You can call it a passion project, a portfolio, a capstone, a demonstration of learning – heck call it anything you want. More and more, as I see these type of expressions of student work at the end of school years or the end of school careers, I am becoming convinced they should be regularly part of our system. And, in fairness, more and more they are the new normal in our schools.
Just over a decade ago there was a major push to move in this direction with the short-lived Graduation Portfolio. There are numerous reasons why it was abandoned. Two lessons I took from the experience, were 1) at the time the technology was not good enough to do what we wanted in terms of documenting learning and it became a paper-heavy process and 2) a cumulative portfolio or project should not be simply the checking off of boxes as tasks are completed, it needs to be more meaningful.
There are numerous different examples of these demonstrations of learning in West Vancouver schools. Some of these presentations are built into programs. We currently have four International Baccalaureate (IB) Programs in West Vancouver – two at the Primary Years level (PYP), and one at both the Middle Years (MYP) and Diploma levels (DP). In each of these programs students have a structure to bring their learning together. In the MYP Program, our Rockridge grade 10 students present an exhibition of their personal projects.
At Westcot Elementary, the Passion Projects represent seven months of exploration, discovery and learning. Students are given one afternoon each week to pursue any area of interest. Nearly 100 grade 6 and 7 students follow their passions, blog about their progress and ultimately present to the school community in a culminating exhibition. Whether the finished product is a graphic novel, a fundraiser for school supplies for underprivileged children or an animated short film, students are encouraged to reflect upon the process each step of the way. In this photo ( Credit – Cindy Goodman), Grade 7 student Rory Scott demonstrates the quarter pipe ramp for skateboarding he built for his project.
The most recent version of this type of learning I have seen in action in the Advanced Placement (AP) Diploma. These grade 11 and 12 students take two courses – AP Seminar and AP Research. These courses see students doing team projects, research based essays, and public presentations – all in a context of student choice. Students that take and score 3 or higher on 4 AP courses and complete the Seminar and Research course receive the AP Capstone Diploma. The Capstone Diploma is being piloted in a limited number of Canadian schools, including Sentinel Secondary in West Vancouver.
As we look out over the next five years, it would be wonderful if all of our students get a chance to pull together their learning – ideally at least once in the elementary grades and again during their high school career. As we work in the system to break down thinking of learning in content based compartments, there needs to be an opportunity for all our students to share their learning across curriculum and from inside and outside of school.
cultureofyes.ca 
I think this is a great idea and I love how that you are exploring how this becomes a part of school. Just some thinking
Can we push this further to not be a yearly thing and more of a continuous project? It is easy to fall into the idea that school happens in yearly chunks, as opposed to be continuous, which learning is. What can we do differently that starts connecting students learning continuously? Just something to think about.
Thanks for sharing the great work that is happening in your board! It always pushes the thinking of so many.
Do you know of any schools that have tried this? E.g. something along the lines of whole-school projects or learning-in-depth as described by Kieran Egan at https://www.sfu.ca/~egan/
Hi Glen – I know of some elementary schools that have taken on LiD and we have had some classes do it in West Vancouver. I haven’t seen it at older ages. When I wrote about Egan’s program a few years ago it started quite a conversation: https://cultureofyes.ca/2011/03/17/going-deep-about-one-thing/
Yes, absolutely George. I think we move in stages. As schools have embraced passion projects, capstones etc. the next logical move is to ongoing portfolios, especially as we look at reporting. While not as far along as our friends in Surrey, I have been very impressed with the work using FreshGrade coming out of our schools so far.
Thanks for the great post! In a similar vein, I’ve been reading Leaders of Their Own Learning by Ron Berger et. al – it has a lot of great stories about using portfolios with passage presentations, and everything that type of assessment can teach kids.
But I agree with George that there are fewer and fewer reasons these days to segment all learning into arbitrarily chosen units of time. I love the idea of using digital portfolios to help students tackle projects that last exactly as long as they need to – maybe months, but maybe years. Very exciting stuff!
Yes it is exciting times around digital portfolios – there are actually tools now that do what we have been hoping they would do for the last decade!
Taking a closer look at why the Grad Portfolios failed would be worthwhile, if we don’t wish to repeat the past. The 2 reasons you mentioned were certainly a factor, but the big reason IMO was that the portfolios were not tied to students’ contact time or teachers’ instructional time. This meant two things: nobody owned it (often left to administration to handle), and it did not qualify for any funding, so no enrolling staff could be assigned to ensure it could succeed. There are other factors to be sure, such as a lack of enticing models and the downloading of the portfolio as an “extra” to be picked up at the very end of duties in a school. The reality that admin were left to “check off the boxes” meant that teachers absolved themselves of the portfolio, which in turn was expedited so as not to be onerous. The best way forward, as you suggest, is to look at places where portfolios and capstone projects are working. The trick is for teachers and schools to network about this, then try it out. We should not wait for a ministerial directive (like the Grad Portfolios) — the moment it comes down as provincial requirement (especially if no funding is attached), it will fall into the same hole of distaste for educators. The best ideas comes from all around us — it’s a lot easier to envision a change to demonstration of learning and assessment if we see it done joyfully by colleagues.
Yes, you rightly point out that the lack of structure around grad portfolio was definitely also a factor. It is interesting that there are high schools around the province who have built structures for portfolios, exit interviews or other similar structures within the existing reality. Seeing the great participation from kids and teachers at Rockridge Secondary with their MYP grade 10 projects does tell me it is possible . . . so much of it is also related to the culture at the school. I would love us to more widely share models that are working for these type of passion processes and products.
[…] e-portfolio solutions like Fresh Grade – and the secondary efforts around Capstone projects. (HERE is a 2015 post on Bringing It All […]