On my way to class...

Wow, I have a lot to catch you up on but it will have to wait for now. Rest assured I'll fill you all in soon. Right now I'm getting ready to go listen to my students' first round of speeches. So far the speeches are decent - a few wonderfully mastered marvels and a few that lack insight and/or preparation. There's always some of each level in every bunch. We'll see how today's go. :)

I also have my students rank each other using a "rank order" system - on a scale of one to five, with five being the best (just like a 5-star restaurant or 5-star hotel). They rank each other on:

• Delivery (eye contact, posture, gestures, and fluency), and
• Content (main pts in into/body/conc, Attention-getter, Final thought, also on Audience adaptations, source citations, and a descriptive passage).

So on their papers they write: Name, Thesis topic, D #, C # (for each person)

Then at the end of each day's speeches they circle the best speech of the day. At the end of the entire round (I call the speeches Rounds like in a boxing match), they vote for whom they think did the best job. Winners get prizes! Wheeee! :)

Amazing how time creeps up - it is almost time to go to class. More to come later.