Project Presentations

Tomorrow you will be presenting your project idea to the class. You will talk for 1 - 2 minutes and answer questions from your peers. Today, you should review the protocol for the presentation, which will give to talking points for your project.

Presentation Protocol:

1. State your name and grade.
2. Briefly explain your project idea.
   What is the main question or issue?
   
3. Summarize your backwards plan. What are some steps you will have to take? What materials or resources will you need?
   
4. Explain why you think your project is important.
   
5. How will your project affect others? How does it connect to the community?
   
6. Discuss what two habits of mind your project will exemplify or require you to use.
   

The class must ask each presenter at least two questions and receive an answer before we move on. The class may also provide any comments or suggestions to each presenter in addition to the questions.

Preliminary Backwards Plan

Creating an independent project for yourself is a big task and often the hardest part is getting started. It's easy to get overwhelmed by the whole idea of a project. In order to help ourselves get started we are going to try and create preliminary backwards plan. What is backwards planning? 

imagine it's early June and you have just shown your amazing project to your portfolio group. In your mind, try and imagine where you are in the school. Try and imagine what you have just shown, read, or presented to your audience. Try and imagine exactly how you presented your project. Close your eyes and visualize exactly what you are presenting to your audience

Now, you should have a picture of what your final project will look like. The question is 'how did you get all the way there from here?' Instead of starting with the first step, let's start with your end goal. Today I would like you to:
•Briefly introduce your project idea (one sentence to readers know what the project is about)
•Start a bulleted list like this that begins with the final step of your project, the final product, whether it's debuting a video or an exhibition of art work, and exactly how you would present it at portfolio.
•Then put your list of steps in any order that you believe you will have to go through to complete your project.
Start at the end and try to work backwards, but if a step pops into your head add it to your list. Post your backwards plan list of steps under "Preliminary Backward Plan". 

What is backwards planning?

The situation: You have to bake your mother a birthday cake for her birthday and you want to make it really special.

The final product: A beautiful birthday cake for your mother's birthday.

The steps: What is one step you would have to take to accomplish this task?

Think about any 3 steps that you would have to do at any point in the process to make accomplish the task. Leave a comment on this post with the 3 steps you know would have to get done from big steps to little ones.

What did customize on your layout?

What changes did you make to your blog layout? Leave a comment on this post and let me know one or two changes you made to your blog layout.

Revising Your Project Idea

How can I revise my project idea according to the rubric?

Based on your project reflection worksheets, go back into your project idea and make sure you are addressing all of the worksheet questions in your project statement. Also, look over the project rubric again and try and address the standards in your project statement. Does your project reflect perspective, analysis, connections, imagination, and commitment?  

When you have finished updating your project idea, please read over your feedback partner's project idea by visiting their blog and posting a comment. Please try and help your partner clarify their idea with ideas, questions, or suggestions.

If you have not signed up for an academic gmail address yet, do so now at gmail.com and then visit blogger.com and sign up for a digital portfolio blog.  

First Blog Posts

Today we are going to add our first blog posts. Your first post will be your personal introduction. The introduction is saved in your sent mail in Gmail or I can email it back to you at your new Gmail address. Before you post your introduction, forward the email to your new feedback partner, who will review the introduction for grammar and spelling errors and then send it back to you with any corrections or changes.

• Copy the introduction and paste it into the body of your first blog post.
• Title the post "Introduction" and click Publish Post beneath the editing window.
  

After you post your introduction, your second blog post will be your initial project idea. Please make sure you type your project idea in the form of a statement and not just a list. For example,

In digital portfolio I would like to create a short video about crime in the community. I am very interested in pursuing a career in criminal justice or forensic science like on CSI. I would like to interview a police officer, a college admissions counselor, a student at John Jay on video. I will conduct research about crime in Brooklyn and present the facts and the opinions of people I interview in the video. The project connects to science and government, as well as my own career interest in being a police detective or crime scene investigator. I also hope to learn more about shooting video and editing it on the computer.

• Type up your project ideas from yesterday and post them under the title "Initial Project Idea".
• When you have finished your post, send the link to your feedback partner's email address.
• Visit your feedback partner's blog and leave a comment with your thoughts and ideas about their initial project ideas. Do the projects seem realistic? Do you think it's appropriate for a portfolio? Does it seem important?

Project Reflection

One of the final steps to completing Digital Portfolio is to write a reflection essay to accompany your independent project. In the essay you should reflect not only on the growth of your project but your own growth as a self-regulated learner. The reflection essay is also an opportunity for those of you who have struggled with the independent project to explain the difficulties and obstacles you have faced.

The reflection essay should cover the project rubric items that we looked at near the end of last marking period. Additionally, you want to make sure you reflect on your growth as an independent learner; setting goals, conducting research, gathering evidence, experimenting, creating, planning, and reflecting on your task. The reflection essay should cover the following points:

• Introduce and explain your project idea. What problem does the project address? What task, phenomena, stimulus, question, or discrepancy does your project attempt to solve? You should refer to and include any relavant planning information from your blog.
  
• Analyze your efforts to solve the problem, answer the question, or complete the task through your project. Describe what research, experimentation, and/or action you have taken to complete the project. What new knowledge did you acquire through the project? What if any new knowledge did you create through the project? What have been your strengths and weaknesses working on the project?
• Explain your personal and academic connections to the project. What attracted you to the problem, question, or idea for the project? Explain why the project is important to you and also why it is important to the community and/or the world? How could the project help others?
• Explain how your project synthesized your idea, planning, research, and actions into a new creative form. What ways did you create, image, or innovate to produce your project? Remember, synthesis is the form of thinking where you create your own solution to a problem. How did your imagination help you think flexibly or take a risk?
  
• Evaluate your overall commitment to the project. Predict whether your final project will meet all your goals and offer a solution to the problem you have addressed. This is an opportunity to appraise your performance honestly and address how your project could be improved, revised, or finished.
  

The length and depth of your reflection essay is dependent on how well developed your final project will be. If you feel that your project will be incomplete, the reflection essay should be longer and describe in-depth what your portfolio group will not be able to see on your blog and in the final project. At minimum, your reflection essay should be five paragraphs in lenghth covering the above points. If your project is incomplete, your essay should be substantially longer as you have to explain your entire project in depth. Please post all reflection essays on your blog along with your projects and/or project documentation.