Semester Projects--do differently next year

I am just now finishing grading the semester projects--not real bright of me to have them come in the last week before break and get finals on top of that. I wanted to remember a few things for next year so, here it goes:

• Have the projects come in the week before finals--not only for my sanity but many of the kids talked about not being able to study for finals because they were finishing the project. While they could have planned better, I know that they won't, so I'll just be the bad guy.

Problems with the concept

• sticking only to the books--make sure they recognize that they need to add to them and show how it shows their understaning of the world
• not creating something new--sticking images to make a powerpoint--would they put those words on a piece of paper and call it meaningful?
• no introduction or conclusion
• no transition pieces
• no directions
• form matching content--what is good for showing what. . .
• illustrations of scenes as opposed to represenational art
• poems about the books instead of the big ideas from the books--idea: take a line from the book and use it as the title of a poem; idea: concept
• citations--and not just at the end if it is artwork that is not yours--needs to be clear where each thing came from
• CD or flash drive should only be for multimedia--should be easy to follow and not have a semester's worth of work.
• raw material (interviews, film, spoken word) should be edited and polished