Page Index
About Discovery Phase
Essential Concepts & Mash Up Examples
Research Resources
Scoring Rubric
Producer's Index
Artistic Merit
Why Use This Approach?
Cumulative Scoring

About Discovery Phase
During the Discovery Phase students explore career paths while honing their literacy and communication skills. Students create what we call Media Mash Ups, which can be any type of media product from a blog, song or podcast to a video, graphic or experiment. The key is that they must show mastery of the concepts.

By defending their work through a series of peer and instructor led reviews, students learn to identify and demonstrate critical thinking skills centered around their creative passions.Based on their explorations across a broad range of subjects during the Discovery Phase, students select a field of interest.

It Could Be U 6 Essential Concepts & Examples

The following video series is produced by MX Peer Proteges and Mentors. Each episode focuses on a key concept that you need to master before moving beyond your Discovery Phase. They are meant to get your creative juices flowing on each concept. Remember, video is only one option. You can show mastery through everthing from blogging and poetry to podcasting and conducting experiments. You Decide.

1. Scientific Method: Christian and Irving use the Scientific Method to get a date.

2. Consumers vs Producers: Irving keeps consuming the food that Christian is producing.

3. Cultural Capital: Christian uses cultural capital to really rock out on the guitar!

5. Value: Christian questions Irving's sense of value.

6 . Attention Economy Coming Soon!

 

Research Resources
Students are encouraged to use the Internet as a resource to understand these concepts by doing keyword searches on sites such as Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Students may choose to write a blog and cite examples of these concepts shown in videos, other blogs and articles. They could write a poem or song, make a video, podcast or do a Power Point presentation. The idea is that there is more than one way to demonstrate a concept. The power of your solution depends how well you can support your point of view with evidence and good communication skills.
Students are also encouraged to seek out members of the community such as subject matter experts or community leaders. Their products could take the form of video and/or audio interviews and podcasts in which they feature community members demonstrating the Essential Concepts.

Scoring Rubric

Student Products may be scored by the students themselves and instructors on a 5 point scale (5 being the highest) averaged in 2 categories – the Producer Index and Artistic Merit.

Producer Index
The Producer Index is part of a rubric we've developed based on Bloom’s Taxonomy Wheel.

The goal is to get students to work collaboratively as they make relevant media products listed on the bottom half of Bloom’s Taxonomy Wheel and create products that demonstrate critical thinking such as synthesis and evaluation.
Find out more about Bloom's Taxonomy.

As students create products that demonstrate higher level thinking such as reviews, poems or songs, they are transitioning from passive consumers of information to active producers.

Artistic Merit

Artistic Merit is a much more subjective view of a product. If someone chooses to make a podcast but it is poorly executed or doesn’t show mastery of an Essential Concept, then their Producer Index score may be a 5 while their Artistic Merit score might be a 1. Therefore, their actual score would average out to a 3.

Why Use this Approach?

The goal is to get students to think critically about both creating and evaluating media. Facilitating class discussions on evaluating each others work is very helpful for students. Students are able to make tangible connections to core curriculum subject matter. Students post their Products through their blogs in whatever manner they choose. Other site members are able to view and comment on their products as well.

Cumulative Scoring

If students are able to cover all 6 Essential Concepts, then we recommend a cumulative score minimum of 18 points (6 products X 3pt min.) to prequalify your students for participation in the Ownership phase of It Could Be U. Otherwise, we leave their participation to the discretion of their teacher and/or Adviser.