New Grade 10 Students Choosing a Personal Project-due Sept.

11, 2013
Stage 1: Brainstorming on the back of this paper.
1. What do you like to do? I like to play soccer, help people that are sick and poor, I like to
discuss about politics, I like to play jazz.
2. What are you good at? I am good at playing the trumpet, spending time in Community
Service, science and etc.
3. What would you like to be good at but have never tried? I would like to be good at making a
documentary film.
4. What is something crazy that you would never do? I would never write a creative writing
piece of 100 pages.

Stage 2: Evaluating your list
1. Choose your top 3 options out of your list. Make those the tops of the columns below. You
could use a simple numerical ranking, like 5 is excellent, 3 is ok, 1 is poor.
2. Evaluate your options with these questions/criteria:
a. Personal Learning/Expertise: What will you learn by focusing on this goal?
b. Story: What will you accomplish? What story will you have about yourself when youre
done?
c. Personal Growth: Will this help you to grow as a person in the way you would like to?
d. Outside World: What will the university of your choice think of this on your application?
What will people you care about think? *Note: This is a reason to choose a particular
option, but definitely dont make it your only reason.
Criteria of Importance Example:
Artificial
Limbs for
Amputees
Option 1
A Documentary
on the
importance of
US Immigration
Reform
Option 2
Finding the
importance of
Soccer to help
people fight over
poverty
Option 3
Help fundraise
money to improve
hospital equipment
and research to save
the lives of the
people in this
country
Personal Learning/
Expertise
4 5 4 4
Story 5 4 5 5
Personal Growth 3 4 4 3
Outside World 5 4 5 5
TOTAL POINTS 17 17 18 17

Stage 3: Choosing
1. Using your top 3:
a. Think of the type of product you might create.
b. Think of the process you would follow and the specifications you would write for
success.
c. Choose your PP goal and write it out completely on the sheet provided.
Your Personal Project






Circle the Area of Interaction (AoI) for your project:
Health and Social Education
Human Ingenuity
Approaches to Learning
Community and Service
Environments
Writing: Why did you choose this one?

I chose these two AOIs because I, as a student, am investigating deeply to an abstract problem
and trying to educate myself to a point, in which I am able to teach the issue to my community. After
spending a month as an intern in congress, I found in interest in this area of government, so that is the
reason why I decided to make it in my personal project.




Specific

Measurable

Agreed Upon

Realistic

Time-based

S.M.A.R.T. Goal:
My goal for this project is to learn and present the importance of US immigration Reform in American Society,
in the next 5 months. I will fully investigate/interview 1 politician and 1 immigrant and 1 US citizen, to get first
hand information. With my research I will than present both sides of the argument using a trailer to get the
audience hooked, and in addition, I will create a graphical report, to have content and context to my project.


Product being created to achieve the goal:

Writing: Why is this the best product for reaching this goal?
This is the best product for reaching my goal because it shows that I have been educating
myself to the point where I can consider myself eligible to teach it to others in my community.

Design Specifications (What will success look like? How will you know when youve achieved it?):
Specification Did you achieve it?
How well? (Yes, No, In
between)
Justification/Evidence
Define what success will look like?

Having a well-written report that
shows all areas of impact of the issue.

Having a full understanding of the
issue, to a point where I am eligible to
teach it to pears.

Being able to grab the interest and
attention of the students, parents and
teachers in my community.

What you hope to learn?

I hope to learn and have a tight
connection with the immigrants
families, so I can understand the
suffering or pleasure they are feeling.

I hope I can learn in detailed how a
bill can pass through congress, senate
and then signed to the white house.

I hope I can learn the importance of
this issue and how it affects my life
and my personal opinions on the
issue.


Specifications for a Successful
Product

Having an interviewed with 1 US

citizen and 1 immigrant that is living
in the US, taking note on how
immigration laws in the US have
impacted their lives and the members
of their family.
Researching both sides of the
argument (Political, Economical,
Social and Ethical argument) on US
immigration reform, to be able to
present it to the audience and to
create personal opinion.

Having interviewed with 1 US
representative from Florida to analyze
their opinion and political partys
opinion on US immigration laws and if
a reform is needed.