The Best Place in the World

Hey guys!

We have spent the last couple of weeks perfecting our open response writing, and I am sure you could use a break between now and when we start our novel unit on The Chocolate War next Monday. I definitely wanted to do something fun with you guys to give you a bit of a release, something that incorporated the fantastic technology we have in our classroom, something that made you think and utilized some of the skills we have acquired throughout our year in the English classroom.

So here it is.

THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD

We recently read the open response prompt "If I Were 17 Again..." by Jesse Stuart in which he discussed the things he appreciated about his home in Greenup County and Kentucky. The prompt reminded me that there are many things in this area that we take for granted, many beautiful and wondrous and amazing things, people, events, and places that make it a great place to live.

Two weeks ago, I got an email from a friend who is/was applying for the "Best Job in the World". You may have heard of the marketing event - a popular tourist island in Australia is offering a dream job as part of their way to entice travelers to the resort. You can see the website here - http://www.islandreefjob.com/ People were asked to submit three-minute videos in which they talked about why they are perfect for the job, which includes tourism work and being right on a beautiful resort island.

I thought about that and the Jesse Stuart narrative, and I thought that it would an excellent prompt for a multimedia project to break up the time before we go back to our next novel unit.

THE ASSIGNMENT

In pairs, you will be responsible for making three-minute videos that advertise Greenup County as a great place to live. You will focus on all that is great about the county; the people, the scenery, the events, the culture, and anything else that you think makes this a desirable place to live. Remember the Stuart narrative and the persuasive techniques you have learned in class - you are marketing Greenup County to the world.

You will be using iMovie and the iMacs for the assignment. You will only have one week of class time to complete the assignment, from writing to editing, and you will need to do some homework for this assignment to be a success.

Your assignment will be worth 200 points, and will be graded using the rubric given out in class on Tuesday, March 10.