# Lesson 7.12: Year Reflection and Portfolio

**Unit:** Unit 7, Launch: Career Readiness and FACS Shark Tank (capstone; draws on Individual Growth and Life Readiness)
**Topic:** 7.2 FACS Shark Tank
**Grade:** 6 to 8 (written at grade 7; see Differentiation for the grade 6 support and grade 8 stretch)
**Days:** 1 class period of 40 minutes (day 180 of the year, the last day of the course)
**Room:** Classroom or FACS lab, with counter or table space for ten teams' posters still up from yesterday and a chair circle or horseshoe for the closing round

## Standards

- NYS module line: NYS IGLR 3. Employability d) Explore and implement strategies for career readiness
- NYS module line: NYS IGLR 2. Goal Setting d) Design, implement, and evaluate a plan to attain a desired goal
- NYS module line: NYS IGLR 1. Personal Development c) Predict areas of personal interests relating to the future
- NYS module line: NYS IGLR 5. Career Pathways a) Explore various careers within the 16 national career clusters
- CTE theme line: CTE CCO 4. Career Plans b) Assess personal characteristics such as interests, abilities, and aptitudes in relation to characteristics associated with careers of interest
- CTE theme line: CTE PSI 2. Design Process (Proactive) a) i. Evaluating their use of the design process and how it impacted their final solutions
- CTE theme line: CTE CCO 4. Career Plans d) Formulate a personal career plan that includes short-term and long-term goals needed to carry out the career plan
- NYS FACS Learning Standard 3 (Intermediate), Key Idea: Students will understand and be able to manage personal resources of talent, time, energy, and money and make effective decisions in order to balance their obligations to work, family, and self.; Performance Indicator: Students identify their own abilities and interests as possible guides to career choice.
- CDOS Standard 1 Career Development: Students will be knowledgeable about the world of work, explore career options, and relate personal skills, aptitudes, and abilities to future career decisions.
- National FCS 3.0: 3.1.5 Put together a portfolio that shows the skills consumer services careers call for.
- National FCS 3.0: 1.1.6 Build a life plan that lays out how to gain what a person must know and be able to do to reach personal, family, and career goals.

## Enduring understanding and essential question

**Big idea:** You cannot prove you learned something by saying you learned it. You prove it by pointing at what you made. One folder, with your name on it, holds a year of proof.
**Essential question:** What can I do now that I could not do in September, and where is the proof?

## Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. (Low) Assemble a Career Readiness portfolio containing all six Topic 7.1 and 7.2 documents and one artifact from each of the six content units, checked against the portfolio checklist.
2. (Mid) For each portfolio artifact, write one line naming the skill it proves, using the skill language from that unit.
3. (High) Write the year reflection answering four prompts with specific evidence from the portfolio, and name one skill from this course they will use first and when.

## Vocabulary

Tier 2 (general academic): evidence, assemble, reflect, proof, specific
Tier 3 (FACS): portfolio, resume, STAR, prototype, network, follow up, professionalism. See `Vocabulary 07.md`.

## Materials and setup

- `Handout 07.12 - Portfolio Checklist and Year Reflection.md`, one per student
- One two-pocket folder or a large envelope per student, labeled with their name. [Sal: about 25 cents each, or the school's own folders. This is the one thing from the whole year that leaves the building in a student's hand, so buy the ones that survive a backpack.]
- Every student's FACS folder from the room crate, plus the whole year's paper: lab rubrics, project rubrics, the room plan from Unit 4, the kit card from Unit 3, the investor report from Unit 2, the costed meal from Units 1 and 6, the careers self-checks, the safety exam
- The Topic 7.1 stapled sets returned: the resume, the three-part answer, the STAR planner, the interview feedback sheet
- `Rubric 07 - Career Readiness and Shark Tank.md`, fully scored, returned at the door with all six criteria and the total
- The sewn item from Unit 5, or a photograph of it if it went home. [Sal: take the photographs during Unit 5, not now. A student whose item went home in April has nothing to put in the folder in June unless there is a picture.]
- The posters from yesterday, still up, so the room looks like the year on the last day
- A single chair circle or a standing horseshoe for the closing round
- Slides: `Slides 07.12 - Year Reflection and Portfolio`
- Setup notes: put every student's named folder on their desk before the bell with their FACS folder next to it. The room should look like an inventory when they walk in. Sort the year's loose paper by unit into six piles on the counter before class; twenty-seven students hunting through one crate takes fifteen minutes and this lesson does not have fifteen minutes. Allergy check: none.

## Pre-assessment

The portfolio checklist itself is the pre-assessment and it is diagnostic in the first four minutes: a student who cannot find four of the six unit artifacts was absent a lot, lost things, or did not keep the folder, and that student needs the counter piles and a partner. Scan the room at minute six and see whose checklist is still empty.

## Do now and hook (Time: 4 min)

On the board: **"Write down one thing you can do now that you could not do on the first day of school. Anything. It does not have to be big."**

Debrief: take six answers out loud. Do not comment on any of them. Then the hook: hold up one empty labeled folder and say, "In forty minutes this is going to have a year of proof in it and your name on the front. And then you are going to take it home, because it is yours, not mine."

## Procedure

| Step | Teacher will | Students will | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Assemble the portfolio | Put the twelve-item checklist on the slide and read it once. Point at the six counter piles by unit. Set the rule: **one artifact per unit, and you choose which one.** Circulate to the students whose checklist is empty and hand them their own lab rubric from the pile. | Work the checklist. Put in the six Topic 7 documents (resume, three-part answer, STAR story, interview feedback sheet, the team's pitch materials copy, the numbers page copy) and then one artifact from each of the six units. Check each line. | 12 min |
| 2. The one-line proof on every artifact | Model it once on the board with a lab rubric: "This is Lab 3. It proves I can prepare and serve a dish for a station of seven inside a forty-minute period, on a written time plan." Then give the task: one line per artifact, on the checklist, naming the skill it proves in that unit's own language. Push with one question: "That is what you did. What can you *do*?" | Write one proof line per artifact, twelve lines total. Use the unit's skill words. | 9 min |
| 3. The year reflection | Hand out nothing new; the reflection is page 2 of the handout already on the desk. Read the four prompts aloud once and say the rule: **every answer names something in the folder.** Write silently. The teacher writes too, at the front, visibly, and does not circulate for the first four minutes, because a silent room is what makes this work. Then circulate quietly for the last three. | Write the four answers with evidence from the folder: what I can do now that I could not do in September; the hardest thing; the thing I am proudest of; the skill I will use first, and when. | 9 min |
| 4. The closing round | Set up the round: one sentence each, standing, going around, no comment from anybody including the teacher, and anybody may pass and come back at the end. The sentence is their choice of any line from their reflection. The teacher goes last, not first. | Each student says one sentence. | 6 min |

Do now 4 plus 12 plus 9 plus 9 plus 6 is 40.

## The reflection prompts (exact wording, on the handout)

1. **What can you do now that you could not do in September?** Name the thing and name what in this folder proves it.
2. **What was the hardest thing in this course?** Say what made it hard, and say whether it got easier. If it did not get easier, say that; that is a real answer.
3. **What are you proudest of?** It does not have to be the thing you got the best grade on. Point at it in the folder.
4. **What is one skill from this class you will use first, and when?** Give a real week, a real month, or a real situation. "Someday" is not an answer.

Optional fifth prompt for grade 8 or for anyone who finishes: **What would you tell a sixth grader on the first day of this class?** One sentence. These get typed and posted on the wall in September, with permission and no names.

## Questions to ask

Monitor understanding:
- Which unit is this artifact from? What does it prove?
- You wrote "I can cook." What can you cook, for how many, in how long?
- Your folder has six units in it. Which one is missing?
- Which of the twelve items would you show an employer first?

Deepen learning:
- You said the hardest thing was the interview. Was it hard because of the questions or because people were watching? Which one can you practice?
- Two people picked the same artifact and wrote different proof lines. Who is right?
- The skill you say you will use first is not from the unit you liked most. Why that one?
- A year from now, which one of these twelve pieces of paper will still matter? Make the case.
- What is in this folder that you would not have believed in September that you could do?

## Check for understanding

The twelve-item checklist, signed by the student and initialed by the teacher at the door as the folder goes home. A complete checklist with twelve proof lines is the "got it." Read the fourth reflection answer over shoulders during Step 3: a "got it" answer names a month, a week, or a situation ("in July when I ask about the summer job at the deli I will use the three-part answer"). A "needs more" answer says "in the future," and one question fixes it: "When? Give me a month."

## Closure (inside Step 4, 6 min)

The closing round is the closure and it is the end of the course. One sentence each, standing, no comment, pass allowed. The teacher goes last and says two things: one specific true thing about the class as a whole, and the line that ends the year:

"Everything in that folder you did. Not me. I set the room up and I set the clock and I asked the questions. You cooked, you sewed, you measured, you costed it, you stood up in front of four adults and said a price out loud. Take the folder home. When somebody asks you what you can do, do not tell them. Open it."

## What Sal should do with the portfolios

- **The folder goes home with the student.** Not into a file cabinet. This is the one thing from the year that has a use outside the building and it has no use in a cabinet.
- **Photocopy or photograph three pages per student before it leaves:** the resume, the year reflection, and the portfolio checklist with the twelve proof lines. Those three pages are the program's evidence, they take about four minutes a class to photograph with a phone against a wall, and they are what you show a principal, a department review, or an accreditation visit. [Sal: name where these live. A folder per year on your own drive, not the school's, so you keep it when you move.]
- **Keep nothing with a student's name on it on the website, ever.** The site shows the templates, the rubric, and the checklist. It does not show student work, student names, or student photographs. If you want to show a resume on the site, show the fictional worked example from `Handout 07.02`.
- **Type the fifth-prompt sentences over the summer, with permission and no names, and post them in September.** A sixth grader reading twenty anonymous sentences from last year's class on the first day is worth more than any syllabus.
- **Pull five reflections at random and read them in August before you plan next year.** Reflection answer 2, the hardest thing, is the best free curriculum feedback you will ever get, and it will tell you which lesson to rebuild.
- **The resume copies are the thing to offer in July.** Students who apply for a summer job in July will have lost the folder. A teacher who can email a student a copy of their own resume in July is doing something almost nobody does.

## Differentiation and supports

- ELL: the twelve checklist items and the four reflection prompts are printed in Turkish, Portuguese, and Spanish on the handout, from `Vocabulary 07.md`, and **the reflection may be written entirely in the home language**, with one sentence in English on the front of the folder. That is a deliberate choice: the reflection's purpose is the thinking, not the English, and the resume in the same folder is already in English. Sentence frames in all four languages for all four prompts ("In September I could not ___. Now I can ___." / "The hardest thing was ___ because ___." / "I am proudest of ___ because ___." / "I will use ___ in ___ when I ___.").
- IEP and 504 (general): the checklist is a checkbox list, so assembling the folder requires no writing; a student may dictate the twelve proof lines and the four reflection answers to the teacher or to a partner who writes; the reflection may be answered in two prompts instead of four, with prompts 1 and 4 required; the counter piles are sorted by unit so no student has to search a crate; extended time at lunch on the last day for any student who wants to finish, with the room open; the closing round allows a pass with no explanation and no return required.
- Grade 6 support: eight checklist items instead of twelve (the resume, the three-part answer, the pitch materials, and one artifact from four units of their choosing) and two reflection prompts, 1 and 4. Grade 6 proof lines may be a phrase rather than a sentence.
- Grade 8 stretch: the fifth prompt; a one-paragraph cover letter drafted to a real local place that hires at 14 to 16, using the resume already in the folder; and a written answer to a sixth question, which is the career plan line the state asks for: name one career you would try, one you ruled out this year, and the first thing after eighth grade that gets you closer to the first one. That last piece is where CCO 4. d) lands honestly at this age.
- UDL checkpoints used: multiple means of action and expression (the portfolio can be assembled by checking boxes, the proof lines and reflection can be written, typed, dictated, or written in a home language) and multiple means of engagement (the student chooses which artifact represents each unit, which makes the folder theirs rather than a teacher's inventory).
- No-presentation accommodation: the closing round allows a pass with no explanation. A student may hand the teacher a sentence on a card and the teacher reads it without a name, or not at all. Nobody is required to speak on the last day of school.

## Assessment

| Objective | Standards met | Learning task | Assessment (formative or summative; tool) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Assemble a twelve-item Career Readiness portfolio | IGLR 3. d); National FCS 3.1.5 | Step 1 | **Summative for the unit's Topic 7.2 completion,** scored on the checklist: twelve items present, complete, partial, or missing. Recorded in the Labs and projects category with the project rubric |
| 2. Write one proof line per artifact naming the skill | IGLR 1. c); CCO 4. b); Std 3 PI E; CDOS 1 | Step 2 | Formative; the twelve proof lines are read on the checklist and initialed at the door |
| 3. Write the year reflection with evidence, and name one skill and when | IGLR 2. d); PSI 2. a) i.; CCO 4. d); IGLR 5. a); National FCS 1.1.6 | Step 3 | **Summative. The year reflection is one of the two final assessments of the course** (the other is `Rubric 07`), per the grading plan, which says the capstone project and the year reflection serve as the final. Scored complete on four answers with evidence; not graded for writing quality |

There is no unit test for Unit 7 and there is no final exam in this course. The grading plan makes the capstone project and this reflection the final, which is why the reflection is scored and why it has to be written in class with time protected for it.

## Homework

None. It is the last day of the course.

## Connections

Inside the building: the school counselor, who should get a copy of the portfolio checklist, because a student who walks into a high school application conversation with this folder is a different applicant. FACS gives the counselor evidence of a student's skills that no transcript carries; the counselor gives FACS a reason for the folder to keep existing in ninth grade. The ELA teacher, for the reflection as a piece of evidence-based writing. Community: the July resume email above is the connection that matters most, and it costs one email.

## Sources

- NYS Middle Level CTE FACS Content Module 01, Individual Growth and Life Readiness, lines 1. c), 2. d), 3. d), and 5. a).
- NYS Middle Level CTE Theme Module 01, Career and Community Opportunities, lines 4. b) and 4. d); Theme Module 05, Problem Solving and Innovation, line 2. a) i.
- NYS Learning Standards for FACS (1996), Standard 3, Intermediate. NYS CDOS Standard 1. Wording per `02 Standards/STANDARDS SOURCES - web research.md`. [Sal: confirm against the NYSED PDFs.]
- National Standards for FCS Education 3.0 (LEAD FCS Education, 2018), competencies 3.1.5 and 1.1.6.
- Sal's own materials: the Career Readiness portfolio is the summative assessment named in his own FNES 538 interview lesson, where the revised "tell me about yourself" answer "becomes part of the unit-end Career Readiness portfolio, which is the unit's summative assessment." This lesson builds the folder that lesson promised.
- The course's own grading plan (`03 Course Design/03 Grading Plan.md`): "There is no separate final exam; the capstone project and the year reflection serve as the final."

## Teacher notes

- Sort the year's paper into six piles by unit before the bell. This is the single thing that makes the period work. Twenty-seven students searching one crate is fifteen minutes gone and the reflection is what gets cut.
- Protect Step 3. The reflection is the final assessment of the course and it needs nine silent minutes. Write your own at the front where they can see you doing it, and do not circulate for the first four minutes. The room will go quiet because you did.
- The proof-line question is "what can you *do*," not "what did you do." Ask it out loud twice. Students default to narrating the activity and the resume work in Lesson 7.1 already taught them the difference; remind them it is the same move.
- The closing round has one rule that matters: nobody comments, including the teacher. Not "that's great," not a nod, nothing. Twenty-seven sentences with no commentary is a serious thing and students can feel it. The moment you praise one, the rest start performing.
- Take the photographs of the sewn items during Unit 5. Every year, a third of the class will have taken the item home and have nothing physical for the Unit 5 slot. A photograph taped to an index card is fine, but only if it exists.
- A student who was absent for most of the year will have a thin folder and will feel it on the last day. Have three things ready for them from the counter piles and say one sentence privately: "This is what you have. It is real, and it counts." Do not make it a lesson about attendance on the last day.
- The folder goes home. Say it four times during the period. Students assume everything gets collected, and the fact that this one does not is the point of it.
- [Sal: the three-page photocopy (resume, reflection, checklist) is the evidence you will want when a principal asks what the capstone produced. It takes four minutes per class with a phone. Do it on day 180 while students are writing the reflection, not later, because later does not happen in June.]
- [Sal: you said this unit is the one that shows a school what is different about you. The artifact that makes that argument is not the pitch day, it is this folder. If you can hand a principal one student's portfolio checklist with twelve proof lines on it, the conversation about what you teach is over in thirty seconds.]