Mrs K’s Discussion Leadership Project – Periods 6 and 7

Goals

Learn to lead an interesting, open, enlightening discussion among people with differing opinions, without injecting your own

Learn to encourage others to speak up, even if their opinion might not be popular

Maintain ground rules about civility and respect (with the help of teachers)

Preparation expectations

-Produce a casual document with your question, follow-up ten questions, and notes about discussions you’ve had about possibilities and points to be made, even if you discarded those ideas. You’ll show this to Mrs. K on Wednesday.

-Produce index cards – “cue cards” to use as you lead the discussion, to guide you in your leadership. Decide how they will be physically arranged/who will hold them/how you’ll handle them in your own way.

-Make a drawing of how you will set up your presentation/discussion. Do you need the smartboard? White board? Do you want to use a lectern? etc. Practice setting up.

-Rehearsal in front of another group – we will discuss this in class.

Grading

The amount and quality of work and care you take to prepare for this assignment, the professionalism of your presentation, the seriousness of your rehearsals  – 25

Quality of follow-up questions and how they’re used/not used in the discussion - 50

Amount of audience participation – 25

Things to keep in mind

No conclusion needs to be reach in the discussion. Just discussion…encourage more… the end.

Keep reading the goals above and make sure everything you do applies to them.

Lively discussion, with disagreements, is a positive. We don’t want to hamper disagreement; we want to make sure it’s civil. 

If your audience is afraid to speak up, something’s wrong. You can turn to me for help if that happens.