Pecha Kucha: Involving Students in the Classroom
This summer, immprof Beth Zilberman introduced me to an amazing teaching tool: Pecha Kucha. Pecha Kucha is a presentation format involving a slide deck with 20 slides each of which is visible for 20 seconds.
Beth told me about how she uses Pecha Kucha in the classroom. She has students pick an immigration policy issue that interests them and has them present on that topic to the class. Her students submit their slide deck to her as well as a list of the sources used to create their Pecha Kucha.
The idea intrigued me from the start. I worry about students coming into immigration with the desire to talk about things happening the news and being disappointed when I focus on the nuts and bolts of law (noncitizen categories, admission, removal, asylum). This seemed like a great way for students to dive into their own particular immigration interests.
So far, the experiment has been a resounding success. Students are paired up for the project (they chose their partners) and each present 10 of the 20 slides. We've heard talks about birthright citizenship, the citizenship test, IJ hiring and firing, third-country deportations, ICE, undocumented migrants and taxes, as well as VAWA. I'm looking forward to seeing the remaining 12 presentations!
From a nuts and bolts perspective, I have students do their presentation in the first 10 minutes of class, with 6 mins and 40 seconds for the Pecha Kucha followed by one or two student questions. Then I move on to my regularly scheduled material.
As it's my first year with this experiment, I'm learning that I'll need to shave some of my coverage going forward. For example, next year I won't cover both In Re S-K and Matter of A-C-M-, just the latter. I've already cut a number of videos that I typically use to demonstrate particular concepts. But the tradeoff has been more than worth it. It really is such a boon to student engagement.
My plan is to continue this practice with crimmigration next fall!
