Lesson Four Comprehensive Assignment

1. What was the presentation about and to whom did you present it? I am not sure this will qualify for the Lesson Four Comprehensive Assignment but wanted to try. During Fall  Term this year I wanted to test how well my Grade English Language A was doing with the International Baccalaureates (IB) MYP concepts of learning contexts (Areas of Interaction) and the inter-disciplinary dimension of their IB various classes.

In order to both actualize and assess the Grade 10's potential here, I created  an activity spanning all four units of Fall Term 2010 where the students studied one literary per units: Charles Dickens' The Tale of Two Cities, Feodor Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground,  Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim and Sophocles' Medea. During the Dostoevsky unit the 16 students in class were broken into four group and each group assigned one of the following perspectives on the work: politics, history, religion and society. They then collectively explored Notes from the Underground from that perspective. 

The students were then apprised that they would each have - individually, not collectively - as part of the term's summative assessment to create and present a PowerPoint Presentation that inculcated that theme as well as at least two of the other works on the reading list, at least two of the other subjects they were studying, TOK (They are in the last year of MYP but Beijing No. 55 requires they do the DP's Theory of Knowledge or Epistemology course.) as well as refer to the  Approaches to Learning in the MYP's Areas of Interaction contexts  and most important of all articulate how this study had changed them.  

Because, the students' presentations slides were for the benefit of the audience they not to be read verbatim. Instead the students were required to expatiate on the points displayed demonstrating real knowledge acquired and then field their classmates' and my questions at the end to ratify learning. All presentations had a 10 minute time limit - including questions - and were videotaped. This worked beautifully.

2. Of which item in [student] presentation[s] are you the most proud? By using PowerPoint, the students were able to honor the complexity of the assignment. Though everyone 'came through' it was particularly satisfying that some of weaker students had some of the  best presentation. Most importantly, the students didn't read from their slides but instead presented their material with confidence and panache. Very satisfactory. 

3. What might you [have the students]do differently if you could [repeat the exercise]? The presentation is not over because the tapes of each students presentation go into to her/his learning portfolio for the year and the class is going to review them at the beginning of Spring Term with the students using MYP Assessment Criteria to assess themselves and each other.

4. How did your students respond to [each other's] presentation[s]? They were extremely appreciative of the quality of the work of their classmates but also had a keen eye for flaws and inadequacies and expressed that effectively and persuasively. They also asked excellent, insightful questions.