Website Rubric

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Layout	The Web site has an exceptionally attractive and usable layout. It is easy to locate all important elements. White space, graphic elements and/or alignment are used effectively to organize material.	The Web pages have an attractive and usable layout. It is easy to locate all important elements.	The Web pages have a usable layout, but may appear busy or boring. It is easy to locate most of the important elements.	The Web pages are cluttered looking or confusing. It is often difficult to locate important elements.
Content	The site has a well-stated clear purpose and theme that is carried out throughout the site.	The site has a clearly stated purpose and theme, but may have one or two elements that do not seem to be related to it.	The purpose and theme of the site is somewhat muddy or vague.	The site lacks a purpose and theme.
Interest	The author has made an exceptional attempt to make the content of this Web site interesting to the people for whom it is intended.	The author has tried to make the content of this Web site interesting to the people for whom it is intended.	The author has put lots of information in the Web site but there is little evidence that the person tried to present the information in an interesting way.	The author has provided only the minimum amount of information and has not transformed the information to make it more interesting to the audience (e.g., has only provided a list of links to the content of others).
Copyright	Fair use guidelines are followed with clear, easy-to-locate and accurate citations for all borrowed material. No material is included from Web sites that state that permission is required unless permission has been obtained.	Fair use guidelines are followed with clear, easy-to-locate and accurate citations for almost all borrowed material. No material is included from Web sites that state that permission is required unless permission has been obtained.	Fair use guidelines are followed with clear, easy-to-locate and accurate citations for most borrowed material. No material is included from Web sites that state that permission is required unless permission has been obtained.	Borrowed materials are not properly documented OR material was borrowed without permission from a site that requires permission
Links (content)	All links point to high quality, up-to-date, credible sites.	Almost all links point to high quality, up-to-date, credible sites.	Most links point to high quality, up-to-date, credible sites.	Less than 3/4 of the links point to high quality, up-to-date, credible sites.
Work Ethic	Student always uses classroom project time well. Conversations are primarily focused on the project and things needed to get the work done and are held in a manner that typically does not disrupt others.	Student usually uses classroom project time well. Most conversations are focused on the project and things needed to get the work done and are held in a manner that typically does not disrupt others.	Student usually uses classroom project time well, but occasionally distracts others from their work.	Student does not use classroom project time well OR typically is disruptive to the work of others.
Group Cooperation	Partners show respect for one another's ideas, divide the work fairly, and show a commitment to quality work and support for each other.	Partners show respect for one another's ideas and divide the work fairly. There is commitment by some members toward quality work and support of one another.	Partners show respect for one another's ideas and divide the work fairly. There is little evidence of a commitment toward quality work in the group.	Partners argue or are disrepectful of other's ideas and input. Criticism is not constructive nor is support offered. The work is mostly done by one or two people.

Website MUST HAVES

Your website must have the following information:

• About Page: this page will give information about you, your group mates, and what your project it
• Why you're creating this website
• Updates

Your website could have the following information:

• Twitter updates
• Comment boxes
• Ways for people to donate to your cuase
• Ways for people to promote on social media

Website for Capstone Project

What is the purpose of your website?

Why do you want people to visit your website?

What do you want viewers to be able to do on your website?

What information do you want them to find?

How do you want to make your website unique?

College Admissions Research

This assignment is due by the end of class on Thursday, December 13.

1. Choose a major/area of interest to study in college. This can be dance, history, pre-med, business, Spanish, military science, etc. You won't be committed to it for the rest of your life, so don't stress about picking one.

2. Choose a four-year college or university in the United States that has your major/area of interest.

3. Research the admission requirements to get into the school and the program.

• GPA
• SAT/ACT scores
• Deadlines
• Letters of recommendation
• Personal statement/essay
• Special courses required
• Other information

4. Look up scholarship and financial aid opportunities at the college/university.

5. Create a presentation with those requirements to share with the class on Thursday.

Raise your GPA

How to raise your GPA:

http://www.back2college.com/raisegpa.htm

Guide to Life After High School

What makes the ASU Prep high school experience worth having??

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dEFiamhrRUdtNE5OMWNhSi1HaThaemc6MQ

NEXT activity.

Please click the link below for the reading.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2hqmfa6llt4m7pm/GTAHSsophomore.pdf

Read the section Think about your future (first 2 pages). Answer the following questions in your journal or on a piece of paper:

What is my favorite subject and why?
What is my least favorite subject and why?
What kind of assignments do I enjoy?
What are my hobbies, and what is my favorite part about those hobbies?
What activities am I involved in and why?
How will college better prepare me for a career than high school alone will?

Read the section Prepare Academically (page 3).
As a group, discuss the following questions. Each group member must share an answer for each question.
After group discussion, write your answers in your journal.

What good study habits do you currently have?
What study habits do you need to improve?
How has your writing improved since beginning high school?
What are some areas of writing that you are currently trying to improve?
Describe one way you currently challenge yourself academically.

Read the section Attend a College Fair (page 4).
As a group, discuss the following questions. Each group member must share an answer for each question.
After group discussion, write your answers in your journal.

Have you been to a college fair? If so, describe your experience.
What does the NACAC host a college fair in Arizona? If you're not sure, check the website: www.nacacnet.org
What should a student expect and do at a college fair?

Read the section Research Standardized Tests (page 4-5).
As a group, discuss the following questions. Each group member must share an answer for each question.
After group discussion, write your answers in your Capstone journal.

What do you already know about standardized tests and college entrance exams?
What questions do you have?
What resources are available to you for answering your questions?
What are you doing or have you done to take or be prepared for college entrance exams?

Read the section Learn about Paying for College (page 5-6). 
As a group, discuss the following questions. Each group member must share an answer for each question.
After group discussion, write your answers in your Capstone journal.

What are the similarities and differences between scholarships and grants?
What are the similarities and differences between scholarships and loans?
Besides scholarships, grants, and loans, how do you students pay for college?
How can you estimate the amount of financial aid you will receive?
Why is it important for you to begin thinking about financial aid now?

Read the section Consider your financial life after college (page 7).
As a group, discuss the following questions. Each group member must share an answer for each question. 
After group discussion, write your answers in your journal.

Why is it important to consider a budget when you have a regular income?
Plan a budget for your current situation. Consider allowance, money from part-time jobs, or other sources of income.
Consider the expenses you regularly have as well as upcoming expenses you expect.

Effort Grade Rubric and Capstone Class

Good afternoon!

Please come in and begin reflecting in your journals or on a piece of paper. Take a look at the Effort Rubric you were handed. Answer the following questions?

What do you think is fair about this rubric? Why?

What do you think is unfair about this rubric? Why?

What grade to you expect to get based on this rubric? Why?


For the rest of the year, we have a number of goals we must accomplish in our Capstone class. Think about these goals and how YOU would like to see our class accomplish them. Write down how you think we should best achieve these goals.

• Developing habits of successful social entrepreneurs:
• Organization - teaching students how to organize and balance their academic and non-academic lives
• Time management - teaching students how to manage their time efficiently in order to be successful
• Responsibility - teaching students to become responsible for their choices and their consequences
• Professionalism - teaching students to approach their schoolwork with professionalism
• Developing our Capstone project
• Marketing
• Developing a business plan
• Pitching plan(s)
• Measuring success
• Independent college research
• Driving interest in global perspectives
• Developing a college portfolio
• Including setting and achieving goals for college

Ashoka Rubric

Monday, December 5, 2011

9E Mantra

Lean on Me

Sometimes in our lives
We all have pain
We all have sorrow
But if we are wise
We know that there's always tommorow

Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

Please swallow your pride
If I have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you won't let show

You just call on me brother, when you need a hand (Chorus)
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'd understand
We all need somebody to lean on

Second Verse
Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

You just call on me brother, when you need a hand (Chorus)
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might have a problem that you'd understand
We all need somebody to lean on

If there is a load you need to bear
That you can't carry
I'm right up the road
I'll share your load
If you just call me

Call me (if you need a friend)
Call me (Call me)
Call me (if you need a friend)
Call me (if you ever need a friend)
Call me (Call me)
Call me 
Call me (if you need a friend)

Monday, November 21

Good morning, Capstone beauties!

Today we will answer the question, "What is a mantra?"

For your Do Now, please write down five (5) words that describe our group's personality right now. These words can be attributes, emotions, characteristics, etc.

When you are done, we will share out the words we've come up with and vote on 5 that we all agree best represent us.

Our task will be to put all of these words into some sort of mantra that will represent our group. This mantra will serve as our inspiration, as well as our bit of courage when we need it.

This mantra can be just a chant, a song, a rap, a poem, a dance...anything that will help our group feel inspired and united.

"I think I can."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx9xO98kcBU&feature=related

For example, let's watch the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team perform the Haka, their mantra/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4LNjNXt1yM&feature=fvst

What will our mantra be?

Tuesday, November 8

Good morning, Capstone beauties!

For your Do Now, in your journal, please write down 5 things you do really well.

Describe these 5 skills or things you do well to a person sitting next to you.

Today we will be discussing those things that make us unique. We have moved into Part 2 of our Ashoka Youth Venture Journey. We will be investigating who we are and what our unique abilities are. Later on, we will see what abilities we have as a group and what makes our cohort unique!

We need to define the words attribute, characteristic, and skill. These are the words that we often hear when asked to describe ourselves. In order to describe ourselves accurately, we need to know what these words mean!

Working with a partner, please find a definition for each of these words. We will share out as a class.

What is a logo? What is a personal tag?

Friday, November 4

Happy double-Gold day, Capstone students!

Today we will be finishing up our storytelling unit as part of the Ashoka Youth Venture.

For your Do Now, please tell a partner what H.E.A.R. stands for.

Next we will do a storytelling activity to help us practice BOTH storytelling and active listening.

How did the stories change as they were retold? Why?

Was it difficult to tell someone else's story? Why?

How did you balance listening to your partner with preparing to tell the story? Were you still able to adhere to the HEAR model?

Wednesday, November 2

Happy morning, Capstone students!

Today we will be practicing active listening techniques.

For your Do Now, please find a partner. You will read your story that was homework to your partner and let them know what parts of it you thought were compelling and which parts could use a little help. Switch roles with your partner.

The HEAR model (borrowed from Ashoka's Youth Venture packet) is a combination of four steps that are essential to active listening. Use it to better understand the facts, ideas, and feelings of the speaker, and to help the speaker clarify her own thoughts, problems, and solutions.

HEAR -----> EMPATHIZE -----> ANALYZE -----> RESPOND

Hear

• Listen attentively to words and feelings.
• Keep an open mind. AVoid letting your own feelings, attitudes, or opinions interfere with your ability to listen.
• Do not evaluate, censor, or try to monopolize the conversation.
• Do not interrupt. It is important to listen to the speaker's entire thought before you respond.

Empathize

• Display an interest in the speaker's pint of view, even (or maybe especially), if it differs from your own.
• Listen for facts, ideas, and feelings.
• Listen for the thoughts behind the words.
• Check for understanding by paraphrasing the facts as well as the speaker's position.

Analyze

• Listen for the thoughts behind the words. Thinking is after than speech. Use your extra "thought time" to summarize, review, and anticipate.

Respond

• Pay attention and show it.
• Include statements such as "I see," "yes," and "I understand."
• Hold off on your evaluation.
• Hear the speaker out.
• Avoid premature advice.
• Do respond. It is especially difficult to talk to someone when there is no apparent reaction.
• Check to be sure the speaker understands your response. 

We will next go through a number of activities for you to practice active listening with your partner. Get your pencils ready!

Debriefing and Reflection Questions

How is the HEAR model important?

Which aspects of the model did you use in this exercise?

Do you normally listen, talk, and interact with others using the HEAR model?

Why or why not?

How did you feel during the listening activities?

Was it easy or difficult?

Were you surprised by the way the exercise worked?

Did you notice any trends or changes over time?

How did the experience add to your understanding of active listening and HEAR?

Monday, October 31

Happy Halloween, Capstone students!

This week we are transitioning into the Storytelling part of the Ashoka Youth Venture program. Through our Storytelling unit we will be thinking about and understanding ourselves by asking:

• Why me? why now? What is my narrative?
• What do I care about? Why?
• What can I do to make a difference?

For your Do Now, please click here. If you do not have an iPad, please describe how you use storytelling in your everyday life. Also write down two specific examples of how you used storytelling in the last day. We will be sharing these examples with the class.

We will do a quick vocabulary lesson with the words STORYTELLING, COMPELLING, and NARRATIVE.

Next I will read a spooky story to get us in the mood for Halloween and start to identify key elements of effective storytelling. We will discuss the story, including what it was about, how it made you feel, what made the story compelling or not, and what specifically did you like or not like.

We will then listen to a story from the storytelling repository called The Moth. As you listen, think about how it makes you feel, what is compelling about it, etc.

Story from The Moth: http://themoth.org/stories

We will discuss a basic story graph, or plot diagram. This may be something similar to what you have seen in Language Arts classes in the past. As a class we will draw the story graph for The Raven. In your groups, you will draw one for the story we listened to from The Moth. 

Next we will develop and compile a list of key elements of a good story. These will help guide us as we listen to more stories, create our own, and help each other develop the best story they can.

For your homework, you will write a story, only one sentence for each stage of the story graph, that includes all the key elements of a compelling story. Read it to a classmate/friend and have them tell you whether or not it was compelling.

Click here for your exit ticket.

Thursday, October 27

Good morning, Capstone students!

Today we're going to have a brief meeting about bullying and then move into more personality tests. After we have looked at the personality tests, we will write a reflection about what we have learned about ourselves and how we think this causes us to act the way we do, make the choices we make, and if it determines who we will become.

For your Do Now, tell me how you accurate you think the Personality Test you took on Tuesday was. Do you agree with the results you were given?

Click here to submit your response.

For our talk about bullying, we will be looking at this website and watching a few of the videos about teens and bullying.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/11/living/bully-proof-kids-hetter/?iref=obnetwork

Please click here to take more personality tests: www.123test.com. Please take the Team Roles and DISC Personality tests.

We will discuss the results and what they tell us about ourselves.

Tuesday, October 25

Good morning, Capstone students! Happy Tuesday and happy Galileo Testing!

This morning we are going to reflect on our goals we set last week. To reflect on your goals, please click here. If you do not have an iPad, please use a piece of paper to answer the following questions:

1. What was your goal?

2. How did you do?

3. Did you accomplish your goal?

4. Why or why not?

5. What do you wish you had done differently?

6. What did you learn about goal setting?

7. What did you learn about yourself?

We will talk about the path we'll be taking through the Ashoka Youth Venture Journey. This will help us know where we are starting and where we will end up. We can also see how quickly the end of the year will come upon us! Yikes!

Next we will develop community agreements. These agreements will keep our classroom a safe environment for our journey. We have already discussed what respect looks likes and what a respectful conversation looks like. But today we need to develop actions that we can all agree to take in order to keep our classroom community safe and.....AWESOME!

Finally, we will round out our time looking more into Ashoka Youth Venture and have a class meeting.

Wednesday, October 19

Good morning, Capstone beauties!

DO NOW:

On a piece of paper, write down ONE (1) goal you have for yourself for this quarter (from now until December 13).

Write down TWO (2) ways or things you can do to accomplish this goal.

We will be focusing our time today on learning about goal setting through a number of different activities. 

1. Turning vague goals into specific goals. For example, "I want better grades" is not very specific. "I want to raise my grade in Science from an F to a C by the end of the quarter" is very specific.

2. Setting step-by-step plans for goals. Any goal can be achieved through careful planning.

3. Setting short-term personal goals. Goals do not have to be life goals. They can be over a short period of time. For example, "I want to schedule an eye appointment by the end of the week."

Time permitting, we will begin looking into Ashoka Youth Ventures, exploring what the next step in our Capstone journey will be.

Your homework for Friday is to have one short-term, personal goal set. You must accomplish this goal by Tuesday, October 25!

Monday, October 17

Welcome back, students! I hope you had a wonderful Fall Break!

To start things off, you need to survey at least three classmates about what they did over Fall Break.

1. Write down the students' names.

2. Ask them what they did over Fall Break.

3. Ask them what they wish they had done over Fall Break.

Be sure to record all of your answers. We will compile the responses together as a class.

Finally, work with your partners. Compile and analyze the data you got from surveying the younger students. Make a table for all of your data; see if you can make any conclusions about the answers you got.

Ask each other if there are any common heroes between the students you interview? Does it seem that students of a certain age group like a certain type of hero? Do heroes change as we get older?

Write down your conclusions to share with the class.

If time allows, all the groups will share their conclusions and we will see if we can answer our driving questions with the information each age group has found.

Driving Questions

Do our heroes change as we get older?

Do different groups of students have different types of heroes?


For your exit ticket, please click here (if you do not have an iPad, please answer the questions below on a sheet of paper).


Based on the results of our surveys, do you think our heroes change as we get older? Why? What data did you see tho supports this?


Based on the results of our surveys, do you think different groups of students have different types of heroes? Why? What data did you see to support this?

Monday, October 3

Good morning, Capstone students!

I am so sorry I'm not able to be with you this morning. I got stuck in Philadelphia and wasn't able to get a flight until today. Please be on your best behavior for the substitute and get as much done with your survey analysis as possible.

To start off today, please survey at least three classmates about the following questions. Remember to write down their names, too.

1. What will you do over fall break?

2. What do you want to change about next quarter? For example, complete all your homework, study more, never be late to a class, etc.?

Once you are done, we will compile your data about what everyone will do over fall break, just like we did last week. The data needs to be organized in a table just as we did last week.

After it has been organized, make conclusions about the information. For example, what is the most common thing your classmates will do over fall break? Are the young women doing similar things? Are the young men doing similar things?

What other conclusions can we come to about what people will be doing over fall break?

Again, as a group, compile, organize, and draw conclusions about your second survey item: what do students in the class want to change about next quarter?

Finally, work with your partners. Compile and analyze the data you got from surveying the younger students. Make a table for all of your data; see if you can make any conclusions about the answers you got.

Ask each other if there are any common heroes between the students you interview? Does it seem that students of a certain age group like a certain type of hero? Do heroes change as we get older?

Write down your conclusions to share with the class.

If time allows, all the groups will share their conclusions and we will see if we can answer our driving questions with the information each age group has found.

Driving Questions

Do our heroes change as we get older?

Do different groups of students have different types of heroes?


For your exit ticket, please click here (if you do not have an iPad, please answer the questions below on a sheet of paper).


Based on the results of our surveys, do you think our heroes change as we get older? Why? What data did you see tho supports this?


Based on the results of our surveys, do you think different groups of students have different types of heroes? Why? What data did you see to support this?

Thursday, September 29

Good morning, delightful 9E students!

Today we'll be continuing our practice with surveys.

Do Now: Survey at least three classmates about what their favorite subjects are. Record your answers as well as the student's name, their age, and where they were born.

We will compile the data as a class and come to conclusions together.

Name	Age	Birthplace	Favorite Subject

The table above is a way we can collect our data to help us analyze it in order to make conclusions about it.

Now that we've looked at our data, what conclusions can we make?

What do we see most? 

Do we see any patterns?

Can we come to any definitive conclusion?

How can we make our conclusions better? How can we get more information?

Let's come up with different questions to learn more about our classmates.

Before you leave class today, you and your partner need to decide how you will collect your data and what you will need in order to analyze it and make conclusions about it.

Click here for your exit ticket.