February - Gilded Age Projects

           This is the second year that I have done the Gilded Age Project with a presentation with no words on the content slides.  This year went better than the first in regards to warning students and discussing the point.  More groups were prepared and managed to balance facts.  It was interesting to see how the facts were divided up.  Some were talking all of their facts and then their partner would go, while others shared facts every other.  
          My standard classes were allowed to have note cards with their facts.  My honor's class was only allowed to have one note card for their group and no more than four words per line.  It made sure that they remembered some of the facts for their own.  
          The point of the project is multi-tiered: group work = group communication, evaluation thinking about their contributions to the group versus other members of the group, presentation skills (working on getting over their public speaking fears), and then content - listening to the presentations and seeing more pictures, which are not the teacher seems to help resound the information further.  The matching section on the test went well in regards to the people that were used for the project.  The only flaw is that the presentations from the other classes were then mixed up and confused because they didn't have that additional retention in addition to the notes.  

Basic Set Up:
-First Slide: Name of Person, Group Members Names, Picture of the Person
-Second Slide: "Upbringing" to label the slide, Standard - 3 pictures; Honor - 5 pictures
-Third Slide: "Adulthood" to label the slide, Standard - 3 pictures; Honor - 5 pictures
-Fourth Slide: "Gilded Age" to label the slide, Standard - 3 pictures; Honor - 5 pictures
-Sources

Now one thing to keep in mind, if they had a muckraker or someone that started off on a lower socioeconomic bracket may not have pictures from their childhood.  Students needed to find pictures that REPRESENTED things in their lives and not necessarily actual pictures.

For and Against - December Post

          Ever have one of those days that you think you've completed something only to realize you didn't post it?  Well looking at my list I see that I've posted everything, but this... so now it is out of order... "Best laid plans of mice and men..."

          This month we are working on our "For and Against" projects - students were assigned a topic from the list compiled - they could also give suggestions of topics.  They had to take a survey to see what their stances were before they were assigned.  If a student chose neutral they could be switched to being "For" or "Against" based on their classmates stances and groupings.  

Here was the form for their topics:

-Abortion

-Gay Marriage

-Minimum Wage - Increase

-Raising the Debt Ceiling

-Euthanasia/Physician Assisted Suicide

-Vaccine for Kids

-Gun Control

-Medical Marijuana

-Animal Testing

-Video Games and Violence for Youth

-Death Penalty

-Drinking Age

-Cell Phones

-Illegal Immigration

-Concealed Handgun Permits

-Legalization of Marijuana

-E-Cigarettes

-Social Media in Schools

-Felons and Voting

-The Gold Standard

-Standardized Tests

-Tax Exempt Organizations

-Corporate Tax Rate

-Drones - Domestic

-Drones - International

-Electoral College

-Vocational Education

-Welfare

-Social Security

-Military Spending

-Domestic Violence

-Gambling

-Medicating Children

-Vaccinating Children

-Religion in Schools

-Police Brutality

-Discrimination/Affirmative Action

          Students had to provide a historical overview of their topic in an unbiased faction.  The main bulk of their paper is their persuasive portion where they focused on being for or against the topic and explaining why.  

         Next month, we will have them create short presentations where they introduce their main arguments to their classmates and then have open discussions about the topic.  This project is working on the research component of their standards, group communication, public speaking, and presenting information.

Look Ma No Words!

I missed a post in December due to medical complications so I need to make up a post to make my posts line back up.  

So this post is about what my students are starting as soon as they are back from their snow/inclement weather delays.  One of the skills needed in today's professional arena is the ability to speak in public and if you listen to my student's they hate the concept.  Every semester we've been doing at least one presentation.  Sometimes they go really well, sometimes we have to talk about ways they could be made better and one major issue that is always faced.... THE COPY AND PASTE PARAGRAPH on a slide.... Enough to drive me buggy.  

I even sell my self out with students and let them know that my classroom presentations are not good examples of really great presentations because I have all the words from their graphic organizer on the board to fill in so it is easier for them and not actually great presentation wise.  That is a non-education presentation there should be very minimal words.  So what better way to insure that I don't get a copy and paste paragraph anymore?  There's no words on the content slides!  *evil cackle*

So here's the break down of my project:

Groups were randomly assigned a person relevant to the Gilded Age.  They have a research paper to fill out, in which they need 5 acceptable sources (while I'm willing to take a sourced Wikipedia page, I do not accept wikianswers or any other answer websites with no sourcing). 

After they've filled out the research page, they need to break down who is going to talk about what.  Group Communication is one class in college that I understood the point of, but it still caused stress because you had to be interdependent on someone else as well, but life skill wise the majority of jobs you'd be doing a team presentation and not an individual presentation.  Each group member needs to have something to say in each section and they need to work on their flow with each other so it isn't choppy.  

Presentation wise, they are making a Keynote.  The first slide and last slide are the only slides with words on them.  The first will have the person's name and the group members' names; the last slide will have the sourcing.  All the other slides will have images that pertain to what the student is talking about, but no words are allowed.

To be fair, I am allowing them to have one note card each for the presentation so they can have a reference point.  There are NOT allowed to be sentences on their note card, just key items to make sure they talk about (and numbers if they need to remember what order they're supposed to talk for each slide).  

Hopefully this goes wonderful... Time will tell...