I’m soliciting advice for an assignment/project I’ve been thinking of giving to my students. It would be an extra credit project, as it stands right now.
Basically, a student made a joke “I haven’t heard of show, not tell; I have heard of show and tell” and because my brain is what it is, this got me thinking: what if I made a version of show and tell for my classes? What if I gave students an opportunity to show off some work that they’re proud of? Thats kind of the broadest version.
Some more specific thoughts I have are if a student made something, like a song or a fashion design, something that they’ve done outside of class that they’re proud of, they can present it to the class. This would not just be “look at what I made”, but also “here’s what I did to make it:” Here’s the work I put in, here’s what I thoughtt about while working on it and here are some pitfalls/issues I had along the way. I’m spitballing, but I think it has potential to be interesting.
Since I teach composition, I figure there would be a writing component of some kind, like a short paper or explanation of the thing that they present to the class. I’ve been sort of simmering this idea in the back of my head for a while, let me know if you have thoughts.
And not just teachers, though I know we’ve got a few here. I’m just kind of solicting feedback.
I like it! A tie-in that could be interesting could be to have them get feedback on whether the presentation matched the explanation you had them write and how that ties into how when you write about something, sometimes you leave things out bc you expect people to already know them, aka the whole “what you think you’re saying vs what people expect based on what you wrote” thing
or you could have them do it like a powerpoint night and come at it from an angle of “this class is about writing composition but the basic concepts can apply to anything you put together in any medium”
There’s so much potential in this idea, I love it!
Yeah, i think since it’s extra credit anyway, maybe the format of their companion writing piece could be variable, either a short composition, a brochure, poster, or even a website.
Another interesting aspect is you could maybe have some other students try to recreate something that was shown of (or use that similar skill) to test how well the explainer document worked in practice.
as a student, i wouldve LOVED this / really love trashboatdagod’s idea about having other students try the thing to see how well the information came across from the presenter/do-er
This is very similar to the capstone project that we do in BC as a part of the Careers 12 mandatory course. Fantastic idea. The kids who take it seriously end up really learning a lot about themselves and taking on huge projects can be very humbling for them all.
Absolutely do this, I more or less got an opportunity to write a paper about a fixation in high school and it was easily the paper I put the most thought and focus into lmao