Senior Term Papers for Posterity

No two other words in the English language are able to insight fear and dread into a high school Senior English Class such as the words “Term Paper”. I have alluded toward how the Social Studies teacher, Heather, and I have worked to create this into a project, as opposed to just a paper. We have turned it into a project-based learning assignment that combines both Senior Economics/ Government classes and Senior English.

The idea that I will use this year to help raise the level of concern for students is to create a book of our papers. This is not going to be just a photocopied and stapled version, but rather after the papers have been graded and final copies remade, we will publish an actual book of papers. Again we will be looking at term papers and the writing process differently. The students will have to work through their term papers a final time to create not the final copy, but rather a ‘publish copy’. That I will store in my room for future years.

The students may possibly have an option for earning some extra credit by designing a creative cover, and a copy of that year’s assignment will be the cover page. The process by which we will be able to do this is an online service called LULU. At lulu.com, everybody is able to create their own book. (I am sure that good ‘ol Gutenburg never thought that this would have been possible.) The papers will be sent to a final student editor, saved as a pdf, and then uploaded to lulu. We can create a paperback or hardcover, and decide on the binding. We can also allow others to purchase our book when we are done.

I am also considering a final chapter to the book which will include student opinions about the project and what they learned. (That is where I get to learn and grow as a teacher as well.) This will be a great way to keep the ideas fresh for future years as well. I made a decision as I sat down the first time I assigned term papers that I will never assign a “normal term paper”, but rather create a project-based, interdisciplinary activity for students. These books will serve as reminders to me as well, to never become complacent and strive to always try to be one step ahead. These books may not only be for students’ posterity, but mine as a developing teacher as well.