The Process of the Personal Project


BY GINNY HAND AND JENNIFER SWINEHART


Ginny and Jennifer have been co-coordinating the Grade 10 MYP Personal Project for the past four years and have been contributors to the IB MYP Personal Project teacher resources website. Ginny and Jennifer are impressed and excited each year by the creative thinking, passion and resilience demonstrated by the students during their Personal Project journeys.


The Personal Project, the culminating task of the Middle Years Programme (MYP), encourages Grade 10 students to apply approaches to learning skills, draw upon their prior learning and pursue an area of interest and passion over several months. Students must make use of their communication, collaboration, critical and creative thinking, self-management and research skills to complete the Personal Project. They demonstrate their use of these skills in three ways: the process journal, product and report. In their process journals, students plan, investigate, problem-solve and reflect upon the stages of the Personal Project from start to finish. The product students create demonstrates the achievement of the goal they have set for themselves and can be in any form. Students finally synthesise their entire process in an oral, written or multimedia report. Below are extracts from a variety of student reports that provide insight into and context about their learning journeys throughout the four stages of the Personal Project process: planning, investigating, taking action and reflecting.


The quotations on the following page are from Grade 10 students reflecting on their Personal Project experience. 8


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