Validating your XP

In order for us to be able to validate your XP, and tell you specifically where you need to work in order to get the maximum points, you need to follow this process.

1. Open the "form" and save a copy.

2. Save the copy with the naming conventions indicated in the game:

3. Complete the form as you proceed through the activity.

4. Share your work with Mrs. Garcia and Miss Johnson by clicking Share and adding our e-mail addresses:
mgarcia@oakgrovesd.net
bjohnson@oakgrovesd.net

5. Copy the share link.

6. Go back to the quest, and submit the "share" link in the appropriate form submission link. make sure the link you turn in ends in "sharing". If it ends in pub, I cannot validate your XP, and you will have to do this process all over again.

7. Once you have submitted your form, either continue (if you are at a level that allows it), or do one of the side quests.

• If you have enough XP, the comments will include the password for the next level. 
• If you do not have enough XP, you must re-do/revise the work and resubmit. 

Why the blogs are not going away...

It is Friday evening again, and you are sitting in front of your computer. It is weekly blog time, and for the umpteenth time you are wondering why I decided to inflict this torture on my students. "Science is supposed to be about experiments, not about writing. No student in the history of the world ever had to do this!"

So, why do I do I ask you to write a weekly blog?

Writing is about communicating your ideas, and making your thought process clear to your audience. You write to tell a story, to describe an event, to inform people and often, to convince them that you are right. When you write about something, you have to clarify your thoughts and organize them. It often leads to questions you did not know you had, and ideas you might be unaware that you understood.

You already write much more than you think. Every time you text, tweet, blog, e-mail and post on social networking sites, you are writing. In fact, young people now are writing more than ever before. However, developing good writing, in any form, takes time and practice. Much like with any human endeavor, you will not one day just magically wake up and be a good writer. The sooner you start developing good writing habits and skills, the better your future prospects.

How will writing weekly blogs help me in high school and college?

As a high school student you will be expected to plan, draft, and complete error-free essays of about 1,500 words. You will need to independently select the appropriate form of writing for various audiences and purposes, including narrative, expository, persuasive, descriptive, business, and literary forms. You should produce complex sentence structures, and use sophisticated vocabulary. A recent survey conducted by Pew Internet & American Life Project  reported that "More than half of the sample (58%) report having their students write short essays, short responses, or opinion pieces at least once a week. Four in ten (41%) have students journal on a weekly basis." 

This continues to build as you move on to college. As an example, Nancy Sommers,  writing scholar and long-time Director of Harvard's expository writing programs, states: "Harvard students write a lot -- an average of 13 papers freshman year, with one out of four students in the sample group writing between 16 and 22 papers. (Sommers defines a paper as five or more pages.) In addition, freshmen typically write about 14 "response papers," one- to three-page exercises designed to prepare students for longer writing assignments. Although the number of papers drops each year, the typical length of papers rises, from five to 10 pages freshmen year, to 10-15 sophomore year, 20-25 junior year, and at least twice that length senior year." 

Writing weekly blogs is nothing compared to what you will be expected to do in a few short years. If you are deliberate about doing them, and put the effort into doing a better job each time, you will get to high school and college ready to tackle the more complex writing assignments. These weekly blogs will also tell the story of your journey as a writer, increasing your confidence in your skills, and providing you with writing samples on which to build. 

How will writing weekly blogs help me in my career?

No matter where you go or what you do, you will need to write. In 2004, the National Commission on Writing conducted a study of 120 major American corporations employing nearly eight million people and concluded that “In most cases, writing ability could be your ticket in . . . or it could be your ticket out.”

Survey findings also included the following:

• People who cannot write and communicate clearly will not be hired and tend to not last long enough to be considered for promotion. 
• Eighty percent or more of the companies in the service, finance, insurance, and real estate sectors actually test writing during hiring.
• Two-thirds of salaried employees in large American companies have some writing responsibility, either explicit or implicit, in their position descriptions.
• Half of all companies take writing into account when making promotion decisions. One succinct comment: “You can’t move up without writing skills.”

When the question "Are writing skills necessary anymore?" was posed in 2011 to several executives, consultants and business leaders from various disciplines by Joyce Russell from the Washington Post, the response was "Professionals spend more time each day writing and are inundated with written communications (e-mails, reports, memos and such), so it is imperative that employees be able to write succinctly and write well."

It will not matter how bright or skilled you are at your prospective career, if you cannot express yourself clearly in writing, or if your writing is riddled with spelling and/or grammar mistakes, you will loose credibility and job opportunities. Given comparable education and skills, the person with better writing skills will most likely be hired. 

Writing your weekly blogs develops the skills you will need in order to write things like:

• College applications
• Personal statements
• Financial aid applications
• College essays, theses, and dissertations
• Internship applications
• Job applications
• Résumés and cover letters
• Internal and external e-mails
• Formal and technical reports
• Memos and correspondence
• Corporate blogs
• Client proposals and sales letters
• Business negotiations

And yes, there's always those pesky standards...

In the Common Core State Standards there is a whole section just for writing in the content areas, which is why you are doing things like Writing Across the Curriculum, even in P.E. Your weekly blogs help determine what areas of your writing need explicit instruction. They help you practice to "Write routinely over extended time frames (time for reflection and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences." 

Your CCSS tests from now on will have you writing short answers and essays. For example, in 8th grade, your test booklet will have questions that look like: 

"Write an essay in which you answer these questions: In “Checkers,” Nixon argues that men who are not rich should be able to run for public office. One claim he makes implicitly is that he has served his country for many years. Another claim he makes explicitly is that he has not earned a lot of money in this service. Nixon provides a lot of facts in his speech. How does Nixon convince you that men like him, who are not rich, should be able to run for office? How relevant is his evidence, and does he provide enough evidence to show that he is not rich and yet serves his country well?"

followed by:

"At one point in his speech, Nixon quotes Lincoln, who said, "God must have loved the common people -- he made so many of them." What do you think the reference to common people means in this context? Explain what you think it might mean, as well as any historical or symbolic meanings the phrase might have in this context."

 How well do you think you will do if you have not taken the opportunity to develop your writing skills?

For those of you that have been blogging routinely since the year started, I invite you to look at your first post, and compare it to your latest one. I am sure that, like me, you can see the growth in your craft. Kudos to you.

If you belong in the group of students that tend to forget about the blogs, and wish they would just go away, know that I will not give up. Your future careers depend on it.

References:

• Purcell, Kristen, Judy Buchanan, and Linda Friedrich. "The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing Is Taught in Schools." Part II: How Much, and What, Do Today's Middle and High School Students Write? PEW INTERNET & AMERICAN LIFE PROJECT, 16 July 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Teachers-technology-and-writing/Main-Report/Part-II.aspx>
• Sommers, Nancy, and Laura Saltz. "The Novice as Expert: Writing the Freshman Year."College Composition and Communication 56.1 (2004): 124-49. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~tamoriarty/compresearch/somers/sommerssaltz.pdf>.
• NATIONAL COMMISSION ON WRITING FOR AMERIC A’S FAMILIES. Writing: A Ticket to Work or a Ticket out. Rep. College Entrance Examination Board, Sept. 2004. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/writingcom/writing-ticket-to-work.pdf>.
• Russell, Joyce. "Career Coach: Are Writing Skills Necessary Anymore?" Washington Post. N.p., 22 May 2011. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-05-22/business/35265130_1_skills-applicants-business-leaders>.
• "English Language Arts Standards » Writing » Grade 6-8." Common Core State Standards Initiative. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/WHST/6-8>.

How to write an option 2 blog - Science Article summary

FIND AN ARTICLE

Here are some links to good places to find articles:

Science News for Students

Science News for Kids

Time for Kids - Science

Eurekalert - AAAS

National Geographic

DOGO News

WRITE YOUR SUMMARY

A summary restates the main ideas of an author in your own words. It keeps the essential information from the original passage while eliminating most supporting details, such as the examples and illustrations. A good summary makes the author's ideas clear, perhaps even clearer than in the original.

HOW TO WRITE A SUMMARY

1. Preview the article to get an idea of what it is about. Read the title, headings, first paragraph, first sentence of the following paragraphs, and the last paragraph. 
2. Read carefully. Write the main idea of each and also make notes about the purpose of the paragraph (For example, does it provide examples of a main point or serve as a transition to another point?) 
3. Express in one sentence the thesis or main idea of the article. A good model for your first sentence is to include the author's name, the title, and the thesis. In "Essays to Read at the Beach," Frances Payne (discusses, states, argues). . . THESIS OF THE ARTICLE. 
4. Write your first draft, using your notes. You can keep this draft simple by following the order of ideas in the original.
5. Go over what you wrote and put the finishing touches (this is your final draft). Is there anything that is still unclear? Explain it.

REFLECT ON IT

In about 5 sentences, tell us how the article affects our community, the environment, the future, or us. This part explains to your reader why the topic discussed in the article matters. Describe what you see as possible effects of the research and/or give your personal opinion.

CITE IT

In order for your readers to be able to find the article and read it for themselves, it is important to provide an accurate citation. Giving the URL is not enough since there are times when URLs change or get moved. In order to simplify this, you may use http://www.easybib.com/. Enter as much information as you have and create the citation. You may then just copy/paste it into your blog.

Tutorials: Tellagami

Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick (30 seconds) animated "Gami" video. If you use this for your weekly reflection blog, I suggest you use one or two for the learning piece, and then one or two more for the reflection. The app must be downloaded into your iPad or android device to use.

1. Click on Create.

2. Change the character, emotion and background to something you like. Then, click on record.

3. Click on the record button, and begin speaking. 

4. Once you finish, it will say "Analyzing your voice". Wait until it is done.

5. Click preview to see if you like it. If not, repeat from step 3.

6. When you are satisfied, click on the share button.

7. Wait while it creates the video.

8. At this point, you may send it to yourself, and/or just copy every character into a web browser in order to access the actual video.

9. Proceed with the tutorial for embedding the video into blogger.

Tutorial: Embedding videos in blogger

For the purposes of this tutorial, I will be using tellagami. However the process is basically the same for all videos. The key is finding that pesky embed code.

First, navigate to the URL of the product you created

Click on the share button

Highlight the embed code by left clicking on it. Then click Ctrl C.

Go to your blog, and create a post as you usually would. Make sure you include a title.

Now for the tricky part. Position yourself at the last line of your post, and click on HTML.

The HTML is now visible. Don't fret if you see a bunch of things "you did not add", you did, so do not change anything. At the very end of anything on the screen, click paste (or Ctrl V).

Make sure your addition starts with <iframe     and ends with </iframe>. Now click on Compose, and you should see the video ready to be played.

Educreations embed code:

Schooltube embed code:

Glogster embed code:

GoAnimate embed code:

Tad different since it starts with <aref   . Just make sure you copy and paste the whole thing.

Tutorials: Google Drive - Publishing your documents

I prefer that students publish their documents as soon as they create them. However, most of them are wary of publishing before the document is done. I like to compare this to giving out party invitations. When they are handed out, you are giving the location and date of the party, however your guests will not arrive until the day of the party. Same here, by giving your audience (teacher) the published link, you are just making sure that he/she has the URL on the due date, but we will not show up to grade until then. In any case, to publish your document:

1. With your document open, click on File, and then publish to the web.

2. Make sure both options are selected ("Require viewers to sign in with their Oak Grove School District account" AND "Automatically republish when changes are made"), and then click on start publishing. A pop up will appear that asks if you are sure - click Yes.

3. Left click to highlight the published document link. Then press Ctrl C to copy it.

4. Depending on how you are asked to submit the work, you can loopmail it to your teacher by logging on to schoolloop and pasting the link inside a loopmail. However, most often my AdVENTURE students will need to submit it through Edmodo to a posted assignment. The key thing you must make sure of is that the submitted URL starts with https://  and ends in /pub.

For example:

https://docs.google.com/a/oakgrovesd.net/document/d/1lJGLDhgiIqp023rc4Cs7MiaZug7P6OHDvvh2r8bDtCM/pub

Tutorials: Google Drive - Creating and sharing a document

If you have an oakgrovesd.net account you have a Google Drive account. To log in, simply navigate to Google Drive, and enter your oakgrovesd.net username and password. There are two possible screens:

1. Oakgrove School District: Enter your username without the @oakgrovesd.net. Enter your password.

2. Regular Google Drive: Enter your full oakgrovesd.net email address and password.

3. The type of assignment you wish to complete will dictate the type of document you will create. Most often you will need to create documents so I am giving instructions for it; however, the same functions apply to all. Click on the red Create button and select document from the drop down menu:

4. Give your document a name and begin drafting your assignment.

5. Drive allows you to work with other students on the same document at the same time. In order to do so, click on the blue share button.

On the sharing screen, add the complete oakgrovesd.net e-mail addresses of the people you are sharing with (separate multiple editors with commas or enter), and then click on share and save. The document should appear immediately in the shared folder of the people you added. If not, go back to share and make sure you spelled everything correctly.

6. You are now working together; YAY!

Tutorials: Blogger Posts

To post to Blogger, simply sign in with your oakgrovesd.net account.

Once you've signed in to Blogger, you'll see your dashboard with your list of blogs.



Here's what you need to do:

1. Click the orange pencil icon of the blog you want to post to.


2. Next, you'll see the Post Editor page. Start by giving your post a title (NOT optional), then enter the post itself:

3. As you continue to work,  save often. You do not want to lose anything.

4. When you're done, click the Preview button at the top to make sure it's ready to go.

5. If there is anything that does not look right, FIX IT. Most often the issues are with formatting (i.e. you added a color that matches your background, or you brought in text from another site). The easiest way to fix this (although it will require work), is to remove the formatting from the section(s). To do this, Highlight the section(s) in your post, and then click the Tx button.

6. Reformat and click preview again until you are satisfied.

7. Click the Publish button to publish your post. Your audience will not be able to see your post until you have done this. If you are revising a post, this button will say Update. You must still click it for us to see the revised post.

Example reflection in LA using worksheet

The topic we discussed was transitions. I learned that transitions help the reader follow ideas. An example of a transition phrase is "In conclusion". This transition would give the reader the idea that the topic is being wrapped up.get where to use transitions in the rest of the essay. I cannot just start every paragraph with "In conclusion" because then my essay would not make sense. In order to figure out what to do, I need to know what other transition words cane I use in the middle of an essay to make it flow better. When I know some other transition phrases, I expect my essays to be more cohesive and easier to understand.

Example reflection for science (using the worksheet)

Reflection:

The topic we discussed in class this week was viscosity. I learned that viscosity is the resistance of a substance to flow, and that it can be affected by temperature and composition of the substance. I have seen how temperature affects viscosity when I butter is left out of the refrigeration. As the temperature of the butter increases, it becomes softer (AKA less viscous), making it easier to spread (flow). During our experiments, I also saw that viscosity is affected by composition. The magmas we tried were made with different ingredients, so they had different viscosities. We actually saw them flow at different rates, which proves that composition affects viscosity.
I still don't get how just modifying the amount of silica in a magma could change the viscosity. Sure it worked when our examples were made from different things, but if they have the same thing the viscosity should remain the same. In order to answer this question, I need to ask or find out how just changing the amount of a material like silica could change the viscosity of a substance. I could also research what is the shape of silica in rocks since that could also give me an idea of why silica affects viscosity.

What is a self-reflection and how to do one...

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter.” ~ Confucius

What is a self reflection?

Do you ever feel like you are running from one activity to another, or studying a mad rush of one subject after another? When things happen at such a fast pace, it is easy to lose sight of what you are doing, or what you are learning. It is important to stop yourself every now and then to think about what you have been doing or learning. Self reflection means stopping the mad rush of activity and calming yourself and your mind so your brain can evaluate the input it has already received.

Self reflection is an essential skill for a successful student. It allows you to compare your work over time, create evaluation criteria for a project and discuss your strategies for reading a difficult piece of text. It gives you an opportunity to step back from your work and think about your own efforts and feelings about the topic and the learning that took place. These are qualities of self-directed learners, not passive learners.

How to write a self reflection

• Find a quiet place. 
• Jot down some notes on things that you learned in this week that you did not know before. (These are the things that go in your first paragraph).
• Let your mind ponder on the notes you have written and make some connections. Just pausing to think deeply allows your brain to make connections so that new information can be quickly retrieved when you need it again. Next, think about things that you still wonder. For example, maybe you learned about a certain body system, but you’re not sure how it works together with the other body systems. Maybe you learned a new way to solve a math problem, but you’re not sure when to use it. Writing down your questions will help you remember to continue seeking answers the next time you are exposed to the same topic. 

Time to make way for new ideas!

References:

• Lew, Magdeleine D. N., and Henk G. Schmidt. "Self-reflection and Academic Performance: Is There a Relationship?" National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 05 May 2011. Web. 19 Sept. 2013.
• Greene, Maxine. "The Importance of Personal Reflection." Edutopia. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2013.

Blogging

You recently asked me what is the purpose of the weekly blogs. Let me try to explain.

What is a blog in education?

A blog provides an organized record of your thoughts and ideas related to an educational experience. It includes not only what you learned, but also your own understanding of the topic and your reflection on the learning experience. It is a space to develop your writing and critical thinking skills, as well as strengthen your connections between concepts.

What is the purpose of the blog?

Blogs in education serve several purposes:

1. Blogging provides you with an archive of your learning experiences and your thoughts on them. If your blogs are complete, you have all the resources available to you as you sit down to complete your projects, since you have a record of the work you have already done. For example, you do not have to re-read the articles that you need to cite since you already have them cited, and you already have written down your ideas on their meaning. You have also already made the connections to other articles or experiences, so in reality the work is already done, you just have to do a final write up.

2. Blogging allows you to track how far you have come. By providing you with a written record of all your accomplishments, you are able to look back on yourself and have evidence of how much you have accomplished.

3. Blogging allows you to learn and practice the writing and reading standards. Since you are writing for an audience beyond the teacher, you are more likely to check your spelling and grammar.

What does my weekly blog need to have?

Idea & Content

• What is the topic? 
• What did we do? 
• What did you learn/understand? 
• What connection can you make? 

Reflective Thinking

• What will you do with this new knowledge? 
• How did you grow as a student? 
• Why did you choose to talk about this?

Finally, for those of you that think that I might not practice as I preach, Here is the link to my own professional blog, Teaching above the test, I invite you to visit.

What does failure mean?

As we have been working on our blog posts about the importance of Science and the Scientific Method, I keep stumbling upon big insights about the nature of Science. This is my response to some of you on the topic of Failure in Science.

Let's face it, no one likes to fail. Even worse, we (the grown-ups around you) are constantly drilling in you the need to succeed (AKA not fail); to get every answer correct. The reality is that failure is a part of life. In Science, experiments don't always go as planned, hypothesis are oftentimes dis-proven, the data we collect does not look right, or varies so wildly that we need to re-think what we are doing.

"Scientists fail all the time. We just brand it differently. We call it data." - Anissia Ramirez

In STEM, failure is very often our friend. Now, I'm not talking about committing to build a bridge, and not being exact in what you are doing so that the bridge, well, fails. I am talking about  the idea that failure leads to people trying harder and coming up with different solutions to a problem. STEM uses failure to teach us persistence and resilience. Failure is instructive to the design and innovation process; Trial and error (AKA "fail a lot") are the basis of innovation.

A failed experiment is only a fail if you stop and give up. If you attempt to do something and fail, but you keep trying and end up doing or producing producing something else, you have not failed; you have produced some other result. If you ask “What have I learned?” and “What have I done?”, you are paving the way for innovation.

I invite you to check out Michael Michalk's blog post about Famous Failures

Have the courage and strength to fail, pick yourself up and continue the journey!

Back to School Letter

Our Class

This year we will work with a modified block schedule. This means that we will see each other twice a week for two consecutive class periods, and once a week (on Wednesdays) for our 20% time - more on this later. Bearing this in mind, be ready to work on your projects outside of class, and always come prepared. If you need to have something ready, make sure you do have it, since you will not get a chance to recover at a later class.

Classroom Expectations

Project Based Learning

We will continue to use project-based learning tasks as our staple delivery, in order to grasp the relevance of the curriculum and obtain college and career readiness skills. It is imperative that all assignments, homework, and readings are completed well BEFORE deadlines and due dates. The level of rigor in this class will allow NO TIME TO WASTE. You are in control of your own learning!

If you are curious about some of our projects, visit the Adventure website where you will find links to exemplary projects from previous years.

Paperless classroom

As much as possible, I try to run a paperless classroom. In order to do this, I will teach you how to use several cloud-based tools in order to gather, sort, analyze and communicate information. Some of the tools you will learn to use effectively are Google Drive, Blogger, Wix, Prezi, Diigo, Edcanvas, Glogster, Smore, GoAnimate and Edmodo. You will learn more about these tools as we need them; and I will be giving specific instructions for their use. Please review the AUP included in the green sheet carefully, as you must abide this policy in order to maintain a professional online presence.

I love new tools, so if there is something you would like to use or see, let me know, and we can see about integrating it.

You also must know that this does not mean that you should not have a notebook and writing materials with you at all times. Your notebook is where you will gather your experimental data, as well as any notes that can then be uploaded as needed.

This also means that any paper given to you is important. If someone took the time to make all those copies, and I broke my own "paperless" rule, it is for a reason.

EDMODO

Edmodo is where you will find all assignments, quizzes and classroom resources. It is vital that all STUDENTS sign up in order to have full access to our classroom resources. Parents can sign up, too. Edmodo will help you to keep up with due dates, tests, quizzes, and more. It will serve as your personal at-home tutor as I will often post videos of instruction, as well as additional materials and simulations to enhance your learning experience. You will also use Edmodo to work collaboratively with other students in class, and in other classes. This year, all students will join two groups for science class:

1. 13/14 AdVENTURE 20%

2. 13/14 ADV________ (your cohort group)

I will be giving out codes soon, and will expect you to join ASAP. Remember, all of our assignments are EDMODO assignments.

Those of you totally new to Edmodo might want to watch the video below, (created by a wonderful Edmodo teacher, Travis Monk of Indiana U.S.), to get a good understanding of how you can get the MOST out of your Edmodo student account.

7 HABITS STARTING THE NEW SCHOOL YEAR

(Created by an amazing EDMODO educator, SANDY KING)

AdVENTURE 2013/2014 Green Sheet

For more information regarding grading, late work policy, AUP, rituals and routines, etc. click on this link to get to theGreen Sheet.

Contact information:

Students, it is always faster if you post your questions or comments on Edmodo.

Parents, I make a concerted effort to answer all schoolloop e-mails within 24 hours; you may also use my district e-mail (mgarcia2@ogsd.k12.ca.us), but it usually takes me a little bit longer to respond. Phone calls, especially during school hours, are harder for me to get to.

e-Portfolios at AdVENTURE

I have been looking for a way for my students to understand what exactly it is to become a life-long learner.
How do I get students to "get" that the work we do can be so much more than just another assignment? That their effort goes beyond the classroom and can have an impact on their future lives.

As all students do, the learners that come into my classroom complete assignments, discuss their work and show what they have accomplished to myself and the class. Whenever possible we post things on the walls, on our website, and even create collections using QR codes. However, as we move towards a more paperless classroom, and with the availability of most of our work in digital formats, and often in the cloud, I am moving towards having our students create digital portfolios that they can continue to use beyond our four walls, to showcase what they have accomplished, not only to me and to the class, but to their parents, future teachers, and if they choose to the world.

How exciting it would be to have a collection of artifacts that they can use to demonstrate their growth. How incredible to have available work that they did in middle-school as a basis for their Master's thesis!

What is the purpose of the digital portfolio?

To demonstrate the student's achievement of the knowledge and skills they acquire throughout AdVENTURE. The e-Portfolio will show the growth and improvement of the student in all curricular areas, as they read, discuss and respond to the learning opportunities presented to them, becoming a thoughtfully arranged collection of multi-media-rich documents that the students compose, own, maintain and archive on the internet.

What are the components of the digital portfolio?

Tier 1: Portfolio as storage: 

As students respond to an assignment, they create digital artifacts using several tools such as Google docs, Glogster, Pixton, etc. These artifacts are organized and stored in the cloud. 

Tier 2: Portfolio as workspace:

Students use Blogger to capture background information on an assignment, and respond to prompts. Students use close reading strategies and collaborate in Diigo to annotate web-based articles and hyperlink their work to their blog in preparation for Tier 3.

Tier 3: Portfolio as reflective journal:

Students use Blogger to reflect on their learning as represented in the samples of their work. Students answer to prompts that require meta-cognitive abilities.

Tier 4: Portfolios as showcase:

Students organize a presentation portfolio around a set of learning outcomes, goals or standards, hyper-linking to the supporting documents. Students think back over the learning represented in the specific artifacts selected as evidence of learning, and present their rationale for why they believe these artifacts are clear evidence or their achievement of learning.

In addition to answering the "What?" and "So What?" questions, students address the "Now What?" question to include future learning goals in their presentation portfolios.

How will the portfolios be assessed?

Through all the different tiers of portfolio development, students will be given the option to update the work, based on the feedback and the rubric. The power of peer review comes into play, as students comment on and provide feedback. Parents and mentors can also become participants in the development of the student portfolio, providing opportunities to connect with student's opinions and ideas, and share intellectual curiosity.

Examples please!

References:

• Barrett, Helen. "EPortfolios with GoogleApps." EPortfolios with GoogleApps. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Aug. 2013. <https://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/>
• Barrett, Helen, and Jonathon Richter. "Reflection for Learning." Reflection for Learning. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Aug. 2013. <https://sites.google.com/site/reflection4learning/>.
• Hertz, Mary Beth. "Using E-Portfolios in the Classroom." Edutopia. N.p., 30 May 2013. Web. 24 Aug. 2013. <http://www.edutopia.org/blog/e-portfolios-in-the-classroom-mary-beth-hertz/>
• Brown, Mary D. "Using Technology | Electronic Portfolios in the K-12 Classroom."Education World:. N.p., 14 June 2011. Web. 24 Aug. 2013. <http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech111.shtml>.
• "EPortfolios Portal." EPortfolios Portal. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Aug. 2013. <http://www.danwilton.com/eportfolios/>.
• Lorraine Stefani, Robin Mason, and Chris Pegler. The Educational Potential of E-Portfolios: Supporting Personal Development and Reflective Learning. New York City : Routledge, 2007.