Class Discussion Leadership
This grade will go into the grade book late in the 2nd Nine Weeks for the first semester and late in the 4th Nine Weeks for the second semester.
During each semester, students will be assigned a day on which they will be expected to lead our class discussion.
How students decide to structure the discussion/activity/class is up to them, but the goal is to create an interesting and engaging session that focuses on a deeper understanding and appreciation of the text (based on either literary analysis or a more complete cultural/contextual comprehension).
Although the amount of time we’ll have for discussion each day will vary, students should plan to cover roughly 20 minutes of the period with their leadership.
Before the discussion starts, the student will begin the session by reading a short piece (300-400 words) in which she explores the ways in which the text in question relates to one of The Seven Concepts. This exercise is designed to accomplish two goals: 1) to have the student engage with The Seven Concepts and 2) to have the student practice an oral paper presentation (which will come in handy when the Paper Presentation rolls around at the end of the semester).
For students who are interested in considering different ideas for how to format a fruitful class discussion, I highly recommend this article by pedagogy guru Jennifer Gonzalez. On the most basic level, some students will bring to class a set of guiding discussion questions (and, most likely, a slide deck) and will facilitate the conversation based on those. Some students, though, will go above and beyond, designing a highly engaging activity that leads to deep insight into the work. Either way, though, each class discussion leader would--ideally--do the following things:
Bring some new information, insight, or interpretive lens to the discussion for his/her classmates to consider (i.e., bring something to the presentation/discussion from outside of the text itself--this could be contextual information about the work, a paired reading of some sort, a short video to watch, an interesting analysis, etc.)
Provide an activity or set of questions that generates interesting, lively discussion. (This does not have to be anything super formal. I've seen really good class discussions generated by simply circling up the desks and pitching out some simple prompts for discussion and then doing a solid job of leading the class through the prompts.)
Demonstrate a level of preparation that suggests he/she made a good-faith effort to produce an interesting and productive discussion.
Students will receive a score of between 0 and 40 for this responsibility in accordance with the following rubric:
A score of 40 will be awarded to students whose leadership is outstanding, clearly demonstrating an impressive level of insight and preparation that introduces something new to the class and results in a discussion that is highly engaging for the class.
A score of 35 will be awarded to a student whose leadership is very good, clearly demonstrating a good-faith effort to prepare an activity that will provide a meaningful and engaging classroom experience, one that introduces something new to the class and sparks meaningful discussion of the text.
A score of 30 will be given to a student whose leadership is satisfactory, providing the most basic elements necessary to facilitate a productive discussion.
A score of 25 will be given to a student whose leadership is in need of improvement, suggesting that more earnest effort and preparation on the student’s part would have benefitted the members of the class.
A score of 20 (or lower) will be given to a student whose leadership is clearly deficient, indicating a lack of a good-faith effort to successfully fulfill the responsibility.
A score of 0 will be assigned to a student who does not fulfill the responsibility on any level.
Note: Students who do not lead on their assigned day will risk receiving a score of a 0 for the assignment (unless there is an excused absence–for an unforeseeable absence–that explains the failure to lead). Should a make-up opportunity be available for students who did not lead on their assigned date (and who did not have an excused absence on said date), students in such a position will face a cap of 20 points for the assignment upon eventual leadership.