Assignment/Activity
Title— Interdisciplinary Project: The Gilded Age & The Progressive Era
Year— Freshman
Skill—Writing,
research, group dynamics Portfolio
Category— Media and Communications
For the first CAP
interdisciplinary project, we had to work in groups to research a time period,
create characters for a narrative, and do a number of pre-writings and scripts
for the final presentation, where we would perform our narrative. The time
period of focus was the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. We had one week,
including one day for the presentation, to work on it diligently with our group
of three or four classmates. In the end, my group of Leah Savage and Lucy
Kelliher performed a successful narrative that we wrote ourselves. As a whole,
my group and I were pretty stressed out in the last two days of working, but we
managed to do well overall. After this first major project, I changed my work
habits for
other projects. I did not like being stressed out at the last
minute, so I made the change to get work done ahead of time and leave extra
time at the end of each work day to edit writing and review research, for
future projects. This method of working is very efficient, and it was important
that I learned how to work proficiently.
With this project, I discovered that I
really enjoyed working in groups, with other people that share the same
interests as I do, and want to work just as hard as I want to. Choosing a group can be difficult, as I
found in this project. There is a large desire to work with friends, but
sometimes you have to learn the hard way to understand why you shouldn’t always
work with people who may distract you. I chose to work with friends on this
project, and although I do not in any way think it was a mistake, I do believe
that I could’ve gotten work done faster if I had not had the distraction of my
friends in the way. Having fun
sometimes is ok, but when work needs to be done, it is not beneficial. I think
it is important to include this piece in my portfolio because it is a
reflection of the first real group project I have completed in CAP, and also
the first Interdisciplinary project. Completing it makes me feel like I can
take any challenge the CAP Program throws my way, and do my best at it. I
really understood the event of the Gilded Age/Progressive Era though this
project. Instead of rushing through assignments and new material, I felt as
though taking a one-week break to focus on one era really helped my
understanding of the time period.
If I could do some things differently, I do
not think I would choose a new group, but I do think that I would be more up
tight with my group members on how off task we are, when trying to work on the
project. Within the first two days, I would definitely try harder to get more
work done, so that my group and I would not be stressed during the last two
days and the final presentation day. I think others reacted well to our final
presentation. They seemed to enjoy our narrative, and find it funny, which is
an accomplishment. Our product was not as long, serious, or as detailed as
other groups narratives, but it was entertaining and gave information about the
Gilded Age/Progressive Era to out classmates.
After I learned so much about the Gilded Age/Progressive Era,
I started to look at my own life differently. I am now much more grateful for
living in a time where people are respected more, and are able to have
successful jobs, nice homes, and loving families. I received an “A” on this
project, which made me very proud of the work my group members and I did. I put
a lot of effort into creating a character that accurately fit the Gilded
Age/Progressive Era time period, and I had fun finding pictures that she would
have looked like. I am most proud of the final presentation. I tried with my
best acting skills in front of the rest of the ninth grade CAP group, and although
I was a little nervous, my group and I managed to make the audience laugh and
enjoy our presentation, which is a great feeling.
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