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.