Skip asked for clarification on the Class Competitions process. Here is my response. I’ll ask James to make a flow chart out of it. Please offer any edit suggestions before he does the flow chart:
Click on the CC – Class Competitions category.
Select any of the entries.
Go to the comment fields.
Identify whom you are and what language and what level you teach and ask in the comment field if another teacher of the same language and level wants to participate in a competition with your classes. Include your email address.
Someone will respond. Get their email and begin to communicate privately off line about the details: which story you will use, etc.
Once those decisions are made, tell the kids that some school in (name of city) has decided to challenge them in story making. Watch their reaction.
Tell them if they want some of that, they have to win the best school story first. Then do a test story. The winner of the practice story within all of your classes gets the right to represent your school in the competition. That right there, winning the inschool competition on the test story, is a big honor that the kids will see as a big deal and is worthy of extra credit or something like that.
After the winning team has been chosen, get releases. If you don’t get enuough releases, the class doesn’t get to film. The right to compete goes to the second best class. Don’t film without releases. The releases I use can be found here: https://benslavic.com/blog/2013/02/11/releases/
Film only the story part of the agreed upon script.
Exchange the videos.
Optional: Show the competing class video to your class.
Let the students decide which is best and make them say why. Or you and the other teacher can decide, in which case you don’t show them the other class video, just telling them they won as per: https://benslavic.com/blog/2013/02/14/class-competitions-2/
Optional: set up a skype session for the classes to discuss the rigor part. Administrators would love such a session, with kids from different schools engaged in self-reflective dialogue about what success means in your class. Use Clarice’s posters on rigor if you wish in that process.
Follow these rules:
• Only one day max on PQA to prepare them.
• Film the first story you get and send it in.
• No stopping the camera.
• Don’st start filming until you have ALL the releases signed by kids’ parents. The copies can be found by searching Class Competition Releases here. If a child fails to return one, they are sent out to the library. Don’t even put them in the back of the room. The good thing here is that the kids really want to start the story and so the peer pressure works to bring all the releases in.
• Only send in video of one class. You could make it a competition between all of your classes to determine the team competing in the interschool competition.
• Do not show the other class video until you have filmed your own – it could influence what your own students do.
• Work with the other teacher(s) to get everything done within a two week period.
• Only send in video to the PLC if you want to. There should not be that kind of pressure. The entire two week process from beginning to end should be about private communication with one or two other teachers.
• We all have to use the same story and script.
• Optional: All classes win as per: https://benslavic.com/blog/2013/02/14/class-competitions-2/