My 3-5th grade classes are finishing up their math genius hour projects this week. Fittingly, it’s the last the week of school so we made it just in time! I have two days to fit in 15 project presentations. This last round of projects lasted around two months and the final projects will soon be revealed.
Students created questions, found a math connection, researched and are presenting this week. During the last two years students present their projects and the audience asks questions about the topic. This technique seemed to work but I tended to have the same students ask the presenter questions. Around five or so of the same students asked the presenters questions. In a class of 25 that’s not ideal. It was great that the students were asking questions, but five or fewer was disappointing. Bottom line – the audience wasn’t as engaged as they should be. So this year I decided to give the audience more of a voice in the process during genius hour presentations. This actually stemmed from a class that I took this spring about using Google tools in the classroom.
One of the assignments required students to create a Google Form that could be used in class. My first thought was to create a student rubric for presentations. I decided to create my own after dabbling around the Internet for a few examples. Initially the form was going to be used by the teacher to evaluate presentations. After starting the form I changed my thinking. I thought about possibly having all of my students use the same form to evaluate the presenter. The genius hour feedback form was built from that idea. Click the image below for the form.
This week my students have been using the form to evaluate their peers. Students are asked to present their projects while the audience listens. At the very end (not at the beginning as some students want to get a head start) students take an iPad and scan a QR code to access the Google Form. Individual students evaluate the speaker and submit their response. It’s not confidential as students have to pick themselves (the evaluator) and the presenter. I tell the students that this information will not be revealed to the presenter. So far it’s been working well. The last presentation took less than 2 minute to collect 21 feedback submissions. Another bonus is that you can have a class conversation about the overall quality of the presentations.
I then export the file to Excel, hide the evaluator column and then print out the sheet for the student. The student is then able to reflect on the data at a later time.
The form needs some work as I’m thinking of making some of the questions more clear. I’d also like to add a section on the form where students can ask the presenter questions.
Educational Aspirations 