First Focus conducted a Writing and Presentation Camp during the last week of December. The objective in this camp was to train students how to:
- Research a selected topic
- Write up the results of the research
- Collaborate and Consolidate with team members
- Translate the findings into a slide deck
- Make a presentation to the class
Insights from this Camp:
Click on the image above to see a final presentation
Structure works:
Assigning two or three students to be part of a group provides an opportunity to experience teamwork, personal accountability and participation in the final results. Students are given a range of topics, each group can select from the list of topics.
The teacher demonstrate how to conduct research on the internet, how to reference information with an active link, how to link to images, and how to use an online database for specific information in an organized manner. The teacher provided a framework to help each team classify information, write about their findings and arrange the information according to priority.
Teamwork:
We found students were generally very good team players, some students immediately paired with their friends in the camp, while others created new team relationships. Once assignments were defined, the work was completed with collaboration and the teams consolidated their separate findings into the working draft.
We found students were generally very good team players, some students immediately paired with their friends in the camp, while others created new team relationships. Once assignments were defined, the work was completed with collaboration and the teams consolidated their separate findings into the working draft.
Writing:
Creating a written outline based on the research can be challenging, we shared the strategies and techniques used writing an informational article. Each team selected a State, wrote an informational article about the State and then read the article to the class.
Feedback:
The class and the teachers provided feedback on the article, the organization, the main points, details and summary. The teacher assisted in defining the feedback into actionable improvements.
Presentation Skills:
Based on student and teacher feedback, each team then revised their article and created a presentation using Google Docs - Slides. Students had one practice session and then gave their presentation to the class.
Results we observed:
As the process continued throughout the week, students demonstrated a higher level of quality in the content of the written article and in their presentations.
Messaging:
Messaging:
Students began to understand why a picture is worth a thousand words.
Most Important:
We observed a sense of confidence and pride in their work.
For more information on the upcoming camps:
The next Research, Writing and Presentation Camp will be held on Winter Break, February 20-23, 2018 and Spring Break, April 9-13, 2018
For more information on the camp, click on http://www.firstfocus.com/writing-camp.html
And to register for one of these camps, call us at 650-938-3100, email at First Focus or click on
