On Oct. 5, the club Speakers of SIS hosted their first live speaking session in the atrium during office hours. The main speakers, Kaylyn Kim (9), Sahana Raman (9), Jian Hong (10), Seongyoon Kim (12), and Paul Moon (12), and panelists Nathan Warkentin and Matthew Halter discussed the topic of effective ways to implement formative works and homework.

As a socratic seminar-style discussion, the main speakers suggested new methods of formative assignments or responded to other speakers’ opinions on the current implementation. Examples include a possible reward system for the completion of formative assignments, or discussing the benefits and drawbacks of the different formative assignment policies of teachers. 

“As far as doing a public forum, I think structure-wise, it’s a good idea that [Speakers of SIS] have,” Mr. Halter, discussion panelist, said. “However, in that short amount of time, covering such a large topic is challenging. I think Mr. Warkentin and [I] got at that a little bit, how there is a difference between formative assessment and homework, and even between different types of formative assessments.”

Speakers of SIS also catered to the audience by providing snacks and drinks to curious students and allowing anyone from the audience to jump in at certain points during the discussion. 

“I think that the session went better than expected,” Hyerin Chae (12), President of Speakers of SIS, said. “We had a surprising number of audience members from different grades and received a lot of positive feedback from teachers and Dr. Gerhard.”

Speakers of SIS plan to host more discussions in the future and develop their digital presence with their YouTube channel by utilizing the recording studio in the annex building.