My persuasive/expository unit is focused around STEM fields:
teaching organization patterns with spider goats (check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlkJyG1Oik
), audio/visual manipulation and logical fallacies with GMO propaganda (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkionqWPc-Q
), and a slew of other skills with Odyssey magazine articles (http://www.odysseymagazine.com/). So
when it came time for me to work on the research component, I knew I wanted more
than just the research essay, I wanted to use that essay for a purpose. And
what better purpose than to convert the essay into a TED Talk!
What is a TED talk?
Ted Talks aren’t just for STEMs. The soft sciences,
philanthropy, dietary philosophies, social concerns, all these things are
addressed in the various TED and TEDx talks. They have their own YouTube
channels and I encourage you to go there, watch the intro vids, and read about
what they are. I simply couldn't do justice to the awesomeness that is a TED
talk.
Why a TED talk?
If you asked students to give a presentation in class, let’s
be honest: they have one shot and only one shot. With a TED talk, they are
recording their movements and inflections, and then replaying them, and then
rerecording as needed. The fact they can actually SEE how they present is the
best feedback. Letting a child give a live presentation and then mentioning to
her that she was compulsively touching her hair the whole time, it really too
late for feedback. Where, if they student saw her own hair touching, she would
be more aware of it as she tried her presentation again.
How do I do it?
The research essay, I grade as its own product looking at
the usual suspects: organization and ideas, research, citations, conventions,
and style. When I ask the students to convert these into TED talks, we examine
TED talks and come up with a presentation rubric of visuals, volume,
inflection, and non-verbals. Then, students take their essay and truncate it
for a presentation. They cut things out and reword things once they discover
that what looked okay on a page is not what sounds best aloud (Dr. Neil
DeGrasse Tyson’s Senate testimony that he submitted written was revised for his
verbal testimony. We analyze the differences in class before we even begin our
TED talks so when it comes time to make the TED talk speech, they kids already
know it is not weird to change things up.) In class, we use iPads with iMovie – although some
of my students do go home that weekend and do it on their phones and submit it
to me that next Monday. Those kids who have it in early are usually more than
willing to play cameraman for their peers. To submit, I can pull the talks
right onto my desktop and I put a student in charge of that. Some students submit
via You Tube (DON’T DO PRIVATE!) and sending me the link.
I don’t have any samples I can post because they have the
students’ faces on the videos, but it was really cool to see how creative
students got with the presentation. One doing research on cochlear implants
introduced her topic using sign language with captions at the bottom.
No matter your subject area, TED talks are great platforms of student work!
No comments:
Post a Comment