Project Abstract
Project and Product Overview
This project will guide you in the creation of a living college portfolio. It will be a display of your hard work through the college preparatory process. After we are “done” with this unit in class, this portfolio should continue to “live”. It should serve as a place for you to organize essential paperwork, everything from ACT/SAT scores to copies of your personal statement. I will show you an example of my teaching portfolio in class in an attempt to display how essential it is to compile a professional portfolio. Whether you plan to attend college right after high school or in the future, this skill will be one you can utilize later in life.
What did you teach and how did you teach it?
The Hybrid College Portfolio Project (Digital/hard copies): The Journey Begins
Learning goals:
After we have completed this unit students should be able to answer at least these 2 essential questions:
1. How is education a journey?
2. How does voice impact perception?
th These questions were answered through thematically connected piece novel(s), poetry, non-fiction and visual literacy.
The Journey Project
ELA 12th Grade Content Standards addressed through this project
Literary Response and Analysis
3.3 Analyze the ways in which irony, tone, mood, the author's style, and the "sound" of language achieve specific rhetorical or aesthetic purposes or both.
3.4 Analyze ways in which poets use imagery, personification, figures of speech, and sounds to evoke readers' emotions.
Differentiation:
Honors- An additional thematically connected novel was assigned, written about, tested on and included in the student led socratic seminar.
Writing
1.5 Use language in natural, fresh, and vivid ways to establish a specific tone.
Evaluation and Revision
1.9 Revise text to highlight the individual voice, improve sentence variety and style, and enhance subtlety of meaning and tone in ways that are consistent with the purpose, audience, and genre.
Write autobiographical, or biographical narratives:
a. Narrate a sequence of events and communicate their significance to the audience.
b. Locate scenes and incidents in specific places.
c. Describe with concrete sensory details the sights, sounds, and smells of a scene and the specific actions, movements, gestures, and feelings of the characters; use interior monologue to depict the characters' feelings.
d. Pace the presentation of actions to accommodate temporal, spatial, and dramatic mood changes.
e. Make effective use of descriptions of appearance, images, shifting perspectives, and sensory details.
2.5 Write job applications and résumés:
a. Provide clear and purposeful information and address the intended audience appropriately.
b. Use varied levels, patterns, and types of language to achieve intended effects and aid comprehension.
c. Modify the tone to fit the purpose and audience.
d. Follow the conventional style for that type of document (e.g., résumé, memorandum) and use page formats, fonts, and spacing that contribute to the readability and impact of the document.
Students write and speak with a command of standard English conventions.
1.1 Demonstrate control of grammar, diction, and paragraph and sentence structure and an understanding of English usage.
1.2 Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling and correct punctuation and capitalization.
Reflect appropriate manuscript requirements in writing
2.1 Deliver reflective presentations:
a. Explore the significance of personal experiences, events, conditions, or concerns, using appropriate rhetorical strategies (e.g., narration, description, exposition, persuasion).
b. Draw comparisons between the specific incident and broader themes that illustrate the speaker's beliefs or generalizations about life.
c. Maintain a balance between describing the incident and relating it to more general, abstract ideas.
What concepts and skills did the students gain in this class through this project?
How is the curriculum for this project academically rich and grade-level challenging?
Expected Portfolio Components:
1. Cover letter (Introducing portfolio)
2. Resume- (College) (students should already have a draft from an 11th grade project. Update)
3. Applications ( 1 online 1 hard copy)
4. Entry Essay – Personal Statement (Individualized per student)
5. FAFSA: Application filled out and submitted ( A workshop with Cesar- college advisor not until January)
6. Scholarship Applications (applied to at least two)
7. Take ACT/SAT (Mr. Poole will help with this and discuss scores and help students to set goals)
8. Gant Chart to map time (Mr. Poole- Engineering Teacher)
Reflection Writing Components:
9. Personal Narrative: 3 versions of your personal statement using your peer, parental and professional voices.
10. Journals to record your process
Reading Components: Detailed reading list and visual arguments for first unit
Anchor pieces: Please see reading calendar.
· Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
· Spud Jon Van Der Ruit (required for honors)
Poetry
· The River Merchant’s Wife Ezra Pound
· There was a Boy William Wordsworth
· Adolescence Rita Dove
Non Fiction
· The Achievement of Desire Victor Rodriquez
· Visual argument pieces by:Norman Rockwell of Education and Empowerment
from rereading america
To what extent was there integration across disciplines in your class through this project?
Regular meetings with my team teacher Mark Poole ensured content specific integration.Additionally Cesar Guerrero our college advisory was indispensable throughout this project.
There were 2 primary pieces of the portfolio Mark was responsible for. The Gant Chart and goal setting for projected SAT/ ACT scores to motivate student improvement.
Cesar ran a personal statement workshop to support the narrative writing component of the portfolio
Which Habits of Heart and Mind (HoHM) and Design Principles were utilized in this project?
Evidence- students demonstrated completion of this project in a culminating presentation of both the digital and hard copy of their portfolio to their classmates.
Mindfulness-students were encouraged to create a portfolio that was authentic. Students were to be mindful of the colleges that they wish to apply to and create a personal statement that met the requirements of this institution.
Perspective- Students analyzed their own voices along with the voices of the speakers in the various pieces of Literature that we read. Students focused on the perspective of voice and it's impact on perception. This shift in focus allowed students to focus on the perspective of those admissions officers that will be reading their personal statements.
Perseverance- Students continue to persevere throughout the college process. This is process that each of our students is taking seriously due to the culture cultivated in regards to college at High Tech High. Perseverance continues to be a key component of this project that carry's on after the "project" is completed
Cooperation-Students were encouraged to learn from one another on more than one occasion. Student's worked in small groups, partners, in 1/2 as a class and as a whole class to organize and synthesis information.
How did you incorporate refinement through this project?
Initially the peer editing and the revision process were key components in the refinement of student work. After, refinement of narrative writing was done through a series of one on one meetings. These were between individual students and the teacher. Students who wanted teacher feedback were given multiple opportunities to sit down with me and go over strengths, area of improvement and specific grammatical and organizational questions regarding their personal statements.