Chapter Presentations & Papers

 

 

 

          Each person will be assigned to a group, then each group will be given a topic relevant to the chapter.  The group will prepare and teach a twenty (20) minute interactive lesson on the assigned topic.  By "interactive lesson," I mean a lesson that involves all the members of the class.  It may be simply a discussion (though you have to be sure everyone in class participates), or some kind of whole class activity, or some kind of small group activity.  It must involve visual and/or auditory aids. If you plan to do a PowerPoint presentation, I need to know at least two days ahead of time in case I need to arrange for the projection equipment and you need to check ahead of time that your presentation will work on the class computer.

          It's important that you understand that generally there is not enough material in the text to provide a reasonably balanced view of the central debate(s) of your topic, so you need to thoroughly research outside the book. Outside research is a critical piece of this assignment. Make yourselves mini-experts on the issue, so you can provide your colleagues/fellow students with a reasonably full understanding -- as full as you can get in 20 minutes -- of the topic. I strongly recommend that you make use of the Ed. Library (GDH 301) research materials for this assignment. We have two bookcases full of recent Ed. journals, and a room full of books on most of these topics.

          It is imperative that your lesson not run more than 20 minutes.  I will time you and stop you when the timer goes off.  If you aren't finished when the timer goes off, it will affect your grade.  So, practice, practice, practice. Please keep in mind, too, that any time it takes you to get organized and get started comes out of your 20 minutes. The timer will start as you move to the front of the classroom, so get organized ahead of time.

          The class period after the discussion, each individual in the group will submit a report detailing his/her role in the group's preparation and presentation, and his/her assessment of the participation of the other members of the group.  Give a brief description of your presentation.  How much preparation did the group do?  When and where did you meet?  When, and how many times, did you practice your presentation as a group? Who did what in the preparation?  [I want to know real clearly if someone is not pulling his/her weight in the preparations.] Give a brief overview of what you (the group) taught -- what concepts you covered -- and how you taught them.  How did the presentation go?  What went right?  What went wrong?  What would you do differently if you were to do this over?  Did you get your point/points across to the class?  How do you know?  (FYI: I expect answers to each of these questions in your papers, but I don't want your papers to be just answers to these questions.)

          I expect you to have a minimum of four fully-developed paragraphs -- one that gives the overview of what you taught, how it went and who did what; one that discusses what went right; one that discusses what went wrong; and one that discusses what you would do differently if you could do it over.

          Then, tell me, in a list, what percent  of the work each member of the group did -- and be sure the justification for the percentage is clearly made in your paper.  The total should equal 100%. 

          Something like this:

George Bush, 22%;

Hillary Clinton, 25%

Barack Obama, 36%

Dick Cheney, 17%

          Identify your papers as follows: in the top left corner of your paper put the following information.

Your Name [John Doe]

Name of assignment [Chapter 2 Presentation]

Names of other members of the group [Jane Roe, Betty Boop, and Homer Simpson]

Due date: [March 27, 2006]

Date submitted [March 27, 2006]

          On the next line, centered, put your assigned group topic as the title of your paper. ["Ch. 6: For-profit Schools, Charter Schools & Home-schooling"]

          On each subsequent page, in the upper right corner, put your last name and the page number.

          I require that you print off and include a copy of these instructions with your paper each time to insure me that you have read them.

                   I'm looking for approximately two to three typed, double-spaced pages.  I expect well-written essays.  I expect them to be neatly typed, carefully edited, and following all the usual conventions of college-level writing. I expect your name and the page number on each page, I expect them to be printed on only one side of the paper, and I expect the pages to be stapled together. You should get help from the Writing Center if you need it.

          Your grade on these papers will be a combination grade reflecting both the quality of the paper and the presentation.  I will grade these with an A through F scale.  The grade criteria are as follows: A = Excellent/Superb, beyond my wildest dreams, far beyond what I should reasonably expect of second year college students; B = Better than Average, goes beyond the requirements, better than the class average; C = Meets the requirements, but doesn't go beyond them; pretty much the same as the class average; D = Doesn't meet the requirements, but shows some effort, below the class norm; F = shows little to no engagement in the assignment. If you have any questions about your grades, please come see me, but be prepared to show me precisely how your paper meets the above criteria.