Class Syllabus

Desktop Publishing

Liz Barcheck

720-561-7103  |  elizabeth.barcheck@bvsd.org

2014-2015 School Year

Angevine Middle School

Angevine Middle School is a standards-based, best practice oriented Middle School, in which teachers and administrators support students as they grow and achieve academically, socially, and emotionally.  This course is designed to meet student needs in Digital Literacy and Desktop Publishing and utilizes the “continuous cycle of student learning” designed by the Colorado Department of Education. 

What do students needs to know, understand, and be able to do?

·         Standard: Creativity and Innovation

àDemonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

·         Standard: Communication and Collaboration

àUse digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

àUse critical thinking skills to plan, conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources.

·         Standard: Research & Information Fluency

àApply digital tools to gather, evaluate and use information…

How do we teach effectively to ensure students learn?

·         Workshop model

·         Collaborative among students and teacher/ larger school community

·         Student-paced (some lessons will be whole class while others will be student choice/ability level)

·         Frequent/timely feedback on student’s blog through commenting

·         Project-based class (students will produce in order to prove understanding/mastery)

How do we know that students have learned? (assessment and grading)

·         Blog Development: Students will develop online blogs to share ideas/writing/web 2.0 projects that we will tackle as a class. This is the bulk of the class and will be graded weekly for content of their own blogs and contributions to other student’s blogs.

àDigital Citizenship Projects: Students will develop digital stories to research and teach class about different elements of being a good online citizen.  They will publish these stories to their blogs through youtube or another video sharing app.

àAcademic Vocabulary Slam: Students will develop a sense of academic technology vocabulary by producing a slideshow or movie

àBlog Post: Students will be assessed when posting responses to class prompts through the PAWS writing rubric and the class rubric for blog posts. Once blogs are created, students are expected to update/respond once a week on their blog. Not all blog posts will be read for a grade, but all will be accessible by our community to read.

àBlog Design: Students will be assessed on the overall look and feel of their blogs, in addition to the content they decide to post.

àOther projects may include:

-YouTube Editing (using youtube to edit video and create a final video to post about a topic)

-Infographics (research shown in a visual way)

-Other web 2.0 apps/platforms

What do we do when students don’t learn or reach proficiency before expectation? (reteaching, relearning opportunities, support classes, etc.)

·         We will use benchmarks along the way to measure progress and allow for opportunities to edit and improve work based on feedback. Students will have one week after an assignment is graded to revise and re-turn in for a higher grade.

Angevine ROAR

   Angevine is a Positive Behavior Support (PBS) school.  We reward positive behaviors and frame our behavior expectations in ROAR.

In this class ROAR looks like:

·         Asking questions

·         Collaborating with their peers

·         Giving constructive and thoughtful feedback

·         Active participation

·         Improved progress and drive to always improve

·         Appropriate interactions and participation in all online platforms

Teacher Information

My name is Liz Barcheck and this is my fifth year at Angevine Middle School. In addition to teaching Desktop Publishing, I teach AVID and video productions/Bobcat TV. I have a BA in English Literature from CU Boulder and am currently earning an MA in Information and Learning Technologies through CU Denver. I passionately believe that all students are capable of greatness when given the freedom to be creative and the right structures and supports to persevere and challenge themselves. I am excited to have your child in my class and to be a part of the Angevine Bobcat community.