home

 ** The Executive Branch: ** A Wiki Project Your task is to design a wiki based around a department in the Executive Branch of the government. You will have the option of working alone, or in a pair. By creating this wiki, other students will be able to read information about the department you choose and will then respond to a discussion thread based on your research. You will follow the steps listed in the planning guide to achieve the following: · Create a wiki page that describes your department including: o Current leaders of the department o Mission Statement or responsibilities of the department o Current issues of the agencies – a summary of 3 current events relating to an issue that falls under the jurisdiction of the department. After you summarize the three articles, you will provide a “recommendation” to President Obama based on your research. § **__NOTE:__** if you are working in a pair, __EACH PERSON__ needs to find three articles on two different issues, and create a __DIFFERENT__ discussion thread. o In addition, you must have two of the following 4 items: § Budget- how do they spend the money? § Who are the constituents and what services does the department provide their constituents? § History of the Department § Agencies or bureaus under the department, as well as a description of what they do. · After creating this wiki, and summarizing three current events articles relating to an issue, you will provide your recommendation for how you think President Obama should proceed. Placed on the discussion part of your wiki, this will facilitate a discussion by your peers. · Create two questions that can be answered by the content on your wiki. These questions will be put together to form a webquest for other students to complete as they surf the wikis. · Review other wikis and respond to 4 other recommendations.

** Planning Guide **

2. Describe the mission statement or responsibilities of the department. ||  || 2. What information is available about this issue? || 1. Find three articles on this issue 2. Cite the articles 3. Write a brief summary of each article ||  || a. Available b. Important to understanding the department ||  || 2. Post your recommendation on the discussion page of your wiki, so other students can respond. ||  || a. Read the information on the site b. Understood the information on the site || Write two questions to assess understanding of the information on your site. ||  ||
 * **Task** || **To Think About** || **To Do** || **Notes** ||
 * **Research** || What information is vital to understanding your department? || 1. List the leadership of the department
 * **Research** || 1. What issue is most important to your department right now?
 * **Research** || What information is helpful to know (and available) to understand your department? || 1. Determine the other two topics you would like to include on your wiki. These should be
 * **Analyze** || Think about the information contained in your articles. Based on the information you have gathered about the department, and from the current events articles, what would you tell President Obama to do about the issue? || Write your recommendation to the President. ||  ||
 * **Post** || What is the best way to display this information so that a visitor to the site can easily understand and make decisions about the information? || 1. Post the information about your department on the front page of your wiki.
 * **Assess** || What questions would you ask someone to be sure that they

Part 1: Components
(5 each) || ||
 * ** List the leadership of the department ** || 4 || ||
 * ** Describe the mission statement or responsibilities of the department. ** || 4 || ||
 * ** Article Summaries x 3 ** || 15
 * ** 2 of the 4 below: ** || || ||
 * Budget || 4 || ||
 * Constituents & Services || 4 || ||
 * History of Dept. || 4 || ||
 * Agencies/ Bureaus & description || 4 || ||
 * ** Recommendation to the President ** || 5 || ||
 * ** 2 questions ** || 4 || ||

Part II: Quality

 * ** Criteria ** || ** F - 6 ** || ** C - 8 ** |||| ** B - 9 ** || ** A - 10 ** || ** Score ** ||
 * ** Content ** || Content is minimal, OR there are several factual errors. || Includes essential information about the topic but there are 1-2 factual errors. || Includes essential knowledge about the topic. Subject knowledge appears to be good. |||| Covers topic in-depth with details and examples. Subject knowledge is excellent. || ||
 * ** Organization ** || There was no clear or logical organizational structure, just lots of facts. || Content is logically organized for the most part. || Content uses headings or bulleted lists to organize, but the overall organization of topics appears flawed. |||| Content is well organized, using headings (those given in the research guide) or bulleted lists to group related material. || ||
 * ** Attractiveness ** || Makes use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. but these often distract from the presentation content. || Makes use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. but occasionally these detract from the presentation content. || Makes good use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance to presentation. |||| Makes excellent use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance the presentation. || ||
 * ** Accuracy ** || More than four errors in spelling or grammar. Five or more HTML errors in the student's contribution to the wiki. || Four misspellings and/or grammatical errors. No more than four HTML errors in the student's contribution to the wiki. || Three or fewer misspellings and/or mechanical errors. No more than two HTML errors in the student's contribution to the wiki. |||| No misspellings or grammatical errors. No HTML errors in wiki (e.g., broken links, missing images). || ||
 * ** Contribution to the Group ** || Contributes moderately to the development of the class wiki. || Contributes moderately to the development of the class wiki. || Contributes adequately to the development of the class wiki. |||| Contributes greatly to the development of the class wiki. || ||
 * ** Use of class time ** || Often off-task and causing classroom disruptions distracting and detracting from the focus of their peers. || Occasionally used class time wisely. There were some classroom disruptions and at times student was off-task. || Mostly used class time wisely. Worked independently and listened to instruction from the teachers with minimal disruptions to the learning environment. |||| Class time was used to full advantage. Student worked well independently, listened to instruction from the teachers, and did not disrupt the learning environment. || ||

Modified from : Read/Write/Think materials may be reproduced for educational purposes (http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson979/WikiRubric.pdf)