Speaking and Listening
It's more like a barely controlled circus than an effective communication of knowledge. Partners have worked on researching some of the major conflicts of the Cold War. A "War," by the way, that seems as distant and irrelevant and obscure to them as intricacies of the Peloponnesian wars. The research part seemed to go quite well. Students were focused and used resources well to find information. The flaw, for some, was simply writing down information that they found without understanding it. And then the big mistake, not asking any questions about the information.
Presentations by both partners begins chronologically, starting with the establishment of communist governments in Eastern Europe from 1945-48. Huh? What date was that? Wait, start over. Can you say that again? 1940 what? Huh? It's so clear how important presentation skills become.
The difficulty that most students have listening and notetaking is major hurdle to learning and knowledge. Admittedly, it isn't always the most important way to learn. But, boy, is it a critical skill. Even if not taking notes, students should be able to listen, or participate in a discussion in a way that would lead to good notes. Just remembering the vital points of a conversation is often unbelievably difficult. Getting those points into good notes is even more difficult.
It's clear we need to spend much more time on process skills than just on content. Yet, it's always a race to complete the content. At the end of the day, when students have notes of the chronology of the main conflicts of the Cold War, it is clear they don't understand most of them, and are at a loss about how those events fit into the larger picture of the Cold War. It's an introduction, but we're going to have to use this information in multiple ways before the solid understanding will set in. I'm convinced that if these students were more skilled at presenting, listening, and notetaking that we would be much further along. How to present a topic seems so straightforward, until you see in the flesh how truly confusing and complex it can be. There are so many ways a presentation can go wrong.
On to "Presenting 101."
Presentations by both partners begins chronologically, starting with the establishment of communist governments in Eastern Europe from 1945-48. Huh? What date was that? Wait, start over. Can you say that again? 1940 what? Huh? It's so clear how important presentation skills become.
The difficulty that most students have listening and notetaking is major hurdle to learning and knowledge. Admittedly, it isn't always the most important way to learn. But, boy, is it a critical skill. Even if not taking notes, students should be able to listen, or participate in a discussion in a way that would lead to good notes. Just remembering the vital points of a conversation is often unbelievably difficult. Getting those points into good notes is even more difficult.
It's clear we need to spend much more time on process skills than just on content. Yet, it's always a race to complete the content. At the end of the day, when students have notes of the chronology of the main conflicts of the Cold War, it is clear they don't understand most of them, and are at a loss about how those events fit into the larger picture of the Cold War. It's an introduction, but we're going to have to use this information in multiple ways before the solid understanding will set in. I'm convinced that if these students were more skilled at presenting, listening, and notetaking that we would be much further along. How to present a topic seems so straightforward, until you see in the flesh how truly confusing and complex it can be. There are so many ways a presentation can go wrong.
On to "Presenting 101."
posted by curtis @ 6:49 PM
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