And What It Takes to Do Them Right! Senior Projects And What It Takes to Do Them Right!

What Is The Senior Project? The 4 P’s: Paper Product Portfolio Presentation

Why Do We Have to Do This? Real world skills:

How Do We Do It? Step 1: Decide on a topic—not too broad or too narrow Example: You like art. Too broad. You like watercolor. Better. You want to learn watercolor techniques. Much more specific!!

Step 2: Decide on a Mentor This person should not be closely related to you. This person should be an adult with expert skills in the area in which you want to learn. This person is willing to donate a minimum of 15-20 hours to work with you in learning and developing a product and in having oversight of your research and presentation facts. Contact this individual. Explain the process and your ideas. Find out if he or she is available and when. Make a schedule for you to meet.

Step 3: Conference with Ms. Bridges Using the conference form, plan to meet with me no later than the second full week of school to go over your plans and ideas. This meeting will ensure that you have a suitably appropriate topic and a workable product in mind. So, to do this effectively, you will have to think through your plans: Who is your mentor going to be? What research paper topic will you explore? What physical, actual PRODUCT will you create?

Step 4: Letter of Intent After your conference and meeting with your intended mentor, you will then write me a “Letter of Intent.” (See the template for this.) This document puts your plans into written format so that you and I are both clear as to what you plan to research and why, what mentor you will have and why, and what you plan to produce as a result of your time with the mentor and the research. Additionally, it establishes your understanding of what plagiarism is and the consequences thereof.

Step 5: Begin Researching! You will write a 5-7 page MLA formatted research paper on the specific topic you have chosen. Some of this research and writing will be done in class. Some you will need to do at home. Plan to use reputable, authored sources, especially those from GALILEO. Don’t forget that a mentor interview can count as a source (You will need at least 5 sources). Turn in your Rough Draft. (Date TBD)

Step 6: Get Some Mentoring Hours! After you are approved for your research, you can begin working with your mentor. NOTE: You are allowed 2 excused absences during this semester to work with your mentor during school hours IF YOU CANNOT GET YOUR HOURS DONE ANY OTHER TIME. (Example: You want to work at a law office, and the hours are 9-5). To do this correctly, you MUST get an “Absence Approval Form” signed by me IN ADVANCE of the date(s) you will be mentoring, preferably at least a week in advance. Also, if you do miss school days, there is another form that the mentor must sign off on to verify this absence is necessary and did indeed involve working with him/her. It must be mailed to me by the mentor, so you must provide a stamped, addressed envelope for that purpose to the mentor.

More Forms for the Mentor Time Verification Sheet and Explanation of Project Do this every time you meet with your mentor. The Time Verification form is brief and requires your mentor’s signature. The explanation of the time you spent is an elaboration of what you did each time you met so that it is clear what you learned and what you completed. Be sure that you do this right after you meet so that you don’t have to struggle to remember the details later! These documents will go in your portfolio, so keep them neat and tidy.

Keep Going! Rough Drafts will be evaluated by me and returned for you to edit into a final draft which will go into your portfolio. Create a Commitment Sign (simply the title page for your portfolio. It will have a very specific, good title and your name on it with some kind of decoration (clip art, etc.). Mentoring hours should be completed prior to Thanksgiving Break in fall semester or prior to Spring Break in spring semester, depending on your agreed upon time frame so that you can complete the other requirements. You should begin working on your product no later than November or April, again depending on your time frame. Take pictures of your progress.

Product and Portfolio In either late November/early December or late April/early May, you will finalize your product and bring that in to me or produce documentation of it. (See Senior Project Scoring Guide) You will draft a Letter to the Judges explaining your process and product (see template). You will complete the Self-Evaluation form for your portfolio (see template). You will assemble all parts of your portfolio, including the documentation of your completed product for the judges to see, since they may not see the actual product in some cases (ex: a tournament you organized to raise money for charity). Use sheet protectors and organizing title pages for extra creativity points).

PowerPoint or Other Visual To do your judges’ presentation, you will need a visual of some sort, preferably PowerPoint. This visual will guide your speech and should flow well verbally and visually. Do not make it too wordy (like this PowerPoint, which is that way so you can refer to the steps later!), but instead use short word sections and images. You may use notes to do your presentation, so make those too.

Practice, Practice, Practice! Warm-Up speeches will be done in the first week or so of December or May during class. These are the presentations you will be making to the judges, so it’s important to follow the rubric to be sure you do it all correctly and in a timely manner (8-11 minutes, no more and no less). Your PowerPoint or other visual will be necessary to do this speech. You will be critiqued by me with the actual rubric while you present this to the class as your audience.

The Judges’ Presentation On presentation day, the last Wednesday before we get out usually, you will need to be available and off work from the hours of 3:00-5:30 P.M. You will be scheduled by me to present to a panel of 3 judges, at least one of whom is an expert in your area (but who was NOT your mentor). See the Senior Project Instruction to Judges, which follows the rubric exactly, to know what to expect. You will have an 8-11 minute presentation followed by a 5 minute question and answer session.

All Done! The following day, you will be able to view your judges’ comments and scores, which I tabulate using a conversion scale.

How Much Does It All Count? 40% of your grade in English IV Breakdown: Work on the senior project that you complete throughout the semester counts 20%. The final Portfolio, Product, and Presentation count an additional 20% and will be your “final exam grade.”

Questions? Please feel free to ask questions. You are free to email or text me as well, with this caveat (that’s a warning!): Please do not text me for silly things or just to say hello; I will gladly answer your school-related texts and emails, but I do not want my phone or inbox flooded with forwards or other communications. Also, try to do these questions before 9:30 P.M. or I can’t guarantee that I will see them before morning. 