12th Grade — Midterm Capstone Showcase: Where We Stand

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

If someone only saw your work today, halfway through this final stretch, what would they assume you still need to work on?

🎯 Today's Big Question

Halfway through this final stretch, what does our work actually prove -- and what's still missing?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Present current portfolio and specialization work to a real audience (staff, underclassmen, or family).
Give and receive specific feedback on work in progress, not just finished pieces.
Identify concretely what's left to complete before the true end-of-year showcase.

🧰 What You'll Need

Current portfolio
Specialization piece (finished or in progress)
Showcase space

📋 Your Plan for Today

Day 1: Prepare

Do Now (5 min, above).
Prepare (30 min): select what to show and prepare a short presentation, including anything still unfinished.
Rehearse (10 min).

Day 2: Showcase & Plan

Showcase (30 min): present to a real audience and collect feedback.
Plan (10 min): write a specific to-do list for the rest of the semester based on the feedback received.

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

Day 1

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

Day 2

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

📚 Key Words

Work in Progress: Unfinished work shown honestly as unfinished, so feedback can still shape it -- not hidden until it's 'ready.'
Checkpoint: A planned moment partway through a long project to check real progress against the goal.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Presentation assessed for honesty about progress, not just polish; to-do list checked for being specific and realistic.

Exit Ticket: What's the single most useful piece of feedback you got today, and what will you actually do about it?

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week, add your best finished or in-progress yearbook (or, later, studio) work to your portfolio with a 1-2 sentence caption -- and once you're in the Design Studio phase, a photo of the piece in its real, installed location if possible. This is the same evidence trail you'll use for Archive & Portfolio and any PBAT/portfolio review.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “Midterm Capstone Showcase: Where We Stand.” This project asked: “Halfway through this final stretch, what does our work actually prove -- and what's still missing?” I used Work in Progress by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🔗 Want to Learn More?

No extra links for this lesson.

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same public-presentation practice a Theater or Public Speaking class demands.

Career Connection: This is literally a client check-in — the kind every freelance career on this site does mid-project.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Record the showcase and use it as a practice reel for real interviews. Start here: set up and test the camera and audio before the showcase starts, not partway through it.
Write a public "halfway through senior capstone" post documenting the milestone. Start here: write down the one thing about your project that changed the most since it started — that's the post's headline.