Vision

On-Going Class Dynamic:

• Treat the team element of the project in a professional & fair manner
• Allow student ‘editor’ and ‘contributor’ status to rotate week-to-week
• Work successfully as a team, playing to each individual’s strengths
• Contribute confidently and appropriately as an individual ‘contributor’

Academic Analysis & Research:

• Carefully read selected holocaust-themed lit circle novel on 3 levels: student, researcher, and literary critic
• Engage the text through written reactions through blog entries and comments on fellow classmates’ blog entries
• Showcase quality written analysis of the author's work and all related research
• Provide, when necessary and appropriate, related research and links to support knowledge by visitors to the web site

Technology Operation:

• Maintain & develop an academic web site/blog with Miss Tesmer’s help
• Develop an on-going (and carefully edited / maintained) digital portfolio of individual and collective discoveries of selected holocaust-themed lit circle novel
• Demonstrate a successful use of a variety of web 2.0 collaborative tools as story-telling, reporting, and illustrating findings
• Communication outside of school done in many ways, but established especially through the web 2.0 tool Edmodo

Final Public Display of Knowledge:

• Each group will formally present to their class about their discoveries and contributions
• Each group will produce, by the final due date, a digital portfolio of their analysis, research, and discoveries that can help other students/teacher in better understanding the selected holocaust-themed lit circle novel and related topics to tolerance/intolerance/man’s inhumanity to man.  Product will be presented through additional media (ie: movie maker, power point, etc.)
• Each group will respond, when necessary, to visitors’ comments and/or questions via the web site

Behind-The-Scenes:

• Shift Miss Tesmer’s role to a behind-the-scenes collaborator and adviser for the duration of the project.  This process is what we’ve been practicing through many sessions of the Socratic Seminar form of discussion in class
• Place students at the head of the classroom to mirror a real research and work scenario
• Create a classroom day-to-day environment with clear guidelines, expectations, clear due dates, and technical support
• Give students a creative outlet that honors authentic discoveries through opinions of a work of literature