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PROJECT-BASED ASSIGNMENTS

Dear Parents and Students,
I’m sure many of your students came home today discussing a final project I assigned today in class. I want to fill you in on this. Essentially, I have asked your students to pick a project they are either passionate about or really want to accomplish. They will spend the last 20 minutes of each class working on these projects with their peers and with me. The rest of the work will need to be worked on during the week. I will have weekly check-in passes for each student that meets the week’s goals to make sure they are adequately budgeting their time. So why am I doing this? I have a couple of reasons.
In today’s business world, we need innovative thinkers who have a passionate drive to solve some incredibly complex problems. Forward-thinking companies know the value of encouraging workers to pursue personally meaningful projects as they exercise their critical thinking skills and create exciting new products to improve life (and the bottom line). At 3M, for instance, workers are given 15 percent of their time to pursue personal projects. One result of this program? Post-It Notes, one of the company’s best- selling items. At Google, engineers are given 20 percent release time and encouragement to pursue fresh ideas that will benefit the company. One impressive result? Gmail.
Second, I am a firm believer that learning is a life-long process and some of our best work is driven by our interests. Some of our students want to be novelists. I say, why not start writing right now? Some want to be artists, photographers, chefs, filmmakers, musicians. This is an opportunity to work on a project for school credit and have fun in the process.
The value of intrinsic motivation in learning and achievement cannot be overstated. Each week for the rest of the semester, 20 minutes will be devoted to a language arts-based or history-based project that your student chooses based on his/her unique interests. (Don’t worry, 80 percent of our time will still be devoted to our traditional course of study.) During 20Time, though,I will guide, model, and hopefully inspire your student to find joy in wrangling with a challenge where there is no single “right” answer.
Understandably, students and parents will want to know how I plan to evaluate this unique project. To encourage innovative thinking, I will grade only a student’s process, not his/her finished product. I have designed a green-light, yellow-light, and red-light system to help your student progress. I have built a variety of rubrics and tools to give students regular feedback on their work and those tools will be openly shared with your student ahead of scoring time. Basically, if your student chooses a project that he/she finds meaningful and works diligently on the project, he/she will do well on this assignment. The final assessment piece will be an end-of-project speech, and a sort of show and tell, wherein students present what they did and what they learned from this process. I would like for all parents that can attend this event to please come in and see what our students have learned. I’m hoping to hold this event sometime in April.
In the meantime, this week, your student will come up with a 60-second pitch of their project. The class will decide whether it is accepted or not (Shark Tank-style). While they can choose just about any kind of project, here are some ideas for those that are struggling.


  •        Write a short story/opening chapter of a novel.
  •        Create a blog on a topic that interests you. Post at least five entries. This could be a cooking blog, a fashion blog, a blog critiquing local restaurants or finding the best burger in the tri-city area.
  •       Learn to play a new song on the instrument you play and perform it in front of an audience and post it on YouTube, too. Or, learn to play a song on a new instrument you've always wanted to learn.
  •       Create a stop-motion animation video based on a short story.
  •       Write a stand-up comedy routine and perform it in front of an audience.
  •        Take photographs of each student in the class and conduct interviews and put together a class yearbook.
  •        Create a graphic novel.
  •        Create an illustrated children’s book.
  •     Write a collection of poems and enter at least two writing contests.
  •     Research a famous person of interest and write their biography.
  •     Create a how-to-video of a topic of interest to you. (Soccer tricks, how to play  chess, algorithms).
  •       Start a small business.
  •       Collect used eyeglasses for India.
  •      Volunteer at a homeless shelter and document your experience.
  •       Recreate five Pinterest crafts and blog about your results.
  •      Create a short promotional video for classes at the Art Lab. J
  •  Make and send care-packages to deployed soldiers and document the process.
  •     Read the top three best-sellers and write up reviews.
  •     Watch 10-12 classic films and write a blog post for each, discussing the value they have for today’s society or teenagers.
  • Memorize a famous speech or monologue and perform it.
  • Write a one-act play or a short film.
  • Plan, promote, and host an art showing, photography viewing, or open-mic event.
  •  Examine political propaganda in American history, put together examples, and explain how this fits propaganda and how it affected the political climate.
  • Try your hand at investigative journalism.
  • Make your own documentary on a topic you are passionate about.
  • Create a diorama of Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace, the Battle of Little Bighorn, etc.
  • Create a Prezi or Powerpoint on the Mafia during Prohibition.
  • Study Mary Cassatt’s works and recreate some for a viewing.
  •  Learn some magic tricks and perform for the class and post a video on a blog or Youtube.
  • Go see the next few plays at VLA and write up a review for each one.
  • Translate some poems from one language into another.


Feel free to add your own ideas to the list. This is just a small sample of some of the ideas you can choose. Make them unique to your own interests. We are always learning. I hope you all find this journey fun. And remember, you have permission to fail. Sometimes, we take on projects that just don’t work out. I’m not worried about your final product, but more concerned with your effort and progress. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. I’m happy to help.

Kindly,


Heather Chandler

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