Unit 3 Evaluation Sheets

As you finish up your VoiceThreads for your Unit 3 Projects, I thought it might be helpful for you to see the rubric by which I'll evaluate your work. Note: since we won't meet again after these are graded I won't be able to hand these back to you, but if you're curious about your detailed grade feel free to email me after the close of the semester.

Unit 3 Evaluation Rubric

Instructions for Putting Together Your VoiceThread

1. Once you have your soundtrack completed in Audacity, export your work as an mp3 just like you did in Unit 2.

2. Open a new Audacity project, go to File > Import > Audio and open up the mp3 you just exported.

3. In your browser, go to voicethread.unc.edu and log in.

4. Click on the "Create" tab and then click the button that says "Upload." Upload each image that will appear in your VoiceThread.

5. Go back to Audacity and highlight the section of your mp3 that goes with your first image. Once it is highlighted, go to File > Export Selection and save that chunk of your audio track as a separate mp3 (you may want to name it something like "section 1.").

6. Go back to VoiceThread and click the "Comment" button. Your first image should show up in a larger window to the right. Under the image, click the button that says "Comment," then click the up arrow that appears. Point VoiceThread to the file in which you exported the first section.

7. When you're ready to move to the next image / section, click the big arrow at the right of the VoiceThread or the thumbnail next to the arrow and repeat steps 5 and 6.

8. For the sections of your VoiceThread in which you annotate the image, you will need to record the audio live. In the VoiceThread window, click "comment" and then click "record." Give the program permission to access you microphone, and it will record what you say. As you are recording you can draw on the image; you can change the color with the palette on the VoiceThread.

Make Your Own Draft Workshop: Unit 3 Project

At this point in the semester, each of you should be self-sufficient with your writing. You know best what issues you are struggling with in your current draft, so I would like you to compose your own draft workshop forms. You are welcome to copy and paste questions from forms earlier in the semester if you found a particular question helpful or if it focuses on an issue you're currently dealing with, but your draft workshop form should meet the following two criteria:

1. It should contain at least four questions

2. It should not include any open-ended questions (i.e. "please point out anything that can be improved"), but rather each question should focus on a particular issue in your draft. If you need help thinking of what these issues might be, refer to the assignments (remember, it's always good to make sure you do everything the assignments ask!) and/or your notes and my presentations from earlier this semester.

Feeder 3.2 Workshop

1. Last class we talked about the relationship between facts--or evidence--and more complex claims in the humanities. Do you think the author has done an adequate job of supporting his or her claims with objective facts about the piece(s) discussed? Point out at least two claims made about the piece(s) in the draft and explain how each of these claims is explicitly supported by reference to facts. If you think the claim could be better supported, suggest a fact about that painting that might help.

2. Does the draft adequately contextualize the piece under discussion? What kind of context (e.g. historical, aesthetic, etc.) does it provide? Does the contextual information seem more important than the discussion of the actual piece? If so, what might the author add or cut in order to put the focus back on the main piece? 

3. Does the author explain how s/he will use VoiceThread's visual annotation tools in order to help guide the reader through the image? Suggest ways in which the author might better use visual annotations in order to help convince the reader of his or her claims about the piece.

4. Do you think the audio track will hold the reader's attention? Has the author explain how s/he will use music and other sound effects in order to break it up and make the information more digestible for the reader. Give any suggestions you might have for improving the audio track.

Feeder 3.1 Draft Workshop

1. Paraphrase the thesis statement of the scholarly article your partner wrote about. Has your partner made the scholar's argument clear in the paper? Is it clear where the scholar's argument ends and your partner's argument begins? How might your partner make this relationship between their and the scholar's ideas clearer?

2. When workshopping similar assignments earlier this semester we concentrated on how the author makes an argument intended for scholars accessible for your blog's wider audience. Has the author explained why this research matters? Do you think the author makes a substantive and powerful connection between audience and subject matter? Do you think your blog's audience REALLY wants to read this post? Explain your answer, pointing to specific details in the draft.

3. In today's discussion we talked about the relationship between facts (observations) and opinions (claims) in the humanities. Has the author drawn a clear relationship between the claims and the observations that support them in the original article? What kinds of evidence does the scholarly author cite in support of his or her claims? How might your partner make the relationship between the original author's claims and observations clearer in the draft.

4. What constitutes "original research" is a little more difficult to determine in the humanities than it was in the natural or social sciences. Are you confident that the article summarized is a scholarly article? How can you tell? How might the author make it clearer that s/he is summarizing scholarly research?

Homework: Bring a script for your Feeder 3.2 VoiceThread to class on Tuesday. Your script should explain not only what you will say in your VoiceThread, but what images you use and how you plan to annotate and explain them to your audience. Unit 2 Project podcasts are also due by class time on Tuesday. 

VoiceThread

Put on your headphones and click the link below to watch a VoiceThread about what VoiceThreads are:

http://voicethread.com/?#q.b409.i848804

Once you understand the principles behind VoiceThread (listen at least to the part where the "happy mother" introduces herself), click here to check out a VoiceThread in which an art history teacher speculates about how students might use the tool in her class:

http://voicethread.com/?#q+art.b2987.i26325

You might also want to play around with creating your first VoiceThread. To do so, go to http://voicethread.unc.edu/ and sign in with your ONYEN and Password. This will give you access to VoiceThread's web site where you can begin playing around with the software.

Unit 2 Project Workshop

1. As you listen to your partner's podcast for the first time, compose a DETAILED retrospective outline of the draft. Your outline should be about half a page long (single-spaced) and should contain at least three "levels" (I'll explain what this means in class).

2. How easy was it for you to compose the outline? Were the transition moments clearly signaled to the listener? How were the signaled? Were there any transitional moments that need additional clarification? In general, does the podcast feel organized? Explain your answer.

3. How has the author handled the results section? Does it feel like a barrage of numbers, or is the information easy to digest? Do you have a sense of which bits of information are the most important and which are less important? How might the author highlight the most pertinent info in the results section more clearly?

4. Does the author adequately address the strengths and weaknesses of his or her study? Does the author reformulate the hypothesis or propose how the experiment might be conducted differently next time? Do you have a sense of what the author learned from the study and why that information is valuable to the listener?

5. Last week we talked about how the Discussion section of a research report should gradually "zoom out" from the narrow conclusions drawn from the study itself. Summarize briefly how the author accomplishes this task of "zooming out." Is it clear what the reader should take away from the study and the report? How might the author highlight this information more clearly in order to leave the reader feeling more satisfied?

After you have answered the questions please leave around 5 minutes to chat with your partner about your podcasts. This is a good point at which to point out any other concerns you might have with the current draft and offer suggestions about how things might be improved for the final version.