General Course Info
Disclaimer - Course Design & Detail
As this course is currently designed, there are only 3 units. The original vision of the course (which would have covered the entire ELA 30-1 curriculum) included 2 additional units: a unit for studying plays and a novel study unit. I had also planned for a final project at the end. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to flesh out the details for these units, so I focused my efforts on making the first 3 units as detailed as possible. The activities and assessments for the next 2 units would have been very similar to the ones already created: collaborative discussions, mind maps, writing assignments, and opportunities for peer feedback and reflection. Additionally, since the focus of this assignment is on course design, there are real links to content for the short stories unit only. This is to provide a sense of how students would access and interact with the content. Finally, there are assignment exemplars for only the short stories unit and most of the rhetoric unit. Rationale Online learning has become an increasingly more popular option for education. English Language Arts is a subject that can be readily translated into an online environment because it does not require a "hands-on" component like science, for example. English Language Arts is largely concerned with learning to communicate through a variety of mediums and to a variety of audiences and for a variety of purposes. The online environment is vast and varied and can therefore provide an appropriate locale to meet the needs of this E.L.A. course. Course Objectives The 30-1 English Language Arts curriculum has two main goals:
Course Format Ideally, this English Language Arts 30-1 course would consist of at least one initial face-to-face meeting. However, for the purpose of this assignment, the course will take place entirely online. Course assignments and activities are organized into units according to the type of literature (e.g. persuasion & rhetoric, poetry, short story, etc.). Students will be expected to work through the units in the order they are displayed, and to complete assignments according to the due dates. Each unit involves at least one discussion for which students create and post a YouTube video for their peers and instructor to see. In order for students to have access to each others' discussion videos, students will post links to their videos in a forum. For these assignments, the forums are located at the bottom of the assignment page. Each unit also involves at least one writing assignment. For the most part, these assignments will be be submitted directly to the instructor through the online tool DropItToMe. This site requires a password in order to upload files, and the password will be provided to the students prior to the due date of the first writing assignment via email from the instructor. The same password will be used for all assignments to be submitted to DropitToMe. Collaborative assignments will utilize Google Docs which enables multiple students to edit the same word document. Finally, some assignments will require students to use the online mind/concept mapping software at bubbl.us. This will help students organize their ideas and information. To facilitate critical thinking, the Rhetoric & Persuasion unit integrates activities that will help develop students' critical thinking skills. |
Course Schedule
*These units have not been created Tech Requirements For this course, students will need to be able to create videos and upload them to a YouTube channel. This means students will need to open a YouTube account. The easiest way to create a video is to use the YouTube software that allows you to record, edit, and upload a video. Students can get help with YouTube here. Additionally, students will need to create accounts on bubbl.us to use the online mind mapping application. DISCLAIMER - STUDENT PRIVACY ISSUES Students will be asked to post links to their YouTube videos. These videos will be viewable by anyone who accesses this website - this includes people outside of just the instructor and students for this course (this website is accessible to the public). As such, STUDENTS MUST BE AWARE THAT ANYTHING THEY RECORD IN THEIR VIDEOS CAN POTENTIALLY BE SEEN BY ANYONE ON THE INTERNET. Students are advised to carefully consider the content of their YouTube posts. If this were a real course, I would probably upgrade my Weebly account which would allow me to regulate the forums via a password. |