Important Front Matter and Blog Commenting information

Front Matter assignment.

 A LOT of very important information is presented in the front matter of each of the curriculum documents. For this assignment you are to choose TWO documents from different places and critically compare and contrast them. One document should be a subject document from Ontario. The other should be the same subject document from somewhere else in the world such as a New Zealand, Scotland, and California. Taiwan

Choose or create a graphic organizer to compare and contrast.  Critically analyse what you have discovered using written text.  For example, what do they say about the importance of their specific subject? What content does the Ministry consider important in that subject (KNOW)? What skills does the Ministry consider important in that subject (DO)? What values are being implicitly taught in each subject (BE)? What does each document say about assessing the subject? In approximately 5 to 7 pages critically analyze how the documents are the same, and how they differ, on those points. Ask yourself if the Ministry is missing things that you believe should be taught or are focusing on things that you believe should not be as heavily focused on. Remember – critical thinking is KEY. Do NOT just summarize!

What’s new? Length of front matter assignment is revised to 5 to 7 pages. This includes the graphic and critique. Critique is double-spaced.

  

Criteria for assessment

Chooses/creates an effective graphic organizer for compare and contrast. The reader can easily see the similarities and differences. 

Sees the Big Picture for KDB. 

Asks significant questions

Offers critique rather than observation

Get it...has depth in insights. 

Sample organizers 

You do not need to recreate the wheel. Sample organizers are available at this link or create your own. Watch for the attributions of your chart choice. When I went to put in a simple Venn diagram for an example I wanted to use a Pinterest pin but it turned out it came from a site where Teachers Pay Teachers and I needed to pay $4.50 U.S. So I left it out! 

Here is a good link defining different levels of attribution for images obtained from Flickr/Creative Commons. Don't forget to be a digital citizen!  

Blogs

Your colleagues will be giving you feedback throughout. To be a responsible member of this classroom community you need to give constructive feedback so that the blogs improve (if needed).  You will not be getting designated feedback from your TA/instructor so it is important that you take this responsibility seriously.

Blogging comments
Success Criteria	Your constructive comments
Feedback involves personal reflections on the blog
Feedback asks questions to provoke thinking on the part of the blogger.
Feedback provides constructive comments on how well the blog fulfills blog criteria.
Your feedback reflects the growth mindset.
Your written feedback is posted for each individual for class the next week. You will hand in one sheet with all your feedback comments on it to the instructor/TA.

You also need to hand us a paper copy of ALL your feedback on the day determined in the Syllabus. Generally that will be 9 pieces of feedback – no more than 3 pages long in total.  A longish paragraph will do but make sure that it fits the criteria above.

There are two ways to capture your feedback.

1  1.  Compose all your ongoing blog comments on a Word doc with each comment identifying the person the post is being sent to and date of sending it.  Then post the comment.

2. Take screen shots of all your feedback and paste all of them into a Word document, print and and hand this in. This website describes how to do it for many different platforms.  With a Mac you can use Grabber and with a PC you can use Snippit. Both allow you to select part of a screen and take a shot of the selection, save it with a name, and then paste it into a Word document. 

    Here is how to do it on a PC. 

Snippit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLbCQkiqr-w

OR on a MAC 

Sources: https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&es_th=1&ie=UTF-8#q=how%20to%20make%20a%20selected%20screenshot%20mac&es_th=1

 Good luck. Don't get discouraged on the Front Matter. It is hard to learn something new but you can do it and it will be worth for the years ahead. Builds your... 

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