General STANDARD 2: Questioning, Listening, and Contributing* Students will pose questions, listen to the ideas of others, and contribute their own information or ideas in group discussions or interviews in order to acquire new knowledge. Group discussions may lead students to greater complexity of thought as they expand on the ideas of others, refine initial ideas, pose hypotheses, and work toward solutions to intellectual problems. Group work helps students gain a deeper understanding of themselves as they reflect upon and express orally their own thinking in relation to that of others.
Grade Level
Learning Standards
PreK–4
Grades PreK–2
2.1: Contribute knowledge to class discussion in order to develop a topic for a class project.
For example, students contribute to a list of the people they know about who are community helpers and decide whom they wish to invite to class to talk about the work they do.
Grades 3–4
(Continue to address earlier standard as needed.)
2.2: Contribute knowledge to class discussion in order to develop ideas for a class project and generate interview questions to be used as part of the project.
For example, students interview community helpers, using questions the class has generated, and report the results to the class.
5–8
Grades 5–6
(Continue to address earlier standards as needed.)
2.3: Gather relevant information for a research project or composition through interviews.
For example, students generate questions about their family history, interview family members, and present their information to the class.
Grades 7–8
(Continue to address earlier standards as needed.)
2.4: Integrate relevant information gathered from group discussions and interviews for reports.
For example, as part of a unit on Irish immigration to this country in the 19th century, students generate questions to ask neighbors, family members, or local experts about the topic. They also develop discussion questions to guide their reading of chapters from books treating the topic. Finally they integrate the information into a group report that first details the immigrants’ reasons for migrating to America and the social and economic conditions they faced on arrival, and then traces that progress toward the socioeconomic status many Irish Americans enjoy today.
9–10
(Continue to address earlier standards as needed.)
2.5: Summarize in a coherent and organized way information and ideas learned from a focused discussion.
For example, students discuss similarities and differences in the social and political contexts for the views of Thoreau, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr. on civil disobedience. Then they summarize what they learned from the discussion, noting those similarities and differences.
11–12
(Continue to address earlier standards as needed.)
2.6: Analyze differences in responses to focused group discussion in an organized and systematic way.
For example, students read and discuss “The Fall of the House of Usher,” by Edgar Allan Poe, as an example of observer narration; “The Prison,” by Bernard Malamud, as an example of single character point of view; and “The Boarding House,” by James Joyce, as an example of multiple character point of view. Students summarize their conclusions about how the authors’ choices regarding literary narrator made a difference in their responses as readers, and present their ideas to the class.
*This Standard to be assessed at the local level.
Language:
GENERAL STANDARD 3: Oral Presentation* Students will make oral presentations that demonstrate appropriate consideration of audience, purpose, and the information to be conveyed. Planning an effective presentation requires students to make an appropriate match between their intended audience and the choice of presentation style, level of formality, and format. Frequent opportunities to plan presentations for various purposes and to speak before different groups help students learn how to gain and keep an audience’s attention, interest, and respect.
Grade Level
Learning Standards
PreK–4
Grades PreK–2
3.1: Give oral presentations about personal experiences or interests, using clear enunciation and adequate volume.
3.2: Maintain focus on the topic.
For example, students explain to the class why an object they bring from home is important to them.
Grades 3–4
Continue to address earlier standards as needed.
3.3: Adapt language to persuade, to explain, or to seek information.
3.4: Give oral presentations about experiences or interests using eye contact, proper place, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
For example, students give a presentation of information they have acquired from a class visit to the Children’s Museum.
3.5: Make informal presentations that have a recognizable organization (sequencing, summarizing).
3.6: Express an opinion of a literary work or film in an organized way, with supporting detail.
3.7: Use teacher-developed assessment criteria to prepare their presentations.
5–8
Grades 5–6
(Continue to address earlier standards as needed.)
3.8: Give oral presentations for various purposes, showing appropriate changes in delivery (gestures, vocabulary, pace, visuals) and using language for dramatic effect.
3.9: Use teacher-developed assessment criteria to prepare their presentations.
Grades 7–8
(Continue to address earlier standards as needed.)
3.10: Present an organized interpretation of a literary work, film, or dramatic production.
3.11: Use appropriate techniques for oral persuasion.
3.12: Give oral presentations to different audiences for various purposes, showing appropriate changes in delivery (gestures, vocabulary, pace, visuals) and using language for dramatic effect.
For example, students modify their original science project, designed to be presented to parents, when they explain it to a third-grade class.
3.13: Create a scoring guide based on categories supplied by the teacher (content, presentation style) to prepare and assess their presentations.
9–10
(Continue to address earlier standards as needed.)
3.14: Give formal and informal talks to various audiences and for various purposes using appropriate level of formality and rhetorical devices.
3.15: Analyze effective speeches made for a variety of purposes and prepare and deliver a speech containing some of these features.
For example, students study the rhetoric of formal speaking by reading or listening to such memorable speeches as John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “fireside chats,” or Susan B. Anthony’s “Petition to Congress for Women’s Suffrage.” After analyzing several of these models, students write and deliver a short persuasive speech on a current topic of interest.
3.16: Create an appropriate scoring guide to prepare, improve, and assess presentations.
11–12
(Continue to address earlier standards as needed.)
3.17: Deliver formal presentations for particular audiences using clear enunciation and appropriate organization, gestures, tone, and vocabulary.
3.18: Create an appropriate scoring guide to evaluate final presentations.
