Designing the Notebook Cover - Making it their Own!

This is one of my kids favorite assignments, they love getting to design their own cover. We start in class by using magazines to find text and photographs they can cut out to put on their collage. I overly stress not to glue anything down until they think they have all of the text and pictures they want to use. We don't spend more than three partial class periods on this. They do take it home and work on it to finish it. In those three days we work on it in class, I try to model the process by making my own collage.  

Science Notebook Cover Assignment                          Due date: Friday, September 2, 2011

Parent signature: ______________________________________                                                                                              

Requirements:

·         Use of color

·         Use of pictures (photographs and drawings)

·         Collage style (covered with words/drawings/pictures)

·         Must relate to fifth grade science content (water, weather, landforms, force/motion,

      and ecosystems)

·         Title (Science Notebook) and name must be clearly visible

·         Be creative-make some lettering or pictures yourself

·         Use all of the space on notebook, no white space is acceptable.

Optional:

·         Photos of self that relate to science content

·         Words cut out of magazines, other print sources, computer type, or written by hand

Grading Rubric - Please turn in this sheet with your finished cover.

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Science Content	The student gives a reasonable explanation of how every item in the collage is related to our science content. For most items, the relationship is clear without explanation.	The student gives a reasonable explanation of how most items in the collage are related to our science content. For many of the items, the relationship is clear without explanation.	The student gives a fairly reasonable explanation of how most items in the collage are related to our science content.	The student's explanations are weak and illustrate difficulty understanding how to relate items to our science content.
Design	Graphics are trimmed to an appropriate size and interesting shape and are arranged well, some in front and some behind. Care has been taken to balance the pictures across the cover. No white space.	Graphics are trimmed to an appropriate size and interesting shape and are arranged with some items in front and others behind. The cover, however does not appear balanced. Very little white space.	Graphics have been trimmed to an appropriate size and shape, but the arrangement of items is not very attractive. It appears there was not a lot of planning of the item placement. White space visible.	Graphics are untrimmed OR of inappropriate size and/or shape. It appears little attention was given to designing the collage. A lot of white space can be seen.
Creativity	Several of the graphics or objects used in the collage reflect an exceptional degree of student creativity in their creation and/or display	One or two of the graphics or objects used in the collage reflect student creativity in their creation and/or display.	One or two graphics or objects were made or customized by the student, but the ideas were typical rather than creative (e.g, apply the emboss filter to a drawing in Photoshop).	The student did not make or customize any of the items on the collage.
Titles and Text	Titles and text were written clearly and were easy to read from a distance. Text varied in color, size and/or style for different text elements.	Titles and text were written clearly and were easy to read close-up. Text varied in color, size and/or style for different text elements.	Titles and text were written clearly and were easy to read close-up. There was little variation in the appearance of text.	Titles and/or text are hard to read, even when the reader is close.
Time and Effort	Class time was used wisely. Much time and effort went into the planning and design of the collage. It is clear the student worked at home as well as at school.	Class time was used wisely. Student could have put in more time and effort at home.	Class time was not always used wisely, but student did do some additional work at home.	Class time was not used wisely and the student put in no additional effort.