This semester I am teaching a section of Speech and Debate for 8th graders and I wanted to create a self guided course that requires students to research, write, speak, and reflect continuously throughout the course. There are three key modules for students to show their mastery of public speaking utilizing a badge system.
Think about what the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts have been doing all along, recognizing mastery and achievement with badges. Teachers can do the same by recognizing student accomplishments and mastery with badges. Badges go beyond grades because they are given out at the teacher’s discretion for more than just academic achievement. Students work toward completing different badges to show mastery of a concept, standard or skill.
In the public speaking elective I designed, students have a great deal of choice – to choose topics and projects using a badging system. This approach gives students both freedom and responsibility as they will be required to manage their time wisely and work independently (in community) toward their personal course goals.
I have organized the first ten weeks of the course into three badges (modules):
Great Speakers Are Made, Not Born Badge
Words Are Powerful Badge
Presentation Guru Badge
Students choose the grade they would like to earn the class and complete badges accordingly. Earning more badges means students will receive a higher grade. Students may submit a badge application as many times as needed to earn the badge as long as they meet all deadlines on the badging pathway. The Badge Grading System will work as follows:
● To earn an A in the course, you must earn three (3) project badges
● To earn a B in the course, you must earn two (2) project badges
● To earn a C in the course, you must earn one (1) project badge
Great Speakers Are Made, Not Born Badge Expectations
Students are required to complete a series of reflections for this requirement. For each post that has a video/website/book/ebook as media, include APA or other citation at the end of your reflection. Below are the expectations for the reflections:
#1: Speech and Debate Reflection Google Form #2: Great Speakers in History
Transcripts: MLK’s Speech and JFK’s Speech
#3: Who is “great speaker” of our time?
#4: Public Speaking Content Curation
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[…] Last week’s post I described how I took my speech and debate elective class for middle school students and turned it into a module based course where students work independently completing different tasks to show mastery and earn badges. […]