Here we go, guys. I can already tell this post is going to be long, so here's a rundown of the topics I'm covering:
Extrinsic and Intrinsic MotivationWhy do we do the things that we do? As you think back on your academic career, ask yourself, how much of your motivation came from outside factors like grades? How much came from your own interests? I suspect that quite a lot of your motivation came extrinsically. You know, like grades. Such is the nature of school. As you shift from high school to college, you will find that you have more opportunity to choose where you invest your time and energy. You will get to select your classes, your major, and eventually, your career. Now is a good time to start thinking about questions like:
Languishing to FlourishingI've been thinking a lot about motivation. And, ever since reading this article in the NY Times, I've been thinking a lot about languishing versus flourishing. According to the author Adam Grant: Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021. Grant also says that the antidote to languishing is something called flow. Flow is that elusive state of absorption in a meaningful challenge or a momentary bond, where your sense of time, place and self melts away. During the early days of the pandemic, the best predictor of well-being wasn’t optimism or mindfulness — it was flow. The WorkYour work for the 6th cycle has been designed to take into account all of this. I wanted to give you a genuine opportunity to experience intrinsic motivation here at the end of the year. You will basically be doing two things:
For now, let's focus on the personal project. Choose something that you want to work on, and work on it. Create a plan (see the project proposal below) and do it. This project doesn't have to have anything to do with English Literature. I'll be selecting something to work on as well, and I'll be writing and implementing my own project proposal to provide you with model texts. At first I was thinking about learning about and practicing the guitar, but now I'm wondering if I would rather knit a pullover sweater. I bought some green wool yarn from the Andes last Christmas, but I haven't gotten around to even starting the project. Maybe now is the time. How to Write Your Personal Project Proposal3.You will be writing a project proposal that outlines and designs a project of your own choosing. Any project of your own choosing. Can be literature related, astronomy related, skateboarding related, whatever related. Your whole proposal will be between 500-1000 words.
Here’s a list of the steps required in your project proposal:
Now let’s look at each of these sections in more depth. 1. Context WHAT are you starting with? In this section, you will explain your personal context for tackling this project. For example, if you are learning a musical instrument, what musical experience are you bringing to the project? What are your qualifications for executing this project? Perhaps, like me, you are coming to your project as a beginner. Do you have experience as a self-driven learner? 2. Challenge WHY do you want to undertake this challenge? What are your intrinsic motivations? Here you will explain your reasoning for selecting this project out of all the infinite possible projects out there in the world. Some things to think about as you address this section are:
3. Benefits WHY should we invest in this project? You need to convince me, your teacher (a role to be played in the future by your supervisor), that this project is a valuable use of our limited resources: time. Whereas in “Challenge” you define your personal intrinsic motivations, for “Benefits” you need to undergo some research to find extrinsic motivation. Use those AP Lang persuasion skills. I want to see your logos. 4. Deliverables WHAT concrete results will you have at the end of this project? Will you have a website, a song, a certain level of fluency in code? How will both of us know that your project has yielded some level of success? What will you have at the end of the project that you don’t have now? Your deliverable(s) must be concrete and measurable. Something you can show me. Each of your deliverables should also come with 500 words of written progress feedback/commentary. The register for your progress feedback updates can be casual, conversational, blog-like. 5. Success Criteria WHAT is your personal goal? I will judge you based on your deliverable stated in the previous section, but how will you judge yourself? Start thinking about that all important question and keep thinking about it forever: what does success mean to you? 6. Deadlines/Plan WHEN will the deliverables be, well, delivered? This document, your project proposal is due Friday, May 7. You will also have the following deadlines to submit three deliverables and progress updates:
7. Time Budget Now that you have your deadlines sorted out, WHEN will you invest in your deliverables on a practical, micro level? Now it's time to look at the time that you have. Just like a money budget, take stock of what time you have that you isn't specifically dedicated to other tasks. Then spend some of your time on this project. It can be a little or it can be a lot, but the time you invest needs to be specific. For example, because I learned to time budget with the Pomodoro Method, I will be knitting my sweater at least 25 minutes in the afternoons, every day. So each week I will spend around 3 hours knitting. (Probably more if my dad keeps wanting to have long phone conversations about his upcoming tomato crop.) Comments are closed.
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AuthorI'm a Houston high school teacher. Welcome to my adapted, socially-distanced, quarantined AP English Literature and Composition classroom. Archives
May 2021
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