Project Presentation Policy

How to work well as a member of a group:

Students often choose to work on their projects and presentations as members of groups. Group cooperation and participation is an important element of student achievement, and developing proficiency in group work is one of the outcomes expected in the Alberta curriculum. Students are expected to work diligently on their projects. Project presentations are to be ready on the specified deadline day. Student groups that are not prepared when called on will incur a late penalty/organizational penalty. Project-presentations are major assignments.

An important part of group work is that everyone contributes in some fashion. This doesn’t mean that everyone must participate in the presentation aspect of the project; some of the participants may instead take on more research and writing responsibilities, leaving the presentation aspect to others in the group. But in all cases, make sure that members in your group all pull their own weight. In order to complete an effective project/presentation, it is often a good idea for students in a group to divide up the tasks equally; consider organizing group work so that each student in the group can do the thing that he or she is best at. If research is required for a project topic, then make good use of research time (i.e., don’t horse around or sit idle) and research broadly. Consult many different sources. When using materials gleaned from research sources (ex., books, magazines, the internet), re-write your findings in your own words and cite the source for the information. You can also use direct quotes from your sources (if you cite them honestly), but remember that you will be presenting this information to the class, and if you are not familiar with the words you have written, you may stumble over them. Fluency of speech (or lack thereof) will affect the presentation itself. For this reason, it is often best to present your research in your own words rather than as a long series of quotations.

How to Plan Ahead for Mishaps/Adversity:

Sometimes, a student in a group is sick or otherwise unavailable on the day of a presentation. In most cases, this fact ought not to disable an entire group. Not all students in a group need to present the material as long as all students have contributed in some manner to the success of the presentation.

All student presentations should be ready on the first day of presentations. I have advised students that it is their responsibility to ensure that they have made allowances for illnesses, mishaps, bouts of forgetfulness, and miscommunication within the group. Examples of ways to ensure that every group is ready when called are:

• Have a back-up plan. If work is only in the possession of ONE group member, and that group member does not bring the work on presentation day (for whatever reason), the presentation will be late or critiqued for poor organization/planning. Solution: Why not think ahead and make sure that more than one member of the group has a copy of the project?
• Have more than one way of accessing the work. For instance, if you have emailed the project to yourself, what will you do if the school server is down that day? Perhaps you have a copy saved on your own school account that you could access quickly on a laptop computer? Sometimes accessing information this way takes a great deal time away from the rest of the class. Why not consider loading the complete assignment onto your laptop (or a group member’s laptop) beforehand to facilitate the presentation? Another possibility is to make sure that group members have a copy of the project on a flash drive, or burned onto a CD-ROM. There are certainly lots of ways to demonstrate that you have thought ahead; if you exert the effort to do so, your noble efforts will be taken into account should something go awry.

The Process for Deciding Who Will Present and When:

On the day that student presentations commence, we begin by asking for volunteers. If no volunteers are found, the teacher picks the names by lot from a bucket. The name drawn will mean that the group to which this student belongs will be the next one to present. Lack of preparedness will be reflected in the assessment.

How to Be a Polite and Thoughtful Audience during Student Presentations:

Students are expected to listen respectfully during other presentations. Students often put a great deal of work into their presentations, and the class can learn a great deal from a well-executed student presentation. However, the opportunity for learning is adversely affected when students in the audience are not attentive. Moreover, it is often difficult for students to stand before their peers and present their work, but particularly so when they are made to feel that what they have to say isn’t important due to the disrespect shown by others in the class who are not listening or being respectful. Student behaviour during presentations will therefore be monitored and considered as part of assessment.