Do Something Now!

This week my students shared their “Do Something Now” presentations, and I was absolutely blown away at all that they were able to accomplish.  These were, by far, the best public speaking project that I have ever seen my students give over my past five years of teaching.  I have been tweaking how to do oral presentations, and I feel that after this assignment, I’ve really hit the nail on the head.  While each student excitedly talked about their non-profit organizations, their peers were very engaged and attentive.  They were actually interested in what each other was saying!  If you did not read my previous post about the assignment, the essence of it is that students were asked to research an organization that they are interested in or passionate about.  From their research, they were to create a presentation that contained the following:

1. An engaging hook
2. A description of the issue
3. An introduction to and explanation of an organization responding to that issue
4. Examples of how students can join in the fight
5. A final closing thought

What made these presentations so spectacular were that students included video clips, props, and many powerful statistics.  They were even offered extra credit if they chose to volunteer outside of class with that organization.  I carefully trained them on how to use pathos, ethos, and logos appeals in order to tug heartstrings and bring reality and legitimacy to their content.  Students chose to present on topics ranging from animal abuse, child abuse, draught, famine, domestic violence, and cancer.  What was so mind-blowing to me is how many presentations impacted my kids emotionally.  I have never seen so many tears in my classroom! 

One student did a presentation on the lack of clean water available to drink in 3^rd world countries.  I completely embarrassed myself right before she went up…..I was drinking from a water bottle and saw some specks in it.  I said with a humorous tone, “Eww! I don’t drink water that has stuff settled at the bottom!” You can only imagine how dumb and clueless I looked!  Immediately following, my student discussed how people in third world countries get less water a month than we do in a five-minute shower.  That hit home.

In her presentation, she showed water bottles that were for sale from Water.org.  $10 of each water bottle purchased would go to help those in need of clean drinking water.  Many of my students were moved to ask their parents to buy water bottles.  I was moved too.  I purchased my own water bottle, and sent a tweet out about it to the rest of my class to show that I support her fight for clean water.

It is amazing to see how one seemingly insignificant assignment can impact a classroom community.  I have had some of the best, most in-depth conversations with my students as a result of this project. I love seeing them so engaged!  My biggest take-away from the whole unit was that it is so important to value my students’ work, to be pumped up about what pumps them up, and to give projects that are REAL and MEANINGFUL to the world that they live in. 

I would highly encourage getting your students engaged with what is really going on in the world around them – and get excited alongside of them.  They may one day forget your name and face, but they will never forget the way you made them feel!

The X Factor

What is it that motivates students to be excited about a project or an assignment? 

I have been on the quest to discover the answer to this question.  This year has been a huge learning process for me as I tinkered with old lessons and activities to make them better.  Sometimes, I have even scrapped what has been tried and true in the past and replaced it with the product of one of my many “lightbulb” moments.  My Achilles heel of lesson plans every year has always been my persuasive unit – it’s a time bomb waiting to explode because as a teacher, you have to pick something the kids can write about that is a happy medium.  I have always been stuck trying to differentiate between using boring, over-used prompts like “Convince your principal to allow vending machines at school.” and prompts that act like magnets, pulling in parent complaints, such as “Is abortion wrong?”  As someone who is never satisfied with the results of the year before, I have gone both routes in the past, and they have led to either boredom or blow-ups.

 In pursuit of finding what it is that makes students excited to write and learn and research, I had a new “lightbulb” moment – authenticity.  Maybe the “X” factor in student engagement is being authentic to real life scenarios.  My thought is that this can be accomplished by creating assignments that mimic actual scenarios that could happen in the all-mysterious “life after graduation”.  Topics should be authentic too…something they can actually be passionate and excited about, not something scripted and pulled from an outdated resource book.  With these thoughts in mind, I came up with the “Do Something Now” project. 

The first thing about this project that I am excited about is that it asks students to find a non-profit organization that they are interested in and develop a five  minute presentation asking others to donate “money” or get involved.  I told them to treat their audience of peers as if they were members of a charity guild.  My students will actually vote on the most persuasive representative and will donate a fictitious pool of money to support the cause!  Instead of an actual check, the winning presenter will get points added to their score.  My favorite part about this assignment is what I call the “built-in bonus”.  If students spend time actually volunteering for that organization or if they mobilize and find a way to donate money, they will also receive bonus points. 

I’m only in year five of teaching, but I am really starting to see that passion is the key to doing anything.  It should be the reason why teachers get up every Monday through Friday and step foot for the umpteenth time through their classroom door.  The same is true for students.  They need a reason to care about why they do what they are asked to do.  They need a “non- scripted” answer to the question, “When are we going to use this?”  I don’t know how this project will turn out, whether it will be another flash- in-the-pan idea that will end up filed away like the rest of my persuasive project attempts.  The proof will have to be in the “X” factor….