Assessment+Criteria

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Content
Each article should provide detailed information on all of the following:
 * **Discipline-specific** Romantic characteristics
 * Connections to historical/political/social events or philosophies
 * Central figures/leaders in each discipline
 * Notable accomplishments/works

Additionally, please note that in keeping with the Wikispaces open content policy, any content you add must be original **or** in the [|public domain] (this goes not only for text, but also for images, a/v content, etc.).

Structure
Each article should contain the following:
 * Overview/summary paragraph
 * Table of contents (with links to each section)
 * Information provided in a variety of formats (prose, lists, tables, charts, graphics, audio/video)
 * Clear distinction between sections and sub-sections
 * Uniform, consistent formatting rules
 * Links to both internal and external sources
 * Complete documentation (Works Cited) for all sources - text, graphical, or otherwise

Student Groups

 * Students were separated into six small groups of 3 or 4 (there were 20 students in this class).
 * In **Phase I**, two groups were assigned to research each discipline (art, music, poetry). Primary research sources included the Hunterdon Central Instructional Media Center, the Facts on File database. Students were encouraged to use the Internet, but only after they felt that these two resources were exhausted. Each student also submitted their email address to me, which allowed me to send out Wikispaces membership invitations en masse. I asked each student to leave a message on the "discussion" tab of the front page once they successfully logged in.
 * In **Phase II**, the two groups in each discipline were instructed to collaborate, go over research, weed out duplicate information, and begin organizing their research (as well as continue to research as needed). Students also received a brief tutorial in wiki editing functions (this was brief, due to the similarity to Microsoft Word, with which the students were already familiar).
 * In **Phase III**, students began formatting information for inclusion on the wiki and posting it. They were advised to develop editing schedules to avoid problems of overwriting information. We trouble-shot technical issues along the way; I remained available to the students via e-mail.

Time Frame
Content research began on **Wednesday, 2 May 2007**. Main research articles were due to be completed on **Friday, 18 May**, and critical analyses were due the following **Tuesday, 22 May**. We operate on an 84-minute block schedule, and our class is only 18 weeks long; your mileage may vary on a more traditional schedule. Students worked on this project concurrently with reading Mary Shelley's //Frankenstein//; with the exception of the initial research blocks, this project was to be completed on the students' own time, either during study hall or after school hours.

Student Reflection
Reflection is an essential part of education for students and teachers alike. Since this was the first web-based project I had ever assigned, I wanted to get some feedback from my students to hear about their favorite parts of the project, their not-so-favorite parts of the project, the obstacles they faced, the triumphs they shared, and what they would do differently if they had it to do over again.

What I thought would take fifteen minutes in class one day turned into a nearly hour-long discussion of the project. I was also pleasantly surprised that 99% of the feedback I got was very positive. More than perhaps any other assignment this year, the students really took ownership of this project and enjoyed watching the site evolve from a blank page to a full-fledged site with internal and external links to information. Even many of the students who did not consider themselves "tech-savvy" enjoyed being able to contribute to a corner of the Internet that will be forever theirs. You can read more about what my students thought of this project here.

In addition to our informal in-class feedback session, students were also required to submit to me a written reflection on this project, including an evaluation of their contribution.