Project Abstract
Students collaborated with Wild Coast and the park rangers at Otay Valley Regional Park to create a magazine that celebrated the park and informed readers of the park and all of it's many resources.
What did you teach and how did you teach it?
English Content Standards:
Research
Writing
Editing
There is a wide variety of writing styles covered in the magazine. Students wrote historical and informational articles, photos essays, hiking guides and reflections of service in the community. To learn how to do create these various types of writing assignments, students read many journalistic styles of writing, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and trail guides. Then, we modeled our assignments on those styles. We also wrote creative journals describing our personal experiences in the park during various field trips to the park.
What concepts and skills did the students gain in this class through this project?
Journalistic Writing
Magazine Design and Layout
Editing
Photography
Art
Reflective Writing
Nature Appreciation and Stewardship
How is the curriculum for this project academically rich and grade-level challenging?
The research writing assignments were grade level appropriate, and met the various content standards for English set by the California State Standards site. Then, the overall designing and editing process provided a real world application for revision in writing. When students understood that the magazine would have a real world audience, they cared deeply about ensuring their writing was refined for the finished product.
To what extent was there integration across disciplines in your class through this project?
The Humanities and Environmental Science classes worked together to learn about sensitive habitats, various ecosystems, flora and fauna, as well as the history of environmental protection, and conservation efforts. Both classes were committed to fostering a sense of stewardship for the local natural parks and all natural spaces.
Which Habits of Heart and Mind (HoHM) and Design Principles were utilized in this project?
Refinement was used in the editing of this magazine
Evidence was used in all of the writing
Cooperation was used in the creation and completion of all design work, title creation, editing and organizing of the magazine
Perseverance was needed to keep the energy levels high to see this project to completion
How did you incorporate refinement through this project?
The magazine went through several editing phases. We began with the concept of a field guide, refined it to a magazine. Once the magazine was decided upon, students refined cover art, writing samples, layout and organization through a series of many grueling editorial meetings.
Please See The Digital Version of the Final Magazine by visiting:
http://students.hthcv.hightechhigh.org/~aespineli/OVRP%20An%20Unseen%20Treasure.pdf