New Senior Project Announcement
UPDATE 03/15/2018: This project is very popular with teachers and students. TechnoKids has updated TechnoAdvertise for the LATEST version of Microsoft Word.
TechnoKids is announcing the launch of an exciting, new technology project designed for senior students. TechnoAdvertise is an advanced curriculum project for high school grades using a project based learning approach. Students role play as they apply for a job at an advertising agency and then design a variety of different advertisements using Microsoft Word.
TechnoKids Vice President Christa Love is pleased to release the new project: “TechnoAdvertise is a terrific resource for high school teachers in a variety of curriculum areas – business, computer, career, marketing, and interdisciplinary studies. Students design a variety of documents, such as a personal resume, cover letter, advertising flyer, product catalog, and newsletter that are relevant, engaging, and fun. Concurrently, they are building advanced word processing skills to meet curriculum expectations.” Christa also explains how the assignments in TechnoAdvertise build life and workplace skills that students will likely use and apply. She states: “In this project, students follow a step-by-step guide to plan, organize, write, and format documents such as a resume and cover letter. These are essential skills for all young people.”
Teach One Task, Two, or All
New to this latest TechnoKids project is the ability to ‘pick and choose’ from the assignments. The teacher can use the project to teach the entire project based unit with all five documents in TechnoAdvertise.
However, should time or relevance to the curriculum area require, the teacher can easily limit the tasks assigned. Parts of the project can be taught independently.
For example, a guidance or career studies instructor may wish to teach only Session 1 where students follow detailed instructions to plan, write, and create a professional looking cover letter and resume in order to apply for a job.
A technology education teacher may select Session 2, in which students learn advanced desktop publishing skills to design a graphic advertising flyer.
Sessions 3 and 4 instruct students in the creation of a product catalog, ideal for a computer studies course. Students choose a topic of interest and then create a sample catalog, learning advanced word processing skills:
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In Session 5 students learn to use mail merge to create a custom form letter and mailing labels. A business studies teacher may choose to select this part of the project.
If the teacher does choose to teach all the sessions, the last assignment incorporates all skills learned in the previous assignments. The creation of a final newsletter in Session 6 allows students to demonstrate and review their newly acquired knowledge of advanced word processing skills.
Advanced Microsoft Word Skills and Technology Integration
The structure of TechnoAdvertise has been carefully crafted to allow students to learn advanced word processing skills in an organized and logical pattern. The tools of each tab of the Microsoft Word ribbon are introduced: Home tab in Session 1, Insert tab in Session 2, Page Layout tab in Session 3, References tab in Session 4, Mailings tab in Session 5, and Review tab in Session 6. The documents that students create in TechnoAdvertise teach virtually all of the commands on the ribbon in Microsoft Word.
Students first complete an ‘explore and investigate’ assignment for each set of tools and then they apply their skills. To make their learning relevant, these skills are learned in the context of real-world assignments: a job resume and cover letter, an advertising flyer, a product catalog, a form letter, and a newsletter. Brain research has shown that learning is more effective and long lasting when students are engaged in challenges that are meaningful to them.
Additional Enrichment Activities, Reviews, and Skill Reviews
Following each of the six sessions are optional resources that teachers can use to evaluate, review, or extend student learning. TechnoAdvertise includes challenges with detailed instructions showing students how to:
- Plan a mock job interview
- Write a job acceptance letter
- Design a poster
- Create and insert a Microsoft Excel bar chart or pie graph
- Make a fax cover sheet
- Try advanced tips and tricks to work with columns and tables
- Learn about citations and bibliographies
Flexible Time Structure
TechnoKids projects are designed to be completed in approximately 2 to 3 weeks, assuming that students have computer access for about 90 minutes per day. Teachers can readily adapt TechnoAdvertise to suit their purposes. In Session 1, students look at resume and cover letter samples and then are guided through a question process to plan their own resume. If students are unfamiliar with job applications and require more discussion or planning time to complete this process, teachers may extend the project timeline. Optional resources included with TechnoAdvertise offer activities such as mock interviews to further explore this critical workplace skill.
Alternatively, if time runs short, assignments may be set aside or eliminated without affecting the project. If students have less experience with Microsoft Word, teachers may choose to exclude the product catalog. The newsletter is a review of all skills, so teachers can omit this product if they feel students already have a good grasp of word processing skills.
Lessons Plans and Resources
Included in TechnoAdvertise are illustrated, detailed, step-by-step lesson plans and all the resources needed:
- Teacher Guide
- Student Workbook
- Assessment Tools – Marking Sheets, Checklists, and Summary of Skills
- Sample Completed Documents
- Review Questions
- Skill Reviews
- Handouts – Parent Letter, Certificate
In TechnoAdvertise, students acquire advanced word processing skills as they use their creative talents to produce unique documents with a professional style. To read more about this technology project visit TechnoAdvertise.
To order TechnoAdvertise, please visit the TechnoKids Store.