Research and Communication in the 21St Century

Mrs. Gilson

2016-2017

Research and Communication in the 21st Century

Class Rules and Expectations

Introduction:

Welcome to Research and Communication in the 21st Century. This one semester class is designed to guide freshman students as they begin their careers at Renaissance High School. We will examine a cornucopia of items related to research such as bias, what makes a good thesis statement, how to write an MLA research paper, where to find quality sources for research, etc. We will submit papers to the district’s online source to ensure that there was no plagiarism (unintended or otherwise). Students will gain experience in research and presentation as they do in-class PowerPoint presentations, National History Day projects, and group work.

Primary Goals:

Students will learn to identify reputable online sources. They will review the format of proper MLA papers and Works Cited pages. Students will consider which questions they should ask in developing strong thesis statements. Students will prepare for continued research throughout high school and beyond. Students will gain experience in Excel and PowerPoint and will choose a culminating project, which uses research to create a National History Day project.

Expectations:

Be nice. Work hard. Raise your hand. Participate.

Tardies: If you are tardy, do not come to class without your tardy slip (go to the office).

Bathroom Privileges:Ask me quietly

Food/Drinks: Only water bottles.

Electronic Devices: You may leave your phone on your desk. When you come into my room, take out your ear buds. That means both of them! If you waste time while on the laptops, I will kick you off. Including your own laptop.

Just say no to crack. That means I don’t want to see your bum or your cleavage.

Behavior:

Don’t make me call your parents. Because I will.

Get your own flash drive.

Don’t expect that you can pull up your project to present on Google Docs. Cause you can’t. Bring your flash drive and nobody gets hurt.

Make-Up Work

You have one class period to make up any missing work. Assignments can be found on the class website. If you miss a test or quiz, you must make it up within two class days. If you miss a class on the day that a project/homework is due, you must turn it in on the day you return. All late work must be turned in a week prior to the end of each unit.

Grading

In an effort to make grading more meaningful, students will receive either a complete (check mark) or incomplete (did not turn in or on many assignments). This will gauge whether a student is participating, getting in the practice before tests, and learning classroom skills and knowledge. Grades will be weighted (PowerPoint, media, National History Day, etc.).

Academic Integrity and Cheating:

Don’t cheat. Duh. That includes having your mother write your paper. Or letting someone copy your work.

Plagiarism is:

•Failure to cite/document another’s research, opinion or words (direct quote, paraphrase, summary).

•Copying and pasting directly from an internet site without proper citation.

•Downloading partial or whole “free” papers off the internet and claiming authorship.

•Purchasing papers or employing others to write papers and claiming authorship.

•We will be submitting papers to an online plagiarism site.

September

Cursive for Reading Primary Sources

Introduction to National History Day

Primary and Secondary Sources

Examining 9/11 Through Primary Sources

How to get the most out of Google

How to use Wikipedia as a research tool

Researching an Idaho Silent Hero

How to Build an NHD Project Through Primary and Secondary Sources

Annotated Bibliography and Process Papers

Thesis Work and Making an Historical Claim

October

Origin, Purpose, Value, Limitation (OPVL)

Build the NHD Project

Peer Review

School Databases with Mr. Robinson

Introduction to MLA Formatting

Building an MLA Paper

November

Peer Review- the Scribe

MLA Checklist

Build an MLA paper

Recognizing Bias

December

National History Day Presentations in Social Lounge

Return to the Idaho Silent Hero Research

PowerPoint Presenting Like a Boss

Build WWII PowerPoint Presentations

January

Presentation of WWII PowerPoints

Digital Citizenship

Career Counseling

Reflection of Semester

Finals