ENGLISH

Our English curriculum is based on the Mechanicsburg Area School District ELA curriculum goals and standards which align with PA Department of Education standards. Work is assigned through Google Classroom (click on the button below)

4^th MP LEARNcast Project

4/25—4/27 STEP 1: Brainstorm episode ideas & pick your favorite

4/28--5/2 STEP 2: Submit a proposal

Proposal Requirements:

What will the topic of your episode be (All topics must be school appropriate)?

Why does this topic interest you?

Is the topic researchable?

What additional information will you need to research within your topic?

How and where do you plan to research your topic?

What format will be used?

Why do you believe this format is the best way to communicate your message?

Why do you think this topic is interesting to other people?

Will you need other people to complete your podcast?

If yes, (specifically) who will you need?

*Bonus points if you use someone directly related to your topic who is outside of our school

Write a blurb about your podcast. A blurb is a 2 paragraph summary of your episode.

5/3-5 (If approved) STEP 3: Create your agenda/talking points

If your episode is approved, you will need to submit a script/agenda/taking points.

You must be able to create a script, agenda, or talking points for your podcast from at least 25 notecards.

Your topics must include at least 1 opposing viewpoint.

5/6-11 STEP 4: Conduct the necessary research for your topic

Research must be current (with in the last 5 yrs if possible).

Before you record your episode, you (and anyone participating in your episode) must turn in your research.

Your research must include a sentence statement and the source sited in the text in MLA format.

EXAMPLE: According Car and Driver magazine, the 2021 Acura TLX is the safest car on the market (Irwin)

Use https://www.citationmachine.net/ to create your citations.

If you are stating facts, all sources cited must be reputable (Wikipedia is not reputable).

You must submit a Sources Cited Page with your write up/script/agenda/talking points

5/12-16 STEP 5: Submit your final write up

Final write up includes an episode summary, an agenda, and sources cited (from all participants).

5/17-20 STEP 6: Record your episode

Use WeVideo to record your episode. We have 2 headsets with mics and 1 podcast mic.

5/23-25 STEP 7: Edit your episode

Use WeVideo to edit your episode and add music/sounds where needed. If you have questions about how to do anything,

use the WeVideo Podcast Basics handout in Google Classroom Resource

5/26-6/3 STEP 8: Create your ‘Show Notes”

Podcast show notes offer a summary of the show content – either to persuade someone to listen or to remind a previous listener

what was covered. It also should give links to resources, people or products that were mentioned. You can't link within the show

itself, so you offer the links on the show notes.

Here's the format to use for you Show Notes:

1. Episode Summary – paragraph or bullet points

2. Timecode guide – list highlights and timecodes to skip to

3. Resources mentioned – summary & links to all resources

4. Sources Cited—you can use the on you used in the research portion

Episode Summary

A brief 2 paragraph summary of the episode. This gives the listener the lowdown on what you're covering and can help casual visitors decide whether it's worth listening to. This is important – show the problem you're solving to really engage with the listener, and persuade them to listen!

Timecode Guide

This is hugely useful to listeners and anything useful to listeners is a thing worth doing for audience growth! A timecode summary simply picks out the highlights of the episode, and lists when they happen, in the audio. This allows casual visitors to pick out the parts most relevant to this and get value right away. If they can do that, they're far more likely to listen! It allows regular listeners to go back to the episode and re-listen to the parts they really engaged with.

For example, an excerpt here from This Week in Startups which does a great summary, every week:

· 39:02 OurCrowd – Sign up for a free account at https://www.ourcrowd.com/twist

· 40:46 Dick Costolo’s responds to infamous & now-deleted tweet on Acquired’s recent Twitter episode–was taking the tweet down the right move?

· 45:57 Thoughts on the proper way to do civil discourse at work

Resource List

I mentioned resource links above, but it's great to include a list of the main resources, and links at the end of the blog section so that links are all nicely collated and easily found. This is one of the biggest uses of shownotes for existing subscribers – to pop in and find out exactly what “That amazing app he mentioned…” was, and to be able to navigate right over there.

Including great resources links, every time, will encourage repeat visits to your shownotes.

Sources Cited

Just include a list of the sources of information/research the podcast utilized. It’ll add support to the content of the episode. You can reuse the sources cited list you created when doing your research.

EXAMPLE:

Irwin, Austin. “20 New Cars with the Best Safety Ratings.” Car and Driver, Car and Driver, 3 Mar. 2021,www.caranddriver.com/features/g20955601/safest-cars/.