- Go to www.voki.com.
- Log in using the boxes in the top right corner. Use my email address: [email protected]. I will provide the password in class.
- Click the Create tab at the top left. It will automatically start you with a character and background, but you can change just about everything you see.
- Click the head button under Customize Your Character. Some characters (with graduation caps) are not available for us. I recommend looking in these categories: World, Classic, Toons, or Anime.
- You can edit the character's hair, clothing, size, and more. When you have finished, click Done. You can always go back.
- Click Backgrounds to edit the background picture.
- To make your character speak, click the T keyboard picture under Give It A Voice. Begin typing your text. You can choose from lots of different voices, but it's best to pick this after you have your paragraph typed so you can hear what the whole thing will sound like.
- To save your Voki, you must have something typed in the text section - to start, this can be as simple as typing "Hi" just so you can save. Click Done to exit out of the text section.
- For your Voki to save, you must click Publish. You can always go back to edit it later, even once it has been published.
- Save your Voki using your first name, a dash, and the author's last name. For example, I would save mine as Elaine - Kinney.
The part you've been waiting for is here! It's time to create our Voki characters to tell our author biographies. Here are a few steps and tips to get you started:
Several classes will be taking a pre-assessment to tell Ms. Mernick what you know about different areas of information literacy (as defined in class). This will help her plan projects and lessons that will best fit your class. Click the link below for your class' assessment. See Ms. Mernick for your individual student code to begin.
Here are some great resources to help you with research for the History Fair: Chicago Metro History Fair The Chicago Metro History Education Center has a detailed website dedicated to all aspects of its annual History Fair. Stop here for everything from logistical details to research help, and to view resources on many Chicago history topics. Encyclopedia of Chicago A free, online version of a print reference book from the Chicago History Museum, the Newberry Library and Northwestern University. With articles on thousands of topics related to Chicago history, it is a great early stop for general information. Library of Congress: American Memory Project The Library of Congress provides free, digital access to more than 9 million resources documenting American history and culture, broken down into thematic collections. You can search the site for specific topics, or look within a section dedicated to 55,000 photographs from the Chicago Daily News from 1902-1933, provided by the Chicago History Museum. National Archives Digital Vaults A collection of more than 1,200 primary source photographs and documents from the National Archives collection. There probably isn't something here for every topic, but it's a site to try for inspiration or to get a feel for history. Chicago Public Library: Learn Chicago The Chicago Public Library has a pathfinder (a web page that points to other resources) with extensive information on Chicago history, including databases, websites, library materials, and several topical sub-sites. It also has a narrower pathfinder dedicated solely to the History Fair. Chicago History Museum: Chicago History Fair The Chicago History Museum offers online resources to help with History Fair projects, including general reference materials and specialized sites on popular topics like the Haymarket bombing or the Great Chicago Fire. ABC-CLIO American History A database with reference content that explores people, events and stories from throughout American history. Gale Student Resource Center Junior Offers a broad range of authoritative reference content in an easily searchable format. Provides access to full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files, and links to quality websites on numerous topics. Gale InfoTrac Junior Students can search specific topics for articles from hundreds of magazines, newspapers, and reference sources. In addition to the above, anyone with a Chicago Public Library card can access even more databases. The following options could be helpful depending on your topic: American National Biography Online Biographies of thousands of deceased Americans, published by Oxford University press. Could be a good starting point for research on famous Chicago figures. Biography in Context A collection of more than 600,000 biographies of people across history and disciplines, this Gale resource will provide articles on many notable Chicagoans. Chicago Defender Historical Archive Searchable first-hand accounts from 1910-1975 of political and social events on a local, regional and national level. Provided by ProQuest’s Historical Newspapers – Black primary source database. HeritageQuest Online Genealogical and historical search site from ProQuest that offers access to local primary sources dating back to the 1700s. Illinois Sanborn Maps Another ProQuest resource, this site allows students to search historical Chicago maps from the 19th and 20th centuries. ProQuest One Search General reference database with access to thousands of titles across popular subjects, including history. Creating Your Bibliography
A bibliography (also called a works cited page) is an important part of any research project. It lets others find the exact sources you used. They might want to do this to explore your topic more, to make sure what you said was correct, or to double check for plagiarism. MLA format is a good place to start, and it is one of two accepted formats for the History Fair. There are several websites that can help you format your sources correctly, including: BibMe also has a nice citation guide that helps you format books, newspapers, websites, photographs, and more. Before we can create our animated characters in Voki, we need to know what they will say! The next step in our research is to write a paragraph about our author that we can use in our animations. As you finish up your author research, remember that you have to include all of the following in your paragraph:
Not all of these are on your graphic organizer, so you should be taking your own notes as well on the back of your rubric. A copy of the author biography notes sheet and the rubric for your paragraph can be found below. Here are some links to your specific types of spiders:
From Everything About: From Animal Planet: From Penn State Entomology Department: Other sites: Here are some other websites to try for basic information on spiders:
Also look for eBooks on spiders. Click on the title, then scroll down for a link to read the eBook online. The username and password are on the blue sign at the front of the library computer lab. |
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September 2016
AuthorHello, I'm Ms. Mernick, the library media teacher at Clinton. This blog will give students easy access to resources and links to use for assignments and research. Questions or suggestions? Contact me at any time at [email protected]. Categories
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