One aspect of my work includes teaching the interdisciplinary research courses developed by the College Board: AP Seminar and AP Research. These portfolio-based courses cultivate a broad set of academic research, writing, and presentation skills, rather than requiring the acquisition or analysis of a fixed body of knowledge.
The AP Seminar course includes a team research project. This year, my class of fifteen students is made up of remarkable, driven and diligent students, for whom the thought of relying on a group for their success evokes a particular dread. All year, we have been working together to grow an environment of open critique of each other's work, as well as deepening an ability to trust others and to take risks with collaboration.
This Thursday marked the culmination of months of preparation, when groups presented their research-based proposals for how to solve complex problems that each group had identified--from wealth disparity in India to the marginalization of the Muslim minority population or the transgender hijra community here, to the particular challenge of how Afghanistan might be made safe for refugees to return. One Korean student who opted against the external portfolio had done her own research on comfort women, which she presented with passion and some incredulity at how they had been treated, demanding an apology and reparations from Japan. Honoring the personal value of her research, the silence in the room deepened. Not a sound could be heard as she spoke.
We debriefed after the presentations. Students commented first on how their proposed solutions all incorporated an element of education reform, aimed at tackling the prejudices that develop from an early age. I smiled as they then naturally moved into complimenting the careful slide design choices of one group or how the organization of the presentation for a second lent the argument a stronger element of persuasion, or how the rotation of speakers in a third highlighted the limitations of alternate possible solutions. Students were able to offer far more specific feedback than a simple, "Good job" to each other. Not only that, but as a group received encouraging comments or compliments, members of that group would quickly acknowledge the individual most responsible.
Rarely do we get to see such sweet generosity in the classroom, and it doesn't happen by default! Since July, we've been working hard, most fundamentally to create a safe container for dialogue, to develop skills for speaking to each other, trusting each other, working together, that can be applied throughout life across a range of situations, even in the face of complex problems and diverse opinions. The world needs these students to grow up and lead us. When class came to a close, as students packed up to leave, one said, "AP Seminar is just like a big, happy family now. It's weird."
Weird and wonderful.
The AP Seminar course includes a team research project. This year, my class of fifteen students is made up of remarkable, driven and diligent students, for whom the thought of relying on a group for their success evokes a particular dread. All year, we have been working together to grow an environment of open critique of each other's work, as well as deepening an ability to trust others and to take risks with collaboration.
This Thursday marked the culmination of months of preparation, when groups presented their research-based proposals for how to solve complex problems that each group had identified--from wealth disparity in India to the marginalization of the Muslim minority population or the transgender hijra community here, to the particular challenge of how Afghanistan might be made safe for refugees to return. One Korean student who opted against the external portfolio had done her own research on comfort women, which she presented with passion and some incredulity at how they had been treated, demanding an apology and reparations from Japan. Honoring the personal value of her research, the silence in the room deepened. Not a sound could be heard as she spoke.
We debriefed after the presentations. Students commented first on how their proposed solutions all incorporated an element of education reform, aimed at tackling the prejudices that develop from an early age. I smiled as they then naturally moved into complimenting the careful slide design choices of one group or how the organization of the presentation for a second lent the argument a stronger element of persuasion, or how the rotation of speakers in a third highlighted the limitations of alternate possible solutions. Students were able to offer far more specific feedback than a simple, "Good job" to each other. Not only that, but as a group received encouraging comments or compliments, members of that group would quickly acknowledge the individual most responsible.
Rarely do we get to see such sweet generosity in the classroom, and it doesn't happen by default! Since July, we've been working hard, most fundamentally to create a safe container for dialogue, to develop skills for speaking to each other, trusting each other, working together, that can be applied throughout life across a range of situations, even in the face of complex problems and diverse opinions. The world needs these students to grow up and lead us. When class came to a close, as students packed up to leave, one said, "AP Seminar is just like a big, happy family now. It's weird."
Weird and wonderful.
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