Students are asked to write daily blogs on WordPress. These blogs provide them with an opportunity to more thoroughly reflect on the themes and readings introduced in each lesson. Furthermore, they are encouraged to comment on each other's entries, thus ensuring ongoing dialogue across the unit. The skills required to blog and successfully complete this portion of the assessment will be introduced in lesson 2.
Content: Students must critically engage with themes introduced in the lesson and draw upon examples to demonstrate that they have read assigned readings and actively engaged in class discussions.
Images: Students must include one picture in each entry.
External Links: Students must include at least 2 external links in each entry.
Video: Students must embed or link to one video in each entry.
Commenting: students must show that they have regularly commented on each other's entries.
In the final class, students will be required to give a PowerPoint presentation. They are asked to choose a disability group of their choice and more critically look at how that particular disability has been portrayed in the media. They must have at least 5 sources, and will be graded on the following aspects of their presentation:
Students are asked to survey different forms of media for 48 hours (newspapers, TV, magazines, advertisements). They are asked to write, in their blogs, where disability was portrayed and in what contexts. If they did not see disability portrayed, this should be noted, too. Their response should be no more than 300 words long.
In Lesson 5, students are asked to write an editorial letter in response to either the example fundraising campaign presented, or the controversey over the Jerry Lewis telethons. Students will be graded on the extent to which they have engaged with the course materials (from this and previous lessons), on the clarity and understandability of their writing, and on their appropriate use of style (as an editorial letter).