An Area of Study quickie

I’ve written about this before. At my place, we do a task where students read aloud 300 words of their own writing then relate it to ideas about Discovery and their texts.

Here’s the latest version of our task: HSC_AoS_Task_One_Asst_Notification_2016

There’s a couple of differences from our past task. Most notably, we’ve built in some concepts, some possible visual stimuli and insisted on third person writing. I’ve left this in Word so that people can make adaptations for their own context. I know that there are other people out there using other models – the viva voce, for example – but this is the one we’ve settled on here. Because it values the creative we think it’s a worthwhile addition to the course as a whole.

And would this be a good time to mention that getting rid of the Area of Study might not be the best idea in the world?

Discovery, The Speaking Task

I’ve written a few other times about speaking tasks we’ve tried with different years. This is really a follow-up. My faculty has written its new Discovery task. Here it is: HSC_AoS_Asst_Notification_2015
As you’ll see, it’s following the pattern we’ve used before. Students begin by reading 300 words of their own writing, usually an excerpt from a story. This is a story they’ve written in controlled conditions so that there’s a minimalisation of the chances for plagiarism. They are then required to link this back to their prescribed and related texts in a six minute talk with (if they wish) a visual presentation to support their work. Nearly all of them do this, of course.
I’ve left this as a word file so that others can take it and use it if they wish. As usual, please acknowledge the source of this activity in any public forum.
Enjoy!