Sidney Jones
Digital Portfolio
9th Grade Excelled
The meaning of excelling in the project is being able to get your point across on whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty. In my case it would be to prove he is not guilty, so I just have to give the jury even a little of a reasonable doubt. Specifically for the opening statement I told the reason we are in court, what the case is about, upcoming witnesses and the points the defending side plan to show in the case.
We got a case file and had to determine if Dannie DeLuca is guilty or not for manslaughter in the first degree because of being reckless. In the case file we were given the laws of the county and all of the testimonies, which had to read them very carefully. Then we had to find quotes for both sides because at the time we did not have the side we were going to represent yet. Afterwards, we got the side we were on. You could get defending or prosecuting. I was on the defending side, which was fine with me because I wasn't really sure which side I agreed with. Next, we wrote our case theory which describes what happened, you do not give evidence for you side in a case theory. Then we started the opening statement which incorporated the case theory. After writing the opening statement, we presented it in front of a group for feedback. After feedback we presented in front of the group again, for more practice in front of a group. Lastly, we had the time to practice over the weekend to prepare for our final presentation, which was presented in front of the entire class.
My first artifact are quotes we had to gather. They were from the given testimonies that would help the defending side and the prosecuting side because at the time we did not know which side we were on. After reading the testimonies at the beginning of this project I did not know what side I agreed with more which is why I was glad to hear that our teacher Ms. Harris was picking sides for us. Since I had good points for both sides it would have been easy for me to fight for either side.
My second artifact is an audio recording my first draft. I knew how I wanted to say my presentation ahead of time so I could consistently practice. With the audio I will know what my presentation will sound like and I could fix problems before the final presentation.
Practice allowed me to successful. I practiced at least once a day and as the date came closer I practiced a little more a day. I also listen to the recording of me saying my presentation. For my paper I revised it every night that Ms. Harris had taught us how to fix it in class. I have been generally good at presenting since 7th grade portfolio presentations. Also, my parents tell me I even do better under pressure. For the paper, it’s a matter on how well you understood the content and if you could make a successful interpretation to make you case more reliable.