Using Truman Trivia as a Springboard to Research and Oral Presentation Skills

Teacher: April Harmon
School: Delta Woods Middle School
Grade Level: upper elementary and middle grades
Time Frame: one week

Show Me Standards Addressed:

Content Standard

CA 6 participating in formal and informal presentations and discussions of issues and ideas

Performance Standards

1.1 develop questions and ideas to initiate and refine research

1.4 use technological tools and other resources to locate, select and organize information

Introduction

Trivia can be a springboard to deeper research. Students need frequent, short, reinforcement opportunities on appropriate public speaking and audience member skills.

Objectives

Students will prepare trivia buttons for the Truman library

• By research using Internet and other sources
• By defining a trivia focus for a one to two minute oral presentation
• By designing the final product

Preparation: Students are given an assignment to use the Truman Library website to gather ten trivia facts. They are encouraged to find unusual, interesting facts. Students without access to the Internet make appointments to use the school computers.

Day 1

Students share one of their favorite, most unusual facts with the class aloud. No repeats are allowed so everyone is listening carefully with a second choice ready to use if necessary. Students are then asked to reword the facts into ten questions.The answer to the questions must be a sentence, not one word, like "Truman" or a date. Another trip around the room confirms that students have ten questions of varying depth. The teacher initiates a class discussion about what makes an interesting trivia question. Eventually everyone should agree that a question with some depth or "meat" makes the most interesting trivia to learn, and that you must understand all the parts of the question and answer to appreciate it. (What is NATO?) Students select one question to share with a partner. The partner asks questions about the selected item that they would need to know in order to appreciate the trivia. For example the question "Why did Harry Truman miss so much of his second-grade year?" (He developed diphtheria and was paralyzed for a time.) might yield the questions by the partner, "What is diphtheria?", "How do you get it?", "What are the symptoms?","Why don't we hear about people getting it today?" Questions are jotted down as topics for further research. Students are encouraged to add their own questions. If one pairing doesn't yield appropriate questions a different trivia item can be tested, or the partner group can be increased to four students to generate more ideas. Teacher input here is critical as some questions are not detailed enough to warrant more research.

Day 2

Students are told they will prepare a one to two minute oral presentation on one of their trivia questions. They participate in preparing a scoring guide to reflect the skills of a good speaker and audience member.

Presentation skills are modeled and discussed. The speaker scoring guide should include: eye contact, tone, body posture and gestures. The audience member guide should include eye contact, quiet listening, comments, and appropriate signs of appreciation and respect for the speaker (clapping). The teacher types the scoring guide and copies for each student. Using Internet and other sources the students begin to expand their trivia question to build a presentation.

Homework: Given a button template the student will design a colorful graphic for behind the trivia question for the Truman Library display.

Day 3

Students are given a copy of the presentation scoring guide. They then organize information, practice, and time presentations with partners.

Homework: Students will use another button template to finalize the design and type the trivia question to fit. (scoring guide available)

Day 4

Give presentations. Use the class-developed scoring guide.

Day 5

Design and type trivia buttons as well as answer cards for the display. Affix the buttons to a display board and the answer cards on folded construction paper behind them. The trivia questions can be copied on overhead film and cut to fit the button size. When the buttons are assembled, the question then "floats" on the background the students designed for their question.

Resources and Technology Used

Project Whistlestop is an approved web site for students to use, but other web sites and sources can be used such as electronic and traditional dictionaries and encyclopedia.

Assessment and Reflection

Objective 1 and 2

Students are assessed by individual participation (giving points for ten trivia facts and reworded questions), as well as group participation in helping a partner(s) find the best trivia question to research, and developing the scoring guide. The scoring guide assesses the presentation.

Objective 3

The homework assignments are worth points, and the final button can also be assessed depending on the criteria established with students beforehand (color, typed, etc.) Scoring guides are provided for the button and the answer paragraph.

Students can also be asked to write a reflection on the trivia button assignment which can include most favorite part, least favorite part, what would be done differently if this assignment was given again, etc.

Scoring Guide for Truman Trivia Presentation

• Return to Truman Library home page