Week+6+Activities

=Week 6: Activities and Action Items=

1. Plan Your First Genre Book Club
= = Tools: Reflective Assessment Portfolio (Google Docs)toc

Directions: Step 1: Preview the sources for multicultural books provided in Week 7 or your own personal learning environment to find a multicultural YA bo ok that you would like to read with a book club. Pitch the book to our class, via Twitter or the Bookhenge Book Club Central page, or both. Step 2: Once you have a total of three members for the club, you can begin to plan. It's a good idea to officially close your club by a posted date so late members do not slow down the process. Step 3: Create an online asynchronous meeting space using Twitter, Skype, TitanPad, Webspiration, etc. -- lots of options (see Book Club Tools). You'll use this space to organize your schedule and prepare with initial questions, etc. to make the real time meeting of the club most successful. Step 4: Meet in Second Life to enjoy a discussion of the book and to plan a creative artifact of your club's experience. Step 5: Share your creative artifact with the class during the Multicultural live class seminar. Step 6: Reflect and self-assess your book club's success in your Reflective Assessment Portfolio.

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2. Prepare for Promise and Peril Collaborative Critical Inquiry
Tools: Reflective Assessment Portfolio (Google Docs)

Directions: The live seminar process begins with reading and blogging in which you post your initial response to the readings in the form of a concise reflective essay. Then we all read the reflective essays as an additional text to be layered into our collective wisdom.

The beauty of the virtual live seminar is that we’ll have an immediate transcript of our discussion for future reference. I will also prepare a brief synthesis of the discussion.

Step 1: Preview the questions/prompts before your begin the readings.

Step 2: Read and reflect on the questions/prompts as you read.

Step 3: Blog about your response to your reading and the questions/prompts. Remember that your goal is to synthesize what you've taken from the readings and share your own opinions. Or you may choose one specific topic and blog "deeply."

Successful responses may follow any of these approaches:
 * Essay addresses all the questions/prompts to some degree and references each reading for a synthesis approach.
 * Essay focuses on one question/prompt or some aspect of it and delivers a thoughtful, detailed response.

Step 4: Return to the forum to review all of the responses in preparation for our live seminar. Read to find:
 * Opinions that affirm your own.
 * Those that differ and lead you to reconsider your way of thinking.
 * Those that provide new ways of thinking that you had not previously considered.

Bring to our live seminar, questions and comments that our forum have sparked or intensified.

Prompts and Readings
It's time to question our assumptions and consider tough questions about what is Young Adult Literature and why, how, and when literature can make a difference. Read the assigned articles and then post a brief reflective essay to your blog on these questions:


 * What is young adult literature?
 * On the literary to moralist continuum, where do I fall? How should my belief in how literature affects the reader guide my teaching and learning through literature with young adults?
 * What should be the role of Young Adult Literature in the English Language Arts program?

Post early so you can make your contribution to our class's thinking. We'll build on this collective wisdom during our live seminar.

Readings for this forum:
 * How Are Children Affected by the Books in Their Lives? Marc Aronson (eReserves)
 * Beyond the Pale by Marc Aronson, Section Two and Section Four (our textbook)

Plan your posting as early as you can so others can review before our live seminar. **Plan to post by Friday, Feb. 25, 11:59 pm ET so we'll have a chance by Monday, Feb. 28, night to read over your blog.**

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3. Participate in the 2011 Melinda Awards
Tools: Reflective Assessment Portfolio (Google Docs)

Directions: We have met with the Eva Perry Teen Book Club to discuss the year's most distinguished books since 2000 when the official American Library Association's Printz Award was born. The Eva Perry club was then a Newberry club but the teens were aging out and ready to form a Printz Club. In 2005, we added the streaming component, the Oscars theme, and the superlative categories.

2011 is another big innovation year as we move from a school night to a Friday night and hold the event in the Eva Perry Regional Library. Thanks to advances in technology, we can stream from practically anywhere with strong bandwidth and a camera and computer.

So you're invited to participate actually at the library or virtually via Second Life. You'll be able to "stand up" for your favorites in the Bookhenge.

The event will be held from 5:30 to 7:00 pm ET. Plan to stay for a pizza party for the cast. That's only in the actual ;-)

Those unable to attend may view the archive and blog about the event.

4. Reflect and Self-Assess in Your RAP
Tools: Reflective Assessment Portfolio (Google Docs)

Directions: Review and reflect upon your work this week in your Reflective Assessment Portfolio (Google Docs).