When I taught a Cultura course before, it had an oral presentation component. Although I thought that this type of student work was valuable, I did not like the results I received. Most of the time, students picked a subject about a well-known facet of Hispanic culture and included no new information. Also, they tended to only use a couple of sources, and those sources always came from the Internet. I am aware now that I was not giving students enough guidance to succeed in that process. I wanted to find a way to make this learning experience more meaningful. I worked on these issues as part of the Best Practices Institute (BPI) that was facilitated by the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE). During the BPI meetings, I met with fellow University of Kansas faculty members to discuss teaching ideas that we each would apply to a particular course.
| ImplementationMy task in this project was to provide the appropriate project framework by developing, with the students, these different steps of the process. This took place in six basic steps. First, I increased the percentage of points for the oral presentation. Second, I verbally explained my ideas in class. Third, the class worked with me to create assessment criteria, also called a rubric. Fourth, I drafted their ideas. Fifth, we discussed that plan. And sixth, we looked at the steps involved in the oral presentation as delineated by the rubric.
| Student PerformanceAfter several presentations, the results were very satisfactory. The students took the work seriously, did lots of research, and turned in an outline to the class before the presentation. The oral presentations were very organized and well structured. Students successfully integrated a wide range of materials from different sources and presented them in a very appealing manner through the use of handouts, outlines, visual aids, and PowerPoint presentations. Moreover, they succeeded in engaging the rest of the class in their presentations by raising questions for further discussion, leading a follow-up activity in pairs or groups, or presenting a final quiz to highlight the most important aspects of their presentation. All the presentation elements that we discussed as a class were met, and I thought their work was much better than it would have been without our preparation. I liked the way that the whole process became a collaborative event for the students.
| ReflectionsNot only did the students benefit, but I did as well. I think using the rubric made my evaluations more objective, fair, and thorough. Plus, it saved me time during that portion of the assessment. It was harder to draw the line regarding assessment in the past, and I liked having this document to help me with that. One concern that I have about this project is capturing the improvement that comes from doing it with the new guidelines. I know that their work is better, but it is difficult to provide any data, let alone empirical data, for an oral presentation. This is especially true because there is not a tangible paper product.
| SummaryDeveloping evaluation criteria with students for their oral presentations in an Hispanic culture class results in high quality student work.
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