{"id":546,"date":"2016-03-02T13:49:40","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T13:49:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/?p=546"},"modified":"2017-01-25T20:39:46","modified_gmt":"2017-01-25T20:39:46","slug":"picking-a-topic-and-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/conferences\/2016\/03\/02\/picking-a-topic-and-goal\/","title":{"rendered":"Picking a Topic and Goal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Marc<\/a>

Marc DeArmond L2, USA<\/p><\/div>\n

Picking a Topic<\/b><\/p>\n

When you\u2019ve made the decision to present at a conference it is most likely that you have some idea in mind of what you want to talk about. You may feel that you have a particular insight into some area of judging that is generally unexplored by others or even that you have a keen understanding of one of the more troublesome spots in a judge\u2019s understanding of the rules. Either way you will generally start with some idea of what you want to talk about. If you\u2019re interested in giving a presentation but don\u2019t have any specific topics in mind, you can find a list of commonly requested topics on the judge wiki. Once you have an idea for a topic, it is time to refine it from a topic into a lesson.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Topic to Goal<\/b>
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Good lessons are created through a three step process: identifying a desired result, determining acceptable evidence, and planning instruction. Rather than sitting down to begin planning a lesson by diving into the topic, it is important that we begin by deciding the point we want our participants to reach at the end of the lesson. One place this philosophy is evident is on the Submittal Form for the Knowledge Pool questions. It specifically asks not only what area is your question covering but \u201cWhy this needs to be taught\/refreshed: What situation have you noticed this area to be particularly problematic in?\u201d. This question is specifically asking what do you want people to be able to do that they may not be able to do now. This reflects focusing on the results or goal of your lesson before building the lesson itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recent studies in education have shown that simply having an interesting topic does not a good lesson make. Your students may leave the seminar \u201cthinking about things\u201d but you can\u2019t be sure you\u2019ve actually given them something they can put into practice unless you know what it will look like when they\u2019ve put your lesson into practice. Knowing that your lesson will be on recruiting new judges, or understanding layers, doesn\u2019t get down to the issue of what you want participants to be able to do. You need to start by finding the point that you want your participants to end.<\/span><\/p>\n

From Goal to Objective<\/b><\/p>\n

Once you have identified the desired result you next need to determine what it looks like when someone has achieved that goal. In many conference presentations we leave the session without the presenter ever confirming that we can have learned what was intended. This is frequently because the presenter never decided what acceptable evidence of attaining the knowledge they are teaching really looks like. In education, we boil the acceptable evidence into a simple statement. These statements take the form of learning objectives that indicate what your students should be able to do by the end of the lesson. A clear learning objective could be \u201cState the order in which layers affect the board\u201d or \u201cClearly explain how time-stamps work and when they are used.\u201d An unclear learning objective could be \u201cunderstand layers better\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Notice the difference between clear and unclear learning objective. Unclear objectives have no way to measure success and very general boundaries. They also don\u2019t give any real designation of who the lesson is intended for. If your topic is for everybody, it\u2019s probably for nobody. An objective aimed to help those who don\u2019t have a strong understanding of layers in general is different from helping those who don\u2019t have a clear understanding of time-stamps. While these two objectives could be included in a single presentation, they are two separate learning objectives. Learning objectives should specifically state what you want your students to be able to do by the end of the lesson. This can be simple things like \u201cCorrectly writing a penalty on a Match Slip\u201d to very complex objectives such as \u201cProperly identify an appropriate penalty from the IPG.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A few learning objective I\u2019ve seen from Judge Conference presentations<\/b>:<\/span><\/p>\n