March Madness

Some of my favorite projects I did during my high school years were portfolios where I got to pick the content. The teacher would assign several different mini-projects worth a certain amount of points, and we would have to pick and choose which parts we wanted to do in order earn our grade. This gave us the opportunity to feel in control and to have a say in our assignment, whereas we usually would just have to do whatever the teacher directed us to do. I did this type of project in several of my classes over the years, but the ones I remember best are from my senior year in my AP Psychology and Government classes. As I was remembering these projects in January, I thought that I would like to do something like this for my students.

The idea started with me wanting to meet with my students outside of normal class time to meet one-on-one. For their Matura exam they will speak on their own with an examiner, so I wanted to give them the opportunity to be in this situation, but to do this during class time seemed too complicated. I only see my students once a week for forty-five minutes as is and to cut this time seems unfair. However, I was not sure if I would be able to force the students to see me outside of class either. Enter the portfolio. If I designed such a project where the students were picking and choosing what activities to partake in, then they could chose to speak with me outside of class. I decided to call this project, "March Madness." (I know, I know, it has nothing to do with basketball, but these students have no idea what NCAA is, and I like the alliteration.)

This is the basic breakdown of the assignment. Students have the entire month of March to earn up to 50 points, so 50 is 100%. They earn points by coming to class (3 points per class), and by participating in different speaking activities, which they chose. They keep track of their points on a yellow piece of paper that is their new bff. If they lose this paper, they get a 0. I don't think they have ever had such an assignment before because they are VERY stressed about these papers. They can choose between three different categories of activities: Flying Solo, Two Heads Are Better Than One, and Group Bonding. Each category has at least three different activities, so they can combine them in any way they wish, but they cannot do any activity more than two times. I prepared all the materials and braced for impact, not quite knowing what to expect out of my first class.

The students were definitely a little confused about how everything worked, but to be honest so was I. This is my first time leading a project like this! However, as we got into it and started working, we have found a flow that works. By the second block of working on this, they know what they have to do and we get right down to business. A class period looks like this: I come in, greet the students and tell them to get out their yellow paper. I sign all the sheets for attendance and then ask the students what they want to do and give them the materials they need. I then move two more chairs up to the teacher's desk and as they are ready, they come up and speak. I love this system because the rest of the class keeps working and I can truly focus on the student who is in front of me. One adjustment I think I should make is to start a sign-up for what order the students want to speak in. They are a little feisty when it comes to waiting for their turn. Also, the last few minutes of class are wasteful because by then only one or two students are left to speak and the other students are restless. I have not thought of a way to fix this yet, but because the students are getting good practice in, I'm not too stressed about these few minutes.

In future posts I will share more about how the project is progressing and more about how the students are doing.

Blessings,
Colleen