One of the major goals of the Danville Independent School District’s Deeper Learning team has been to improve the planning, process and rubrics for students’ gateways and capstone projects.

Chief Academic Officer Suzanne Farmer said that gateways and capstones have been a big part of the DISD for about 15 years, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing outside people in as panelists was not possible. Now, the process is being revitalized.

“After COVID, we had gotten away from having outside people come in as panelists and that deep community connection, and we’ve been fortunate with the community schools grant to really foster some true partnerships with people co-creating the work with us,” Farmer said.

What these partnerships have brought is an opportunity to have some schools’ gateways and capstones offsite.

Community members can be panelists for capstone presentations. Fifth grade presentations will take place at Boyle County Public Library on May 15, 16 and 19. Eighth grade presentations will take place at Bluegrass Technical and Community College (BCTC) Danville campus May 14-16. Seniors’ presentations will be at Danville High School May 7 and May 8. Interested individuals can use the Google Form linked below or contact Director of Full Service Community Schools Dakota Yates at dakota.yates@danville.kyschools.us.

Capstones Sign-Ups

This is also an opportunity to showcase some of the opportunities for students in the community. For example, BCPL is coordinating with incoming sixth graders to showcase the opportunities and resources available to students in middle school and older, not just younger children. BCTC is coordinating with incoming freshmen to showcase dual credit courses and other opportunities.

Not only has the DISD reexamined how it can conduct gateways and capstones but also how they can be conducted and how feedback can be given.

“One of the things I’m most excited for is our teacher leaders worked really hard to come up with choice boards for students to present in different ways,” Farmer said.

A concern of the Deeper Learning team was that in recent years, some of the gateway presentations became “cookie-cutter,” Farmer said. A goal is for students to understand that they have many options in how they present information and that they have many opportunities to be creative.

In the rubrics, which have been revised to reflect the new Portrait of a Danville Learner:

• The goal for fifth grade is to Empowered Learner or Creative Problem Solver mastery, and what will be examined is content and understanding, creativity and engagement, clarity and organization, use of visual materials and presentation skills. Students can present a how-to, speech and visual presentation, artistic expression or bio timeline (personal journey).
• Eighth grade rubrics outline that students can conduct a how-to, video or live demonstration, infographic or artistic expression. Eighth graders are also required to have a Google Site, and presentations also focus on Empowered Learner and Creative Problem Solver mastery.
• Seniors will receive feedback on content, presentation and presentation aids, and the question they need to answer. They reflect on strengths they have related to the Portrait of a Danville Learner, as well as their areas of growth.

Information about Deeper Learning, as well as why the DISD prioritizes it, is linked below in a document for families. 

Families version - Deeper Learning document