Content Literacy: Students will have the knowledge, skill, and ability to effectively apply core content, the California State Standards, to real world situations.
- For each class, show examples of work you are proud of that demonstrates proficiency for each subject.
What do you have to show for all your years of schooling? How can you prove what you learned? Your Content Literacy page is the place do that.
Your Professional Portfolio should include evidence of curricular literacy in as many academic areas as possible.
The Rubric for the Learning Outcomes part of the Professional Portfolio Project says:
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Content Literacy ~
In the Content Literacy section, you must show AT LEAST 2 examples of your work from 4 academic disciplines Math, English, History, Geography, Chemistry, Physics, Art, etc. to reach the Advanced Column.
Examples include:
- For each class, students show examples of work they are proud of that demonstrate proficiency for each subject.
- Papers, & assignments & projects from your classes you are proud of & did well on.
- Certificates & awards for performance in subject areas.
- Test Scores: Golden State, SAT II, AP, SAT-9, or other standardized tests.
- Report Cards/Transcripts.
- Pre- and Post-testing Results.
- Art work.
- Scanned Homework Scores.
Your Page Might Look Like This:
Content Literacy is important because if you can show you're good at Math and English, you can get a job easier and get into college. It's important to be literate in all subject areas because bosses & professors expect kids to have learned what was being taught in High School. I have been at this school for 2 years - TWO YEARS OF MY LIFE! That time was well spent and I have the evidence to prove it: Digital Media | World Studies | Spanish | English | Biology | Chemistry | Math
In Adobe Flash we created transparent animations for the banners of our web sites. Above you will see an example of a complicated technique to let masked letters show through a rainbow colored background.
This is an image I created of myself in Photoshop for Art class. It is a relatively simple technique called Radial Blur that makes the image appear as if it's zooming, directing the eye of the viewer to the focus of the image.
In Digital Media I made this reflection image where I took two images of my face & manipulated them on different layers in PhotoShop to make it look like I was looking in the mirror.
Also for Digital Media I drew this image of the Grim Reaper, scanned it and used it for a background in my portfolio. This proves I'm good at using software programs like PhotoShop, but I can also draw. I think that understanding the digital world is essential for communication, but you can't loose sight of the old ways either...
This is a Folk Tale about how 5 finger ferns came to be. It was written on the Sophomore trip to the north woods. I attempted to use a traditional folk tale form of storytelling. Child's Hands A young woman wanted a child with everything she had, but she was unable to bare children. So she prayed, every sun and every moon, always thinking about it, always talking about it. After much persistence and no loss of hope, her prayers were heard, and the God of Children came to her. “I have heard your prayers, and I will grant you your wish, but with the beauty of life, there will also be pain and sadness as your payment because you have nothing else.” The woman did not care, all she wanted was a child, so she quickly accepted, and after many moons and many suns of waiting, the child was born. A woman child with a beautiful face, after being wrapped in a blanket she was given to her mother, who instantly loved her daughter. The other people in the room had worry in their eyes, and when the woman asked her husband pulled the blanket back and saw that her beautiful baby girl had no hands. The woman began to weep, she knew that there would be pain and sadness just like the God of Children had said, but she did not expect something this drastic. She loved her child though, and decided to do anything she could to protect her, to make her whole. When the woman was well enough to get out of bed, she went to the house of Gods and pleaded with the God of Children, “Please, not her hands, I will give you everything I have if you give her hands, I will give you my own, just please, not hers!” “In order to realize that true pain comes out of true beauty, you must live with your daughter the way she is, it is your payment to us, your sadness but also learning a lesson, one that is seldom taught anymore.” The woman fell to her knees weeping, she could not believe the words that were just exchanged, and she vowed to herself to make things right. On her way back to her house, she saw the village medicine man, one of the best in the whole of the tribe. She went to him and pleaded. “Please, help me with my child! Her hands, she has none, she was born without them, she will lead an unfair life, please give her hands!” The Medicine Man followed her to the child, and after two suns and two moons, the child had hands. The woman was happy, happier than she had ever been because her new baby would lead a full and happy life. There was a knock on the door not a half day after the Medicine Man finished his task, and when the woman answered the door, she saw a man, who introduced himself as the God of Children. She was instantly afraid, and clutched her child close to her. “You betrayed us, you were sneaky like a fox and tried to disobey us, and for this we will take your child away and give her to the land.” He said as he reached for the child, removing the woman’s fighting and tightening arms. She pleaded, “Please, anything but my child!” The child was now in the hands of the God, and she fell to her knees, “take me, not my child, anything but my child, please!” The God of Children said nothing, just turned around and left the house, the baby crying in his arms, and the woman weeping for her child in her doorway. The next day, the God of Children came to the woman's house again, she was so sick with despair she could barely get out of bed. “I will let you see your child again, but you must come with me now.” He said, and with that the woman was out of bed, on her feet, and following the God which just the day before she had hated. He lead her through shallow rivers, and up small cliffs, and when they stopped she saw nothing but a cliff and two small green plants. Even when the God pointed, and told her that her child was here, all she saw was the plants. She was very confused, and the God knew this so he explained, “Like I said before, your daughter is now a child of the earth, to be a constant reminder of your betrayal. Those small plants with the five small branches are your daughters hands, and your child is the seed that will make them grow. She is now a child of the earth, and you will always remember.” The woman could not find words, she only fell to her knees and started to dig, but the ground became hard as rock, and she was unable to dig. “There is no use, she is no longer a human child, she will not be the same to you” Explained the God, and then he turned to leave. The woman started weeping, harder than she had the day before, eventually after hours of begging for help and for someone to hear her apologies, she laid down by her child, and slept. She stayed there for many days, only moving to drink water from the small stream running by, and to pick nearby berries. After ten suns and 10 moons, someone from her tribe found her and tried to bring her back, but she would not go. She fought and would not give in. Her sister brought her food, everyday, hoping one day she would get up and move, but with each day she became weaker and ate less. The small creek started to rise because of her tears, giving everything around more water and life. The small plants that grew because of her betrayal became more abundant which only brought her more grief. “Goodbye my beautiful Fern,” Said the woman with her last breath, “may you live on forever and help people make the right choices with your five fingers, I love you.” As her spirit lifted to the heavens above though, it clung to the top of the cliff for one last look at her child, because she could see her soul in the cliff. Her final tears ran down the side of the cliff, and her child was released. They traveled together to the heavens, where they were finally allowed to be together and happy. ~Kirsten Here is something I wrote for World Studies about a current event around the world. It explains the plight of women in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban.
The Taliban, an Afghani political reigned from 1996, until it was toppled by a US-led alliance in 2001. The Taliban used brute force to enforce beliefs and laws instead of positive enforcement and democracy. Women were not at all equal to men, and it showed. Men were getting away with murder, literally!
Many people have tried to help, but many people are set in their ways, and things are changing, very slowly. For many people things are not moving fast enough, and they will not be able to see a time when women aren't’t living in fear, or being abused or raped as often and brutally as they are now. Sites to Look at: In World Studies, we wrote articles on WWII in a "Stars and Stripes" Newspaper format, as if we were presenting the events while they were happening. This is an excerpt from one of my articles on the Island Hopping strategy and the Navajo Code Talkers: "After our success over the Midway Islands a few weeks ago, our military leaders have come up with a few new strategies to help us gain final victory in this war against the Empire of Japan. Our military officials who are head of the war in the Pacific are Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nemitz and General MacArthur. These two men have come up with ideas such as using unique resources that can only be found in the land of the free and the home of the brave. As most already know, codes have been a major means for all sides to communicate within each other, and all sides want to protect their codes and make them as indecipherable as possible. Nemitz and MacArthur have now hired Native Americans from the Navajo nation to communicate and translate messages to American Military leaders. The Navajo language is complicated, and only spoken. The Navajo language also has no alphabet, and is unintelligible to anyone who has never carefully studied Native American dialects, there for making it quite indecipherable. Although, there are more details to the code than just the complicated language of the Navajos, our military leaders are very sure that none of our enemies will be able to successfully decipher our new form of communication...."
I worked with a partner on this project and I did probably 65% of the work. I collected the pictures and did much of the research myself. Click the picture to View the PowerPoint. In Spanish #2, I wrote an Iron Chef project where we made a menu for Chile. I learned how different food is affected by cultures and how to talk about food in a different language. Cazuela de Ave La cazuela de ave es preparada con pollo, cebolla, y ajo. El comino está en el platillo. Cose a fugo lento por veinticinco minutos. Rociamos el platillo con jalapeños.
Pastel de Choclo Pastel de choclo es preparado con carne de vaca, maíz, leche, y azúcar. Rociamos el paltillo con azúcar. Está horneado. El platillo es delicioso.
Alfajores Cuatro alfajores preparados con dulce de leche, huevos, y limón. Horneados por quince minutos. Los alfajores son pequeños y deliciosos. Cómelos. In English I scored very well on the Proficiency test, as you can see below.
Also in English I wrote a poem for my teachers: There once was a great group of teachers Once Friday had finally arrived Biology - Example #1: I had a perfect score on my biology test.
Biology - Example #2: Here is another biology quiz I did well on.
Chemistry- Example #1: Another good score:
In Math, for our Staingraph Window project, we had to make a pattern out of parabolas by manipulating a, h, and k in certain ways. After we made our patterns we colored them in to make "stain glass" type windows for our class room.
These are just a few examples of my high school life. Numerous other examples of my work exist but I don't want to bore you... |
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Women in Afghanistan 
When the Taliban fell, the women in Afghanistan were promised western-style freedoms, they were promised that things were going to change. In most of Afghanistan though, not much has changed. It is still dangerous over there for women, and not much is being done. “Even to talk about women’s rights can be very dangerous, the conditions are too difficult,” said Nisha Varia, of Human Rights Watch. 
Even though things are still bad in most places, there are places that are improving. In a recent election, women counted for 40% of the ballots cast. Also the first ballot was cast by a 19-year-old woman. Women are also coming into the working world, becoming things such as teachers and even police-women. 
In most places in Afghanistan, men can get away with almost anything, abuse is being over-looked, and when it is found out, the man is barely punished. “If you get sentenced to eight years, you can be out after eight months,” said an Afghani officer names Mohammed Dost. Another thing Officer Dost said was “Illiterate men do not know the value of a female, and if a man does not know the value of something he mistreats it.” He believes that about a quarter of the men beat their wives, which is terrible. Women are not even safe with their families. There have been many occasions where a woman was killed by a family member, a sibling or a parent for doing something that was not honorable.
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