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Parents and Community Members needed for February 7th and 8th Portfolio/Mastery Defense Days!

 

We are currently looking for assistance in the following areas.  Please contact Cheryl Lawton, clawton@smuhsd.org or 650-558-2603 to volunteer or request more information.

Hillsdale will pilot our Senior Portfolio Defense on the minimum days of February 7 and 8. On those days, all 12th graders will defend, for 50 minutes, a research project to a panel of teachers, community members and other students.  Senior Defenses will take place between 8am and 3:30 pm each day. Over the course of the two minimum days, other grade levels will be participating in the following activities:

-- 9th graders will spend one hour watching a senior defend his or her research, 2 hours attending professional career presentations, 1 hour attending an 11th grade college presentation;
--10th graders will be taking the California HIgh School Exit Exam (CAHSEE);
--11th graders will spend one hour watching a senior defend his or her research, 1 hour presenting his/her college research project to 9th graders.

1. Career Fair: 9th grade students will rotate through 25-minute Career Fair presentations that expose students to post-high school options. We are looking for parents or community members who can give a series of presentations on his or her career field. Time commitment: 1-3 hours, one or both days between 9am and 12 noon.

2. Panelists: We will need additional adults to act as judges during the defenses. There will always be one trained teacher in each defense to act as lead judge, but we want at least a second adult judge. We are not yet sure of our need, but would like to have a pool of volunteers in case we fall short of judges. Time commitment: 1 - 6 hours, one or both days, between 8am and 3:30 pm.

3. Student Support: There will be 5-7 underclassmen observing each of the senior defenses and those underclassmen will have to leave the room during the 20 minutes when the judges deliberate and then speak to the presenter. We are looking for adults who will watch the defense and then go out into the hallway with the 5-7 underclassmen to help them through a debrief assignments where they will fill out a rubric based on what they saw and then note the strengths and weaknesses of the presentation. The adult will then walk the students back to their advisory. Time commitment: 2-4 hours, one or both days, between 8am and 12 noon.

(See the information below for more information about Hillsdale's Portfolio and Portfolio Defense.)

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From the Administration: 12th grade Portfolio Defense   

Hillsdale's SLC Council voted in October to approve a formal portfolio defense for all 12th graders, starting this February. We have been discussing portfolios for the past decade and a great deal of hard work has gone into this decision.

At the heart of this change is our push to ensure that students graduate "college-ready", with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed after high school. While the focus of much of school reform is on multiple-choice tests, we want to ensure that students graduate with more a more applicable skill-set, including the ability to think critically, communicate orally and in writing, read for understanding and demonstrate responsibility.

The portfolio will facilitate these skills, which we refer to as our "Graduate Profile", by requiring students to select high-quality work from every content area to place in a portfolio. Students will select a "major" area of study and prepare to defend their major and a Mastery Project during their 12th grade year. Students will have one hour to explain their work and defend their thinking to a panel of judges, including at least one teacher who has expertise in the student's major.

This year's seniors will defend only their work on their Senior research assignment, now known as the Mastery Project. We are very excited about this new wave of school redesign and look forward to your involvement in your son or daughter's defense, and possibly as judges for other students.

Please let us know your thoughts.

Jeff Gilbert
Sandy Calvo
Cheryl Lawton