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Target
audience: 11th and 12th Graders
This assignment is a good one for upper
classmen because of their budding maturity level.
Many of them are asking themselves questions about their role
in the future, and they want to make meaningful choices that
will impact that role positively. They also have the
skill level to read and interpret various types of personal
mission statements.
The students involved in this project were high school
seniors enrolled in a Virtual Enterprise business
class. The project was conducted during the first half
of the last quarter of the school year. The primary
focus of the class was to develop and run a virtual business
which was posted on the web as part of an interactive network
of approximately 3,000 classes world wide. By this
time the students had created resumes and cover letters as
part of the job search package. This activity helps them
create an additional career search tool.
The project was also tested in a Rio Linda High School
business class at a different school. It took place at
the end of the year, using all the materials after they had
been developed and revised at Marysville High School.
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Colleges, scholarships and employers are beginning to
require statements from applicants of their personal ethics,
goals and life outlooks. This tool puts that all
together in a graphically interesting package. Prior
students have used this tool during their interview
process. When they were able to produce the artifact at
the time of request they received favorable comments, even to
the point of immediate acceptance.
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Emphasis and
Scope: This set of activities emphasizes the affective
component of authentic activity/assessment. It asks
students to think deeply about what beliefs are most important
to them, what principles center their lives. By using
the imaginative biography as a method of looking back at what
they want their lives to mean, they can chart a personal code
or constitution which will steer their day-to-day
course. The old adage, if you don't stand for something,
you will fall for anything" truly applies here.
This activity/assessment not only hits
the affective arena fairly strongly, but it also taps
the cognitive domain by requiring students to compare
and analyze types of personal codes and synthesize
these ideas by creating one of their own which fits their
unique sense of self. They also use artistic
creativity as they design the visual appearance of their
personal code. And they go on to give an oral
presentation of their work as a public declaration of
their personal beliefs and goals.
The specific objectives are that upon
completion of the project students will:
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Analyze and interpret various kinds of personal codes,
mission statements, mottos, constitutions and logos
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Select a hero or famous person whom you admire, and
identify his/her guiding principles.
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Evaluate your own beliefs or values and write a list
of the most important and absolute principles which act as your
guide and focus in life
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Use a writing style which reflects your own
personality, principles, creative approach and/or theme.
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Demonstrate "packaging skills," by
recognizing that the final product must look good by paying
attention to its visual appearance. Not only must it be
creative in design, but it must be neat and mechanically correct.
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Demonstrate "packaging skills," by
recognizing that the final product must look good by paying
attention to its visual appearance. Not only must it be
creative in design, but it must be neat and mechanically correct.
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Experience public exposure of your individual
beliefs by having the courage to stand by your own convictions when
your product is placed on display.
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Having students sign their personal
codes and post them publicly is the most effective method
of emphasizing the importance of this assignment. Not
only will this requirement raise the quality and sincerity of
the individual codes, but it will act as a consciousness
raiser for the rest of the school. Imagine a freshman
reading a senior's statement of beliefs. . . A few
students are reluctant to publicly display their
principles. Perhaps they feel they will be laughed at
for being a good person who stands up for his/her
principles. That choice is ultimately theirs, and they
should not be forced to post their codes. However,
publicly displaying the codes is a valuable part of this
assignment, and it is one of the components. Perhaps
those few reluctant individuals should not receive full credit
on this assignment.
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Approximate
time: 4 to 6 weeks, interspersed
with other classroom activities. Expect to spend
at least 6 full hours of class time directly on
this activity and to work with individual
students through the rest of the month.
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Since this is an advanced business class for high school
juniors and seniors it includes a careers component.
Among other things students discuss the job search
process. They work on resumes, cover letters, interview
thank-you letters and the compilation of interview
artifacts. This project creates an enhancement for their
career search.
It also helps students as future workers focus their
thoughts and clarify their personal goals. They develop
a set of personal value statements which can act as guiding
principles for life and career decisions.
It also provides an opportunity to take a public stand and
proclaim their goals and values, thus reinforcing the validity
of those choices. Throughout this students must make
informed choices about what they can/will make public and
where privacy is important, testing and increasing their
critical thinking skills.
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The process evolved as an outgrowth of the Senior Project
at Marysville High School. As community business members
and advanced educational institutions interacted with the
seniors in coaching and evaluator roles it slowly became
evident that an important component of the transition from
high school student to real world activities was a clear
vision of future goals. In an effort to help students
focus their thinking and determine where and who they wanted
to be in five, ten or twenty years, this concept slowly
evolved.
It began as writing a set of goal statements. Then
the goals were turned into a mission statements. To
support the goals students were later asked to write a set of
personal rules of conduct, or ethics. Then they were
later asked to produce these two statements in poster form
with appropriate graphics added to emphasize the
statements.
This year students were asked to include the personal
motto and icon in the process. These two components
evolved out of the Architectural Design class taught by Mrs.
Denyer where the logo and business motto were part of the
regular curriculum.
As part of the process, this year a mini web quest was
added to provide examples of personal goals and ethical
beliefs of public personalities. It was titled
"Heroes and Famous People." Students were to
work collaboratively to select and investigate a famous
person. Then they were to either find or create the
mission statement and code of ethics, as well as an icon, for
that person. This helped give relevance and
comprehension to the project right at the beginning. It
was a grounding and focus device that worked well.
This is the fourth year of this project in some form or
another at Marysville High School as taught by Mrs. Denyer and
others. It is a continually evolving and living process that
has positively impacted student thinking.
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Students: One of the most interesting effects was
described by a graduated senior. He had resented the
activity from day one and had been very vocal about how much
of a time waster it was. He felt it was pure busy work and not
worth his efforts. He grudgingly completed the task and
produced a good product. The interesting event took
place a month after graduation when he applied for admission
to a technical college. During the interview he was
asked to submit a personal goals statement and code of
ethics. He was shocked. And the interviewers were
even more shocked when he pulled the poster out of his
portfolio and handed it to him. They admitted him on the
spot. They also advised him that some of the primary
employers in the industry were asking for the same artifact
from both prospective and current employees. He was
amazed. His subsequent phone call to Mrs. Denyer was a
mixture of guilt for rebelling against the activity, pride at
having produced something that helped him so much, and thanks
for forcing him into doing something so valuable to
him.
Other students have gone through the same type of
metamorphosis in their thinking. At first it looked like
too much work for something they didn't need. Then as
they worked on the project they discovered that they enjoyed
the discovery and evaluation process. They were proud of
their final products. Many of them stated their thanks
to their teacher for the experience. Again something
irritating and time wasteful turned into an artifact of pride
and value. Several said that they had placed it in a
prominent place in their homes for a daily reminder of what
they wanted to accomplish. They also said that they
intended to revisit the document periodically to edit and
review their statements.
Faculty: Other faculty members had been part of the
process while the Senior Project was required. When the
requirement was dropped as a graduation requirement and the
class was dropped, other faculty members pulled away from the
project. They stated time constraints as the reason.
Since the project was included in the Business class this year
a number of faculty members took notice and expressed an
interest in considering it for inclusion in their curriculum.
Many have expressed an appreciation for the project itself and
for the changes in student thinking it has generated.
Administration: Administrators have watched this
project with interest. They have visited the web site
regularly to see the evolution of the page layout and the
expanding number of student samples. Formal and informal
kudos have been given about the solid curricular impact
and positive impact on student attitudes.
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At this point it appears that the important components are
in place. Very few, if any, additions are
anticipated. However it may be moved to a time slot
earlier in the year to allow students the opportunity of using
this as a launch pad for other career preparation activities.
The web pages will be checked for accuracy and word
smithed. Examples of student work will be
updated. General design features will be evaluated on a
regular basis. But overall it is feeling more and more
like a complete project.
Any other changes will be as a result of student input.
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Peer
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Note: those files seem to be lost in the
morass of data from when my computer crashed -- I will add them or
recreate them soon. |
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Response to Peer Reviews
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By Bruce McVicker
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Great introduction! Wendy,
you are the Master! You
two have formed a very powerful team!
Nice collaboration.
This project has a purpose that is highly relevant to students,
but it’s got excellent staff development potential, too.
I enjoyed the introductory reading.
It establishes mood and relevance and becomes very personal
for your students. Great
reflective piece!
I like the way you get feedback from your students about your
products. “A living
tool” is, I believe, the way you’ve described it, Laverne.
I also like the way you linked your students with your MA
projects. Grounding
your students’ thinking in the lives of heroes connects them with
lifelong purpose and goals. Wow!
I’m impressed with your solid teaching here! Following up with the rubrics keeps the kids scaffold.
The tasks also have nested scaffolds (glossary) adding to the
depth of the learning. I also like the motivating stories throughout.
Your evaluation is clear and related to the rubric, and students
know what’s expected. However,
there’s a depth here that will be interesting to evaluate when you
get to your action research.
Providing the examples from your own codes of conduct and
mission statements is an excellent idea.
Your districts are very lucky to have you two as teachers and
staff developers!
Very well done!
Bruce
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Response to Faculty Review
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First off I would agree with Bruce that this was a powerful
team. We both had similar ideas with enough variation to add
interest and clarify our focus throughout the process. It was
a good balance.
We had fun developing the introduction and conclusion. And
it seemed to work well. Having the quotations and stories available
seemed to be interesting to the students as it was to our faculty
reviewer. :-)
I would also agree that this was a project with direct relevance
to the target audience of high school seniors. We hadn't
considered it as a staff development tool, but will think about it.
We felt that the continual feedback from students and response
by the teachers in keeping the site design and student materials as
relevant as possible for the students was an important component of
the entire process. We wanted it to feel real and alive to the
students. A serendipitous result was that the students felt
they had to keep checking the site to see if there was anything new,
and that kept them in touch with the process.
The heroes and famous people component was the direct result of
our collaborative minds going crazy. I would agree with Bruce
that it was definitely a good grounding tool and did set the tone
for the rest of the project. This is where they began to
"get it."
The scaffolding seemed to work well. Having some of the
scaffolding (worksheets, etc.) optional and others mandatory seemed
to work well also. It allowed students to have resources
available but not tie them into useless paperwork if they already
had their concepts.
We were glad that other people noticed the work we had spent on
creating our own mission statements. It was a risk to make
ourselves so public. But we felt that first they needed a
sample, and second they needed to know that we were willing to do
the same thing that we were asking of them. Many students read
and made comments about our statements. It turned out to be a
risk well taken with good results.
Overall we were pleased both with the project and with the
feedback from our fellow iMETters and faculty.
Laverne
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Presentation for iMET f2f Demonstration
Outline
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Setup
Background – where used before
HOME:
Introduction
Directions
 Your
Story
Part 1
Part 2
Overview
Purpose
Slide – Overview of Purpose
This is a real product for your own use
--Parachute being open minded
Your Tasks Outlined (a brief outline)
Assessment Areas
Inspirational Thought
Activities
Student Objectives
Instructions – Refers back to “Overview”
(repetition for clarity)
Your Tasks
1st Web Search of Heroes and Famous People
this has the first link to the Glossary – Creed
Sample Web Sites
Heroes
Timeline – this was extended because of SAT9, etc. – site
issues
Evaluation Rubric
Student Work Samples
2nd Goals
Fuzzy Goal
Guidelines for Goal Setting
Slide Presentation of Goal Guidelines
3rd Self Reflection and Preparation
Self Reflection
Self-Reflection Page (self-directed questions)
Preparation
(Includes Word Document)
An Inspirational Thought
4th Mission Statement
Revisit Self-Reflection page if needed
Ready to write – go on
Link to Samples Page
Self-Evaluation Tool
(Includes Word Document)
5th Personal Code
link to Samples
self-evaluation tool
(Includes Word Document)
6th Personal Motto
Samples
(Includes Word Document)
7th Personal Icon/Logo
Example – Mark Peaty’s
Sample Page
(Includes Word Document)
8th Display Poster
9th Presentation
Samples Page
Links to Speaker’s Tips
Evaluation Tool
10th Assessment
Self-Evaluation
Peer Review
Rubric (used by teacher)
Submission Dates (2000-2001) – needed revision at
end
Conclusion – The final Chapter
Student Work Samples
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