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50 min
Student Lesson
Lesson 44: Research Multimedia Presentation, Presentations
Content
Students will formally present their research-based presentations and engage in peer feedback.
Language
Students will use precise evaluative language to give peer feedback and reflect on how their understanding of reciprocity has changed.
What does it mean to live responsibly within natural systems?
How do different disciplines and traditions, including scientific inquiry and cultural knowledge, help us understand our relationship to the natural world?
Knowledge-Building:
Students formally share their research about reciprocity, restoration, and balance in human and natural systems.
Enduring Understanding:
When knowledge is shared across generations and worldviews, it can restore balance between people and the planet.
Unit Performance Task:
Today, students deliver their presentations and receive peer feedback.
| Lesson Flow | Purpose of Learning Experience |
|---|---|
Launch5 Minutes | Students set a personal goal for today’s presentation. |
Literacy Lab10 Minutes | Students are introduced to a peer feedback form in which they can provide their peers with targeted feedback on their presentations. |
Learning in Action30 Minutes | Showcase Presentation (SL.8.4, SL.8.5, SL.8.6) Students formally present their research while peers listen and provide feedback. |
Material List
Student copies of the Unit 8.3 Performance Task Presentation Rubric
Peer Feedback Form
Unit 3 Lesson 44 Student Edition
Routines
Quick Write
Peer Review Protocol
Give students time to set a presentation goal in their journal. Then invite 2–3 volunteers to share their goals.
Say these Directions: Think about your presentation today. Set one goal to focus on while you speak, like pacing, eye contact, volume, or explaining your evidence clearly.
Ask: What is one thing that you want to do well in your presentation today?
(Student responses may vary.) Today, I want to slow down and explain my evidence clearly. I have strong information, and I want my audience to understand how my examples connect to reciprocity instead of just hearing a list of facts.
Say: A clear personal goal gives you a focus as you listen, speak, and respond to feedback during the showcase.
Provide students with a copy of the Peer Feedback Form.
Say: Good audience members do more than say, “Nice job.” They listen for the speaker’s main idea—the most important, or salient, points—and how those points are supported by evidence and visuals. They also notice how the speaker’s voice, pacing, and eye contact support the message. Today, your feedback should be specific enough for a speaker to use it to improve.
Say these Directions: Let’s review the peer feedback form.
Distribute the Peer Feedback Forms.
Instruct students to review the Peer Feedback Form and to ask questions if they have them.
Say: In the left column, you will take notes when the speaker is presenting. After the speaker is finished presenting, you will write your suggestions in the right column.
Say: As you listen to each presentation, focus on what the speaker is teaching you and whether their evidence, both their words and their visuals, supports that idea. Pay attention to their delivery as well, because eye contact, volume, and pronunciation are important parts of a successful presentation. As you complete your Peer Feedback Form, be sure to include one strength and one next step in the Overall Comments section.
Say: Now you are ready to present and to listen in a way that supports both the speaker and the audience.
Teacher Tip |
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Many middle school students find public speaking stressful. Keep the tone supportive and calm by reminding students that the audience’s job is to learn and to help the speaker grow, not to judge the speaker as a person. |
Students may present individually in front of the whole class, with partners, or in small groups, depending on class size and available time. Audience members will complete one Peer Feedback Form for each speaker they hear.
Say these Directions: When it’s your turn, present your research clearly from beginning to end. Remember to look up and explain your ideas as you go. When you’re listening to other presentations, remember to focus on the speaker’s main idea, their strongest evidence, and one thing they did that helped you follow their thinking.
Begin the presentation rotation. After each presentation, give audience members one minute to finish their feedback and hand it to the speaker. If time allows, speakers can briefly star one comment they want to remember for future presentations.
Teacher Tip |
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If students need support in providing feedback to each other, have them reference the Unit 8.3 Performance Task rubric for ideas. |
Teacher Tip |
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Keep the assessment targets the same while applying any accommodations or modifications documented in students’ IEP or 504 plans. As students present or complete peer feedback, provide approved supports such as chunked directions, extended processing time, assistive technology, note cards, alternate response formats, or a smaller presentation setting so students can demonstrate their understanding of the content and presentation skills. Use the Performance Task Prompt, Presentation Rubric, and Peer Feedback Form in ways that reduce language barriers for English learner students without lowering the rigor of the task. Clarify key rubric language, provide sentence frames or bilingual modifications when appropriate, and allow universal or designated supports that mirror external assessment conditions so language proficiency is not a barrier to showing content mastery. Focus feedback on organization, evidence, visuals, and clarity of ideas rather than on minor language errors that do not interfere with meaning. |
Instruct students to reflect on their learning from the unit in a Quick Write response.
Say these Directions: You’ve spent this unit reading, researching, writing, and now presenting about reciprocity. In 2–3 sentences, explain how your understanding of reciprocity has changed since the beginning of the unit. Use at least two specific details from Braiding Sweetgrass, your research, or a classmate’s presentation.
Ask: How has your understanding of reciprocity changed since the beginning of this unit?
(Student responses may vary.) At the beginning of the unit, I thought reciprocity mostly meant trading or giving something back right away. Now I understand that it’s a long-term relationship of responsibility and balance, especially after reading the section in Braiding Sweetgrass about the Honorable Harvest and hearing classmates explain how saving seeds and using cultural fires restore ecosystems and help communities thrive.
Students read their independent reading book for 20 minutes and complete a reading log entry.
Read your independent reading book for 20 minutes. In your reading log, record the date and pages you read, write 1–2 sentences about what happened or what you learned, and respond to this week’s prompt using evidence from the text.