1. Mrs. Nash The Importance of Graduation Project

2. 44% of college professors believe incoming students are not well prepared for college-level writing. A staggering 84% of the professors surveyed believe incoming students are not at all prepared or only somewhat prepared for college. The Chronicle of Higher Education

3. . In 1985, Carlene Osher—a teacher at Medford, Oregon’s South High school—decided to make a few changes to the standard senior year. Her goal…

4. 1.increasing seniors' level of academic engagement 2.increasing seniors’ ability to work independently on a long-term project 3. increasing seniors’ ability to write a research paper

5. This became known simply as the Senior Project!

6. The Project Research Paper Product The Speech Portfolio

7. The Research Paper 8-10 pages MLA formatting Parenthetical documentation & works cited page Cannot be expository, has to be argumentative

8. Product New to YOU Learning stretch 15 hours—minimum Come from the research DOCUMENT EVERYTHING

9. Portfolio Many of the forms you have signed Paper, resume, reflections, documentation Has to be neat!

10. Speech 8-10 minutes Visual—PowerPoint/Prezi About your research, product, & learning stretch

11. The Benefits Skills: college readiness, computer, employability, research, language, problem- solving, teamwork Community: encourages business, industry, & community involvement Learners: learning stretch, creativity, innovation, self-esteem, connect learning to real-world situations

12. Steven Spielberg at the Academy Awards “Thank you for letting me own the experience of growing up. Thank you for letting me ask the questions, and thank you for not panicking and spoon feeding the answers to me when things got tough.”