Moby+Dick+Reporter


 * Assignment: Moby Dick Documentary**
 * 11th Grade Honors English**

We will be reading select chapters from Herman Melville's famous Novel Moby Dick. The chapters we will be reading, as well as the corresponding reading response questions are posted on the Wiki under the Novel Link for Honors English. We are skipping certain chapters because they are technical in nature and do not relate to the story line. (Deleting chapters to read in a novel is common practice in a college English course.)

The story of Moby Dick is set in a time when the whaling trade was a large sector of the American economy. In fact, the book is based on Herman Melville's own experience as a ship hand on a whaling vessel. The purpose of this assignment is to learn more about the whaling industry of the 19th Century so that you can better relate to and understand what is happening in the novel.


 * HERE IS YOUR ASSIGNMENT:**

You will work in teams of two or three to create a three minute mini-documentary on the American Whaling Industry of the 19th Century. Pretend that your podcast will be aired on the local television station. In reality, all of your podcasts will be posted on a separate page on my teacher Wiki, and we will take one day as a class to view these podcasts. Since my Wiki is posted on our school homepage, you will be able to share your work with parents, grandparents, friends, if you choose to do so. After the "television presentation", we will vote as a class of competing colleagues to see which team will receive the Emmy for best documentary. You will have to make your assessment using a rubric in which you will rate your colleagues in several different categories.(Note, the winning team will actually receive a prize instead of an actual Emmy.)

You will use the Internet to do your research, and you will develop your podcast using Garage Band. You will work together to accumulate the material for your podcast. You will be given two weeks of in class time to prepare your podcast. All partners must take part in the narration within your documentary. Split the narration between the partners as to how you as a team see fit to do so, but each partner must have a speaking part.


 * Use the link at the bottom of this page to get a list of websites to help you to create your podcast.

Here are some areas that you might think of covering in developing your podcast:** Information about the port of departure The kinds of men who served on whaling vessels The impact of the trade on their family members What regions the whaling vessels traveled to How did the crew spend their time aboard ship Dangers of the industry Information about the whale chase and kill

Pictures, graphics, illustrations from the time period Your narration as newscaster Sound effects and/or music You may use video clips in your podcast, but you may use no more than two, and each clip can be no more than thirty seconds long, which is based on copyright guidelines.
 * Your podcast must also contain the following:**

Do online research for information, graphics, photo Prepare a written bibliography of the sources you used Prepare a written script Submit both your written script and your bibliography when completed - put all members names on both documents, as well as proper page headings, as you have been taught. As follows is an example: Honor English........................................Names Moby Dick.............................................Period Podcast Bibliogrraphy.............................Date When completed your podcast will be loaded onto a public web page All podcasts will be viewed in class
 * Guidelines:**


 * Assessment:** You will receive a grade for the podcast, another grade for your written script, and also a grade for your bibliography. Both the script and the podcast will be weighted as a writing assignment at 50 percent. Your script will be graded using the writing rubric that is based on the five PSSA Domains of Effective Writing. The podcast will be graded using the special rubric I gave you. The podcast grade will consist of two types of grades averaged together: the grade I assign for the completed podcast, and the grade that your team member(s) give you for your contribution to the project. The bibliography will be weighted as a quiz at 30 percent. You must have a minimum of six sources for your podcast. Your bibliography will be graded using a special rubric. Thus, this project will receive three separate grades: two writing assignment grades, and one quiz grade.

[|Whaling Industry in 19th Century America] [| Trade in 19th Century America] [|Whale Sounds]
 * URL for Research:

Helpful Links: [|U.S. Copyright Office] -** Information Circulars and Factsheets

[|Raster Vector] -** website offers images that are either public domain or have very generous usage rights.  **[|Life photo archive]** hosted by Google - Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today.
 * Copyright Friendly Images:
 * [|Pics4Learning]** - is a copyright-friendly image library for teachers and students.