Student Engagement During Presentations

We've all sat through student presentations. Some are good. Some are bad.  It can be hard to stay focused on the presenter after multiple speeches, slides, etc. We as teachers stay engaged with multiple presentations by jotting notes we'll later use to grade the students.  The students presenting are engaged... the spotlight is on and they have some criteria to be met for a grade.  What about the students in the audience?  Think about the last round of presentations that you did with your class.  Did the audience have a role beyond being quiet and attentive?

As we engage students we are looking for them to be more than passive listeners.  They must be actively engaged whether they are the creator, presenter, or consumer of information. So after witnessing a few techniques let me share some options for the role of an audience member during a student presentation.

1. Press Conference:  I like this one for presentations that require creativity and/or opinion.  The class is instructed to listen and to keep a running list of questions based on what they've heard. The class becomes the evaluators of the product presented to them. Example: I did this with a sociology project where students created a fictional culture. Sometimes the culture would live in tree houses.  "How do you climb to your house if you're injured?", a student might ask.  The presenting group would need to answer the question on the fly (it's in their rubric to answer with "poise"). With a rotation of presenters, students catch on quickly that turnabout is fair play and they will soon be interrogators.  The high school French class has this routine down as a part of the class culture since there are so many verbal presentations.
2. Exit Ticket:  Whether it's a journal entry or a small group discussion, the exit ticket starts with a simple question, "What did you learn?" You are asking students to stay engaged at least long enough to extract a nugget of wisdom from the presenters and hold on to it long enough to share with someone.
3. Game:  Get some poker chips or playing cards and have the presenters distribute the chips to people that asked a relevant question based on the presentation.  If you have made it clear prior to the presentation that they will need at least one chip for participation, it may encourage students to raise and encourage presenters to seek out those who have not contributed yet.  Collect the cards or chips at the end as an indicator of participation.
4. The Most: At the end of the presentations students are asked to submit a paragraph on which of the presentations spotlighted "The most....".  The most interesting character.  The culture you would most like to live in.  It can't be the topic that they presented on.  The goal is to encourage processing of each presentation and then allow for evaluation of all of them.  Asking students to jot down a few notes on each presentation so they can use them at the end is helpful as well.

Remember the goal is for the audience to process what they are hearing at the greatest depth possible.
Do you have more ideas?  Add them to the comments.

Bringing Back "The Hook"

Thursday morning I stopped into the Science PLC and walked into a discussion about "
"phenomena". The team was discussing how best to weave the new science standards into their current curriculum. The advice they got from GWAEA was to wrap their unit in a phenomenon from the real-world. For example, in a unit on genetics they might start with a news story about cloning.
At some point in time, we have all done this. In a single lesson Madeline Hunter called it an "anticipatory set".  In the social studies, the same concept was referred to as an "essential question". In another era of teacher and entertainment is was called "The Hook". No matter the name it's a sound principle.

1. Engage the audience with a mystery they can relate to
2. Tie in subplots to the central mystery to make the story more rich
3. In the end, relieve the suspense with a satisfying answer OR frustrate the audience with more questions than answers.

It's easy to jump right into a lesson for the day and stick to the facts, but we know from watching our favorite TV series and movies that a central narrative that is gripping, engages us, invests us in the story.  Take a moment as you plan for the next term and consider bringing back "The Hook" to engage and invest your students.  If you have a central story you use in class please leave a comment or share with your colleagues.

Blues Traveler - The Hook

Also Introducing "Table Talk"

Table Talk expands on the Restroom Reflection theme.

1. Take an idea. 
2. Reflect on it's value in your own classroom.  
3. Talk to your peers at lunch using the table tents as a prompt. 
4. Put thought into action.
5. Celebrate your success.

Introducing "Restroom Reflection"

When do you have time to ponder and reflect?
I was recently inspired by a story I heard about Google using "Tech on the Toilet" as a program to have people test code while they used the bathroom.  So it got me thinking perhaps we could try it also.  Tech on the Toilet? No, it wouldn't only be tech. Bathroom Brainwork? Nah. Lavatory Laboratory? Nope. Ponder while you... you get the picture. The point would be to have an idea presented in a brief, visual format. An idea that might flourish into action.
So here is your very first Restroom Reflection.

The idea:
Move from teacher-centered, teacher-controlled, teacher-dominated, to more student-driven activity.
Take a look and let me know what you think?

Reflection Time

This morning the English PLC spent their time split into groups based on upcoming classes. The topic of conversation was an exercise in a key piece of good teaching... reflection. The central question was, what worked this term? What did not?
The conversation led to a few tweaks and changes, but more importantly worked back to ideas of best practice in the classroom.

Bookmarking Tips

It's Fall. Which means squirrels are gathering and storing food, and teachers are gathering digital resources for a 21st-century classroom. The question is, where best to store you educational morsel? Bookmark and organize your resources for later use in Chrome.

The Fastest Way, Easiest Way

• Click the star in the Search bar of the browser
• Edit the name
• Add or change to a folder from the drop-down

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The Bookmark Bar

• Show/Hide the bar with a right-click and menu or CTRL+SHIFT+B
• Even a hidden bar will show when you add a new tab

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The Bookmark Manager

• Right-Click the bar and Click “Bookmark Manager” to reveal all of your stored bookmarks and folders

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Did You Know… ?

• You can bookmark all tabs in a window with CTRL+SHIFT+D or a right-click on the bar
• If you right-click on a folder you can “Open all Bookmarks” at once
• If you sign into Chrome you can sync all of your bookmarks across devices

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Other Options to Explore

• Pearltrees
• Diigo
• Google Collections
• Pinterest

Post #1- Welcome to My Solution

I spoke to you at the beginning of the year about what the role of the School Improvement Coordinator (SIC) is and how I would attempt to help and support the staff of Marion High School. My 3 generic goals were to offer opportunities to improve the efficiency, efficacy, and/or engagement within your classrooms. Recently a discussion broke out about the best we to get information to the staff and some constraints were placed on this mission.

1. "Don't make us learn a new technology just to get info about new technology"
2. "Don't abuse our email inbox with constant messages"
3. "Keep it short, simple, and visual"

In recognition of those constraints... I have a plan.

I'm going to blog. This blog is going to be present just above the M Block roster like an obnoxious advertisement. I'm going to post about what I see in classrooms.  If it pertains directly to your classroom experience I'll email it directly to you, if not you can choose to follow the blog or not (NO EMAIL abuse). 

Please comment on this public site. Add your ideas, shared frustrations, hopes and dreams, etc.  It is public so keep it clean and constructive. If you want a private conversation email me or find me.

PS. I'm taking suggestions for a better blog name so if you have something put it in the comments. If you would like to guest blog let me know.

PPS. Thanks to Sarah E. for inspiring this idea and to Becky H. for inspiring the word "inspire" in the URL of this blog (mhsinspire.blogspot.com).

More to come soon...