CAS Advisors Checklist October 1, 2013

Introduction This presentation discusses how the author goes about reviewing CAS proposals and reflections. I am a engineer by training, and like to have a simple, methodical “checklist” approach to handling my CAS advising duties: – Marking activities as approved. – Marking activities as complete.

Reviewing Activities Process starts when student creates a new activity/project in Managebac. – CAS advisor receives or logs into Managebac and sees that a new activity has been entered.

Activity Review Checklist 1.Is this an activity or a project? – Project must involve collaboration and 2 out of the 3 - C, A, or S. – Prefer “issues of global importance” 2.Are the hours reasonable? 3.Are 4 or few learning outcomes chosen? 4.Is there at least a one paragraph description? – Projects should have a longer description – 2 to 3 paragraphs. – Description should speak to the learning outcomes. – No obvious spelling or grammar mistakes. 5.Supervisor: – Should not be a student unless leader of an org. and approved by Amy/Chris. – Use of parents/family members to be avoided. I remind students to collect extra evidence in this case. 6.Dates: Should not cross semester boundaries. – Have student break activity into multiple activities to avoid this. – Should not start before first day that they are a “rising junior”, June ?

CAS No No’s The following are absolutely not allowed: – Paid work. – Religious proselytizing. Work done by a religious group in the wider community, provided that the objectives are clearly secular, may qualify as CAS. Example: Working in a church run food bank. – Required work done for a non-elective class. Acceptable: band, orchestra, musical, DECA, FBLA, etc. If in doubt, ask student “is this something you must do for a class you must take?”

Activity Review Checklist A good activity:

Activity Review Checklist A bad one: – Hours excessive for time period. – Where’s the creativity? – One sentence description with spelling errors. – Sibling as supervisor. – Too many learning outcomes.

Completion Checklist 1.Ask students to notify you when they complete an activity. 2.Completed activity should have: – At least one reflection of at least one paragraph. Should address learning outcomes. Acceptable spelling and grammar. Failure is ok. – Either: Supervisor review. Evidence entered in Managebac (e.g. photos).

Appendix Links: – CAS Advisors Page: