The first two times I facilitated the TTalk project, I was teaching a course called Individuals and Societies for the Middle Years Program of the International Baccalaureate (IB) while covering provincial Geography curriculum expectations and beyond. Last year, I felt liberated because I was iterating the project for Literacy, so I could widen the scope and position it within a unit about something bigger than a subject. I decided to rename the project TTalks for Impact. The TTalk part came from Genius-Hour/20% Time inspiration with a TED-like talk product with a lot of landmarks on the journey. Impact was the goal- to build a well-researched talk about a topic that made an impact for each student so that they could inform, persuade or inspire the audience, making an impact of their own.
The process with my Grade 8's went from activating and creating schema to discovering interests and a search for deeper meaning, with some students even finding passion for their topic. The TTalks for Impact were the summative task for the unit that I called Impact driven by the inquiry question: How can we make a positive impact in the world? We began with a very general introduction to different issues through photographs. Other provocations ranged from videos, to song lyrics to famous quotes. By the time the students had explored a bevy of issues, they were tasked to graffiti boarding the topic of their choice under the umbrella of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), referring to the specific goal number along with the topic.
Pitch Day was adrenalin-filled and so much fun. It is a rare time that I allow an entire class of students to have back-to-back presentations, but I allow it for the 1 minute topic pitches that students make to show their initial research and explain their why for their topics of choice. For homework that night, students were tasked with viewing their pitch video recordings and then conferencing with me about their topic choice over the next few days to clarify their next steps in developing their pitch into a 4-6 minute TED-like talk.
My favourite part about embedding this in a Literacy unit is reflected in the spectrum of topics that my students pursued, all in different ways:
Racism (Anti-Black Racism, Anti-East-Asian Racism, Hate)
LGBTQAIS2+
Gender Equity
Air Pollution
Water Pollution
Overfishing
Whaling
Human Impact on the Environment
Veganism
Bullying
Poverty and Homelessness
Poaching
Sustainable Cities
Climate Action/Change
Period Poverty
Both the explicit and implicit instruction in this unit reflected why this project is a great conduit for learning skills including:
Critical thinking
Creativity
Collaboration
Communication
Information literacy
Media literacy
Technology literacy
Flexibility/Choice
Blogging is a way to track the process and results of student learning and share it with a class audience. The students set up blogs to begin reflecting on their pitch, the process of evolving their presentation from a pitch tot a TTalk for Impact and then a reflection after the presentation on the overall experience of preparing for and then viewing the video of their TTalk presentations. They also had to comment on at least 3 posts of their classmates’, so it was great to see the class providing feedback, asking questions and commenting on posts in a positive way. I had previously loved seeing people from outside the school viewing and responding to their blogs, but that access was closed to us this year, so the class responded to each other’s posts.
The class was on their second blog post when we left for March Break, unsure if we’d be returning immediately (or if at all) for this school year. When we heard that we would not be returning to school for a while, I was still hopeful that my student’s hard work of researching relevant information, triangulating evidence, citing sources in MLA format and using data to support their assertions could come to fruition. Also, since this is my class’s 4th BOB project, they had multiple opportunities to develop their oral presentations skills, so this was going to be a summative assessment on those.
The the only thing I really had to change was the evaluation of non-verbal skills. I could assess vocal skills through the audio track each student added to their cited, non-pixelated, usable images through their productions that included iMovie, Beautiful.AI, Vidyard, and different forms of screencasting. Although only half the class presented to each other due to extreme feelings and fear of judgement (something that happens with very few students in the classroom, but an accommodation I’m always happy to make), students viewed and gave feedback to their classmates who wanted to share their TTalks with their whole class through Flipgrid. Because students sign up to present, only a few on a given day, it allowed me to divide up the week and have the students submit their talks on the Friday of their selected week. Then, each Monday, I posted the videos of the talks from that week and a Flipgrid link for that TTalk with a screenshot of the cover page. It gave the students time to watch each other’s TTalks and provide meaningful responses. Flipgrid gave my students a chance to hear from their classmates, reinforcing their hard work and recreating that community feeling. Not every student gave feedback on Flipgrid. Some preferred email, but there was a lot of formative feedback shared by the class, and a feeling of support was not lost in distance learning.
Last week, I received the student’s reflections on the TTalks for Impact and their Impact unit overall. I have tried to gauge many things during this unsure time and wondered if our work was still able to make an impact on my students in their new world of distance learning. Their feedback was a gift that filled me with joy and made me believe that it was possible to maintain momentum and sustain our class community during this time because we had been building it from the inside out since the beginning of the school year.
Here is some of the student’s feedback on the TTalks and the unit (unedited) :
This unit has been a wonderful ride. I loved every part, from watching other people make an impact, to me making my own speech. That had to be my favorite part, well at least seeing the result. During this unit, COVID 19 hit us like a rock and sent us all home, but that did not stop us from effectively finishing it. I think that this unit wouldn't have felt the same in class, and working from home definitely made it better in a way, put a different aspect to it. The virus impacted us for the better in my opinion, and not only us but the world. What a coincidence that the virus is impacting us during the Impact unit...Throughout the Impact unit, I felt like I had a lot of support from my peers, and the feedback of my TTalk can prove my point. I couldn’t be any more thankful for this wonderful class...
- Maria
During the Impact Unit, I learned so much from my peers and teacher. And even though we went through some learning obstacles as a class, that didn’t take away from trying to make a positive impact on my classmates. Through the TTalks, I had the opportunity to inform my teacher and classmates on climate change and global warming, as well as why it is important to step up and do something. But also, I learned about all sorts of topics. This unit was different from all units I’ve done in the past, but in a good way. I liked how we could choose the topic that we wanted to talk about and how we got to choose our presentation dates. Also how we got to do a pitch for our topic to see if we liked it. Overall, I’m glad that we got to do this unit because we all learned so much from each other.
-Matin
I loved the process of finding out what I was passionate about because I got to research a bunch of different topics and learn something new. All though, the process of writing an action plan (I didn't follow the action plan well at all), writing blogs, giving feedback, and making T-Talks was time consuming and filled with obstacles, it was still enjoyable and in the end I was proud of the work I did. I liked watching other peoples T-Talks because I got to learn something new as I took notes for people's presentations (the notes helped me give better feedback). I also liked receiving feedback because it felt like my work paid off and I was helping other people learn something new.
-Yasmin
The process of making the TTalk was very time consuming and stressful, but I’m really glad with how the project turned out. I also enjoyed watching people’s TTalks and giving them feedback, because I could get an insight into different topics. For some people, their TTalk made me want to do something immediately. I liked the feedback that I got for my own TTalk because I would have next steps...This unit was very fun and inspirational, and I was really excited to do this.
- Robyn
No matter what our topics were they all mattered equally and I will probably remember this assignment when I go into high school...Writing my reflection, I realize the unit really lives up to its name as being an impactful person now is very important to me, and I want to protect the world from what we are going through right now.
- Rehan
This unit has taught me LOTS of important information, but most likely it was such a fun unit. It will most likely be one to remember! My favourite and least favourite task was the TTalk. It was my least favourite due to the stress I was getting from the work, but in the end it became my favourite. Not only did I learn a lot of new information from my own topic, but I absolutely loved watching others presentations as well. It was so cool for me to see how differently my peers did their work, and not to mention, I have so much knowledge about my classmate’s topics now! Another one of my favourite things to do was to film feedback on Flipgrid. I personally love feedback from others to see how I can improve my work, so I figured everyone else feels the same. I mean, who doesn’t want to improve their work? I loved leaving next steps and nice things about my friend’s presentation, because to me that meant I was letting them know all that stress and dedication of time was for a good reason. One last task I liked including our TTalk was writing an action plan and blogs. It never crossed my mind for me to write an action plan for my projects, and I thought it was a great way to complete a project effectively, even though I barely followed mine. But it’s a really interesting way to be organized and I will for sure use it for future events. And lastly, I feel like the blogs got me to deeply reflect on my work, and even improved my writing.
- Nika
This unit has made me realize that the world isn’t perfect and there’s many issues in the world. The impact unit has also made me realize that I should be more grateful about my life because there are many people who have to deal with these horrific problems. For example, there’s many people who are going through poverty which is something I could never imagine going through. Watching everybody’s pitch and T talks for impact was very interesting and I loved getting to see everyone’s different topics. The whole process of these T talks was very organized and in my opinion really helped to prepare us for the actual Ted Talk. For example, the pitch was a great way to introduce everybody about our topic and also blogging about it was great to let everyone know about our own process and what we felt during the whole project. Not only was this unit very educational, it was also fun and enjoyable. I really enjoyed doing the centers, as it was a great way to learn but in a fun way. I really enjoyed this unit and it taught me a lot about everything that’s going on in the world, hopefully our next unit can be just as great as this one!
- Farisa
This unit meant making an impact, no matter how big or small it is. I enjoyed this unit a lot because I’ve learnt many important and new skills such as, critical thinking, learning how to persuade and talk to an audience (this unit included my first time presenting). We’ve also submitted our TTalks and I got the opportunity to watch and give feedback to everyone who decided to share their presentations with the class. From this, I’ve learnt how I could look at people’s presentation and see all the negatives and positives and what I like and don’t like so I could imply it in my work to help me improve my TTalk, but to also help my classmates improve their presentation skills by giving them feedback.
- Danya
My students' reflections have breathed a new hope in me, and I feel infused with the belief that, even from a distance, our work can make a positive impact on each other.
