail in the links in the sidebar. It is enough of an overview for the type of site most students will be using--author's and publisher's websites, author's blogs, author interviews, book reviews, and Wikipedia-type information. The Wikipedia article in this case passed muster: the information could be verified elsewhere, the links worked, and it was current.

I would use the second checklist I mention for more traditional research because its scope is broader and the questions more detailed. I like that the checklist asks which authorship clues the url provides because students do not think about the purpose of the site and how that influences content: company (.com), academic institution (.gov), non-profit organization (.org), U.S. Government agency (.gov), and so on.

Personally, I dislike handouts, but I believe the students would benefit from possessing either or both of these and from having to defend their use of the particular websites they cite in their research. I believe I would have students complete and turn in this information as they progress from reading to taking notes. Teachers, please correct me, if I am not on target!

Herding Cats on the Road to #3

If you are not a cat person, you will never understand. I am sitting here in the dark, on my bed, trying to compose a "thing-y" post because Attila, my cat, was ready to go to bed, and the light bothers her. Besides, the upstairs never, never cools off. It is 86 up here now, so I don't want to turn on the lamp, either. :( Picture my predicament and be glad you have more sense....

Thing #1: Databases, Social Networking Sites, and Visuals

Tried Ebsco's Student Research Center and failed to find any magazine articles about Ellen Hopkins so Maggwire worked better for me there. When I searched the Literary Reference Center, I found book reviews and two full-text articles in the first three pages of results.

Renae reminded me that we are losing Literary Reference Center. I need to find out if the state provides it. I checked on that once upon a time, but I cannot remember what I found out! Am putting that on my list of things to do unless someone takes pity on me and emails me the answer, thus saving me from having to think too hard!

Reminders to self: (1)Teaching Books has resources for Ellen Hopkins, including audio segments from her books. (2)The Library Resources Page has a section devoted to webquests.

A search for "Ellen Hopkins" on delicious gave me 48 bookmarks to consider, one of which is a YouTube video of Hopkins reciting her anti-censorship poem.

Nothing on TeacherLibrarianNing and very little on Texas School Librarians, but I could send out a plea for information and might be successful. Nothing on Discovery Education, either, and no images on FlickrCC.

Break time. See image above for my flock of resources, courtesy of Mike Baird.

Search Engines or "I Am Derailed"

Yes. I admit it. I am a Googler, but it's ok. I belong to a support group.

So, I tried Clusty and found that it has been acquired by Yippy, Inc.

Surprise.

This is where you go now: http://search.yippy.com/

It worked really well for "Ellen Hopkins." The results were great (204) and easily accessible in their cloud folders such as Reviews, Simon & Schuster, Photos, and individual titles authored by Ellen Hopkins. There was a cloud folder for a Mary Ellen Hopkins as well, and she is not my topic, but since her results are in their own little cloud, she does not interfere with my research. I really like the way the results are organized in clusters, especially since it lets me get down to results that are not highly ranked. Do you suppose clusters will be called "yippies" in the future?

Oh, hey! This is good, too! I just tried Maggwire, and it's great for locating information which has appeared in magazines! I entered "Ellen Hopkins" and clicked on search. Maggwire indexes over 600 magazines so I was hopeful. I had no results for "This Week," but I got a hit when I clicked on the "This Month" tab, and with another click, I was taken instantly to the magazine article at the publisher's website: Top 10 Things I’ve Learned Since Becoming a Bestselling Author by Ellen Hopkins.

One more, one more....Oh, Bing, I guess, will do for a third. Nothing unusual there. Three tabs gave me the choice of Web, Wikipedia, and Images. I chose one of the images to upload. See upper right.

Time to ride.

Here, There, Everywhere, and Everywhere Else

or Thing #1: Access Information
1. Text=too much of the wrong "thing"
Getting back on track is harder than I thought after a few days off! Using Meriwether and Aquabrowser did little to help me, although I was agreeably surprised to find more author biographies in our district catalog than I had even imagined. That is a good thing! Using the search term "author studies" brought up a list of 557 entries in Aquabrowser, but only one looked like a possibility: Author Studies on the Computer by Debby Reum. The word clouds offered, among others, "criticism," "novel," and "guide."

Meriwether gave me 35 hits, none of which I could use. The Glass Castle and Lit were two titles which kept appearing, and that was interesting. Sort of.

I need to let you know, too, that using Ellen and Hopkins or Ellen Hopkins as search terms netted me the titles of her books.

I need a break. I am going to ride the escalator.

A Trip to Austin

Hello, there!

My 88-year-old mother and I returned 7/29 from a trip to Austin for Annual Assembly and to Houston to visit with my son. We were loaded and set to depart last Monday morning, but the car wouldn't start, lazy thing. A call to AAA saved the day--that and a new battery. Did you know that AAA tow trucks now carry a variety of batteries which they will happily sell you? They can even print out a receipt.

We left later than expected, and we were hot and sweaty, but the air conditioner worked just fine, and we arrived in Austin and found our way to the Hyatt with no trouble. OK, there was a little, eensy-weensy bit of trouble because I am directionally challenged, but really, I was awesome!

I just love the Hyatt. We were on the 16th floor of the hotel, and there was a river view. Just beautiful. Since it was raining, we ate in the hotel, and the food was way overpriced but very tasty. Mother ordered tortilla soup and quesadillas, and I had tortilla soup and crab cakes. Delicious. I was able to talk Mother into riding the escalator, which is my favorite Hyatt pastime, so life was good.

The exercise room is on the first floor, and I was all alone in there so I felt comfortable weighing myself on their dirty, lying scale. Someone should do something about that. I had a great time. There is a little refrigerator full of cold wet towels so one can refresh oneself, and one did.

The next morning, I hiked up one flight of stairs to the Lariat List Committee meeting and had fun greeting returning members and meeting our new ones. Already, we are divided in our opinions about books, and that is the fun of being on this committee. In a later post, I will regale you with anecdotes about some of the books we are reading.





Goodbye, Hyatt, and hello, Houston! My son said he had been working in our apartment and I should not let his grandmother come inside. I had an idea what the place might look like so his grandmother and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express two minutes from my own home. My son was sick, had been to the doctor, and tried to visit with us, but he just felt awful, so we excused him and fell into bed ourselves. I was out before my head touched the pillow.




After a family breakfast at Denny's the next morning, Mother and I set out for home. We made a brief stop at Buc-ee's (their bathrooms are so, so nice) and at the Collin Street Bakery in Corsicana. The rain began to fall, and I wished I had not left the ark at home. When we turned into the driveway in Richardson, my sister was on her way out to teach her night class. She was glad to see us since both cats had behaved abominably in Mother's absence.

This is a pitiful account of a trip, but this is why I haven't progressed any further on my Things. :(

Project Information from the Birdbrain

My colleague at school plans to work on author studies and webquests with her students, and she thoughtfully gave me a list of proposed authors before school was out. I didn't want to select an author whom a student might choose, but I wanted to work with an interesting, well-respected, living author who intrigued me. I chose Ellen Hopkins, author of many children's nonfiction books as well as several edgy contemporary novels for mature young adults.

There are several places within the LA High School TEKS that one could justify an author study, and I would need to be guided by the teacher and work with him/her on just which TEKS our project would include. One I am thinking about is 110.C (5):

Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/Fiction. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the structure and elements of fiction and provide evidence from text to support their understanding.

Students are expected to:(B) analyze the moral dilemmas and quandaries presented in works of fiction as revealed by the underlying motivations and behaviors of the characters.

The outcome of the analysis could be to (15) (D) produce a multimedia presentation (e.g., documentary, class newspaper, docudrama, infomercial, visual or textual parodies, theatrical production) with graphics, images, and sound that appeals to a specific audience and synthesizes information from multiple points of view.

I believe that students given the opportunity to create a multimedia presentation as a culminating activity and as a showcase for their research will find the project much more palatable than a text-only product. Using technology to research and to create new information also makes that information accessible to a wider audience.

Middle to Front

I am still attempting to get it together. Of course, I started in the middle with the research and now have to go back and think about a project or product, and I know that I am not being a good role model for others. My advice to any readers, few though they may be, Vaughn, in fact, is, "Do as I say and not as I do!" To be perfectly frank, I wouldn't do anything I say, either.

Two of the English teachers I most admire are working on 23Things and are doing such a fantastic job that I am totally eclipsed. In an effort to redeem myself somewhat I am going to work on an author study webquest that one or both of them might be able to adapt for their classrooms.

On another note, completely unrelated, my mother, my sister, and I went to The Chocolate Angel for afternoon tea yesterday. The little tea room was furnished in 1950s style with black and white photos of 50s debs and brides under table-sized glass. Each of us selected a tea--chocolate decadence for my sister, pomegranate for my mother, and I have forgotten what I had, but it wasn't black currant. I am going to have that next time. While the tea brewed, the server brought us each a crystal tray of sandwiches (cucumber, pimiento cheese, chicken salad), a slice of quiche, a brioche and a fruit cup. After that, came the sweets--bite-sized brownies, Italian cream cupcakes, strawberry truffles--so good!

Bringing It All Together? Surely, You Jest!

Never in my life have I brought it all together, and I don't suppose it will happen now. I work back to front or middle to either end, but I am not linear sequential. What I am is tired and cranky and nervous and very, very distractible. Distractible. Case in point. Googled "distractable/distractible" and found just what I was looking for in a blog entitled "Musings of a Distractable Mind." I quote:

More people get it wrong than right. I have more people coming to my blog doing the search “Musings of a Distractable Mind” than by the correctly-spelled version. I made this same mistake when I started. English is dumb. Shouldn’t it be “able” because it means “able to be distracted?” Nobody is “ible to be distracted.”

This is why I don't think I am going to finish my project on time.