Part 6: Wrapping

As I draw near the end of my note taking, reading, gathering, skimming, and analyzing, I've considered different waves to develop and present my final product. I thought about "wrapping" it as a typical research paper with citations. This is what I've done and know how to do the best since being taught in middle school through graduate school. However, I decided to try something totally new for me -- creating a PowerPoint presentation of my findings. Since more high school students are expected to do this as part of their final project, and visually it stimulates thinking and inquiry appreciation more fully, so "a Power Pointing I shall go!"

I focused on Dr. Lamb's ideas and pointers from her "Wrapping" link.

Planning tools: For my PowerPoint presentation, I will be using some of my notes, quotes, photos I discovered during my research. By juxtaposing text and quotes with photos and images, I think students or anyone viewing this resource will quickly and effeciently identify the key concepts I'm depicting.

Prompts and Starters: Again, for the PowerPoint, I want to select and consider colors, background designs, clip art, photos, and other information to include. A successful PowerPoint can't have too much text on a slide, while too little will leave the viewer lost and without any guides to help them learn about my topic. I think I'll use a grayish background which should make the text and photos easily visible for viewers. As for quotes, I only want to use short, meaningful ones along side key points to adequately get my ideas across. I'm considering adding statistics in a colorful style -- I found an article that has researched the number of times, certain images and drawings, and handwritting styles used in Jack the Ripper's letters and correspondence to the police. I don't want this chart or graph to become too heavy with data, just need enough to balance and support my findings while providing the viewer with an interesting angle to this topic.

Guidelines: Dr. Lamb suggests providing questions, ideas, or additional information to help guide the viewer to additional research. I'm thinking about creating an annotated bibliography featuring books (nonfiction and fiction, both adult and YA); websites; and DVD's and VHS tapes to view. I know I enjoy finding such additional "guide posts" helpful for obtaining more information on something I found particularly interesting in a presentation, or perhaps to explore a concept further or in a different view.

Also, Jamie McKenzie's "Scoring Power Points" article gave me some other things to consider before creating my visual project. Questions like "how well do the elements (ideas, images...) fit together?"; "Do big ideas appear in larger font than details? Is the size of the graphic appropriate in relationship to the words?"; and "Do the pages seem hastily constructed with a slap-dash, cut-and-paste approach? Or can we see a devotion to thoughtful, intentional design?" These are all important things I want to keep in mind when I begin to "wave" and work on my PowerPoint. Some great pointers that I wouldn't have thought of as I've never done a PowerPoint before -- and since I'm working on becoming a school librarian, I will need to know how to make these for classes, as well as guiding students how to create them for their research assignments. Thanks, Jamie!

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Works Cited

Lamb, Annette. "Wrapping." http://virtualinquiry.com/inquiry/wrapping.htm

McKenzie, Jamie. "Scoring Power Points." The Educational Technology Journal 10 (2000). http://fno.org/sept00/powerpoints.html