Project Breakdown You Can Do

Year 2. 

Overhauled master schedule. 

2 new courses for me: one is brand new; co-taught class. The other existed, just now on my plate. 

Still teaching the classes from last year. 

And study halls. 

Total = 12 different groups of students. I got this. I think. 🤣

I'm taking the best of what I did last year and modifying or substituting to make it better. I had my 7th graders last year, so I know what we covered AND I know them. After giving them a day to do some digital organization, something I feel is important to make time for, we moved right into a project. Smart move.

These kids have skills and they aren't afraid of tech. They need very little direct instruction as far as tools go, but I feel they could use practice making choices, explaining their choice, and interpreting what needs to be done. Rather than give them a specific "recipe", I wanted to leave the door open a bit for them. We are now done with project and I'm very happy with how it went! Here's a recap ... you can absolutely replicate this!

I chose two of John Spencer's video writing prompts. I kept in mind the students I had and tried to choose two I thought had wide appeal. I also chose one that needed more creativity when responding, "You Woke Up Inside of a Video Game," and one that was more straight-forward, "What would you put in a time capsule?"

Day 1:

• Short explanation of project ... choose the writing prompt AND choose the tool to create your response. I did not restrict them on tools. They could choose the one they felt was best.
• Watched the prompts together - YouTube gets overwhelmed if they all try at them same time. Allowed for questions.
• In Schoology, I created a folder with completion rules to help sequence student work:
• #1 - I had a 2 questions assessment: Which prompt are you choosing & why? 

• #2 - a discussion question: which tool are you going to use
• Students may start to work on their project

Day 2:

• With the hope that conversing and discussing the prompt in terms of what to DO would help the students drive their own ideas, I wanted them to talk about how they were interpreting the prompt.
• Before getting to work, I had students make groups of 4 with others who are doing the same prompt. Both prompts received the same questions. The paper they filled out asked several questions:
• What are you responsible for "answering" with your response?
• What are the REQUIRED pieces to your response?
• Is there anything you should NOT do as or in your response?
• How might you go BEYOND the requirements?
• After several minutes, I collected their papers and had them make a different group of 4 and repeat this exercise.
• Rest of class was time to work on their projects.

Day 3:

• Started class with the complied answers to the questions from yesterday. I have to say, they were more or less all on the same track with the answers. 
• I also allowed for questions. 
• My favorite was, "Mrs. Kiefer, can you leave this up? I think it's really good for me to look at as I keep working." [You betcha!!!]
• Work time

Day 4:

• Began class with a "Glow & Grow" peer feedback. I took their compiled answers and created a short feedback sheet. Only 3 outcomes to focus on:
• Content - Is student answering prompt appropriately?
• Soft Skills - does their tool fit the project well?
• Media Skills - project is answering the prompt creatively?
• One on side of each criteria, the peer is expected to write a positive. On the other side, a suggestion or idea for improvement.
• We covered boundaries for this and how to "take in" the feedback. It's all meant to be helpful, but changes should only be made if the creator agrees and feels it would be an improvement.
• Today, they were pairing up with another student that did the SAME prompt. Turn in paper.
• Ultimately, they will need to have 3 total peer feedbacks before turning their project in.
• I tracked this as an assignment in Schoology.
• Rest of the class was work time.

*** The feedback portion took a bit longer than I'd thought it would ... NOT a bad thing at all! ***

Day 5:

• In Schoology, I asked students to share the link to their project. This was a big topic we covered last year - ensuring the correct sharing privileges - so I wanted to be sure they all did this early on, so I didn't have to keep asking for it at the end when I went to grade it.
• Full work day.
• Recommended to do at least one more peer feedback. Only rule is it cannot be the same person. 

Day 6:

• "Temperature check" ... are we feeling good and getting close? Up to this point, I'd not mentioned a due date. Students said they were getting close. We decided to aim for tomorrow at the end of class. If they felt they needed more time, I asked them to talk to me.
• I went over how many pieces of feedback were still needed.
• Work day.

Day 7:

• Final work day.
• Turn in when finished in Schoology. Basically they copied and pasted the link again in an assignment with the rubric for me to grade it.

Whew! I have to say, I'm SUPER pleased with how this project went. My students really did seem to dig into it - didn't matter which prompt they chose.  The time capsule one did appear to go a bit quicker, but I pushed those students to really dig in and try to be creative. Off-task behaviors were limited during this project and I was thrilled.

I would really love to bring all of these projects together in one spot. I was thinking a website created by the students? However, I do feel like we need to move on. I don't want to let them get bored. Possibly at the end of the quarter, it can be a self-chosen project that a few of them decide to take on? Who knows? 

What do you think? Areas to improve? Anything to add? I know I probably won't call them "Glow & Grows" again ... they didn't scoff at it, but it felt a bit juvenile. I ended up just referring to them as their "peer feedback". 

I didn't link the Docs here, but I could. Any interest? 

Next up ... credible sources. What are they? Where/how do we find them? How do you know it's credible? Can we crowdsource? I'll share about this, too. I'm super excited about this. We expect our students to do a LOT of research and while I was collaborating with an educator in another district about a class we both teach, I have a very exciting addition to add to this project!

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