12--Project 4--Rough Draft Checkpoint Reflection

Rough Draft Checkpoint:

For this project I was really unsure what to expect from each group. It's not that I hadn't been checking in, talking with them, working with them, etc, but it was the fact that the groups really took this project in different directions than what I'd expected. I think the timing of the rough drafts was way better for this project than it was for my freshmen. I set the rough draft date a full week before the final drafts were due and it really gave me time to assess and give feedback. I was able to see what groups were in trouble and discuss that with them. I think next time I might have the groups make a list of the items they think they should turn in and then when we conference the class before I can add a couple things I  expect to see with their rough drafts as well. This will help ensure that we're all on the same page. Many of the rough draft pieces that were turned in didn't have much more information than the pitches I'd seen a few weeks earlier. I know from talking with the groups that many had made progress but I don't think they were clear on what needed to be turned in and what I wanted to see.


**Click here to see student rough draft submissions and samples**

CFG Protocol for Feedback on Rough Drafts:

Along with the rough draft date we also did a Critical Friends Feedback Protocol. The students had to come in ready to explain to the class what their project was, why they made the choices they did, and how it answers our driving question. They were able to share things via document camera, projector, etc as they felt necessary. I think this protocol went great with my freshmen classes, but it wasn't nearly as successful with my seniors. I don't think I prepped them enough and I don't think I was 100% clear about what I expected them to share. Now, I also think the culture of my senior class is very different than my freshmen class and I knew that they wouldn't take the protocol as seriously as my English 9s did. Sadly, I don't think the seniors benefited as much from the protocol.

Struggles	Successes	Changes for Next Year
Keeping them all focused	Introduced them to the new protocol	Intro protocol earlier
Following protocol expectations, stopping when they're not followed	Reflection discussion at the end of the protocol-what group needs to change, what to do differently with protocol next time	More prep time to get presentations and materials ready to share with the class
Rushed for time		Stress importance of protocol
Not 100% prepared to present ideas, what I was expecting		Bring in others from the building to be a part of the process
		Discuss what quality feedback looks like, maybe a rubric?

Scaffolding at this point: 

As far as how I've scaffolded the project up until this point, I'm not 100% happy. It's difficult because I still have that idea of read/analyze the story then do the project. For this project I think it had to be that way because the students couldn't choose an act to modernize without having read all of them. Some things that I would scaffold more specifically, and I think giving a more specific rubric or checklist ahead of time would help this, include analyzing the text and making connections to modern day issues. I would have to do this individually for each group depending on their projects. For example, I could show the students using music and songs how to incorporate lyrics and textual evidence together in your analysis. I know video editing is a must scaffold piece for next year, and it was difficult this year because of the technology situation I'm working with. I think it'll be easier as we get 1:1 devices next year.

I found using the Need to Know list very difficult for this project since we really didn't revisit it that much and the projects students were doing were all very different! I tried using exit tickets to get group and individual "need to knows" but that didn't really work.

I think many of my students still struggle with speaking up and saying "Our group needs this..." and speaking up early enough that I still have time to do a quick (or longer) workshop on the material. I think it was especially difficult since I had scaffolding pieces in mind but many of the students took the project in directions I hadn't thought about, which isn't necessarily bad, however I hadn't thought about scaffolding certain things those groups needed.