ELA 10.4: (Technology Intensive)

01998A000 - English Language and Literature-Workplace Experience

For the yearbook course, students will prepare a retrospective book describing the people, experiences, and activities of YouthBuild McLean County.  Photos and articles may be shared on the YBMC website or via newsletters, and the finished yearbook will be prepared as a single PDF ready for outside printing or online sharing.  This is an ideal continuation of ELA 09.4.  (Note: although the projects may overlap with ELA 09.4, the work for one class cannot be counted as credit for the other.)  Readings include 10 articles about book publishing or in the focus genre, 20 discussions (which may include interviews), 10 pages (2,500 words) describing events or history from YBMC, and 10 pages of personal reflection (2,500 words).  Optionally, this project can use an anthology approach — students may solicit submissions from classmates and YBMC staff, and the arrangement and editing of these submissions would count toward the discussions requirement.  Or students who prefer working independently may produce their own collections of short stories or poetry, and then use digital tools to produce a coherent work for outside audiences.

Readings (R): 10 genre articles

Research Writing (RW): 10 pages

Discussions (D): 20 (mtgs + interviews)

Creative Writing (CW): 10 pages

For students who want to take different approaches to the course, there are two key alternatives:

Print-On-Demand through Amazon

For students who’d prefer physical copies of their work, we’ll shift the focus from Google Docs and Slides to instead formatting Microsoft Word and PDF\ documents to fit the needs of Amazon Kindle and Print-On-Demand.  Google Sites will be designed as a promotional tool for the finished print product, along with the addition of order forms.

Creative Writing and Research Anthologies

For students with interests in specific topics, this course will guide them through the process of producing creative or informative works for online or print publication.  For those who wish to share personal narratives over a course of time, blogging sites such as WordPress, Blogger, or Tumblr may be used in place of Google Sites.

Overall Course Objectives

• Participate in 20 class sessions to cover core technology skills.

• Conduct 10 interviews or read ten articles.

• Build digital content (slides, webpages, and online articles) of approximately 5,000 words.

Typing

To comfortably complete this class, a typing speed of 30 words per minute is recommended.  Here are sources students can use to build speed:

• Typing Club

• Free Typing Test: Typing.com

Online Course Development

• Each Google tool will have a series of short videos explaining individual skills.

• The individual videos will show sequential development of a single example.

• The assignment is for students to create their own document/slideshow/website following the genre-specific guidelines.  Instead of multiple small assignments, students are building one large assignment for conference grading.

• Assignment difficulties can be customized for different levels, such as ELA 09.4 vs ELA 10.4 vs ENGL 101 and 102.  Links to additional videos and readings can be posted for different course levels — each level gets the same genre intro, but the outside readings and assignment complexities vary dramatically.