LaMar Choate´s Rend Lake Dual Credit Western Civilization class had a presentation project from September 8 to September 16 with the class nominating a project manager and four co-manager. Some students felt the project ended with bad results. The 40-45 minute presentation went over the time with 60 minutes and there have been multiple disagreements and disputes between the participants over why the results ended with the negative response from Choate.  

The assignment included a presentation over 60 pages of the course textbook about Ancient Greece. To evenly distribute the work, the class of 23 students was split into four groups each with a group manager and an elected head project manager, Zoe Wiggins, each taking a portion of the 60 pages. 

When asked about any issues with the project, Wiggins stated,

¨I think some of the biggest issues that came with this project happened because the juniors and seniors have never really worked together on an academic project. Because of this, it was hard to judge capabilities, determine the best way to communicate, and figure out how to make everything come together in a week’s time. It was also super hard to judge speaking speed, because we had never heard each other, which is why we went way over time.¨

Among the members of the groups, the general consensus was that there were some issues, but the project was fun and they still understood their sections and their groups’ lessons.  When asked, as a group member, if he had any thoughts on the process of the presentation, Jacob Thomason answered, ¨I think that the project started off well but the class as a whole thought too hard about making it good enough for Mr. Choate and we forgot the goal, to teach a simplified lesson to the sophomores.¨

Since the presentation originally was supposed to be from 40-45 minutes and the class period ended on Monday and extended to the next day, the students were nervous about the grades they would earn.

When Choate gave his thoughts on the final product, he stated, ¨I think that there were some positives that came out of the project even if I think that the expectations weren’t up to standards I expect from class. Though one of the big positives about it was that there was learning coming from this project in the end.¨