Embedded Files
The junior portfolio is one of The New School’s capstone projects (along with the senior exhibition) and it extends naturally from the New School’s mission statement to help students learn to use their minds well and take charge of their lives. The portfolio asks you to engage in structured reflection about how you are growing as a person, using the essential skills as a lens for monitoring this progress. Our spring portfolio conference days, when students share about their perceptions and life experiences with their families and teachers, are always some of the most meaningful days of the year. Though the junior portfolio conference is the most pivotal step in the process, there are different iterations of the portfolio each year from 6th-11th grade providing various and distinct opportunities for you to reflect on and share about your progress. Further requirements are discussed below.
The 6 Essential Skill Categories
How Does the Portfolio Process Work?
6th to 8th Grade: In Middle School, we discuss the Essential Skills with the students and introduce them to the reflection process. There is an emphasis on choosing meaningful items for their portfolio and reflecting upon student growth.
9th Grade: In this year, you will work toward developing definitions for each of the skills that are meaningful to yourself and others. You will also illustrate each of your definitions with an example of the skill in action in the world. In addition to working on this throughout the year, you will engage in quarterly reflections on your growth, creating a running narrative throughout your time at the New School.
10th Grade: In this year, you will work on refining your sense of the skills’ meanings, noticing the skills’ roles in your lives, and monitoring your growth in using them. In addition to presenting your refined definitions at your portfolio review, you will share experiences from your life (represented by a physical or digital artifact) and explain how the experience illustrates your use of the skills. As in freshman year, you will also engage in quarterly reflections on your growth, creating a running narrative throughout your time at the New School.
11th Grade: In this year you will work on recognizing the relationship between the skills. You will refine your definitions of the skills if necessary, come up with more current experiences as examples showcasing your use of the skills and develop an Interplay Demonstration: a multimodal (meaning a medium other than simply verbal or written) explanation of how you see/experience the relationship between the skills. You will also continue your quarterly reflections on your growth.
9th - 11th Grades: Students will log community service hours throughout the three years, aiming for 50 hours by the time of the Junior Portfolio. A community service log sheet should be included in the portfolio along with a recent successful example of the student’s scholarly writing.
IMPORTANT:
The Junior Portfolio grade (P or F) appears on the student’s HS transcript in the 4th quarter of their junior year. Students who fail their portfolio should add and present supplementary items for review by the end of the first semester of their senior year in order to have the grade changed to P, pending their faculty committee’s approval. Note: Completion of community service hours is necessary to pass the portfolio review is one of the more common stumbling blocks for juniors. If you need help with finding service opportunities, see the Community Service Coordinator, Shannan Danish.
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