Oral Performances
If you currently use some sort of oral performance in your curriculum, you may find that you merely need to adapt that type of performance to your collaborative research project.
If you aren't using an oral project of some sort, spend ample time upfront considering your options. You might think about asking students to participate in any one of the following, for instance:
- traditional debate
- cooperative debate
- roundtable
- panel presentation
- PowerPoint presentation
- multi-paper session
- poster session
- think tank
- video documentary
- jigsaw activity
The Performance Is Not the Final Product
Though students tend to focus on the oral performance piece of the collaborative research assignment, keep in mind that the performance is a designated forum for individuals to work toward the final goal, not to “win” or “lose,” but rather to support informed decision-making. The end result may be revealed in a brief paper after the event, in a final post to the discussion board, in a formal assignment, or in some other way.
Your Overall Approach
If your class is large, you may need to plan simultaneous oral performances or coordinated oral events (like the jigsaw), with the bulk of the students' grades coming from their critical self-reflections of their performances. In this case, the performances should be scheduled so that at least a couple of class meetings are available afterward for debriefing.
If you've got a small class, putting together the oral performance aspect of your collaborative research project is a bit easier. You may be able to simply designate chunks of class time near the end of the term when students can make presentations, lead discussions, etc. You'll still want to solicit critical self-reflection from students, but you have the option of giving more points to the performance if you wish. You may also wish to invite audience members from outside of the classroom community, such as experts, consultants, decision-makers, etc.
Using Peer Response
Leverage peer-power to provide feedback for performances and to increase student interest and accountability.
For instance, you might orchestrate a cooperative debate in a large class in which four learning teams work together. Two teams engage in a cooperative debate with the members of the other two teams providing written feedback. The roles then switch. Rather than turning in all of their feedback to you for your perusal and assessment, learning teams are required to submit a feedback packet that includes copies of their feedback covered by an analysis in which the team addresses their strengths and weaknesses in the performance, using the student feedback as supporting “evidence.”
