It’s been a while since my last post. This tends to happen as summer fades and a new school year settles in. Part of it, though, has been that I’ve spent these past few months quietly investing in CTE Creates: Stories Behind the Skills. Something meant to help our students build passion projects of their own. I am writing now because I’ve finally reached a point where the work feels steady enough to share. Maybe not the summit, but a summit. I would certainly value any advice or feedback as it continues to grow.
In a few weeks, as prospective National Technical Honor Society (NTHS) members are presented with the expectations for induction, I’ll be introducing this project as part of that conversation. I plan to take a few minutes to lay out the project, its parts, and what they can expect as it takes shape. I anticipate that there will be questions that naturally come with something new. Here, most CTE students are involved in one of two groups: SkillsUSA or the National Technical Honor Society. With SkillsUSA already at capacity in terms of bandwidth, the NTHS felt like the right space to pilot this work.
This is what I am planning, and I welcome any feedback. I want to begin by framing it not just as an assignment, but for them to put a voice to the meaning behind what they have learned and their broader CTE experience. Students engaging with this project should not simply be completing a task, but should be making meaning. In CTE, particularly in the engineering technologies cluster (Auto Tech, Construction Trades, etc.), we’re always saying we don’t want students to simply be “installers” but problem-solvers. This work is meant to help them step into that. From there, I want to show them how the project works and what each part is asking them to think about. Some of this comes from a Diane Sweeney work I have been listening to as a school board member trustee, which keeps coming back to the idea that when you make thinking visible, you make it measurable in the sense that it can be understood and talked about.
So, here is how I plan to introduce this to students. I want them to see immediately that this is not a project handed to them, but something guided. Something designed to lift up what they already know and care about. Maybe that’s why the term “doorways” felt right. CTE students step through so many literal doorways. These could be shops, clinics, kitchens, traditional classrooms, and salons. So, offering them a doorway into reading felt like a natural extension of the world they already inhabit. That’s why one part of the project has to come from a text. After working in both the humanities and CTE, it is clear to me how absent reading can be in the CTE world. So, the project requires at least one text, not as a hurdle, but because reading deserves to be part of the CTE experience just as much as the hands-on work.
The “branches” come next. This is where students make their thinking visible by linking their text to the hands-on work and lived experiences that have defined their CTE program. If the branches show their thinking, the final passion project shows their unique CTE experience. Each branch represents a moment, experience, a text, or idea that has mattered to them, and the work is in showing how all of these pieces connect. With help from an Apple consultant who works with our district, we built the branches in Freeform so students can revise and rearrange anything except the text branch, which remains the one constant.
From there, students move into drafting, where connections begin to take shape. To help with this, the project features a set of reflective questions that students can use to guide their writing and make sense of what these connections actually mean. All of this work leads into the authentic piece they create at the end. Something original that pulls together their text, their branches, and the parts of their CTE experience that matter most to them.
The final project is where everything becomes visible. The thinking they’ve done, the connections they’ve made, and the CTE story that only they can tell. CTE Creates leaves the form of the project entirely up to students. The form should match the story that students are trying to tell. I also want to acknowledge a former and forever colleague who supported this work in countless ways and helped shape several of its components. We created a four-point rubric. It looks at clarity, connection, creativity, and reflection. It is not meant to carry tremendous grading weight or create pressure. It is simply there to help students make their thinking and their story visible.
I am including the link to the full project below, and I’d welcome any thoughts or feedback.
References:
Sweeney, D., & Harris, L. S. (2020). Student-centered coaching: The moves (Audiobook). Corwin.
