The Write Help
Welcome Writers and Graduate Students
Welcome Writers and Graduate Students
Karen H. Dolnick, PhD
Editor - Professor - Tutor
email address: bubbaleh1@comcast.net
(215) 593 - 6979
Welcome to my blog. My name is Karen Dolnick and I have long been in the field of education. A native Philadelphian, I taught English and Social Studies in the Philadelphia Public Schools for many years. I graduated from Temple University, got my master's degree in Curriculum Writing for Technology from the University of Phoenix Online, and both my certification for Teaching and Training Online and my PhD from Capella University.
I don't know which I love more, teaching, tutoring, or editing so I do them all. I love reading theses, dissertations, and novels because it gives me an opportunity not only to help others reach their goals but to learn so much from reading the material. Knowing how wonderful it is to do what you love, it is my privilege to help others reach their goals, too.
My tutoring program is specifically designed for each individual, targeting the specific needs of each learner. If you are in need of some support with test taking skills, writing enhancement, SAT's or any of the language arts, I am here for you. I specialize in working with dyslexics of all ages.
I would love to hear from you to find out what your needs are and what your time table is. Please feel free to leave a message on this blog, my email or the above phone number.
Warmly,
Karen
Hi Karen,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea to advertise your talents with a blog!
Peter (From class)
Use of 21st Century Literacy Skills in My Work.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was writing online subject matter for KCDL, a company that produced curriculum in all middle and high school subjects, which has now been bought out by K-12, it was necessary to make the course-ware as interactive as possible and to make sure that there was variety in all aspects of the lessons.
One item that was in every course and grade level were interactive discussion Board questions, some much like the one in this class. I believe Discussion Board forums are part of every online course. It was necessary for at least one of our DB assignments to be an interactive one that either included a complex project or a research assignment in which students compared current events with something that was relevant in another time period.
Most of the interactive activities that were inserted were given as directions to the technology staff that created the material that I wanted in my lesson. There were click to learn activities, crossword puzzles, graphics
Here are some examples of what I designed:
<1.1 At top of page, insert image of a newspaper. (Title is: Your History, Then and Now) use newsprint. In bold headline print; “Gutenberg invents printing press, 1455.”
Insert a picture of Gutenberg and his printing press.
At top of page, insert image of a newspaper. (Title is: Your History, Then and Now) use newsprint. In bold headline print; Danger, Danger: The Spanish are Coming!! Insert image of Spanish Armada.
<1.6 This is a graphic that will exist throughout all of the lessons with some slight variations.
There are a series of doors with doorknobs that open with a mouse click. Doors are labeled Door #1, Door #1, and Door #3. Sometimes there will be more or less doors. When doorknobs are clicked on, the door opens to reveal information given in each lesson.
There is a teen-age boy and a teen-age girl and a teenage boy near the doors dressed in the clothes of the period or perhaps the clothes of teenagers today.. If possible they move to open the doors when the mouse is clicked on a doorknob. Door #1 has a sign on it that reads, “Welcome!!! Open me first.” Door # 2 says, “Did you know that…?” Door #3 says, “There is more….”
In lesson one: Words behind door number one: Imagine yourself getting off a ship after a long, cold, damp journey and seeing nothing but trees and land. There are no buildings or other people in sight. If you and the people with you are going to survive, you have to cut down trees to clear the land, cut the trees into shapes and pieces that will create buildings and furniture. You will have to till the land, plant seeds, and hunt and fish for food. All of this will take at least a year if you are lucky. Do you wonder if this is an adventure or a bad dream?”
Words behind door number two. “Millions of people like you and me walk on this planet everyday and never do anything so special that it gets our names in history books. All the people in this history books, even though they are long dead, were special enough that you reading about them today.
Words behind door number three. Would you have chosen to come to the New World if you knew how hard it would be, but if you knew that you would be one of the ones who survived and did something really important? What important thing would you have wanted to do that made a difference in the world?
The difference between then and now that I am taking this course is that I could probably do the graphics myself and I expect to be working with sounds as well very soon.
Karen
21st Century Literacy Skills in my Work
ReplyDeleteMany of the original courses from when the company began were not of sufficient depth to meet current standards. Additional, there were states that changed and/or added to the thoroughness of their standards. At that point, I changed hats and became an editor.
Initially, I wrote Social Studies curriculum, but when I began editing, I worked on the high school English courses. It was necessary to go through to edit and add on to the existent courses to bring them up to date. In doing so, it was also essential to add a great deal of interactivity to the courses. Videos and movies of required reading were added to support resource and ESOL students. More challenging interactive games like “jeopardy” were added for the advanced students. YouTube videos of presidential debates were added to courses that required students to compare different time periods. There were pictures of authors that could be clicked on to “hear” them read their own works.
21st Century Literacy Skills Become More Complex.
ReplyDeleteIt was realized after a time that additional elements needed to be added to existing courses to make them equivalent to those taught in the brick and mortar classrooms. Those skills included visits to virtual libraries, the taking of virtual trips to visit places such as Poe’s birthplace and Salem, Massachusetts. E-Portfolios and rubrics were added to every course and end of course projects included a great deal of researched information from reliable, credible and current sources. New assessments were added to measure the newly added skills.
Here are the links to other blogs that I thought were interesting and on which I posted comments.
ReplyDeletehttp://bigthink.com/blogs/dangerously-irrelevant
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2968&cpage=1#comment-501706
On this link, I responded to Kelly Campbell.
I also posted links to Peter's blog at:
ReplyDeletehttp://stedmunds.edublogs.org/2011/04/22/final-project/comment-page-1/#comment-3
and to Seth at:
http://shen1971.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/21st-century-skills-blog-1/
I have recently posted comments to Peter at: http://stedmunds.edublogs.org/2011/04/22/final-project/comment-page-1/#comment-3
ReplyDeleteand Seth at : http://shen1971.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/21st-century-skills-blog-1/
I have also posted comments on these two blogs;
http://bigthink.com/blogs/dangerously-irrelevant
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/?p=2968&cpage=1#comment-501706
This module has been the most fun for me so far. With one of my degrees in Curriculum Writing for Technology, I absolutely love writing involved lesson plans and rubrics to go with them.
ReplyDeleteI have been accused of loving something that others consider boring, but I am a very detail oriented person and it is one of the things I like to do. I like creating material that I think will be interesting for a specific age group.
Lesson plans give teachers a guide that keeps them on track to meet state and national standards and rubrics make it easier and fairer when grading assignments.
Another thing I really like about rubrics is that if it is given to students before they begin their work, they know exactly how they will be graded and what is most important for them to accomplish.
Karen