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Senior Projects Redux

  By 2019-2020, Distance Learning, Second Semester Projects

René Magritte, Time Transfixed (1938)

Full steam ahead.

Quick Read: What to Know

① You are not responsible for every scrap of understanding in every post.

There are levels to this kind of interstitial instruction, which is why it’s called interstitial.

In other words, there is no expectation that you exhaust every post and letter. The depth is there for students who would benefit from that depth.

To paraphrase the end of this essay by John Holt: Dive into these lectures and lessons, take the parts you understand, skip the parts you don’t, get what you can out of it, and then get to work.

As you do the work, you can ask questions, get clarification, and revisit these posts. It’s part of the process, and the process is the key.

An example is the writing from today. There is this “quick read,” then the rest of the post; then there is a letter to stakeholders that links to additional information; and on top of that, there are the updates through Google Classroom and ParentLink that likely brought you to this post.

The depth here helps. Do what you can, push yourself when appropriate, and advocate at all times.

② You are responsible for continued project-based learning.

The rest of the year will continue your project-based learning, which is enabled by flipped instruction, and which is ultimately assessed through profiles.

The goal of any project is to hone universal skills and traits. The purpose of instruction is to facilitate your creative efforts. Feedback is scaffolded and individualized, and you are empowered to use the space to help each other.

That goes for the digital space, too. Losing our classroom is a terrible blow; maintaining this digital connection will help us recover.

③ You are now required to complete only a “senior talk” and one additional project.

The Senior Talk will need to be adjusted, but there’s a silver lining: You now have the option of choosing from many different final products. We will workshop the list as we go, and some of the options are explored further in this post.

The same step-by-step guide and instructional posts can be used for this Senior Talk:

One other project is required. You can include any projects started in February and early March. We will also workshop how to adjust the process and product for your choice. For a recap of what projects are required, use the letter sent to stakeholders today and the original webpage:

Make this choice manageable for yourself. As long as you communicate your needs, this can all be individualized, which is why the most important step, as always, is to establish a feedback chain.

Read on for more on each of these updates.

① Leveled Instruction

Two things to keep in mind about all the writing I do for you:

  1. There are many points of entry and departure in each instructional post, so you can choose how much to read at one time. You never need to dig every scrap of understanding out of these.
  2. The more you read, of course, the more you’ll be able to do. There are levels.

The first point there was hammered home, I hope, through our unit on reading and the answer to why we read in particular1.

The second point is illustrated by Friday’s post:

April 10, 2020

You can take your time with this sort of instructional post. There are multiple points of entry, plus simplified or summarized instructions on Google Classroom.

If you take that extra time to read more deeply, you’ll be better equipped to individualize the work. You can take as much time as you need, however. There are levels to this.

② Not an Overhaul

The focus of your second-semester projects has always been on how you learn, what skills you need to hone, and how each project prepares you for the future. It’s been an exercise in individualizing project-based learning as much as possible. That is a universal framework.

The difference now is that we all need to cope with the present. This is the makerspace in action: We have very real, very pressing problems; they are problems of identity, anxiety, connection to others, misinformation and information; and we can address those problems through reading, writing, and discussion.

Before we get to the projects, another link to the trio of updates from last week:

Distance Learning: Week 3
• April 9 Update
• April 10 Update

Again, there are multiple points of entry. Read what you can, when you can.

Of special note is that Q3 grades will be finalized and posted on Friday, April 17. On Wednesday, you’ll be asked to self-assess, just like always, and then to work out any issues over the next two days.

Then Q4 grades will be pass/fail, which is a boon to us. Remember what grade abatement is and isn’t — which means we can now focus on authentic purposes and audiences.

This post prioritizes your projects around a few of these ideas:

  • Which projects might help you sort through the current situation?
  • What will connect us to each other through projects in the Humanities?
  • Which products have different audiences, now that we are all living and working online?
  • What still helps the most to prepare you for next year?

It’s not an overhaul. These are the same projects you started in February. You need the option to streamline and simplify them, however, and that’s what you have: the option to set a manageable schedule for yourself.

After you’ve read the next portion of this post, use the comment section to ask questions. That, too, is part of managing your own schedule. Continue to advocate for your learning.

③ Required Projects

Senior Talk

The Senior Talk is still a requirement, and you must still work with the instructional post that links it to the Pareto Project:

✰ Pareto Projects and Senior Talks

You must also use the step-by-step guide, which only needs slight alterations to function through distance learning:

Every step still works, including the final steps, regardless of the final form of the talk. We can even use the original sign-up document:

We need to think creatively about what that presentation could look like. There are no bad ideas right now, and I will share examples of video essays and other “talks” over the next few days.

In addition to this Senior Talk (which needs a new label, since “talk” is no longer exactly fitting), you must complete one additional project. They are listed below in a suggested order.

Commencement Address

This is an important opportunity to reflect on the learning community you are leaving in June. Whether you share the final product or not, this is the kind of writing you should be doing during a pandemic: personal, audience-driven, reflective.

The resources include examples of commencement addresses, but you can consider open letters and other digital formats. The key is the universal guide’s focus on audience. That guide is below, followed by the instructional post for this project.

✰ Commencement Address

I want you to think seriously about writing this in order to share it.

Pareto Projects

You might prioritize these projects precisely because we are learning from home. It’s why this post was put together for you:

April 9, 2020

Scroll down to the second section of that post, and note that there has been a cultural shift toward “passion projects” since COVID-19 hit us.

If you choose to work on a Pareto Project, it might turn into one of the other projects. It might become something we didn’t predict at all. It might continue into the summer. Regardless of the arc of that work, you have a unique learning opportunity.

In fact, this is a chance for you to build habits that will carry over into next year. Passion projects are the best way to do that, because they demand more structure from you. You build the scaffolding, and you fill it in.

Self-Prescribed Book Project

If you are able to use your time now to read, you may find no better time to become a better reader. That growth can then be turned into a project you design:

✰ Self-Prescribed Book Project

If nothing else, working further on a book you’ve chosen is a chance to discover or rediscover the part of you that loved reading when you were younger.

Below are the resources you’ve used or helped to create so far:

Research-Driven Writing

This is listed last here only because research-driven writing is part of the rest of pretty much every other item on this list. In fact, a research paper could explicitly be the product or outcome for the rest of the projects.

Don’t mistake this as a knock against research-driven writing. This is actually the most important set of skills on here: the ability to synthesize viewpoints, identify bias, craft an argument that deals with an issue, etc. It’s only that these skills are part of everything else, and time is of the essence.

To write an effective research-driven paper of any kind, you can follow this guide:

The rest of what you need is in the instructional post:

✰ Research-Driven Essay

  1. I haven’t used footnotes in a while, so let’s see if that code still works. Here is the end of an excerpt by John Holt that has been assigned off-and-on for a while now:

    This is exactly what reading should be and in school so seldom is — an exciting, joyous adventure. Find something, dive into it, take the good parts, skip the bad parts, get what you can out of it, go on to something else. How different is our mean-spirited, picky insistence that every child get every last little scrap of”understanding” that can be dug out of a book.

    I think that applies equally to a post on here. Dive in, take what you can, skip what you can’t, maybe circle back later on. Treat it as part of a much larger whole. ↩