How do you teach learners to pitch their ideas? How do you make sure they are committed to their investigation to promote a sustained inquiry? Backwards designing the perfect pitch is much easier the second time around. Getting to evolve your practice in terms of both the material and delivery is one of the gifts that comes with getting to teach the same grade and subject a second year in a row. After working all of last summer (2015) to prepare to teach Grade 6, 7 and * Social Studies/History Geography, I am happy to be teaching all of them again, plus another new one this year. After some reframing, I am beginning to see the great learning ahead of me.
One area of focus for me last summer was TTime. The term Genius Hour had already become ubiquitous on Twitter and I wanted in. It was like watching the skipping rope turn and turn and, finally, I was ready for my turn to run in and start jumping. I had a lot of guidance from amazing educators who kindly let me reach out and share their expertise. TTime evolved from trying to meet curriculum expectations in Geography and teach learning skills including communication and media literacy. TTime is a project on sustainability that the students sometimes call Tree Time due to it's overarching theme.
If students were going to drive their inquiries into the sustainability issues of their choice, I had to scaffold the assignment. I had divided the project into four main components: topic selection, the pitch, blogging and the TED-like presentation. TTime really turned out to be all that I had hoped and more. Last year’s projects were so incredible that I wrote about them in a post titled 20% Time is Genius. Now that I have the chance to revisit this project for a second time, I have so much more to work with and to grow from. I introduced the project in the same way, through 6 distinct lessons on sustainability that activated schema and generated an extensive list of possible topics. Now, my students have been assigned their pitches.
Last year, I had only my vision to work from, and it was hard to set the expectations without a totally clear horizon with landmarks of mini deadlines along the way. The pitches were pretty good considering, but this year’s, I believe, are going to be better because I was able to set the students up for more success by having and providing exemplars.
I have a file of all of last year’s pitches on video. I had filmed each pitch to capture the students’ starting points but also to involve them in self-assessment. I sent each student their pitch to view and reflect upon at home. When we sat to conference one-on-one, , most of the students pointed out the same next steps that I prepared for my feedback. Having footage of their pitches was valuable in many ways. Having the students watch their videos at home and then watch clips with me during our conferencing session was a great way to have them really understand and own their next steps.
As a result of doing this assignment last year, I had three Grade 8 classes worth of pitch videos to choose from when setting the stage for this year’s pitches. I selected 6 pitches to view as a whole class. The Grades 8’s made a chart with the columns labelled: Topic, Connection to Sustainability and Presentation Content and Style. After they watched they watched each pitch, the students critically evaluated what they saw. I had strategically selected to represent the spectrum of ideas and possible presentation styles.
As a result of viewing and reflecting upon the exemplars that I shared, we collectively created the criteria for an effective pitch. After both classes weighed in, I sent them their shared writing checklist to use to guide them as they prepare and practice their pitches. It looks like the following, but I'd be happy to share the document if anyone is interested.
The Pitch Shared Writing Checklist
A pitch is a brief presentation (around 1-2 minutes), with some visuals, to provide your audience with a quick overview of your TTime plan and why you have selected your topic.
You will show your audience what you are trying to inform/persuade them to understand and/or do. While you are giving the audience a sense of what you want to cover in your TTime Talk (TED-like Talk), you will also want to show your engagement in the topic through your enthusiasm (passion) and your well-informed pitch.
(I don' know how to format checklist bullets for this blog post like they are on the doc- but making hte lost checkoff-able makes it an interactive way to track and prepare for the pitch)
Be clear on your WHY
State the problem and why it’s an issue
Explain how it relates to sustainability/the environment
Your goal: inform/persuade
Give the audience a sense of the impact/overall effect of your issue
Provide some evidence: statistics, research, short video clip
Rehearse to show preparedness (you may want to use cue cards)
Connect to you/explain why you are interested in pursuing this inquiry
Show your enthusiasm (strive for passion)
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I am so excited to watch the students on Pitch Day in two weeks. Seeing them making critical choices or even changing them based on their investigation is the first key for students to own the process of their learning and make good topic selections for themselves. This personalizes the project and helps learners share in the creation of the documents used to guide them through the process. I hope this will help them perfect their presentations. Stay tuned, as I am sure they will better than synchronized lady dancing to a Mariah Carey chart-toppers.
