Deep Thinking for Creative Writers



Your Capstone Project – The Unauthorized VersionWe’ve spent 3 years building up your tolerance for pain – now it’s time to test our handiwork.The ProjectWhat the heck is a Capstone Project?Also called a?capstone experience,?culminating project, or?senior exhibition, among many other terms, a?capstone project?is a multifaceted assignment that serves as a culminating academic and intellectual experience for students, typically during their final year of high school. While similar in some ways to a college thesis, capstone projects may take a wide variety of forms, but most are long-term investigative projects that culminate in a final product, presentation, or performance. For example, students may be asked to select a topic, profession, or social problem that interests them, conduct research on the subject, maintain a?portfolio?of findings or results, create a final product demonstrating their learning acquisition or conclusions (a paper, short film, or multimedia presentation, for example), and give an oral presentation on the project to a panel of teachers, experts, and community members who collectively evaluate its quality.Capstone projects are generally designed to encourage students to think critically, solve challenging problems, and develop skills such as oral communication, public speaking, research skills, media literacy, teamwork, planning, self-sufficiency, or goal setting—i.e., skills that will help prepare them for college, modern careers, and adult life. In most cases, the projects are also interdisciplinary, in the sense that they require students to apply skills or investigate issues across many different subject areas or domains of knowledge. Capstone projects also tend to encourage students to connect their projects to community issues or problems, and to integrate outside-of-school learning experiences, including activities such as interviews, scientific observations, or internships (from The Glossary of Education Reform sponsored by the Great Schools Partnership).This whamdoozle of a project is your opportunity to showcase the wonderful skills and talents you have developed in your time here (or it is your punishment for being a slacker who was surreptitiously texting instead of paying attention and doing your work . . . which is precisely why you don’t know what surreptitiously means). No worries, though – by following the simple 367 step process laid out in this document, even a student who is dead from the neck up should have no trouble performing magnificently on this project (unless you are in Mr. Brenner’s class, in which case, you should consider a fifth year at Coop . . . and a large investment in Kleenex). And if you don’t do well, then that doesn’t mean you won’t graduate, it just means you won’t get to wear that ugly dress and cardboard hat for three hours of boring speeches about people you are pretty sure didn’t go to this school and future plans you are pretty sure do not apply to you.The project will consist of seven essential elements:The Proposal – this is where you pretend you know what you are doing and fill out a form that suggests as much. Due Monday, November 13thThe Journal – this is where you keep the notes, ideas, doodles, death threats, etc. you create as you work your way through this project. This will be checked on Tuesday, December 5th The Research Paper – this is that long boring thing you research and then write . . . it is long because you fiddled around with the font and margins to make your three pages of incomprehensible dribble look like seven pages of carefully crafted prose; it is boring because you are terrible (or lazy) at research and even worse at writing . . . but that never stopped Trump, so why should it stop you. Outline is due Tuesday, December 5th and your final draft is due Tuesday, January 8thThe Creative Piece(s) – these are the short stories, poems, or other creative pieces you wrote (and possibly illustrated), informed and inspired by your research, to accompany your presentation, demonstrate your talent and imagination, and distract us from how terrible your research paper really was. Final drafts due Tuesday, January 8thThe Artist Statement – also known as an artist’s statement, this is what people write to convince others there is some sort of larger purpose to their work rather than just admitting that they became an artist because they were terrible at sports (but still wanted to get dates) and math (but still wanted to be a nerdy loser). Final draft due Tuesday, January 8thThe Oral Presentation – this is where you break down because, as a writer, speaking to real human beings is just way outside of your comfort zone . . . but when you wake up in the Emergency Room, heavily sedated and somewhat confused, we’ll tell you that you did a marvelous job of explaining your research and showing how it influenced your crafting of the accompanying creative pieces. These will occur on Mondays – February 5th, March 5th, and April 2nd – yours will be on whichever date you are least prepared.The Reflection – this is when you take a good, hard look in the mirror and ask yourself who you thought you were fooling thinking you could be a writer . . . no, sorry, that’s what Mr. Brenner did for six years before turning the pent up rage and disappointment of his personal failure on his poor, unsuspecting students; for you, the reflection is just where you identify any insights that became available to you thanks to the work you did on this project. Due one week after your presentation.The PurposeSo why are students this year being tortured in ways that students in previous years never had to endure? Because someone finally realized that kids were graduating without really knowing or being able to do much of anything that would help them succeed in college – don’t blame yourselves . . . blame your teachers. If only we were more intelligent and more interesting, maybe you would have learned something from us. But clearly that is not the case, so now you have to go learn something on your own to make up for our incompetence. The good news is that we will be grading your work, and if you think we want you sticking around for another year, cluttering up our classes, and preventing us from reading School Time! fan fiction all day, you are in for a pleasant surprise . . . perfect scores for everyone (I mean, who is an easier grader than Mr. Brenner?).The ProcedureSo now you know what you have to do and why, let’s get to how you will do it, shall we?Read the entirety of this document and begin crying huge, gasping tears because the last semester of high school is going to require more work than the 11 years of schooling that preceded it. (Friday, October 27th)Start thinking about a topic of personal interest – your bellybutton doesn’t count – that you would like to know more about than any of the eighteen million people who blog on the subject regularly (perhaps Andean alpaca who grow and sell hallucinogenic fungi in the dark alleys of Machu Picchu).Do some cursory research so you can sound relatively intelligent in your project proposal.Try to sound relatively intelligent as you imitate the fecal offerings of a large male bovine in your official project proposal. (Monday, November 13th)Keep a journal that contains your notes, thoughts, ideas, angry images of the people you want to destroy, etc. as you do further research.Formulate a thesis (what you want to say about your topic) as you go . . . maybe even change it entirely.Research more, keep track of your sources, revise your thesis – keep track of it all in your journal.Start outlining your research paper – no, not the kind of outline they draw in chalk around dead bodies . . . that will happen later.Hand in your outline with an annotated bibliography – make sure to look up “annotated bibliography” beforehand. (Tuesday, December 5th)Start thinking about the creative piece(s) you want to produce to accompany your paper – these should be inspired, influenced, and informed by your research.Write your research paper – make sure you follow MLA (stands for “me look academical”) formatting guidelines and include an annotated bibliography.Work on your creative pieces.Write your artist statement – even though you don’t really know what that is and aren’t sure you are an artist anyway. Here are some suggestions for that:look up some examples on-linekeep it shortgrab?the reader’s interest with the first sentenceintroduce the author’s personality and enthusiasmgive a hint about the?why?of the artworkuse the first person (I, me, mine — this is not a strict rule, but it does seem to help the author write?a more straightforward, readable statement)Revise/edit everything you’ve written.Now get somebody who isn’t exhausted and who is a lot better at writing than you to help you revise and edit your writing further.Hand in your creative pieces, artist statement, and research paper with annotated bibliography. (Tuesday, January 8th)Pace back and forth as you think about how you are going to present all this to a bunch of cynical teachers who doubt you can even tie your own shoes, let alone write a proper research paper.Trip over your untied shoelaces . . . twice – the first time because they were untied; the second time because you accidentally tied your shoes together.Plan your oral presentation – a twenty-five minute period of torture (for your teachers) during which you will sweat profusely, mumble some incoherent nonsense that may or may not explain your research and how all that reading influenced your creative piece(s), answer a few questions from the audience, and maybe burst into tears.Get some feedback on your plan – throw it out and come up with a better one.Deliver your oral presentation. (This will occur on a Monday – either February 5th, March 5th, or April 2nd, depending on your luck.)Put on some dry undergarments and then write your reflection on the project and what you learned from the experience. (Reflection is due one week after your presentation.)Collapse from exhaustion.Find out you failed. (This will occur approximately 27 minutes before you were supposed to walk at graduation – maybe your family has someone else for whom they can cheer.)Repeat.The GradingSee rubrics . . . and then see me if you need clarification or want to know what sort of “pecuniary understanding” might allow you to avoid this project altogether. ................
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