Owning the Learning

This past year I really made a push for students to come up with their own projects in contents areas in a way that would connect the necessary outcomes in learning with their own passions.  I tried to encourage the ability to submit their work in multiple ways though I found most preferred to simply work in google slides.  This year I will be working with the class so that, as a team, we can generate a plethora of submission possibilities.  That being said, the other issue I found was students simply finding information on line and posting it to their slide shows.  They did this without fully understanding the information, the connections to curriculum, and the connections to the world.  In short they did not own the learning.
The dead give aways were:

• words that were unknown to the students and pronounced improperly.  
• Students with their backs to the audience while they struggled to read the text to us.
• students unable to expand on, or even truly explain the information in their projects.

To combat this, I did not allow more than 7 words per slide, and I highly encouraged cue cards (written with cues, rather than full prose).  This was a good start, but I feel I need to develop the concept of owning one's learning.

To own your learning you have to: 

• understand all the words you are using.  
• be able to offer proof to support your thinking.
• integrate information, pictures, videos, etc. from multiple sources
• credit your sources
• be able to expand on your thinking making further connections to the world.
• share your information with a given audience (preferably the world)
• answer all reasonable questions given by the those in the audience.
• work without reading from prompts
• have rehearsed your presentation

The ideas students present do not necessarily need to be new and unique.  Students must, however, be fully able to discuss them and bring them to an audience for them to be owned.