Backpacks & NTI
How can I help my students find and understand Backpack Evidence during NTI?
This slide show from Jenny Falcone at Field Elementary, helps kids think about the evidence in their Backpacks and what it means. It also has instructions on uploading artifacts.
Deeper Learning and the JCPS Digital Learning Channel present Middle and High School ideas for Backpack Success Skills at Home.
Deeper Learning and the JCPS Digital Learning Channel present Elementary School ideas for Backpack Success Skills at Home.
What if I am having technical problems with the Digital Backpack?
This FAQ provided by Computer Education Services addresses common concerns.
Check out the Digital Backpack Training Channel for live streams and videos about the technical side of the Digital Backpacks.
Looking to get Google Certified? This guide can help.
This slide deck, created by our own Computer Education Services, explains a lot of information for beginners.
This slide deck, by CES, takes you through the first steps of students logging in and creating their backpack folders .
How can we design learning experiences so students create authentic evidence for their Digital Backpacks?
How can teachers discuss and reflect on Backpack-worthy artifacts?
This document outlines the benefits to using the JCPS Backpack of Success Skills as a guiding aspiration district-wide, so our students can show they are prepared for career, college, & life.
This Quality Work Protocol is for looking at and reflecting on student work. It can be used in PLCs, in teacher teams, and to examine student work for the qualities that make work meaningful and of "backpack quality".
This checklist describes Backpack-worthy work. It can be used in PLCs, teams, or faculty meetings to help form a common understanding of what artifacts of learning are suitable for demonstrating the success skills.
How can we help students critique and revise so that their work is high-quality?
This collection of resources includes a description of an elementary classroom critique, a Student Critique Protocol from High Tech High, and a link to the video "Austin's Butterfly".
How will students use the evidence in their Backpacks in portfolio defenses?
This is the official JCPS defense planning guidelines. It describes elements that portfolio defenses must have and areas that schools can customize to meet their students' needs.
This is a sample of the guidelines your school may come up with for the elementary defense. You can use this as it is or use it as a starting point for your own designs.
This is a collection of rubrics that can be adapted to help panelists evaluate backpack defenses. You can copy and adapt these to your own school's needs.
Resources for Planning Defenses
This is a teacher-created collection of student friendly language around the success skills. This example comes from Hazelwood Elementary.
Reading about Portfolio Defenses
What kinds of evidence and artifacts might students put in their backpacks? What evidence could students use to prove their learning in authentic ways?
At Expeditionary Learning, Ron Berger and his team have assembled a deep bank of searchable resources focused on clarifying the questions of: What is high quality student work? and How do we support students in its creation?
