Interview Questions

Today, based on your research, you will begin the second step of your project interview with your partner. The purpose of the interview, really, is to help your partner become aware of their thinking about the project. How does someone become aware of their own thinking? It takes self awareness and conscious reflection on one's actions, beliefs, knowledge, and ideas. We do this all the time when we make decisions that affect ourselves and others. We also tend to think more about what we say when we talk publicly or in front of others. Your interviews will be published on your blogs and selected ones will be published on the class blog.

We will conduct the interviews by sharing our questions through Google documents between the interviewer and the interviewee. Today, you will develop specific questions for your interviewee based on the following protocol for two rounds of questions. Your questions should cover the following areas:

Round 1

• Clarify the project goals and purposes. Why are they doing the project? What is important about it? How do they expect it to turn out in the end?
  
• Planning. What actions have they taken so far? What actions do they still need to take? What will be the evidence they produce? How will they collect data? What obstacles or roadblocks do they expect to encounter?
• Taking Action and experimenting. What are the different ways they have been working?
  
• Assessing and Gathering evidence. What evidence have they produced so far? What have they made? What date have they collected?
  
  
  Round 2
  
• Studying, reflecting, and evaluating. Have they met their goals? What have they learned so far doing the project? Have they learned new information? Have they learned something about themselves?
  
• Modification. Have they had to make any changes to their project or plan? Has their thinking about the subject changed? Would they do anything differently now?
• Revisiting goals and purposes. Does the project still make sense?
  

Write out four (4) questions based on the first four (4) areas of feedback and share the document with your partner. They will write their answers and save the document. Then based on their answers write out three (3) more questions for the last three areas of feedback and save the document. Your partner will answer the rest of the questions. You should be able to finish the interview today. You should try to address your partners project by modifying the questions that you feel are important for them.

For example: Adam, why are drawing cartoon characters? What do you want to show people? Well, you see, the thing is, I got mad skills as an artist and, you see, I'm trying to demonstrate my creativity. I really didn't know what else to do, but I'm trying to accomplish something I'm good at, yo.

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.

Google Documents

Working on a project in two places can a be a difficult task sometimes. One way to keep things organized between your laptop computer and your home computer is to use Google Documents. In Google documents you can do word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. Google Docs will let you save the files so that they are compatible with programs like Microsoft Office, which includes Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.

Today, before you get back to developing your goals, I'd like you to watch a brief demo on Google Docs and then sign in and create a new document. Simply type "This is a Google Document" in the body of the text and save the file.

Please make sure you have posted your reflection on last week's goals and your new weekly goals for April 8 - 15.

Goals and Reflections

Last week I asked you to set three weekly goals that you could meet by this Tuesday. On Thursday afternoon, I asked you to briefly reflect on your progress towards meeting those goals. Setting and meeting your own goals in an important habit of self-regulated learning. Let's see how you did in terms of setting your goals, which I've posted here. After we've discussed the goals you set, everyone must report on whether or not they met their weekly goals as honestly as possible. You must post your goals and your evaluation on your blog today. Additionally you must outline three new weekly goals that you will make an effort to meet by next Tuesday under a new post titled Weekly Goals "April 8 - 15"

Rosalyn
1. Finding more informtation on the 3 different spanish music (salsa,
merengue, bachata)
2. Finding which songs I'm going to put in my blank Cd.
3. Thinking how I'm going to write the information down like doing a
essay or what
Tanonya
GOAL 1
That I will have a survey for kids to who want to answer the questions
thatI will have.
GOAL 2
That I will try to get around n see if i can get people tobe in my
video. I will get there names and get there answers for questions I
will have for them so that we can already have it before we do the
video.
GOAL 3
That I will gather pictures and music to put in my video.So that it
could connect back to the reason of the project.
Chelsei
1. Draft a list of sites I want to photograph
2. Get the camera and finish my Photography
3. Begin to play around with imovie and note features I would be
interested in using
Shayna
My three goals for this class would be to enhance my idea for my
painting, complete my painting, and be able to have others understand
my painting.
Stephanie
1) By next tuesday i would like to have the majority of my poems
gathered together.
2) I would like to add more poems to the collection
3) And come up with a plan and steps of how im going to put
everything together!!
Azalia
1. TO FINISH HISTORY OF ALL DANCES
2. TO FIND DANCERS TO INTERVEIW
3. BEGIN ORGANIZATION OF VIDEO
Kanesha
1. Decide who to interview and what I am going to ask.
2. Set up a time to use the camera to take pictures.
3. Gather some music to play in the background for the project.
4. Conduct an interview with at least two people.
Malaynthia
1. I need to bring you back your camera.
2. I need to take the picture of my building.
3. I need to start my project already.
Saquaya
1. Officially get a 'crew' and 'models' for my shoots
2. To pick 3-5 locations that I will like to shoot for the final project.
3. Obtain a tripod
Angelica
My first goal is to come up with a actual sketch of the painting. i do believe this is the hardest part because i am not the best artist. My second goal is to figure the cost of the canvas board and how many that i will need. My third is figuring a goal sheet of times that i want to have the work done by this is so i don't become overwhelmed by the project. These are my goals that i hope to complete by Tuesday and i hope to get them done.
Brian
My goals for next week are to get a get a good amount of surveys back
to start applying statistical data on powerpoint.
Adam
1.my first goal is to complete my project and passthe class.
2.my second goalis to get enoouggh information to dothis project imgonna need images and vidos lyrics and things like that to complete my project.
3. my last goal is to learn the powerpoint better and make my project great
Nekeema
##- 1. To edit my videos into a documentary
%%- 2. Finish my proposal
##- 3. Get my whole project reviewed by two people to get feedback.

Weekly Reflection

Based on your goals, take a few minutes at the end of the period today to reflect on both your actual and expected progress on your three goals for next Tuesday that you set for yourself. Please touch upon the following points:

• What have you actually produced? (new ideas, questions, surveys, sketches, research...)
• What will you produce over the next four days?
  
• Were you able to work productively in class? What roadblocks did you encounter and how can you overcome them?
• How are you doing overall on your project?

Please post your response on your blog as "Weekly Project Reflection"

Self-Regulation and Continuous Learning

Working independently or within a group is something that requires a lot of each you. In order to be successful in college you must be able to set and meet goals to become a self-directed learner. What does that mean? If a professor says, "write an 800 word paper on Government due in one month?" How would you do it? What are some steps you might take to meet the professor's demand? (Leave a comment on the blog right now with a few steps you might take as a self-directed learner)

Self-Regulation is an important part of assessing your own progress on any given task. To self-regulate your own work, you have to set some basic goals, know when they have been met, and if they meet necessary standards. Part of of this process of self-regulation first requires you to think about your own style of learning. Answer the following questions on your blog in a new post:

1. What is the best environment (home, school, work, etc.) for your learning?
2. Where do you choose to study?
3. Where do you choose to work creatively?
4. How do you work with others?
5. What is your favorite way of learning (listening, looking, doing, etc)?
6. What do you think are your talents or strengths (arts, writing, speaking, problem solving)?
7. Where do your personal interests lie?
8. Do you check for accuracy and precision?
9. Are you persistent in developing your work?

Self-regulation begins with your own internal reflection on how you learn and work best. Once you start to realize your strengths you can start to work towards those on your own. If you have finished your self-evaluation, take a moment to set three individual goals about for developing your project next week. Also set one group goal. Discuss this briefly with your group. Email me your goals, and I will give you feedback about your goals.

Project Work Groups

As we start to transition into our individual project work we also need to work more effectively. Today we need to re-organize our class into groups that are doing the most similar work, not simply who we like to sit with. As your begin your projects, I will be working with groups on specific lessons and ideas that relate to those projects. Today, we will decide upon the group categories, break into small groups and then you will work together to come up with a list of questions/needs.

The groups will conduct their work in the following manner. Everyone will individually write down two or three things they need to know about their project. Then, everyone will share their questions one at a time with the group. If anyone knows the answer for the question or how to help, please share with your group. When you have all gone around, chose the most important questions you want lessons on or help with in your group. Write them down on a big sheet of paper and hang up the questions near your table. One person will present the questions to the class.