Project Interviews

Your homework from last week was to produce some evidence of your learning. As your teacher, I am looking to see some tangible proof of your progress. This is a form of assessment, but it will take some time to give you feedback about the evidence you produce. In a self-regulated learning environment, students are also responsible for finding new and open ways of getting feedback on their learning. Take the first five minutes of class to post a quick comment reflecting on your goals from last week if you have not done so.

One way of gaining valuable feedback about your stated goals and the outcomes so far is to conduct an interview with a peer. Today you will chose an interview partner whose project isn't immediately familiar to you. You cannot chose your closest friend. The point of the interview is twofold; (1) you will devise some questions for the student to help them reflect on and evaluate their learning and (2) give you the opportunity to be a 'critical friend'. A critical friend is an active listener who offers feedback and provides their insight to the speaker.

The interviews will be conducted in three stages this week. Today you will chose an interview partner and conduct some basic research about your interview partner. You need to read their blog page, analyze any evidence they have produced so far (surveys, video, photographs, planning, lists, drawings, sketches), and/or discuss with their idea with them briefly if there is little or no visible evidence. When you have finished your preliminary research, open a new Google document and write a brief (1 paragraph) summary of what you believe their project is about. Save the document as Interview with insert student's name.

This step should not take the whole class period, and you should continue work on your own project. As usual, you also have to post three new project goals for the weeks of April 15th - April 29th on your blog. These project goals include the time off you have for spring break, so you should plan accordingly. Is there a big step you want to complete during your time off? You should definitely take the opportunity to get a part of your project done.