4.10 Rubric for research project and what we will be doing for the rest of the term

Update on your projects. At the beginning of class you sent an mail to me about where you are with your project and what you need (from me) to move forward.  I hope to get to those by the end of Saturday.

What we will be doing for the rest of the term.  We took a brief look at the remaining weeks of the term as they are listed on the course calendar.  We will pretty much be workshopping, presenting, reviewing + working on writing up your research project for the rest of the term.

 Next week you will present your data (and your ideas for analysis) so far.  These presentations will be a whole class, collaborative group workshop where your classmates and I offer ideas and support for how to use your data to answer your research question.  We will also do some work on how to write up the data/analysis section.

The following week we will work on conclusions and pulling your whole essay together.  A complete draft of your final project is due April 15.

The remaining two weeks will focus on your presentations of your projects.  This is an opportunity to get one more round of feedback before turning your project in for a grade.

Rubric. We began work on the rubric by reviewing the assignment sheet for the Final research project.  You noticed that there were criteria for the final product (the project paper), data collection and analysis, and for the process you used to create this paper.  (The number of points for each part of this project is listed on the syllabus.  We will revisit this list to make sure the class feels it is fair at the beginning of next class).  The focus of the rubric we created today was on final written project.

Here are our valuations for the different categories:

audience  15
content    30
focus       25
organization 15
development 15

You applied this rubric to the first sample research project, and we were very close in our assessments of this project.  We all noted that it was a very strong project, and that it would make a reasonable model if your project was a good match for the kind of research this researcher is conducting.

For next class:

You will be giving presentations on your data so far + workshoping the body of your essay where you present (provide evidence of) your findings based on your data. 

Blog 20:  Post a statement of the focus for your essay (what you hope to show) followed by sections of your data + your analysis where you make a series of points related to that focus.  If you aren't sure what to post => just post a statement of what you want to show and sections of data which you think show or are related to your focus.  In class, we will help you strengthen and develop your "evidence" based on your data.

Good class today and have a great weekend!