Last year about this time, I blogged on the revisions I made to my 20% Project for the school year. This summer, I did some reflection and talked to other 20 Time teachers and made more revisions to how I am going to implement the project.
1. Specific Day for 20 Time
At the end of the school year, I solicited feedback from my students on what should be changed. They said they wanted a day specifically dedicated to 20% time. I gave them autonomy to work on what ever assignment they wanted to work on each day. When students when got behind on an assignment or had a pressing deadline approaching, they would work on that rather than their 20% Project. At the end of the semester, many didn't accomplish as much as they could have because of this and many said that they simply ran out of time. When I pointed out the amount of time they actually had, they realized the had enough time, but just didn't use it as well as they could have. In essence, they asked to be given less autonomy and be told what day to work on their 20% Project. So, to start the year at least, I'm giving them a specific 20 time day each week.
2. Negotiate Points
I gave 30 completion points to any student that was able to give a presentation about their project and keep up with their blog posts consistently. I chose 30 points because it was enough points to motivate those students who needed that little extra incentive, but not enough points to be the main motivator or really hurt someone's grade much if they didn't produce an adequate presentation.
This year, I am going to have students negotiate their point total. They will get to grade themselves, but have to defend their assessment. I want students evaluating themselves and their effort. I don't really want to "grade" the presentations at all, but I got tired of watching some students try to work the system to get maximum points with minimal effort. We'll see how this works out.
3. After School Presentations
I had the students give a Ted-style presentation to end the semester. They give the presentations to the class. I invited other teachers, parents, and community members to show, but no one else did. This year, I'm going to schedule the presentations in the evening at school. I'm going to set up our large projection screen and make the presentation a more formal event. I will promote it and maybe even broadcast it. My 8th graders will do theirs toward the end of 1st semester, my 7th graders toward the end of 2nd semester. I want the students to share their great ideas and be proud of themselves. Giving them that opportunity will hopefully help get more parents and community members to attend the event.
4. Blog and Email
I still plan to have the students blog weekly, but I will also have them email me after they blog. I want them to blog so they can work on gaining an audience outside the classroom, but at the same time, emailing me weekly makes them feel a sense of responsibility to me personally as opposed to simply an anonymous blog post reader.
Those are the changes I intend to make for this year. I love the 20% Project and the students' ideas, but am pretty confident I can get more out of them. I believe these changes will help me get the most from each student. Let me know your comments.
Troy, I love the idea of students grading themselves (I, too, do this, but I see more and more teachers looking for rubrics). What I love even more, however (perhaps because I'd like to try this), is having students present outside of school hours. I, too, invited parents and community members, and we had a few, but the room was too congested, and it wasn't a big production. I'd love to see my 7th graders shine when giving their presentations... Thank you for sharing, and enjoy the continuous journey!
ReplyDeleteHow about a live GHO forpresentations too? Just a thought. :-)
ReplyDeleteYeah, it crossed my mind. :)
DeleteLet me know how the emails after blogs goes. It is an interesting idea. Maybe we can discuss further?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI have read over your blog and a few others as well about the 20% project. I love this idea but I want to do it on a small level at first. I saw another teacher talk about her project on Edmodo and had to find out more about it. I plan to do this with my 7th grade GT students to see how it works out. The only problem is that we will not have class time to do this (there are at least three that I do not have in class). My main question is the blogs. Is there a particular site that you use? Is there issues with the kids putting themselves out on the internet with a school sponsored product? I am not sure about the purpose of the emails after the students blog.
ReplyDeleteI am very interested in this process, plus I noticed you are a flipper....something else I am trying to incorporate in my classes.
Lisa,
DeleteThanks for the comment. I use Blogger for our blogs. We are a GAFE school, so Blogger just made sense for them to use their GAFE account. I have not had any problems. I have the blogs in my feed reader and I see posts and comments regularly. I let the parents know what they are doing in case they have issue with the students have a public blog.
As far as the email, I want the students to see me and their blog audience as two separate audiences. The email is just a sentence to alert me of their progress and a reminder that they are accountable for their work. The blog is for a wider audience and should be at least 250 words with the intention of growing that audience and potentially find collaboration as well.