When I first introduced this, I selected a TED Talk that connected to the unit of study. The connections were thematic, conceptual, skills practice, elaboration/extension of a “big idea”, etc.  I’d have the kids listen and write down how the talk related to the unit. Then we’d have a share-aloud Q and A.   After I did a few of these, the kids started to ask if they could “present” a Talk, which was always the plan, but I figured it would take them a while to want to facilitate the discussion from the Talk. When they first asked to do these, I left it open-ended; they could choose whichever Talk they felt presented an “idea worth spreading”.

 

TED Talk Tuesdays:

**Student has a week to find and prepare.

1. Choose a Talk that relates to the current unit of study.
2. The Talk has to be between 8-12 minutes. This made the students have to “edit” some Talks  since some of the Talks lasted the entire 18 minutes that TED allots to its speakers.
3. Create two facilitating questions.

**OPTIONAL: I had the student send me the questions and the link to their Talk by Monday morning for review and to post to the blog after the presentation. **

1. Present the questions to the class prior to viewing the Talk.
2. Have a short 5 minute Q and A.
3. Give me a six word summary of the Talk, which could also be posted to the blog.
4. At the end, student draws a name for the next week’s Talk.
5. They received a grade for the quality of the questions and the accuracy of the summary.