Constructing Presentations...
2/2/2019
When you teach more than one subject across a school day, as we are fortunate to do in our PNA middle school, it's always exciting to see how many of our standards for learning cut cut across all subject areas. Although the logistics of scheduling and organizing curriculum and resources somehow make us think that we teach and learn different subjects: science, social studies, math, language arts, art, music, health, physical education, in reality, that's an illusion. The skills, knowledge, and understandings that students need to learn cut across all disciplines. They interweave and repeat themselves in different contexts.
Students make claims (conjectures, hypotheses) in science, in social studies, in math. They analyze and synthesize literary and nonfiction texts throughout the school day. They look for evidence, share their reasoning, read closely. In social studies, they "Explain how cultural patterns and economic decisions influence environments and the daily lives of people in both nearby and distant places," while they use the speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills they learn in language arts, such as "Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant, accurate data and evidence that demonstrate an understanding of the topic or text, using credible sources." This past week students finished up our unit on the US Civil War by studying Reconstruction. Teams of 2-3 students read their assigned section of the textbook's chapter on this topic and conducted research to support their learning. Then they prepared an oral presentation to teach their classmates what they learned. When students must take their learning and present it to their classmates, they become active learners, moving out of the role of simply receiving information to the more rigorous role of making sure others can understand. Students created slideshow visuals to support their oral presentations, providing the chance for them to learn about effective presentation techniques. The resulting visual aids were engaging and supportive of the student speakers, and there wasn't a bullet point in sight! Students were quite professional, using their speaker notes and presentation clickers as they taught their classmates. Each presentation was followed by questions and answers. Because each team had a section on which they were experts, rich discussions and explanations were the order of the day. Everyone had information to bring to the table, and it showed! What could have been a dry reading of a chapter in the textbook instead became an opportunity to hone skills in inquiry, reading, writing, speaking, listening, social studies, and even visual arts. You can see the slideshows, complete with speaker notes, at this link. Comments are closed.
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Sarah Mariner
Ms. Mariner earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Science from Colorado State University, and was awarded a teaching certificate through the University of Alaska, Southeast. Her varied background includes being an environmental education field instructor in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Baja, Mexico. She also served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Archives
April 2021
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