Over the past few years, I've become convinced that today's kids are
best motivated as learners when they are tackling a real-world issue in a
meaningful way.  That's why my #sugarkills blog and my classroom microlending projecthave been so successful.

As Marc Prensky says,
technology gives today's students power that they've never had before. 
It's our job to help them learn to use that power to change the world
in meaningful ways.

To that end, I spent the day
whipping up a new cause for my kids to tackle during a school-wide
enrichment period that starts next year.  

 Our
cause will be called Speak Up Salem and our goal will be to push for a
school culture where bullying isn't tolerated by generating influential
Public Service Announcements that pair provocative images with
interesting quotes.

Here's a sample:

The notion of creating influential visuals ties directly to several of the language arts goals in the sixth grade curriculum
-- and learning to use visuals to be persuasive is probably one of the
most important skills for grabbing attention in today's
information-soaked world.

I'm also excited about the fact that this lesson will give me a chance to introduce studentsto the Creative Commons
-- a new form of copyright where photographers, musicians, writers, and
artists are granting other users permission in advance to use their
content.

If this sounds good to you, here is a simple
overview of the lesson that is designed to help other teachers get a
sense for what I'm going to do:

Lesson_SpeakUpSalemSlides

And here are the materials that I'll be using when we start the project:

 Speak Up Salem Quotes and Statistics - http://bit.ly/speakupsalemquotes

This
link connects to a Word document with several statistics and quotes
about bullying that students can use when creating their Speak Up Salem
slides. 

Encouraging students to select a quote or a statistic from this
collection will save time in the creation process simply because they
won’t have to find their own statistics and/or quotes connected to
bullying.

Speak Up Salem Slides - http://bit.ly/speakupsalemslides

This
link connects to a PowerPoint presentation with 67 different Creative
Commons images that students can use when creating their own Speak Up
Salem slides. 

Encouraging students to select an image from this
collection will save time in the creation process simply because they
won’t have to find their own CC images to use in their final products.

Speak Up Salem Directions - http://bit.ly/speakupsalemdirections

This
link connects to a set of technical directions on using PowerPoint to
create an influential visual.  At a minimum, it can help you to better
understand the kinds of things students will need to be able to do when
using PowerPoint to create an influential visual. 

You may also want to
share one set of directions with each student group OR train a few
student leaders that can provide technical support to their peers.

Speak Up Salem Scoring Rubric - http://bit.ly/speakupsalemrubric

While
I don't plan to grade the work that my students do on this assignment
-- honestly, I get sick of living in a world where everything has to
have a grade tied to it to be considered worth doing -- I DO plan on
having my kids evaluate the overall quality of their final products with
this scoring rubric.

Hope this helps -- and more
importantly, hope you'll stop back and give me feedback if you use this
lesson with YOUR kids!  I'd love to know about any changes that you
make.

#alwayspolishing