Outlining the Pecha Kucha

Here's a link to a "how to" pecha kucha presentation with some helpful tips of how to plan for the best and to avoid the train wreck.

The project is comprised of:  annotated bibliography, rough outline (due on Tuesday after Thanksgiving), and the presentation itself, which can be created by way of PowerPoint, Prezi, or i Movie.  Presentations will take place on December 8th and 10th.

In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving to all!   I hope
your break is restful, warm, and wonderful!

With our trip to MSU behind us, I hope all of you have found a great topic and several sources to support your presentation. The remaining days together this semester are few!  Here are some important dates you've asked for:

• Annotated Bibliography – end of class on Friday, November 21st
• Outline due  - Beginning of class on Tuesday, November 25th
• ›Work on script and slide presentation Tuesday, December 2nd
• ›Conference/rehearse for presentation Thursday, December 4th
• December  8  - presentations
• December 10 – remaining presentations – portfolio work
• December 12 – portfolio due
• December 16 – blog wrap up
• December 18 – final exam

Hang in there! We're near the end!

A Letter From China to All of Us!

I am attaching a letter written by Laoshi (teacher) James to all of you.  He wants you to know how powerful and engaging your letters are and how much the assignment means to his students.  Thank you for the time you have spent and the care you have taken to answer their questions and to make kind observations.

Please know that your efforts can be rewarded, if you so choose.  You can print out your emails to your correspondent and turn them in with your writer's notebook pages.

Digging for Gold: Find a Research Topic You Care About!

As you receive email responses from China, and you begin panning for ideas and sources of support, you may find yet a new direction of interest.  No problem:  Tuesday's research blog post is a simple "snapshot" of a point of interest from China and due before class.

 If you are still looking for a response from a Qingdao student, here are their class email addresses: 

• class 1:   kingclass2@sina.com 
• class 2:    qduclass1@163.com
• class 3:    englishclass03@163.com

The autobiography you received should have the class number in the heading, or you can check with me.  It would be good to stay in the same class as the person whose autobiography you got.  This will keep requests evenly distributed between classes.  If you send a class email, you should send your autobiography as an attachment because many of these students will not have seen it.


 We'll be reading your posts in class on Monday and searching for a common thread or an emerging picture of who those students are, what their lives are like, what their hopes and dreams are, and any other part of the Chinese culture that makes them unique and yet not so very different.

The purpose of the assignment is twofold:  learn about China and learn how to find and use primary and secondary sources.  This assignment was intended to lead us into another research project.  Since Thursday is a senior Shadow Day, you may choose to research your career of interest or a cause or activity you feel passionate about.  Your primary sources may be the person you shadow or other employees you meet.

However, in looking at some of the email responses coming in from China, I am learning that continued research on your China related topic may be the direction you may wish to go.  You have access to primary sources, students who are enthralled with this exchange and anxious to help you.  I now have a class email address for our Chinese correspondence, so if you send your questions to the class address, you will surely get a number of responses to your questions.

This means that you have choices to explore.  The trick is, though, that you will need to commit to a research topic by the end of class on Wednesday next week!  The MSU librarians are standing by to help you, and we will need to give them some of your topics.

Where is the additional research going?  It's going into a presentation you will share with the rest of the class.  You may want to continue exploring what you can find on Chinese medicine, or Chinese traditions, superstitions, festivities, and so on.  You may read through the blog and find a new idea you would like to research.  Your call.  Project instructions and rubric will be handed out Wednesday.

Here are some examples of research posts.  Keep in mind that the rubrics were a bit different last year.

Friday's Writer's Notebook and Tying Up Loose Ends!

Yes, there is a writer's notebook due this Friday.  We haven't had a writer's notebook since October 17th, so I hope you have been scribbling or typing out pages here and there.

Your personal statements have been graded and will be returned to you this Thursday and Friday.  It was gratifying to see how many of you plan to use them in your college search.  If you haven't turned in your personal statement packet, be sure you do that SOON.  It's short and simple (easy for me to say)!

Next week was scheduled to be a reading response week, but since it is also job shadow and junior community service day, we will be blogging about our plans for the future and what our passions are. Stay tuned to the blog for more information.  Right now I am looking forward to reading your research posts about China. Those are due before class on Tuesday next week.

Tuesday's class will be the last time we meet before our November 17th planned trip to the MSU library.  I'm still missing a number of permission slips and need to have them by the end of the week in order to reserve enough lunch passes for us all.  Turn in the permission
slip even if you aren't going and simply indicate that on the form.

Oh, yes, one more thing... Turn in the shadow day/community service day permission slips.  The day is approaching:  November 13th!

China Research Blog Post: A Curiosity About China

Our China research blog will evolve from your experience reading letters and autobiographies from students at Qingdao University.  Think about things that surprised you in the text of their work.  What did they write that peaked your curiosity?  Some of the ideas I've heard are:  the lunar calendar, one child policy, education in China, ethnic minority cultures, Eastern medicine, sanitation, health care, family structure, "City of Lost Children," Chinese weddings, standards of beauty,  food quality control (anything like the FDA?), Chinese weddings, festival celebrations and traditions; family traditions, family structure, traditional Chinese food, income average for recent college grads, public transportation, cost of college, the giant panda research preserve, and more.

Your research post should have a title which reflects what you are researching.  You must include a summary of what it is that you want to learn more about and what peaked your interest.  You must include at least two sources.  The primary source, of course, comes from the letters or autobiographies.  If you can ask your correspondent to give you more information, great.  If you want to quote from their paper, this counts. The second source must come from published information about your topic.  Wikipedia might give you some direction to start with, but from there you can find another source.  Please hyperlink us to your source!

Give us an image which will enhance our understanding of your topic.  And finally, you must include your learned opinion.  At the bottom of your post, cite your sources!

Good luck!  I can't wait to read more!





So...please include:

• a catchy title
• summary of topic
• how/why you chose this topic
• 2 sources, one primary and at least one secondary (or two secondary if you cannot get an email response in time for your post)
• hyperlink us to your secondary source
• give your opinion
• provide an image or images to enhance your post
• explain your images, of course, and any material you quote.

These research posts are due to be posted before class on November 11th!