January+Presentation+wk

Hi All:

Here are my thoughts regarding seminar. I agree with Molly regarding the time constraints around including the arts teachers and students on the panel for this report card period. However, I think that this could be done with some planning for the fourth report card period.

Here are some things that I think we need to keep in mind for the presentations over the next two weeks.

1. The presentation rubric needs to be shared and reviewed with students again. Students, as audience, should be engaged with the rubric. I feel like students should be scoring the students and handing this into the teacher. The audience needs to be engaged and participating.

2. Teachers will need to make explicit that "scoring" students' presentations does not mean helping your friends receive a good grade. Your collection of students' assessments will indicate how well the students understand the rubric. This will help inform the teacher and students. Also...see number 3

3. I would like to urge teachers to discuss with the students tomorrow the purpose of the work that they are doing. These projects link directly to senior projects, internships, post high school work. These projects will help them gain an understanding of the many skills that they need in school/life: research skills, annotated bibliography, making connections to subject areas, thinking about application to life/work, student choice! There are endless reasons why these projects are important. I think we need to remind the students. I am also trying to find students who have graduated from high school to present some of their senior projects to the students next month. I am working on this.

4. Finally, grading. Please be *flexible* with your grading Obviously, there will be a difference between a students who has worked hard on his/her project and presents it in a prepared fashion Vs. a student who has not done any work.

I am hoping that this provides some guidance over the next two weeks. I think that if we plan for the next two report card periods soon we will be in good shape. The end of the year projects can be rostered so that the arts teachers and the students can be placed on panels, along with parents. If we plan soon, we could have a presentation of fourth report card projects including parents et al.

I want to create a seminar wiki so that everyone can discuss and share their ideas.