History by Design: NYC Edition: Culminating Exhibition Phase

Refer to the following documents to help prepare your students prepare for the Culminating Exhibition:

​External resources for writing museum text

• Writing effective museum text slideshow
• Writing exhibition text
• 5 guidelines for writing exhibition text

Teachers, you should go over the below questions with your students to get them to think about how they want their presentation to go. The answers you see are what teachers have answered during PL sessions in the past. 

Describe the way the presenter delivers the information

• They know it really well and can talk conversationally.  (Not reading)
• Excited, passionate, knowledgeable
• Engaging, captures the audiences’ attention
• The presenter smiles and scans the audience left and right
• The presenter speaks audibly and not too fast! (as student presenters tend to do!)
• It flows

Describe the presentation itself. What does it look like? What does it include/exclude?

• Visuals that are in focus.  A limited selection of font types, sizes, colors, etc.
• Variety, but not busy
• Not too much movement on the slide

Describe how you want viewers to feel at the end

• Curious to learn more about the topic
• Interested
• excited about what they have learned
• Feeling good / proud that their knowledge has grown + INSPIRED
   

Enjoy this video from Poster House museum that explains how to teach visitors about your exhibition.

What should students be thinking about while listening to other Crews present?
When students are listening to other Crews presentations, they should try to be the type of audience member they would want at their own presentation! This means active listening, an open mind, and asking thoughtful questions when the presentation is over. Below are some prompts students may want to keep in mind as they listen to presentations:

• What was the most creative thing you saw today? Why?
• Which of the exhibits would you like to see included in a real museum someday? Why?
• If you were the curator of this exhibition, what exhibits might you group together to tell a story?
• Did you learn any new vocabulary words today?
• Something that surprised me today was…
• Something new I learned today was…
• I can’t wait to learn more about…
• I wonder how they…
• I noticed that…
   

The culminating exhibition presentation days may be recorded so you should make sure you have media release forms on file for all your students. Most schools have this already, so your first step should be to check in with your admin. If you need to have students fill the form out, please find it below:

• DOE Media Consent Form
  The Media Consent form must be signed by a parent or guardian to give permission for their child to be photographed, quoted, filmed, or videotaped for non-profit use (e.g.: educational, public service or health awareness purposes).

• Watch "How Does the Met Decide How and Where to Hang the Art?"
• Watch "What if Something Breaks? Can It Be Fixed?" Part 1 and Part 2
• Watch "Who Protects the Art?"