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1 | 1. Does your school have a senior thesis program? | If you do not have a senior thesis program, what is the reason? (if this question applies to you, you may skip to question #23 after answering) | 2. What does your school's senior thesis project involve? Check all that apply. | On average, how many seniors do you have each year? | 3. What are your guidelines on topics students can choose to write about? | 4. Are there any specific ways seniors begin preparing to write a thesis before their senior year--for instance, starting on it during their junior year, or writing other large thesis papers in high school? | 5. How long is the final paper? | 6. On a scale of 1 to 10, would you describe your school's senior thesis as more of an original essay (1) or a research paper (10)? | 7. How do you schedule out your year quarter by quarter? | 8. In which class do students write their senior thesis? How many hours a week does it meet? | 9. Which teachers are involved? Do students work with advisors inside or outside the school? | 10. What (and how much) do students read to prepare for their paper? How do students determine which sources to use? | 11. Are the paper and speech the same? (Why or why not?) | 12. Are your senior thesis requirements the same for all of your seniors? If not, how do they differ? | 13. At the thesis defense, how long are students given to present? | 14. How much of the presentation is memorized? | 15. How long does questioning last? | 16. Who asks the questions? | Who grades the paper and presentation/defense? | 17. What do you consider the greatest benefit of a senior thesis program? | 18. How would you rate the current state of your senior thesis program? | 19. Does your thesis program receive positive support from your school's administration and from other teachers? | 20. Has one of your school's students ever won the ACCS Chrysostom Oratory Competition? | 21. What does your school find most challenging about running a successful senior thesis program? What would be most helpful to hear addressed in a conference workshop on how to improve thesis programs? | 22. Are there any specific ways you've improved your senior thesis program over the years? If so, how? | |
2 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Faculty Panel Interview (private); presentation is a summary and a public critique by their panel | 9 | They have open choice with faculty guidance and admin veto power. | They practice thesis writing from 7th grade and up, and they write a persuasive paper in Rhetoric class their junior year and present it in assembly. | minimum 20 pages | 5 | We provide a syllabus with due dates for the year for the whole project. | We schedule a Senior Thesis Class period for 3 hours a week, but they are expected to work outside class. | The headmaster works with the class, and each student chooses a faculty advisor who sits on their panel. | It varies, depending on the topic, the student, the advisor, and the panel. | No, the presentation is a detailed summary of the paper with a power point. | Same | 15 minutes | They are required to know it, not memorize it. | 1 hour for the private, and 25 minutes for the public as part of the presentation | Each panel has a faculty moderator, and each panel has 3 faculty, including the advisor | Headmaster or teacher of the class | It is the best preparation for college that we give--alumni often tell us college papers are easy after this, and the themes often become a life pursuit for our graduates. | 7 | 7 | No | The biggest challenge is for the faculty. They are stretched with time to advise, participate in the interviews, and to follow up with final corrections. Not sure how to solve the commitment problem. | I need a paper myself to describe this. We've had lots of trial and error, but we feel that we've honed it well now. Call me if you want more. | ||
3 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 10 | They choose a topic they're interested in that can also bless and challenge their audience (I.e., it's worth the time of audience of parents and students) | Yes. We require research papers every year, and they work on a junior thesis their junior year--we have a rhetoric course required each year of high school that incorporates logic, figures of speech, speeches and papers. | 5,000 words | 8 | 1st Quarter is Thesis and research as well as second, with short speeches, logic review, and figures of speech review. Second semester focuses on writing thesis and speaking practice. Their 6-minute summary of their thesis is presented late May to the school community and a three member panel who ask questions for five minutes. | Rhetoric 4 is 4 class periods per week | The Rhetoric teacher and others can serve as resources. We don't require but do encourage work with experts in their topic area. | They never seem to read as much as we'd like and we instruct or guide them into determine quality resources. They can use interviews as well as published materials. | I believe I answered this above: a six minute memorized summary of their thesis is presented as their speech. | We have a standard diploma that reduces the length of the paper to 3,000 words. But their speech requirement is the same. | already answered | All of it. No notes. | 4 to 5 minutes. | a panel of teachers or educated community members. | the Rhetoric teacher | Presenting from memory a project they care about and answering questions--many fear it, and then feel so satisfied they made it through, and even shined. | 6 | 7 | No | Consistent expectations and building year upon year so that much of the foundation is well laid for their capstone project. | |||
4 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | Senior Thesis- the topic must be of kingdom importance, cultural relevance, and personal interest. Junior Thesis- the topic must be theological in nature. | Junior Thesis | 12+ Pages | 9 | I designed a thesis handbook with weekly assignments that build to the final paper. These include source summaries, annotated bibliography entries, interviews, outlines, reflections, and multiple drafts. | Senior Thesis. Five class periods (55 min each). | I have designed the class and teach it. Because it is a full-time class, I am also the advisor for each student. | 5+ Books (1 of which must disagree with their thesis). 5+ academic articles (1 disagreeing). 2+ non-textual sources (1 disagreeing). 2 personal interviews (1 with an expert on their field, 1 with someone who disagrees). | No. Students compose the research paper to demonstrate mastery of analytical thinking and research skills. The defense takes place before the whole student body and is accompanied by a slideshow. | Yes. | 15 minutes max | Students may draft whatever notes they wish to use, but they cannot read from their paper directly. | Until the panel is satisfied. Usually 5-10 minutes. | Panel members. Normally consisting of the advisor (me), 1-2 administrators, a board member, and a local pastor. | It teaches students to persist in immensely difficult work over a long period of time. Thesis is much more of an endurance test than most academic work. | 6 | 6 | No | Many students leave the school to avoid Senior Thesis. Students see it as a difficult and embarrassing task that none of their public school friends have to perform. | Improving accountability. The first year that I took over our burgeoning thesis program, there was really nothing that prevented a student from waiting until the first draft was due to actually do anything. I restructured the program to look more like a research seminar I took during undergrad. Summarizing forces students to engage with the material they are claiming to have read. | ||||
5 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 9 | No guidelines, but we have the conversation with the student and the parent if it seems off. For instance, one year a student wanted to do something on cannibalism (we had read A Modest Proposal the year before). The parent was actually fine with it - ugh. But as we vetted the idea during the first semester, the student began to see through the conversations with her peers in class that it wasn't necessarily a prudent choice. | Not in particular, but CC does a Science Fair in 7/8th grade and a Science Research Paper in 9th. Siblings of those who have been with the program for a while sometimes "work smarter" by using those two projects to help build the research and basis for a Senior Thesis. For instance, one student did GMO seeds versus non-GMO growth for their Science Fair project, wrote about GMOs in their Science Research Paper and then argued that foods higher up on the bio-engineered food index are healthier. | 15 pages minimum. | 9 | 1st: narrowing down topic 2nd: choosing topic, start research, find a mentor 3: research and writing. 4: refinement, writing abstract, preparing for Senior Defense. | We only met 1x a week, so we were able to take a few minutes from the other 6 strands/disciplines taught and set aside 15-30 minutes a week to touch bases on it. | We have a master tutor/lead learner so they directed the experience. Some of our students did a con-current class with SEU and had a professor walk them through the process. All our students were asked to find a mentor outside of class to help them with the topic and not necessarily the structural composition argumentative aspect of the paper, although many did help with that. | Depending on who the Master Tutor was leading the Senior Class that year, some used Rhetoric Alive! Senior Thesis (Classical Academic Press) to walk students through it. As for determining sources, students are instructed to be wise in choosing their "Authority/Testimony" (5 Canons of Rhetoric). What will best support the position that you are taking in your paper? What will make you the most winsome to your audience? Part of the process of determining sources was also discussed Socraticly in class. | No. The Paper is the "hard work" or their actual thesis paper. Judges receive that two weeks before the Senior Defense. The Speech is an abstract, a short (5-6 minute oration) summary of the paper to the audience before the questioning by judges. | Yes. | 6 minutes abstract, 20 minutes defense through questions from judges. | We ask that the abstract is memorized. Using the canon of Memoria, we expect students to be able to remember what is in their paper when answering questions from judges. | 20-30 minutes | Judges. We chose those who had experience in the general field of the paper as well as local pastors as we wanted the questioning to reflect a knowledge of the implications of a Biblical worldview. For instance, one student's paper was on astrophysics and the defense of the possibility of other life in the universe. It was great to hear a pastor ask the student about some of the implications of what the student was asserting in view of God's Word. | As assessment is given by the Master Tutor and the judges are asked to weigh in on the merits of the paper. | I think the greatest benefit is the student's ability to participate in something at the Rhetoric level that most people don't attempt until college and see that they can do it. Defending their paper in front of professionals and getting feedback is also extremely beneficial. One judge who does defense work with the military said that he'd love for several of the students to write one-sheets on their work. | 6 | 7 | No | Finding the balance of helping students while giving them enough room to flounder a little through the process and thus make it their own. | We make it a big event in the community. Students have to present their abstract in front of an audience with a panel of judges sitting before them. Having professional men/women in the fields of study represented in the theses was extremely beneficial. It was a great way to introduce the beauty of what classical Christian education looks like to the community at large. | ||
6 | Yes | Paper, Oral defense before a panel | 15 | The thesis course is designed to provide an opportunity for Eastwood seniors to do scholarly research and prepare a senior thesis focusing on one of the four following areas: Literature / Great Books; American History / Military History / Great Biography; Theology / Church History; History of Science / Math / Philosophy. | Juniors take a 2 day a week/one semester course on The MLA Handbook which provides foundational information about documentation in order to help them successfully begin the process of writing the required senior thesis. Their "summer reading requirements" also focus on reading the book or books they are analyzing as well as scholarly resources that analyze those books. | 4800–5100 words (roughly 15 pages) | 9 | The thesis course takes place 1st semester of senior year. | The senior thesis course is a 5 day/ 1 semester course. | 1 lead teacher + 1 faculty advisor per student depending on the discipline they have chosen | Students must read 1 primary source and find 10 scholarly, reputable secondary sources on their books or subject matter. They create an annotated bibliography with an entry and annotation for each source. They are required to read the whole article or chapter or at least 15 pages of each source. | Having successfully completed the writing requirements, each senior will orally defend their thesis before a panel of three experts (primarily faculty members but occasionally experts from the community.) The oral defense is 20 minutes long and provides an opportunity for them to think and discuss and field questions on the topic they have been writng about for 3 months. | We currently have an honors level thesis and a non-honors level thesis for those who struggled during the MLA course junior year. The non-honors thesis requirements are simply shorter papers with fewer support articles. | Our defense is a 20 minute Q&A. | 0% | 20 minutes | primarily faculty members but occasionally experts from the community | Paper - lead teacher; def. - panelists (averaged) | According to our alumni, the thesis program is unparalled in the way that it prepares them for their college writing assignments. | 6 | 7 | No | Parents are fearful that the course will hurt their child's GPA. How do we maintain standards of grammar in a way that actually improves their grammar? Tips for reducing the hours required to correct and revise papers? ChatGPT? | Too many to recount. We are constantly refining and adjusting it. There were major adjustments that increased the revision requirements when the lead teacher changed in 2011. When the headmaster changed in 2021, we added three more disciplines (history, theology and science/math) to the literature focus. | ||
7 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 10 | This has varied over the years. We've allowed a pretty wide range and want students to choose topics that are open to debate, which is challenging to do in a Christian culture. | The second half of junior year, our juniors take Junior Thesis and begin learning how to research. Many of them choose their Senior Thesis topic during this course. | 16 pages | 9 | 1st quarter involves research and writing research summaries. 2nd quarter, students finish research summaries, write their outline and being writing the draft of the final paper. 3rd quarter, students finish the draft and complete their final draft. 4th quarter they work on preparing and practicing their presentation. | Senior Thesis class, which is a full-year class that meets 45 minutes x 5 times a week (3.75 hours/week) | Our senior thesis teachers are involved, of course. Each senior also has a faculty or staff advisor whom they meet with at least every other week. | They must have 12 sources that meet stringent requirements for credibility - typically peer-reviewed journal articles, for example. | No. The paper must be condensed in order to keep the speech to 15 minutes. | Yes | 15 minutes | Students memorize the whole presentation, but may have index cards with quotes. (Prior to last year, they only memorized the introduction and conclusion.) | 20 minutes | A panel composed of at least one faculty member, one outside-of-the-school expert, and a third wild card - usually a school administrator. | The thesis teacher(s). | Perseverance | 6 | 7 | No | The greatest challenge is the amount of stress the Senior Thesis puts on seniors. This has a ripple effect in that seniors are less involved in extra-curriculars, other teachers feel they have to give less homework, etc. | Yes, we've reduced the number of sources required, reduced the page length, focused more on stasis theory, elevated the memorization expectations, added in advisors about five years ago...and more. | ||
8 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 10 | Students choose topic but must be approved by thesis director | Each year of high school our students write progressively more involved/demanding research papers. | 6,000 words | 1 | Thesis takes place in quarters 3 & 4 | Rhetoric - 5 meetings a week of 45 mins each class | Thesis Director and each student is paired with a mentor (most of which are outside the school) | 200 pages of research per week (approximately 3,000 pages total research); coach students as a group and one-on-one about source quality | Our theses are defended in a 90 minute defense consisting of the student and ~5 subject matter experts. | Same | Students field question and answer for 90 minutes | Opening 5 minutes | 85 minutes | Subject matter experts | Thesis Director | developing skills of critical thinking and effective communication | 6 | 7 | No | Added in individual mentors; added in requirements of interviewing 4 subject matter experts | |||
9 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Students present to judges and then rewrite to present to students during chapel | 6 | They are given a list of possible topics, but all must be approved by the instructor and/or the Head of School | We begin in 10th grade by using the textbook The Lost Tools of Writing (Circe). In 11th grade we use The Rhetoric of Love (Veritas) Omnibus teachers will talk about the paper and even suggest possible topics. At the end of the junior year, the students will be expected to have a rough idea of their topic and a summer reading plan will be discussed | 15 + pages | 8 | Quarter 1 the topic choice, background information, and the thesis are due Quarter 2 the writer's position and opposing views are due Quarter 3 the response to the opposition, introduction, conclusion, works cited and bibliography are due. The paper is due to the judges before Easter break which falls at the start of the 4th quarter Quarter 4 students present the speech about their topic to judges as then rewrite it to be appropriate for the entire secondary population | Rhetoric III - We follow a block schedule so 2 or 3 classes each week at 90 minutes each class | Writing teacher, other secondary teachers act as advisors, students must meet with a pastor and discuss the theology of their paper | This year they were required to read at least one book and then use online sources. They visit the local library to learn how to access the county library system | The speech is based on the paper. Presenting a 15 page paper is time consuming and I prefer the students have the experience in answering judges questions. So, the judges have read the paper before they hear the speech. The students are given 2 grades - paper and speech | Right now they are | 20 - 25 minutes | None. They speak from notes. | 10 minutes | the judges | The judges are given a rubric but the classroom teacher has final say | The students have the opportunity to put all they have learned into one paper. They are able to use the writing skills, chapels, Omnibus, Bible studies, etc. they have learned during their time at our school and put that knowledge into one place. It is also a good place to understand how to write a paper so that those going to college are prepared. We hear from our seniors how valuable the paper was because they went into college feeling prepared. In fact, several say college is easier!! Finally, it is their opportunity to give the secondary students words of wisdom as they depart. I know of at least 3 students that changed their mind about leaving our school when they heard the senior thesis speeches. They stayed because they wanted the knowledge and wisdom the seniors displayed. | 6 | 7 | No | It is difficult to find qualified judges! Our other problem will come in 2 years when our class sizes explode and one teacher cannot advise that many students. We are already talking about solutions, but no good one has come up! | We moved the thesis to the senior year as we felt the students were not ready as juniors. We moved the due date to sometime in March as holding it off until the end of the school year caused other problems | ||
10 | Yes | na | Paper, Defense | It must be focused on a great idea from Mortimer Adler's list of 103 great ideas, a great book or other classic (music, art), and a great question. | They write a junior thesis and other larger papers at lower grade levels. | 15-20 pages (Double spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point font) | 5 | First two quarters during fall semester, scholars are largely just reading deeply and engaging with the 12th grade curriculum writing short essays, discussing books in colloquium and passing an oral exam. By the end of Thanksgiving break, they are to have a 1-2 page proposal for their thesis. When they come back from Christmas break they are to have their introduction (1-2) pages, by the end of January they are to have the first full draft (15-20 pages). Final draft is due mid February with thesis defense the last week of February. | Humanities Class | English and History Teacher are the primary mentors in the classroom where they write it and receive composition instruction, but students can choose a mentor in math, science, music, art, or other deparment based on their topic and relationship to the teacher. | Apart from all the curriculum from previous grades the students can choose from, in 12th grade we read about 1500 pages of literary and historical texts before they start writing their thesis. Scholars choose sources based on books that resonated with them the most during their studies. Sometimes they focus on just one book, but frequently they put together a synthesis of books based on the great idea they are all connected to. | No. Paper and speech are different. After writing the paper, the students give a 5 minute presentation of their argument and then defend it for 25 minutes before a panel of 3 faculty members. The speech they give in May right before graduation. It is less academic and gives them an opportunity to reflect on what they've learned over the course of their study. It is often more personal. | No. Because we are a charter school we are required to offer a state diploma too that does not require the thesis, defense, and speech. But scholars have to qualify for that exemption based on a 504 or IEP plan and that is a very small percentage of our graduating class. | 5 minutes | Thesis presentation is not memorized, but the speech is. | 25 minutes. | Faculty members who have read the thesis. | Reading their classics carefully and becoming an expert on them. Learning to organize such an extended essay. Defending the ideas publicly before their peers, family, and faculty members. The public performative aspect of it is the most important part. | 6 | 7 | No | Norming the grading feedback from faculty members. Pacing the students' writing time and motivating to work on it along the way instead of right before it is due. | Having teachers write a thesis and defend it publicly. Put together a thesis portfolio at the beginning of the year to help students see how every time they read, discuss or write a paper about a great book they are working towards or practicing for their thesis. | |||
11 | No, we have never had a senior thesis program | My previous school's have, and I'm very interested in pursing one. My answers relate to my previous schools. | Paper, Presentation | 18 | We generally aimed for public policy type topics - we're looking for the Biblical integration component. | The Juniors write a shorter thesis paper. | 10 pages | 10 | 1. Instruction about such projects, examples, choose topic. 2. Majority of researching and reading, meeting with advisor, beginning writing. 3. Finish writings - drafts, revisions, polishing. 4. Working on presentations, responding to live questions, and the actual presentation to a thesis panel. | In the Senior Rhetoric class, 5 periods a week. | Mostly the Senior Rhetoric teacher. Most advisors are within the school, a few outside. | Read (or peruse) 2-3 books, 5 - 10 articles. The teacher guides them, but they'll make a lot of their own choices. | No, the speech is not just reading the paper. It has to have the form of a persuasive speech. On some occasions, the teacher encouraged power points. | Same for all, but the execution might be quite different given the students gifts and abilities. | 20 minutes | Not obviously memorized - it is meant to sound like a live speech. | 30 minutes | Anyone on the panel (does not include the Rhetoric teacher). As Head of School, I was often one of the main questioners. | The Rhetoric class teacher. | Independent research and learning. Knowledge gained in a particular arena. Skills related to building and defending a case. Confidence in making a presentation to a group. A sense of accomplishment in taking on a large project. | 6 | 5 | No | The biggest challenge is that so many seniors don't want to do the work. They want half-days, dual-credit. The challenge is as aways - winning students and families to a larger view of what they are accompishing. | We used to run 2 -3 panels at a time. Then we switched to doing them one at a time - the Senior teacher and I as the admin could then attend them all, resulting in more consistency. | |
12 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 35 | Must be honoring to God, to parents, have scope for academic research | They work on incrementally larger papers starting in 7th grade, with topics that begin at dialectic level (ie, simple research paper on historical figure in 7th) to rhetoric level (ie, combining a historical and literary topic angle in 10th) | 6000 words | 7 | They write a 1000 word paper 1st quarter with a small presentation, a 4000 word over the next 1.5 quarters with a larger presentation, and then the last 1.5 quarters for the 6000 with a longer public presentation | Rhetoric, 5 hours | Rhetoric teacher | The materials depend on the topic | Yes | Yes | 13-15 minutes plus about 10 minutes for judging panel question | They are only allowed a simple outline and bare bones notes | about 10 minutes | a judging panel (from the community and staff) and audience members | Rhetoric teacher | So so many benefits-- students use stasis theory, work on stylistically beautiful and logically sound thinking and writing, work to transfer a written paper to an oral presentation, be poised and gracious during very tough questioning, etc | 6 | 7 | No | It's a lot of work for the rhetoric teacher | We're constantly working for continual improvement on our writing program across the secondary. | ||
13 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, defense | 15 | defensible, controversial, not repeating topics from recent years (unless taking opposite position) | We have a spring semester thesis-style paper in 9-11th grades in our humanities courses that follow the 6-parts of a discourse. We also have formal rhetoric courses in 11th and 12th (fall semester) grades. | 15 pg avg (range 12-18 pgs) | 10 | I assume the question is asking how we schedule out the senior thesis year. We have Rhetoric II in the fall semester where we continue to perfect writing and speaking skills. Seniors submit a list of ST topics by the first of November, and we spend the next few weeks meeting 1:1 to discuss the topics. Students return from Thanksgiving break with a topic chosen. In the last week of fall semester classes, I lead students through the research process, and students begin to acquire sources. We formally begin ST on Day 1 of 2nd semester. The first quarter of the semester is comprised of research and mini assignments. First rough draft is due toward the end of March with the final draft due approximately 5 weeks later. Public presentation and defense take place two weeks after final draft submission. | Senior Thesis course - 4 class periods (48 mins each)/week; Students are expected to log at least 6 hours per week on ST work, requiring out-of-class time. No student has done well without exceeding this minimum requirement. | We have one ST teacher. As we adjust the number of advisors to the growing student body, we have employed teachers to advise groups of students. All main advisors are on faculty; however, students are encouraged to seek topic-specific advisors outside of the faculty. | We estimate that students will read 500-1000 pages of text as they prepare their ST. Sources are based on the needs of the paper, but they must include a historical survey and/or relevant primary source from each major time period, historical perspectives on topic, Christian perspective on topic, modern perspective on topic. All sources must be academic (secondary) or primary. | The speech draft is a condensed version of the original paper. The speech time must be delivered in 20-25 minutes, which is approximately 7-8 pages of text. | Generally, yes. We do allow a project option where students who are geared more toward the sciences or arts may design a project that will take 8-10 weeks of concentrated effort to complete. These students also write a paper of approximately 10 pages in length where they describe the project and its value. | 20-25 minutes | Memorization is not required; familiarity is. Students who read their paper will not pass. | 25-30 minutes | Order, if time remains beyond panel: 1) panel of 3 adults from the school community who have agreed to read the paper and prepare questions; 2) thesis advisors; 3) other faculty; 4) other adults; 5) peers | ST teacher and the faculty advisor for that student | A beautiful display of the culmination of a distinctly classical and Christian education | 6 | 6 | No | Having enough high caliber advisors to allow adequate 1:1 advising | ST received a facelift about 10 years ago, and we continue to do small tweaks to reach those best practices. | ||
14 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 5 | They may choose their own topic with approval from thesis teacher. | We also have a junior thesis class. The senior thesis is a repeat of the junior class with higher expectations and self-paced work. We use the same curriculum both years, however the thesis topics are different. The juniors have the option to turn a speech from Rhetroic II class into a junior thesis topic. The seniors have an entire year to think about a topic. | Juniors: 8-10 pages (final paper: final speech = 11-15 min.) Seniors: (paper: 12-15 pages, speech 15-20 min) | 7 | Senior and Junior thesis classes are semester long classes (2nd semester-18 weeks): First quarter is research and writing the parts of speech ; 2nd quarter is adapting formal paper to speech and preparation for the speech | We have both a junior and senior thesis class. Each class meets a semester in the junior year and senior year. It meets 4 x's a week for 80 min each day. The classes are combined. (A one room shool-room) | There is a designated teacher for the class. This year (and probably going forward), the classes are combined since it is the same curriculum. They use other teachers withhin the school to ask questions and seek out sources. There are no formal "advisors" at this point. | Students are given a calendar of expectations/assignments for the semester and they may read as much as they can within the "research days" on the calendar. They use class time to read and research and as homework if needed to complete assignments (for accountability). As for what sources they must use: the teacher tries to make suggestions, they are pointed to bibliographies, the teacher steers them towards faculty who have knowledge in that area of reading, the seniors must contact an "expert" in relation to the student's topic. This expert is meant to help them think through ideas and sources. It's up to the student to take advantage of the expertise. | No. The formal written paper is written first and after the paper is written/graded, the student adapts it to a speech. At this piont they focus on style, editing for time sake, and heavily edit for a natural tone for the speech. Many students end up cutting half their written paper in order to meet the time expectations. | Yes. | As long as the judges take. But each judge generally asks one question which requires a longer response. There might be 3-4 judges. About 20 minutes on average. | For Seniors: they must memorize the exordium and conclusion, and important passages/quotes within the body. | 10-15 minutes | The judges. | The judges grade the presentation using a rubric for the speech and a different rubric for the defense. | Confidence: It's a real challenge (they are exposed and have to do the work, they can't wiggle out of it or ride through it ) to push them to use the skills they have personally learned through their years at the school. The "process" pushes each student in a very unique and different way. Some struggle in the invention stage, some in the research, and others in the delivery. However, they all end in a better posiition than when they began. They can say to themselves, "Wow, I can do this!" | 6 | 6 | No | How to help students who really struggle with the pace of the class, research, or writing. What to expect from students who haven't attended our classical program for long (maybe only since 9th grade) and aren't nearly as strong of writers and communicators as those who have come up through the program since Grammar school. | At tone point we had two teachers team teach, but using only one teacher has stream-lined the class significantly for the students and allowed it to run more efficiently. | ||
15 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Defense; also students are required to design a PowerPoint to accompany their presentation and a poster to advertise their presentation | 11 | Your topic should be current (in that it is not an issue that has clearly been resolved in the circles where it is/was most discussed). Your topic needs to be controversial not just amongst the public at large, but within mainstream conservative Christian circles as well. If your topic has been popularly reduced to a simple pro-con approach, with two polarized positions, you must present a clear third perspective or middle path that is more than a simple compromise between the two extremes. Your topic must be something that allows for biblical thinking. How does the Bible speak to this issue? Your topic may not be a “government vs. personal liberty” argument (with some exceptions), or a “the world is going to hell in a handbasket” argument, a “Christians are responsible for fixing x, y, or z social issue” argument, or a “Christians need to do things with the right heart” argument. If your topic is political in nature, you may not take a stance that is completely in line with the platform of a major American political party. Your topic should allow for an argument that can be supported with pathos, ethos, and logos. Your topic should be able to terminate with some clear course of action for the audience. | They write three papers of increasing length (and with increasing freedom in terms of topic selection and research approach) during junior year. The last of these is 8-10 pages | 12-15 pages for core; 15-18 for honors | 8 | We have a trimester schedule. The first trimester, we do a number of smaller activities and projects, but students also select their topics and build an annotated bibliography. Second trimester is largely devoted to researching and writing the thesis. Third trimester, students spend time revising and memorizing before doing their presentations. | Rhetoric II - 4 hours (5 x 48 mins) | I am the only teacher who is directly involved. Each student is required to have an advisor; that may be a teacher or another adult outside of school. Parents may not serve as advisors, and no person can be asked to advise on multiple theses in the same year, so as to not overburden teachers who are asked to advise. | Students are required to use 14 sources (24 for honors). Those sources should include some books, but depending on how contemporary their topic is, book sources may not be readily available. Sources should be authoritative in nature, but the research process can vary substantially depending on topic. | No. The paper is too long to present in full in the time allotted for the presentation. Also, I emphasize the importance of considering medium when making an argument, so students are encouraged to adapt their paper, including different rhetorical devices, etc. to make their speech as effective as possible. | As alluded to earlier, we have two tracks: core and honors. Core theses have 3 confirmations and 2 refutations and should use 14 sources and 20 rhetorical devices. Honors theses have a higher threshold for topical complexity and need to have 4 confirmations and 3 refutations and use 24 sources and 25 rhetorical devices. | 20 minutes | Students are required to memorize their conclusion. The rest of the presentation does not need to be memorized word-for-word. Students are allowed one sheet (front and back) of notes. Those notes have to be reasonably spaced and should be organized as an outline (not a script), aside from any quotes - which may be included in full to retain precision. | Up to 20 minutes | A panel of 3 judges. Each panel judges 2-4 theses (depending on the year) and is made up of teachers, board members, and parents in our community. I make an attempt to group theses such that each student will have someone on his panel who objects to some part of his argument or is expert enough on his topic to push for depth in a way that will make the student uncomfortable. | I (the rhetoric teacher) grade the papers. The presentation and defense are judged by the panel, under the oversight of the rhetoric teacher. | Developing courage and fortitude as students must defend their ideas against people they respect without being able to shy away from stepping on toes. Skill in oratory and writing are also huge benefits. Graduates routinely talk about how the thesis was more difficult than anything they have encountered in college, ultimately making later studies and projects seem easy. | 6 | 7 | No | Integrating classical elements more fully. While the structure of what we do is classical, our students do not currently read much classical scholarship on the art of Rhetoric. Where is a good place to start? The weight of grading. Our next senior class is going to be twice as large as the current senior class (going to 20 from 10), so we are contemplating making senior thesis a team-taught class. | We have worked to clarify topic parameters so that students better understand why topics are rejected, leading to less frustration than before. We have also added more checkpoints along the way so that students see their grades hurt when they procrastinate. Last year, we took a couple of days to do practice defenses, with students asking each other questions; in some cases, the actual questioning was easier than the ordeals the students put each other through. | ||
16 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 15 | Topics must be approved by the faculty and must be on a controversial theological, social, or political topic. | Our Sophomores and Juniors both have a thesis paper and presentation as well. We begin with a scaled down version in regards to time and length in 10th grade. Their junior thesis demands fall in between the work they did the previous year and what they will do as seniors. | I actually can't find the document right now but I want to say 3000-4000 words. | 4 | Q1- Research and choose a topic; Q2 - Present arguments to class and faculty to get feedback; begin writing paper; Q3 - Finish paper and turn in; Q4 - Transition from paper to speech. Present speeches towards the end of 4th quarter. | We have a 1/2 credit class that meets two days per week over the course of the year so students can develop their thesis with regular faculty check-ins. | One of our humanities teachers oversees the senior thesis course each year and serves as their intital advisor. Students often meet with other faculty and other parents within our community for further assitance/expertise. | Students have to provide a list of sources pretty early on. The faculty member assesses them as appropriate academic sources and provides feedback and other authors or titles they may know of that could be helpful to the student. Students later provide an annotated bibliography on the sources they decide to use. | They are very similar. | Yes | 16-20 minutes before questions. | Most. Students are able to use a couple of notecards during their speech. | 7-10 minutes | 3 peer questions; 3 or 4 questions from the faculty panel (2-3 members) | The teacher who oversees the thesis course grades the paper; the faculty panel grades the presentation. | Growth in presentation of ideas and in thinking on your feet during the questioning. Equally importat is training the students how to ask questions appropriately even if there is significant disagreement on an issue. | 6 | 7 | No | Balancing the thesis on top of other academic rigors. | Helping students not procrastinate by instituting due dates along the way for different pieces. The second thing that helped was being more structured in the questioning section. As our numbers grew, we had to be more thoughtful in how to handle the questions as they demand more time than is necessary. | ||
17 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 6 | Debatable topic with Biblical worldview analysis that complements the school’s mission, policies, and statement of beliefs | Students write and orally defend a junior thesis. Then, topics are selected at end of junior year so that students can read on their topic over the summer. To help, a short senior thesis orientation with topic selection worksheet is presented at the end of the junior year. | 12-15 pages excluding title page, works cited | 8 | Trimester 1 focuses on invention and arrangement with the following assignments linked to thesis writing: exploratory thesis essay, thesis committee/panel decisions, MLA proposed works cited, MLA annotated bibliography, and thesis proposal. In Trimester 2 students continue to focus on invention and arrangement but begin to consider memory, style, and delivery. The following is completed: thesis outline and drafts/revisions of exordium, narratio, partitio, and confirmatio. Presentations of drafts are made in class including mini debates. Finally, Trimester 3 culminates in final revisions to thesis sections (specifically refutatio and peroratio), cohering the thesis into a final draft, practice or oral delivery and defense, final meetings with panelists, dress rehearsal, and public, formal thesis defense presentations and submission of paper. | Rhetoric II, meets three days per week for a total of 3.75 hours | I teach Rhetoric II (with a dual credit option at a partnering university). Student panelists include teachers/administrators in addition to experts in the community. | 12 sources, primarily academic sources, source type partially dependent on topic (I have to work closely with each student) | Yes, students deliver the paper as a manuscript speech because of time constraints, but the oral defense is extemporaneous. | Yes, requirements are basically the same. | 1) Introduction of student, 2) 20-25 min. presentation, 3) 15 min. defense with panelist questions | Most students are able to maintain eye contact 60% of speaking time, both they have the full manuscript when presenting. | 15 min. | Senior thesis teacher and the 3 panelists. | Teacher | Project management, capstone experience, writing and speaking outcomes | 6 | 6 | No | Problems include: different writing and speaking competencies in the senior class, poor MLA and research habits, perceptions of panelists’ roles, and over-committed students . | I created a comprehensive senior thesis manual with instructions, reading guides, argument maps, and rubrics. It is like a workbook for the entire class. The defenses are scheduled in September for the end of March and put on the school calendar. The defenses have become formal events with programs, a reception, and dismissal time that allows for families to go out to eat afterwards. | ||
18 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 80 | Must be debatable, researchable, not anti-Christian, not anti-Regents, have a civic application, not an argument from previous year | Jr. history class lays research foundation but not specific to students' topics | 9-11 pp. | 9 | Not sure what you mean. Fall is research semester with a mini thesis at end of semester. Spring is writing antithesis and thesis. | Senior thesis class meets 4 days/week. | There are 3 dedicated thesis teachers. Students also have advisors who are supplementary to teacher and only meet about 4x in the year. These advisors have to be employees of Regents and students usually meet with them between the hours of 7:30 am and 5 pm on school property. | Hard to measure. They have minimum sources to use drawn from online articles, journals, and books for every assignment. No mandatory sources to read. | Yes - the speech is the presentation of the paper with an added Q&A. | Yes the same. | 18-22 min. for speech, 18-22 min for Q&A for total of 40 min. | Minimum of 5 sections of about 5 lines memorized | 18-22 min. | Judge panel of advisor, faculty member, & 2 community judges | Teacher's grade is worth 50%, every panel judge 12.5% | Finding something to be passionate about and owning the learning about it | 6 | 7 | No | Getting students to do good research and to read well what they research; finding good sources | We've put in a lot of thought into our assignments and how they build to the final product. | ||
19 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, We have a three-stage process: Paper, Defense, and then Presentation | 40 | Thesis statements must be 1) controversial and 2) substantial. They also cannot violate our school's statement of faith. The first criterion means that thesis statements must have reasonable Christians on either side of an issue, though thesis topics mustn't be theological. The second means that it has to be meaningful to the community, so no topics on "who is a better director: Wes Anderson or Stephen Spielberg?" or "who is a better basketball player: Kobe or LeBron?" | Junior take a rhetoric class after students do the progymnasmata from 4th-10th grades. The 11th grade rhetoric class teaches stasis theory and the students do a junior policy paper. | 20-40 pages double-spaced Times New Roman | 10 | First Quarter: Generate thesis, write main arguments, research (2 books, 4 articles) Second Quarter: revise main arguments, fill out main arguments, write background facts, research (2 books, 4 articles), write Refutatio (objection-response), and Introduction Third Quarter: Write full draft of papaer, revise full draft into a final draft, do a thesis defense (defend thesis and main arguments in front of all three senior thesis teachers for 15-20 minutes) | Senior Thesis: 2-3x/week for 100 minutes at a time. We're on a block schedule. | The teacher is the main advisor, but they also have an advisor who is another teacher or another member of our community with verbal skill or expert knowledge in the topic. | 4 books, 10 articles. We do a research seminar partnerning with a local Christian college and we mentor students on picking their books and articles. | No. The presentation is rewritten from the ground up because the audience they are addressing is completely different. | Yes. All students graduating our school with a normal diploma must complete the senior thesis project and pass the class. | Presentations are 7-8 minutes long, completely memorized. | all, though they can use one side of a 5x7 notecard | We don't do public questioning. We do receive electronic comments and questions that audience members can make about any particular thesis. The questioning happens mroe int he Thesis Defense (see description above) | n/a | the individual teacher for the paper, all three teachers for the defense and the presentation. | the rite of passage aspect. | 6 | 7 | No | Students think it's so much harder than it actually is. I believe that is because parents can't imagine being able to do it themselves. I expect this will get better when we get to the second generation. | Yes, so many! | ||
20 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | The students are free to write on any topic they wish, but they do meet with the Senior Thesis teacher(s) and a faculty advisor to help them decide on a good topic and thesis. | They do a mini-thesis in Rhetoric II during their Junior year. The final product of this is a presentation. | 12-15 pages. Although, we've allowed longer papers, with permission. | 8 | 1st Quarter is dedicated to selecting a topic, then a thesis, and beginning research. 2nd Quarter focuses on writing the paper in sections (Tentative thesis statement, then Narration, then Confirmation & Refutation, and finally the Intro & Conclusion). The students submit and then revise a rough draft at the beginning of the 3rd Quarter and turn in the final draft of the paper at the end of the 3rd Quarter. 4th Quarter is dedicated to the Final Presentation. | Our Senior Thesis class is combined with their Honors Philosophy class which meets for ~ 4 hours a week. We split the time pretty evenly depending on where we are at in ST. | There are two Senior Thesis teachers - one primary and a secondary - that oversee the project and work with all of the seniors. The rest of the Rhetoric School faculty act as advisors to individual students. Every student is paired with a faculty advisor. | We use Adler's Syntopicon as a jumping off point. There is on a specific amount of reading they are required to do (assessing research is a challenge) but they are required to have at least 8 sources and are given feedback on the quality of their sources. | No. The presentation focuses on public speaking mechanics and, as such, is not a reading of the paper. If fact, one of the criteria that we judge their presentations on is adapting a paper to an oral format. Different skills are assessed. | Yes | 20 minutes to present followed by a 20 minute Q & A time | None of it. They are allowed to use whatever notes they like but audience engagement is a criteria we assess so they need some familiarity with the speech. | 20 minutes | Questions are allowed from anyone in the audience. Our audience usually includes Rhetoric students, teachers, family members. | The two Senior Thesis teachers and the student's advisor | It prepares our students to do research and longer papers in college, as well as prepares them to give presentations. | 6 | 6 | No | It is always a challenge to guide a class of students through this process when their topics are so varied. Giving advice and instruction that will benefit all and assessing progress when each student's process in unique is challenging. | Yes. We've been doing this for 20 years, so we've made many adjustments over the years. | |||
21 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 3 | Not strictly limited. Choices are based on the student’s own interests, passions, and life experience. | Prayer, discussion, and research | 15-30 pages in the MLA format. | 4 | 4 nine week quarters | English class, roughly 5 hours per week. | Instructor and instructor/advusors | It’s decided by student proposals and guidance. | Yes | Yes | 30 minutes. | None | 30 minutes | Selected members of the audience | The capstone committee | Preparing the students for what God has called them To do. | 6 | 7 | No | No challenges that I’ve seen | Prayer and advice. | ||
22 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 8 | The choice of topic is left to the students --within the vounds of propriety and wisdom. | We have a junior thesis. Our writing curriculum from 6th grade on builds to the senior thesis | 20 pages | 9 | 1st qtr -topic selection, thesis statement, start research 2nd qtr -conduct research, submit bibliography, submit antithesis paper 3rd qtr - | Rhetoric II -a full year full credit class. | The Rhetoric II teacher primarily with most other upper school teachers serving as advisors, mentors, and readers. | This varies widely. most student read all or major portions of 4-6 books. The teacher and mentors provide guidance of source selection | yes | yes | 20 minutes | most of it. some notes are allowed. | 20 minutes | Readers and mentors first, then faculty, then general audience (parents and fellow students). | The teachers plus two other readers. | application and integration of they have studied K-12 --it's a "capstone." | 6 | 7 | No | Some students dread it --not most, but a few are difficult to motivate. | We scaled it back from 25-20 pages. Added requirements for sources older than 100 years ago. The topic and research cannot be totally contemporary. | ||
23 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Adjudication | 18 | They may choose to write about almost anything! We would not allow someone to argue a position that directly violates Scriptural principles, and we have discouraged/prohibited a few students from writing about current events. (The final steps of our program span a few months, so keeping up with the research on developing events would make firm conclusions nearly impossible.) | The 10th grade Rhetoric class introduces many concepts that are useful to thesis, and the formal work begins in the fall of the 11th grade year. However, I always tell people that thesis work begins in kindergarten, and I'm only half-joking. The training in speech, writing, and eloquence begins early, and we would absolutely not have a successful program if the students had not been carefully trained through Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric school for the challenge. | Approximately 4,000 words | 8 | We spend six quarters on thesis (all of junior year and first semester of senior year) Our Rhetoric classes have a instruction component and a writing component--I won't detail those here. This is how we structure the thesis Junior year: 1st quarter: Choose topic and deliver speech explaining personal interest in topic, review MLA handbook, discuss research practices, advisor assignments, research 2nd quarter: Research and advisor meetings, complete keyword outline by the end of hte semester 3rd quarter: Complete expanded outline, begin drafting 4th quarter: Turn in first draft Summer: Revise first draft 5th quarter: Complete second draft, revise second draft 6th quarter: Turn in final draft, deliver speech Final exam grade: Adjudication (Class is technically over in December, but we have adjudication the first full week in January due to scheduling challenges) | Rhetoric 5 class periods of 40-50 minutes each | I am one of two Rhetoric teachers who work on thesis. I am the primary classroom teacher for one group (juniors this year) and the other teacher is the primary classroom teacher for the other group (seniors this year.) Next year, I will move up with this group when they become seniors, and the other teacher will take the new juniors. However, we both grade all of the major papers, presentations, and adjudication for thesis. We both teach other 11th-12th grade classes, so the students know us. This ensures that each child's major grades are determined by committee. Each student receives a faculty advisor. They meet during school, but not during class. Most of them meet at lunch. | They are required to use 10 sources. Four of those sources must appear (or have originally appeared) in print. We give instructions on source evaluation, and we evaluate sources when we grade thesis papers. | No. They're different mediums. They are also different lengths. The paper is up to 4,000 words, and the speech has a 15 minute time limit. Students normally cut a lot out of the paper material to make the speech. | Yes | Presentation: 15 minutes followed by 5 minutes of audience questions. Adjudication/defense: 30 minutes of questioning | Exordium--first minute or so | 5 minutes for presentation, 30 minutes for adjudication | Anyone in the audience for presentation, panel of experts for adjudication | The thesis team--currently two people | Lots of academic benefits, but the greatest benefits I see are increased confidence and triumph in the child. They learn (again) that the Lord is faithful. They also have an opportunity to minister to one another through support, encouragement, and prayer. I cheer from the sidelines, but they walk through this process together, and they emerge as a strong spiritual community. | 6 | 7 | Yes | Grading thesis papers well takes a lot of time. I don't know that there's a way to expedite it, but I'd be interested to find out. | Our grading process is more efficient than it was, and I don't think we sacrificed quality in the process. We also relaxed the parameters for thesis topics, and that's allowed a lot of good variety. The students are more enthusiastic about it, too. | ||
24 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 37 | The topic must have stasis, either within the Christian community or within the broader culture. The student must argue from a Christian worldview, and both sides of the argument must be able to be written from a Christian worldview. Reason: if it is truly a research paper, then the student must be able to change his mind. We don't want to have students immerse themselves in a topic that ultimately undermines their faith. An example: I won't allow a student to write a paper arguing merely that abortion is wrong. (The counter-thesis would claim that it is right.) They can, however, write a paper in which the stasis is in procedure: given that abortion is wrong, what ought Christians to do about it? Other than that, the topic has to be able to be researched with scholarly sources. We don't want blogs. (This requirement also sometimes limits topics that are so current they haven't yet generated enough scholarly writing.) That's OK. The goal is to teach them a skill. Thus, the requirement that they interact with typical research sources. | Our school has a 7th-11th grade sequence of writing and presentation projects, including a junior thesis, that leads to this. Additionally, writing papers and delivering speeches is a constant practice in our school across subjects. | Mimimum 4000 words. Most students exceed this. I have no upper limit, with the caveats that if they repeat themselves or are boring, it will be reflected in their grades. | 10 | 1st semester: topic invention, research, arrangement, early writing stage. 2nd semester: finish initial writing, revise into 1st draft, final draft, write speech, and prepare for final speech and cross-examination. | Rhetoric II: 5 days/week; almost 4 hours of class time per week. | Rhetoric teacher oversees. Upper school teachers and administrators act as individual advisors for students. | The average student usually has a bibliography of about one full page. They choose sources based on their research process, advisor recommendations, and my recommendations. | They are not the same. The speech is limited to 15 minutes (with 10+ minutes of cross-ex afterward). The entire paper could not be read in that time. The speech is intended to be a persuasive summary of the paper. Also, papers and speeches are, by their nature, different. Thus, we want them to have experience working appropriately in both arenas. | The same. | 15 minutes | Memorization is not required, though practice is required to allow good engagement with the audience. | 10+ minutes | An assigned interlocutor who has pre-read the paper. (Interlocutors are senior faculty, board members, or appropriate members of the broader school community.) Time permitting, we also allow questions from the audience, chosen by the moderator. | Rhetoric teacher | It prepares students for the academic challenges they will face in college and, more importantly, for any significant challenges in life. It teaches them the value of working diligently on long projects, and gives them experience in breaking those projects down into appropriate steps. It demonstrates the value of a liberal education that prepares students to handle a range of questions with skill, insight, and Christian wisdom. | 6 | 7 | Yes | It takes time. Lots of time. It takes a lot of focused energy to grade long papers and provide relevant feedback in a fairly short amount of time (so they can make revisions for their final drafts). The planning aspect is daunting because you want to provide adequate time for each step, but you have a hard deadline: the speech presentations. | Requiring students to submit a minimum amount of writing each week has kept them on track more than anything else I have done. It also gives me the opportunity to work with each of them one-on-one a bit as they keep writing. This has made 1st drafts significantly better. | ||
25 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, mock board, teacher board, and thesis right. This includes a presentation, but also requires defense of their thesis topic through Q&A. | 20 | We encourage students to pick a topic they are interested in, but it must be a topic that impacts society in some way. We also warn about topics with sensitive content as it can be emotionally difficult to research extensively. Still, students are allowed to choose the sensitive topic upon approval from teacher. | We try to have students write other smaller papers during high school, though none as large as a thesis. We have recently considered having students pick a topic during their junior year to allow more time for research, but it is still in the discussion stage. | It is a minimum of 18 pages before works-cited (this includes intro, background, 3 points, a refutation point, and a conclusion). | 3 | 1st quarter: discovery and reparation (finding a thesis, developing 3 points, research, setting up a bibliography, accumulating evidence) 2nd quarter: outlines, writing background, point 1 and point 2 rough draft, testing ideas through "hotseats" where they defend their theories. 3rd quarter: outlines, point 3 and refutation rough draft, revision draft for points 1-3 and refutation, intro & conclusion, full rough draft, Google Slides with speaker notes, mock board (15 min presentation. With 15 min Q&A in front of class). 4th quarter: revised full rough draft, teacher boards (presentation and defense in front of faculty and staff panel), final thesis draft due, thesis night (presentation and Q&A in front of parents and community), reflection and notes of encouragement to upcoming class. | We have a dedicated year long "Senior Thesis" class. It meets 3 times a week for an hour and 20 min each period. | Students have one teacher for the class, but are required to interview at least one expert in their field and are encouraged to meet with any staff knowledgeable on their topic. (Staff for teacher boards consist of English, Logic, Science teachers, and more.) | We require students read a physical book, as well as journals, scientific articles, and more. We want them to have a variety of sources, as well as an interview from at least one expert. Currently, they have one month to read and gather information (during class and as homework) before their first writing assignment is due. We have been contemplating how to give them more time, however. We spend a couple classes making sure stufents are set up with a livrary card and walking them through how to use library to access sources. We discuss what makes a quality source and even spend some time evaluating sources and rating for content and bias. | No. While the information they use for their speech is the same, they should have new content for their speech/presentation. This includes graphs, charts, pictures (and sometimes video/audio) not found in their paper. | Yes, they are the same. Occasionally we have a student that is on an IEP (or equivalent) and we must simply a bit. They still have the same assignments and same boards as other students, but their work might be more simplified and basic. In extreme cases where a student is not able to present in front of a community, we modify to where that student presents in front of 2-3 teachers they feel comfortable with. This does not happen very often, however. | Students have 15 minutes to present and 15 minutes of Q&A to defend. | Depends on the student. Students should memorize the intro and conclusion, but not "read from their notes" at other times. The goal is to make eye contact often, but the success of this can vary by student. | 15 minutes. | During mock boards, it's their classmates. During teacher boards, it's faculty and staff. During Thesis night, it's parents, peers, and community. | Their teacher grades their paper and mock board presentation. Teacher board presentations are graded by all teachers at the board, with the average being their score. Students do not receive a grade for their presentation on thesis night. | It teaches the process of writing a persuasive paper, backed by evidence, from start to finish. It stretches them to consider other viewpoints and opinions beside their own. It synthesizes rhetoric, logic, and debate into a capstone project that not only challenges them, but proves "they can". Ultimately, it prepares them for college and the workplace by teaching them how to write (and argue) logically and persuasively and to overcome personal hurdles. | 5 | 7 | No | AI is one, especially with Chatgpt. So many students want to turn to it to receive quick content or outlines even. But I find the ones that use AI often don't even understand the content their receiving. Also, how to motivate the unmotivated (and procrastinators). | This year we used a new curriculum that adds an additional point for refutations. And I love it. We talk a lot about representing other's voices well so that they would approve of the way students word their arguments. Students then address their concerns logically and fairly. Before, concessions were mixed into the points and I feel students minimized them. Now they're addressing them fully, with respect, and their defense is so much stronger. I also feel they are learning to handle differing opinions respectfully and fairly. | ||
26 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 4 | Topic needs to be partially biblically defensible and must be legitimately debatable | We do a Junior Thesis that replicates most of the Senior thesis writing process. Junior thesis topics are limited to those which the Bible has a clear stance on. Basically, they are major Christian ethics issues. This prepares them for a more biblically informed senior thesis with a broader range of topics. | 12-15 pages | 5 | Senior Thesis is the last 2 quarters of senior year. | Senior Thesis is its own class. It meets ~5 hours per week. | Rhetoric/Humanities teacher. Seniors all also have a mentor that is typically from outside of the school and is ideally an expert on their topic/issue. | There is at least 3 weeks of solid research then ongoing as they write each section of their paper. Resource selection is guided by teacher initially, but then left to the student once they have been guided. | No. We want them to make the speech to be more suited to rhetorical methods and style suitable for an audience. | Yes | I do not limit the time, but let the time be guided by a logical and suitable edit of their paper. That said, they all end up being a similar length. | Predominent amount of it but they are allowed note cards. | About 10 minutes or so depending on questions panelists have | Hand selected panelists | Rhetoric teacher | Senior Thesis is meant to be an application of knowledge and skills acquired throughout their classical education. As opposed to being a “capstone” it is seen is a starting line or blocks at the beginning of a race that will launch them into the rest of their lives where they will need to know truth and apply it wisely to the glory of God. | 5 | 7 | No | Finding good mentors for each student can be a problem. Helping students incorporate knowledge from the entirety of their education is also something we’re working on. | Making Junior Thesis better and the creation of a cumulative resource book during their Rhetoric phase is something I’m working on to make Senior Thesis better, as well as more well-rounded practice opportunities. | ||
27 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 34 | Anything from the humanities, sciences, biblical topics | We have a junior thesis program and we build on that for our senior thesis. | Around 9 pages | 10 | This is fluid…this year we researched and wrote 2nd quarter and presented 3rd quarter. | Honors Senior Rhetoric - 45 min, 5 days a week | Both. The Senior Rhetoric teacher is the lead, and other teachers volunteer their time as advisors, as does the Head of School and Upper School Principal. Students may also have an advisor outside the school (that is encouraged.) | Students are required to use a variety of scholarly sources, both primary and secondary, depending on their topic. The research/reading is extensive. | The content is the same, but the paper is revised someone so it presents as a speech and not as a research paper. | Yes, the same. Deadlines may be adjusted depending on the ability of the student. | 11-12 minutes | We encourage them to memorize as much as possible! | 5-7 minutes, usually | A panel pre-selected based on the student’s topic | The Senior Rhetoric teacher | Learning to research and refine writing, applying the classical speech structure, and the panel experience. | 5 | 7 | No | Managing a large amount of seniors when they need help w brainstorming, writing and w their research. | Really just trying to pick one weak spot from the year before and focus on improving that; this year we presented earlier than last year and the students liked that. | ||
28 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 6 | Any debatable topic with two legitimate sides, but the student may not argue any stance that runs contrary to our mission statement | A long research paper, expository in 9th grade, and debatable in 10th and 11th, plus 3 years of Lost Tools of Writing curriculum | 12-20 pages | 8 | We are a 2 day a week program with 4 quarters. | Thesis class, 1 hour per week for half a year | One senior thesis tutor, but each student is expected to have an outside mentor as well | RADAR questions to evaluate sources as well as a presentation from the local community College library. Amount of reading varies. | The speech is different in style but similar in content | Yes | 15-20 minutes | Most do not memorize but we do encourage it | 2-5 minutes | A panel including the thesis tutor, some administrators, and selected mentors | Thesis tutor grades the paper; feedback is submitted by panelists for the presentation | Ability to thoroughly discover the truth(s) pertaining to an issue of genuine interest to the student, and distinguish truth from falsehood, as well as building the ability to communicate this to others in the world | 5 | 5 | No | The perception that the thesis is "too hard" | More targeted curriculum to more fully prepare students in years leading up to the thesis | ||
29 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Defense | 14 | Topics are not restricted, but must be applicable across time and space | Students are required to complete Level I of our rhetoric course, however, Level I-III is recommended for success. It is also recommended that the student have read broadly across the trivium and quadrivium in the classical canon. | 15-20 pages | 4 | Students choose topic, begin research, and write the proposal in the 1st quarter. During the 2nd quarter, students research and write the 1st proof essay and begin research on the 2nd proof essay. Finally, during the 3rd quarter, students write the 3rd essay and fuse together for final project. They are arlso required to write, memorize, present, and defend the abstract after the final project has been submitted. | I have a class specifically dedicated to senior thesis that meets 1.5 hours per week. | The senior thesis instructor, the student's primary English teacher, and the mentor of their choice. | Students should use the classical sources that they have already read during their course of study. They are required to focus on 3 main classical sources. I suggest an epic to establish cosmology, a novel to explore the psychology of the issue, and a sacred text (like a book of the Bible). | No, the speech is only the abstract to give more time for the students to practice delivery and defense. | yes | 5- 10 minutes for presentation and 20 for defense | All | 20 minutes | Each student has a judge, mentor, and fellow student who has read and prepared questions | I provide the primary feedback for all students. I also have a TA to help with 2nd round corrections | The integration of classical rhetorical skills and texts into a current topic of concern. Students have the opportunity to invite the great voices of the past to speak into an issue today. They are learning to use these skills not to win an argument to heal their community. | 5 | 6 | No | Providing students with mentors who are familiar with all fields of study. This is essential to the overall integrity of the project. | Incorporating more space for editing and limiting students to primary classical sources | ||
30 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Q&A following presentation | 1 | Individual selection approved by administration. | Writing and research skills incorporated in previous high school grades that incrementally prepare students for senior thesis. | 12-15 pages | 10 | Follow the schedule laid out in Rhetoric Alive!2 - Senior Thesis | In senior thesis class--65 minutes per week. | Teacher assigned to senior thesis (was the Lit teacher, but open to change in future). Yes, advisors outside the school work with students, as needed (topic-related). | Scholarly journal articles; interviews; original source documents--all dependent on the topic chosen. | Yes and no. The paper is technical, while the speech is a re-write of the paper for increased engagement with an audience (panel). | Requirements are the same. | 20 minutes. | 60% | 20 minutes | The panel. | Panel provides an assessment, but final grade is the decision of the senior thesis teacher. | Equips students to think deeply and fairly about an issue that matters to them and to their community at large and to develop a solution to a problem--life skill for leadership! | 5 | 6 | No | Keeping students on task--especially when they want to change their topic after realizing the challenge of good research. Helping them understand the need to be open to information that may challenge preconceived notions about their chosen topic. Strategies to find scholarly articles that do not have an obvious bias (political agenda). | As a young school, we've only had one student complete the program so far. We recognized the need to lay better preparatory assignments in preceding grades. | ||
31 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 8 | I give them pretty much free reign as long as their topic is deliberative and includes a Christian framework. | Not currently | 20+ (no maximum; most will be closer to 30 I believe) | 10 | Q1: choose a topic and do research; Q2: research and start writing slowly; Q3: write full draft; Q4: revise and turn into speech for defense | It is a separate class meeting about 4 hours a week | I am the only teacher directly involved and provide all feedback and suggestions for revision. | This varied highly by student. Next year, I will require that the read one book to serve as the primary interlocutor in their paper. In terms of sources, I teach the students various places to look (e.g., Google Scholar, JSTOR, NCLive, digital repositories) and ask them to search widely (though they hit paywalls, which is a major problem). | No, the paper is much longer--a formal research paper with heavy use of scholarly sources. The speech is a condensed version that gives just the highlights. My reasoning is that writing a research paper is a skill that needs to be developed in order to be successful for college, whereas a speech simply does not require as much in terms of engaging with the ideas and words of others in the field. | Yes | 15-20 minutes | Memorization is not required, and this will vary per student. | 10-15 minutes | I ask the primary questions, and the committee also questions. | I grade the paper, and the committee grades the presentation/defense. | Giving the students a chance to research a topic that is meaningful to them and helping them learn what it means to engage with scholarly discussions around their topic. | 5 | 7 | No | I think it would be helpful to have a library of excellent senior theses that could be used to show students more of what is to be expected and give teachers an idea of what to expect. I came from teaching college, so I didn't really have a good feel for what the students knew in terms of writing or what a polished product should look like (though I realize this can vary significantly). | This is the first year I've taught this, so it is a learning process. | ||
32 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Hands-on project | 2 | Any topic of interest within honorable bounds | Our students choose their capstone project the Spring of their sophmore year beginning with an official proposal that is approved by parents and administration. | 7 pages double-spaced not included extras | 10 | The project is self paced, but roughly as follows. Final quarter of 10th choose project. During 11th do research, begin developing paper, and work on the capstone project. During quarters 1-3 of Senior year complete and submit project and paper. During quarter 4, present and evaluate project. | They have a dedicated capstone class which is 50 minutes a week. Otherwise, they reserach and write it on their own time. | We have one teacher who oversees the progress of the projects as a whole, a dedicated faculty advisor for each student to hold them accountable, and a field advisor (not usually faculty) with experience in the area of choice. | It depends on the project. Students find their own sources which vary dramatically and often include interviews with people who are knowledgable about the field. We aim for students to have a minimum of 8 quality sources for their paper. | No. The speech is a summary of the project and personal development. The paper is the research relevant to the project. | We have two options: paper without project (10 pages), paper with project (7 pages). If the student has diagnosed learning issues, the paper is modified to match their specialized intervention plan. | 10-15 minutes | None | 5 minutes | Anyone present including faculty, parents, and other students. | Capstone advisor, and selected faculty members. | Student develop the ability and confidence to successfully navigate and complete a large complex multiyear project. Additionally, they develop skill in an area of interest which may help them determine the Lord's intentions for their life. | 5 | 6 | No | Helping students manage their time when their deadlines are self imposed. | We have worked to ensure the projects are started earlier which reduces stress during student's senior year. | ||
33 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 4 | They are free to choose any topic, but it must be approved by faculty. They create a topic proposal as the first part of their thesis class, do preliminary research and then present their proposal to faculty for approval. | Seniors are prepared in the junior year by writing a lengthy research paper. | 15-20 pages | 10 | The first quarter is spent researching and writing, the second quarter students submit their paper and begin memorizing it while learning public speaking skills for their presentation. | We have a class specifically for Senior Thesis. It meets during the upper school humanities period (approx 2 hours), 3 days a week. | They work with the Senior Thesis instructor, a faculty advisor, and an outside mentor/advisor | They read multiple books, academic journals, and are allowed to use educational/scholarly websites for research. Our students begin the school year with a trip to a local graduate school library where they are taught how to research for an academic paper. | No. Students are allowed to shorten the paper for their speech for the reason of time constraint during the presentation. However, the speech must contain all arguments and counter-arguments and important sources. | They are the same. | 20 minutes | We strive for 70% but students will often only achieve 50% | 10-15 minutes | A panel composed of the school's faculty | The senior thesis teacher grades both. | There are many strong benefits, but a few I consider to be the greatest are: it teaches students how to think logically, to evaluate rhetoric, and to defend something they believe in. | 5 | 7 | No | Getting solid buy-in from students. I would love to hear ideas for ways to encourage student participation, interest, and ownership of the process. | I've improved the program by incorporating more teaching on how to research, and also by involving more faculty and advisors in the process. | ||
34 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Project Work | 2 | Pretty much open to the students' interests, just needs to be something they are interested in learning more about that they can find resources for and people to help them with that is, of course, not inappropriate for presentation to the rest of the school -- the point from my perspective is to show your willing take the initiative to learn about something new and to demonstrate that you can do so (both to the teachers and to yourself) | We encourage students to begin thinking about it as juniors and to come back with a pretty good idea of what they want to do at the beginning of their senior year. | Varies by student. They have ranged from 7-25 pages. Usually the shorter ones are from students who conducted projects that they are reporting upon, and the longer papers are from students who did a lot of research into a topic and are writing about it. | 7 | 1st Quarter: solidifying the topic, gathering your committee, gathering your sources for research/ideas, project planning; 2nd Quarter: in depth research, conducting project; 3rd Quarter: finish research/project, first draft of research paper or project report, meetings with committee members to get feedback on results and drafting; 4th Quarter: final draft of research paper/project report, presentation of research or project results to the school body | Students have a 1/2 per day class that is specifically for working on thesis/project work and being able to ask questions and discuss with a teacher. The class is classified as one of their Rhetoric courses. | Usually the senior Omnibus teacher oversees keeping to schedule and making progress and later assists with editing the paper. Students seek help from various faculty members and people outside of the staff who are more knowledgable in the particular subject and help with both research/project planning/direction and paper drafting. | Students draft a list of resources during the first quarter that they read through and glean from during the second quarter. Usually, this process is often conducted through discussions with the senior Omnibus teacher and other committee members. | The speech/presentation is a condensed version of the research paper or project report. The goal is usually a 10-15 minute presentation. | No. Students are only required to do papers/projects if they want a "classical" diploma; a "regular" diploma is available without a paper or project, and students are just assigned specific work instead of given project time. We have a wide variety of students, even though we don't have very many, and some profit from the paper/project experience, but others would just find it overwhelming and frustrating as just too much. Therefore, the staff identify what is likely in the student's wheel-house and encourage the student in that direction: no paper/project, project (more active work, less research, bringing Christian perspective to the project), paper (more research, synthesis, and application of Christian worldview to the topic). | 10 minutes, 15 at the most | It is not required to be memorized, but there is a lot of practice (since it is a rhetoric class), so much of it ends up being memorized. | The first one went for 45 minutes, which was obviously too long--though the student did great and provided excellent answers to all the questions. Since then it has been about 10-15 minutes. | Teacher, fellow students (who are responsible for asking questions during practices as well), and members of the school community who choose to attend the presentation (parents, people in the host church) | Each committee member completes a rubric then those rubrics get averaged for the final grade. | The student proving to him or herself and others that he or she has learned how to learn and been able to tackle this year-long project, including organizing and seeking out both paper and people resources for assistance along the way. It is a real step at independent learning that tends to energize the students to do more of that in the future. | 5 | 6 | No | Finding people with the time and energy to serve on committees. From the conference workshop, I would be interested to learn more about project-based plans and standards. | We started out mostly oriented toward research papers, but that just was not well suited to all of our students. Even during the first year, one of my students did a small research paper about Chaucer then wrote his own Canterbury Tale, which was very well suited to his talents and tastes. From that we branched out to allowing students to do either papers or projects with the idea that the real goal was to show students that they were at a place in their education where they were really ready to embrace independent learning and to walk them through a project that would demonstrate that to them. | ||
35 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 9 | We encourage them to consider a topic with a wisdom question. | During the end of our Rhetoric Class, students write a small research paper and recast it as a speech. They also begin answering self reflection questions during the spring of 11th grade that are intended to help them generate ideas for their topics. | 12-15 pages | 9 | Quarter 1 -- Canon of Invention (Research and Plan arguments); 2nd Quarter -- Canon of Organization (Write Confirmatio and Refutatio); 3rd Quarter Canon of Style -- Put is all together, revise, recast as a speech; 4th quarter--Canons of Memory and Delivery -- Memorize and practice thesis for presentation; Present Speech to Panel; Finish final paper for grading. | We have a Senior Thesis Class that meets for approximately 250 hours each week (one class period each day for five days) | Angela Littlejohn -- Teacher; Students are encouraged to find topic mentor as well as a writing coach. | Students are encouraged to read C.S. Lewis Abolition of Man and/or Mere Christianity during summer before their senior year. Almost all of the thesis topics can use a relavant quote. | Not exactly. The speech is a condensed version of the full paper. | Yes, requirements are all the same. | 20 minutes to present followed by 10-20 minutes for presentation | As much as possible. :) | 10-15 minutes | Panelists | Senior Thesis Teacher (Mrs. LIttlejohn) | Past graduates have commented that after making it through senior thesis, they are confident and ready to learn anything set in front of them. | 5 | 7 | No | Managing a larger class of students with such a big project. It's a lot (reading, giving feedback, coaching, etc.) for one teacher to do. | |||
36 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, defense as well | 11 | The thesis must be an argumentative research paper; the argument must be sustained coherently and compellingly over 10-15 pages. The paper must evidence thorough research and documentation, capable understanding of the issues at hand and the subject matter itself, high levels of scholarship, and compelling yet charitable discourse. The thesis should be written on a topic of contemporary concern, but which has answers in the ancient tradition of philosophy, theology, and literature. The topic must be one of ethics, politics, economics, the arts, theology, or some combination of these. | We begin rhetoric instruction in 9th grade, focusing on Lost Tools of Writing vol 1 content (logos). In 10th grade students learn various ethos-building and arguing strategies (most of their classical rhetoric instruction happens this year), put together a number of persuasive speeches, and conclude with a quarter-long project in which they attempt to change the mind of a classmate with whom they disagree. In 11th grade students learn various strategies for appealing through pathos, and then research, write, and present a junior thesis of about 10 pages. | 15-18 pages | 6 | We work through the Rhetoric Alive textbook for the senior thesis. By first quarter they've conducted enough research for their topic to present a thesis overview speech; by second quarter they've submitted an annotated bibliography and outline; by third quarter they're finished with their first draft; during fourth quarter they're revising, practicing, and then presenting/defending. | Senior thesis (Rhetoric 4). 3 hours a week. | Teacher for Rhetoric 4 plus an advisor. Each student selects a thesis advisor from the other teachers as well. They have the option of working with an advisor outside the school if the person is a good fit. | Their research is generally self-directed, with input from their advisors and Rhetoric 4 instructor. Teachers will direct them to humanities or other course texts they've already read that bear on their topic, or to books outside the school curriculum that would be helpful. | They used to be different, but the last few years I have had them write the speech from the beginning of the process, rather than converting a paper into a speech. By their senior year, they know how to put a paper together, but their oratory skills could use more exercising. Writing a speech all the way through also allows them to keep their audience always in mind and consistently shape their content accordingly. | yes | 30 minutes. Usually we keep it closer to 25 | 40-50% | 30 minutes | a panel of 3 teachers or administrators, one being their advisor | the Rhetoric 4 teacher | The students experience the rigor of finding the truth in a contentious topic and then preparing the best way to present that truth in a way that will invite agreement. They learn how arduous it can be to answer complex questions in a thoughtful, meaningful way, and they experience the joy of communicating the truth in a way that can help their audience flourish. They also learn the value of dialogue, discourse, and even disagreement. | 5 | 7 | No | It can be very labor intensive for the teachers involved, most notably the teacher responsible for grading and commenting on all of the papers. Finding the best system to spread the work out while maintaining fairness in grading has been a challenge. Ideally, I think the work for the thesis would look more like a student working in a student-advisor environment, more like an independent study. But providing grades for the work involved raises questions of equity across various teachers' grading standards. Even a rubric is up for subjective interpretation. | Yes, improving rhetoric study and preparation in earlier grades, particularly focusing more on audience analysis and oratory over just putting together a sustained argument. Also adding the thesis advisor in addition to the Rhetoric 4 instructor. | ||
37 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Defense | 8 | Students are encouraged to find a topic/issue that is personally interesting to them, because they spend 1.5 years on it. Students are allowed to select from a diverse range of subject areas for their thesis topic; most choose a contemporary issue (political, social, cultural, technological, etc.) or a theological issue, though they may pursue a purely conceptual topic if that is what interests them. The guidelines are broadly that the topic must be arguable/controversial, feasible, and measurable, and students are expected to evaluate any issue through a Christian/biblical worldview. Ultimately, each topic must be vetted by the thesis supervisor who has the authority to reject a proposed topic when they believe there's good reason to do so. Some very hot-button or "overdone" topics (either political or theological) may be rejected. Since they've been working their way to this point over the course of 4 years, I find that most are capable of and happy to be dealing with complex issues. With careful supervision and guidance, most of them rise to the challenge in a way most college freshman these days cannot. | Our juniors start the thesis process in their spring semester. They are required to come back after Christmas break in 11th grade with 3+ potential thesis topics, then we spend about a week as a class narrowing down those ideas to the most promising option. The rest of the semester is dedicated to developing a solid research question, beginning to gather sources, writing 2 source analysis papers, and building an annotated bibliography. The skills-building focus is on best practices for approaching large research projects, properly evaluating sources, and introducing Chicago-Turabian Style citation. But all of this fits into the bigger picture of our 9th-12th grade Rhetoric program (argumentative writing and speaking). I will email you a PDF overview for further reference. | 15-20 pages | 9 | Junior Year: (Q3) Topic & Primary Source Analysis; (Q4) Secondary Source Analysis & Annotated Bibliography Senior Year: (Q1) Research & Outline; (Q2) Full Rough draft; (Q3) 2nd Draft & Defense, (Q4) Final Draft & Presentation | Rhetoric 4 (5 days a week). The 4th year of high school rhetoric is completely devoted to senior thesis. | The Rhetoric 4 teacher serves as the "thesis supervisor" over all theses (daily oversight). Additionally, each senior is paired up with another faculty member who serves as their "thesis advisor" (roughly quarterly involvement). When possible, advisors are assigned based on their field of expertise/knowledge and best fit with a student. | All reading is done for research purposes. Students are required to start the research process by identifying 1 primary source and 2 secondary sources. By the end, they are expected to consult a minimum of 15 sources (for a 15-page paper) They are encouraged to acquire physical (hard-copy) books whenever possible and relevant to their topic and purposes, but the vast majority of recent and relevant source materials are in digital form. In the past, I would arrange for our juniors to go to a local college library where they would be taught both how to navigate the stacks and how to use the library online databases to access academic sources that tend to be otherwise unavailable (but arranging this kind of field trip has been more difficult in recent years). | The formal presentation is a greatly paired-down overview of the thesis. Presentations are only 10 minutes long, and they usually occupy specific slots during school hours in the last week of April. In the past, presentations were a formal evening event, but it was changed in order to accommodate a larger number of presentations and to pair down on the overall number of evening events the school asked families to attend. I'm unhappy with our current approach to presentations, because I don't believe it offers sufficient time or attention for the seniors to showcase their work, but it's the set-up I'm working with at the moment. | Yes, requirements are largely the same, though some difference in expectation may come into play when there is a student with obvious challenges or deficiencies. It's useful to understand, however, that our school is small enough that we cannot admit students with serious learning challenges. So, even though we do have classes with a broad range of abilities, no substantial accommodations are made. For students who demonstrate unusual talent and interest in an area of performing arts (especially fine art or music), I have begun exploring what it might look like to offer a "composition thesis" as an alternative to the traditional academic thesis. I believe such an option would have to be "by invitation only" for a student who (a) has already demonstrated excellent writing skills and (b) demonstrates the necessary artistic skills, work ethic, and self-discipline. I envision a composition thesis as still involving some formal writing alongside the creation and exhibition of original art or music -- but I haven't yet worked out all the logistics. | 10 minutes | I do not currently require any of the presentation to be memorized. But I do require that students have rehearsed enough that they aren't simply reading from a script and making insufficient eye contact with the audience. | We limit the Q&A to 3 questions. The student has already defended their thesis before a faculty panel by this point. | Members of the audience may raise their hand if they wish to ask a question. | The thesis supervisor & faculty advisor come to an agreement on final draft and defense grades. The thesis supervisor grades the presentation and all other parts of the thesis process. | I believe our senior thesis project (in the context of our rhetoric program) provides students with an effective introduction to higher-level thinking, research, writing, and public speaking, all of which provide a clear advantage as students move on to either college or career. | 5 | 6 | No | (1) If you are teaching a number of classes on top of senior thesis, supervising theses for more than 8-10 students at a time presents a number of practical challenges; the biggest is having time enough to provide personalized and in-depth direction/feedback/support. (2) Not all faculty advisors provide the same quality of support, and this can especially be a problem for the senior who needs extra support. In a small school like ours, we don't have as much luxury of choice when it comes to recruiting faculty to advise the seniors. (3) Depending on the goals your school has for the senior thesis, not all writing teachers are well qualified to direct a high-level research project. There is more to preparing students for college-level research/writing than knowing how to write a good essay, or even than familiarity with classical rhetorical concepts. Additionally, following one of the available "senior thesis" books/curriculum won't necessarily provide the teacher with everything they need, either. It's best to find someone with fairly recent, personal experience with college-level writing, as they will not only have a practical understanding of the process, but they'll be more familiar with current practices, methods of acquiring up-to-date sources, and the ability to direct technology use and citation practices. (4) The biggest logistical problem I face every year is how to fit in all the senior presentations, and we don't even have large senior classes. I would like to go back to hosting a single evening event, but there are a number of roadblocks: Attendees don't want to (and can't) sit through more than 2-3 hours of a formal presentation event, which limits the number of presentations you can get through in one evening. So what happens when your senior class exceeds 8 students and each has a 15-minute slot? Do you host multiple evening events which then become a burden to everyone involved? (5) For a small school on a limited budget, providing seniors with access to research materials can be a challenge. Many articles and reports are only available through subscriptions to online databases can be a challenge. If a school can afford it, I recommend purchasing a yearly subscription to one good database like JSTOR. If they can't, establishing an annual research trip to a local college might be the best alternative. Otherwise, for free research materials, students are largely limited to sources they can access through Google, the local library system, or borrow from an acquaintance. | I'll address this question in the broader context of our high school rhetoric program. When I was hired 7 years ago, our 9th-12th Rhetoric program was a bit of a mess, so I started rebuilding it, almost from the ground up. I've either created or compiled all the course plans, assignments, and guiding materials myself, and the program is my best attempt to find a healthy balance between training in the classical rhetorical principles/techniques and meeting real-world expectations for college-level research, writing, and citation. I have added a number of unique components to the senior thesis project, including writing a research proposal, writing a thesis abstract, creating a research poster, and building a senior portfolio. So, my approach is more of a hybrid than you might find in other schools, but after 7 years, I've also seen that it's highly effective. | ||
38 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 60 | We have a revised list of topics for students to select. All topics outside the list must have approval. all topics must be defended from a biblical worldview. | We also have a thesis discipline for all 11th graders. | 20 pages not including the cover and reference pages | the year is scheduled with a series of due dates for each portion of the discourse. | The thesis is a stand-alone class. We meet three days a week for 50 minutes. However, seniors and juniors have time two days per week to write and research in a supervised setting. | Each grade has a dedicated thesis teacher. Students are encouraged to seek additional help from any other teacher on campus. | Reading is an important factor. The requirement for the paper is 20 sources. | In both grades thesis is a two step process. 1.The written portion with its six parts of a discourse requiring 6,000 words and 20 pages is the first step and usually is completed by the first day of February. 2. The presentation portion focuses on the last two canons of rhetoric, memory and delivery. The presentation is cut to around 10 pages in order to fit into the 14-18 minute time for delivery. | All seniors are required to participate in the thesis offering | Students are given 14-18 minutes to deliver their thesis | The goal for memorization is 100 percent. That of course is not always the case. | Presentation and Defense are regulated to a 50 minute class period. | We have a panel of three faculty members to question the presenter | The paper is graded by the class instructor. The presentation and defense is graded by the faculty panel directly involved | Senior thesis is the capstone of classical and Christian learning at PCS. It reinforces 12 years of learning. It involves our learners in the Great Conversation to the point they realize they have something to say that speaks to culture and glorifys God. | 5 | 7 | No | Class size has always been a challenge. We are a large classical school with 25+ students per class. | Revise the topic selection list regularly. Keep is current and relative. | |||
39 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 6 | start during spring of junior year; read a book and start a second one summer before senior year | 15-20 pages | 6 | senior thesis class- 4 hours/week | senior thesis teacher; advisors within the school | about 5 sources, some of which should be texts they have already ready | no. The speech is shorter and focuses on presentation; judges receive the paper | yes | 7 minutes | all-hopefully-this is our first year. Students might write out some quotes that they can read | 15 minutes | panelists, students | senior thesis teacher | students have privilege of researching, thinking about, presenting something they are interested int | 5 | 7 | No | this is our first year | |||||
40 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 12 | 9th: 6 page deliberative paper and address teacher direct topic 10th: 9 page deliberative paper and address teacher directed topic 11th: 12 page deliberative paper and address student's choice of topic 12th: 15 page deliberative paper and address on student's choice of topic | 15-20 page | 3 | Quarter 1: Topic Selection and Research Quarter 2: Writing Quarter 3: Presentation Quarter 4: Mock Trial | Rhetoric, 5 days a week | Rhetoric Teacher; students do not formally work with advisors | They are required to utilize 10 sources. They are taught how to research using databases such as EBSCO Host and JSTOR. They are also taught how to request interlibrary loans. | They are similar, but the speech is shorten version of the thesis. | The requirements are the same. However, this year, students have the option to earn dual credit which requires an additional 5 page paper. | 15-20 minutes speech and about a 10 minute defense when they are asked questions by their audience of peers, teachers, parents, and administration. | The students are expected to maintain consistant eye contact with their audience with minimal reference to notes. | 10 | Peers, teachers, parents, administration | Rhetoric teacher | It is the capstone jewel of their education. | 5 | 7 | No | Finding the time to grade and give quality feedback to all the students in the class. I would like to know how other schools structure their programs and guide students in selecting their topics. | We have moved from a one semester course to a two semester course. | |||
41 | Yes | Presentation | 15 | Our "thesis" is a bit different -rather than an academic research based paper, we set up a project in which the students share their loves. So, their thesis statement is set for them. God loves _______, I love ______, nad I think you should love ________ too. So, they can pick anything that would fit into that. | Our project is called their Ordo Amoris, and they do mini ordo-amorises in the spring of their junior year and the fall of their senior year. | 2000 words / 10 - 12 minute speech. | 1 | To prepare? The first two quarters are skills practicing and topic finding. The third quarter | Rhetoric and Ethics II - 3 hours per week. | Our R& E teacher (me) is the chief faculty member involved. Students locate an advisor inside or outside of school to be their one-on-one mentor. | Students determine what sources they need to fill out their presentation. | Mostly - yes. We do encourage them to reflect proper voice for each medium. | Yes. | 10-12 minutes. | Most / all. | We don't question. | n/a | Rhetoric and Ethics II teacher. | Learning to be earnest about that which they love - and experiencing the communication of that love in a formal setting. | 5 | 5 | No | Getting teachers the individual help that they need. | We've made the presentation environment beautiful. We explained the vision more holistically to various constituencies. | ||
42 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 10 | It can be almost anything, but must be able to incorporate what has been experienced during their classical education as a focal point. | They have defined writing from 5th grade forward that prepare them for the thesis. | 20 pages min. | 4 | Q1-topic and research, q2-3 writing, q4 presentation | Rhetoric II, 3 hrs a week | Senior leaders, and in school advisors | Depends on student, but a substantial amount to leverage enough sources | No, but the speech is based on the paper and may include some components… adapted from paper, as “reading” a paper may not be the best rhetoric skill. | Yes | 20-30 min, 20 min for questions, no PowerPoint | Most of it, but they have it for reference | 20 min | Panel of teachers, outside expert, and now alumni | Three graders for each part all faculty and staff | Really the process | 5 | 7 | No | The nitty gritty process, who participates, rubrics/requirements | Incorporating alumni | ||
43 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 15 | The topic must be of moral worthiness and of sufficient weight | no | 12-15 pages | 7 | Senior Rhetoric. 4 Hours. | Senior Rhetoric teacher. Individual student mentors/advisors | 4 weeks of research reading. Sources must meet set critieria. | The paper is longer. The speech is twenty minutes. | yes | 20 minutes | None. They may use a manuscript/notes. | 20 minutes | Audience. Classmates. Present faculty members. | senior rhetoric teacher | Real world application of rhetorical skill. Confidence-building. Examples to younger classmates. | 5 | 6 | No | Accessing quality sources. Adequate class time to prepare. | We have fine-tuned our workflow/yearplan. | |||
44 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 10 | Something about which reasonable Christians disagree. If everyone agrees, why say it? If everyone disagrees, maybe you shouldn't say it. There's a wide pathway in between those two extremes. The thesis is a type of deliberative rhetoric (one of the three species), so it's also not an academic essay on a text or idea, which students complete their junior year. The Senior Thesis ought to persuade people to do or not do something. | The junior thesis in oratory is helpful as a dry run, although not many students keep the same topic. There's also a sophomore Rhetoric essay that's their first attempt at using the rhetorical organization. | 15-20 pages | 5 | Trimester 1: Topic, Thesis Statement, Outline Trimester 2: Write the paper Trimester 3: Write and present the speech | Senior Thesis class. 3 hours/week | Thesis teacher throughout the year. Thesis panel (Headmaster, humanities teacher, Latin teacher) for select feedback at the argument stage, outline stage, and for a 30-minute panel meeting in February on a full draft. Students are required to find an external expert for advice, but they do not have a separate thesis adviser outside of the teacher. | Depends on the topic and student. Students practice academic research in 11th grade, and spend one month in senior fall researching under the guidance of the thesis teacher. | Same topic and argument, but the format is different. Written: 15-20 pages. Speech: 10-12 minutes + Q&A from a panel comprised of three community members. | Yes | We don't have a "defense" per se. They have a panel meeting that is for feedback, and the oral presentation is a formal event but it's not "high stakes" in that sense. | 10-20% | 10 minutes | Panel is comprised on three members that rotate yearly. Usually there is a theological member (a local pastor), usually a faculty member (perhaps one that has a speciality represented by the theses), and then an engaged parent who is curious and able to ask good questions. | Thesis teacher | Students rarely have the chance to tackle such a large project over such a long time scale. The stakes are high but their sense of accomplishment is even higher. So rewarding to watch every year. | 5 | 7 | No | Thesis is the capstone but it requires years and years of writing instruction in the upcoming grades. What are the writing programs like at other schools that help prepare students for thesis? | -- Centered the weekly/monthly curriculum with the "Rhetoric Alive!" book since we use the first one for sophomore Rhetoric. -- Made expectations and routines public and understandable. -- Held the bar high. -- Kept the same teacher for multiple years. | ||
45 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Defense | 40 | Topics related to the health of the American civitas (politics and civil society) | They are encouraged to do exploratory research to identify a topic summer before senior year. | 20-25 pages (not including title page, bibliography, etc.) | 8 | 2 semesters | Summa Civitas, 5 days/wk | Both senior humanities teachers are assigned students to advise through the whole year. Students also are assigned a second faculty advisor. They can get permission to find an advisor outside the school in place of the second faculty advisor and are encouraged to do so. | Ideally students read dozens of sources that are in the range of journal articles or book chapters. Some read entire books, but are encouraged to select chapters rather than read entire books to get exposure to more sources unless a entire book is crucial for their project. They are given coaching and guidance on the kinds of sources to find and study. | The paper is due about a month before the presentation and defense. Our papers are printed and bound for graduation so we have a hard deadline for the completion of the paper. | Yes. We have discussed the need to have something like a honors thesis and then a lesser capstone project for seniors, but have not made that transition at this point. | 20 minutes of presentation and 20 minutes from taking questions from their panel. | The exordium of the presentation must be memorized. | 20 minutes | A panel of adults from our school community. Former parents, current parents, alumni, friends of the school, etc. | The two senior humanities teachers. For presentation/defense, they use recommended grades from the panelists. | 1) Applying their classical Christian education to a complex, current political/social issue, 3) Learning to take into consideration multiple sides and arguments on a complicated issue 2) Managing and completing a large, complex project | 5 | 6 | No | Keeping the students on track with the project, in all phases of the project, especially in the fall semester. | Giving students a very clear process as they work through the year long project. | ||
46 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | Topic that affects public policy, laws, etc. | We have a Jr. Thesis program | 20 pgs + | 5 | ? | 3 | All students are assigned an advisor | Guided research, rooted in ethical arguments | Paper needs to be edited to fit the 20 min presentation | Same | 20 min presentation - 20 minute defense | 20 min | 3 outside panel members | judges/panel in cooperation w teacher | "The good man speaking well" | 5 | 7 | No | Student should be required to follow classical arrangement | |||||
47 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 40 | A bit too involved to answer briefly here, but they must be topics of contemporary interest that lend themselves toward deliberative rhetoric. | Students explore topics during their junior year and begin to learn about researching in academic databases. They read a book of their choice related to their presumptive topic over the summer. | 12-15 pages including footnotes. | 8 | Research library visit in October, students matched with faculty mentors in November, narratio submitted in December, rest of thesis written by end of March, presentations in May | Rhetoric 4. 100 to 110 minutes per week, depending on the section. | I am the only teacher teaching the class, but each senior also has a faculty or staff mentor. | Mostly the same. For the sake of time, we do not require two different end products, so the result is a bit of a hybrid between an academic thesis and a speech. They have the scholarly apparatus of a thesis and a similar burden of proof, but they have leeway to express themselves (at least in certain portions of the thesis) in ways more appropriate to a speech before a live audience. They are also asked to write with listeners in mind, which involves putting more information about their sources in the text itself, instead of just in footnotes. | same | about 20 minutes for the prepared remarks and 20 for Q & A | Very little memorization is required. I hope to require more in the future, if we can get the students to finish writing earlier. | 15-20 min | Anyone in the audience. | The presentation and defense are not graded. I grade the paper. | What they learn about argumentation and writing and perseverance. | 5 | 6 | No | I'm not sure. As our school is growing a lot, I think the varying levels of student competence is becoming an issue. AI and plagiarism is a (minor) issue every year. For me personally, grading and getting feedback to students quickly is extremely difficult, given that I have 44 students and have them in class only twice a week. | Yes | |||
48 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Defense | 5 | Great Ideas | Start at the end of junior year | 12-15 pages | 10 | First 3 quarters of senior year work on thesis following Thesis Alive book | Rhetoric; 4 hours | Rhetoric teacher and faculty advisors | At least three primary sources: ancient, medieval, modern; must use numerous sources for paper | The speech is a shorter version presented at the defense | yes | 8-10 minutes | Not required | Rhetoric teacher but all faculty members on panel will give input | In some sense, it is the capstone of their grammar, composition, and rhetoric; it can also prepare them for future projects | 5 | 7 | No | How to manage time and resources for instructing effectively | |||||
49 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Committee Defense | They select a topic in their Junior year and it is then approved by the thesis director and finalized in the senior year. It has to be narrow enough to present on and generally be something they will enjoy studying. We don't yet have a thesis handbook as this is our first year using the senior thesis. | They start topic selection toward the end of their junior year. | No set length but should generally fall around 60-80 pages in length. | 9 | Quarter 1: Annotated bibliography Quarter 2: Prospectus Quarter 3: First full draft Quarter 4: Final draft and preparation for oral defense and public presentation | Senior thesis or rhetoric class- typically 3 hours per week or as needed | 3 faculty members compose the committee for a thesis presentation. Most work occurs inside the school. | Students need to start their annotated bibliography with about 50 sources. They work with their committee chair to locate sound sources. | Similar but not the same. The paper is held to a more rigid standard but the speech should showcase students' rhetorical ability while preserving the core of the paper. | Yes, with the exception of the public presentation. Some students may not be required to share in public. | N/A | None | At the discretion of the committee | The members of the students' thesis committee | The committee as a group | Honing skills and providing an outlet for original research and rhetorical presentation. Also, the benefit of working closely with faculty in a individual student-specific context. | 5 | 7 | No | Faculty time. How to schedule a thesis plan that accounts for differing faculty/students schedules. | N/A | |||
50 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, *To clarify, they write a paper in order to write a speech, but they are not graded on paper. | 6 | Must be controversial (teacher approval required) and able to apply Scripture | This year's juniors will be using a research paper from their composition class as the foundation for their thesis next year. The last 2 years, the students have done all the work necessary in 1 semester of the senior year; we are trying the junior research project for the 2025 seniors. | on average 12 pages | 10 | We do everything in the fall semester of the senior year. | Right now, in the thesis class of the senior year. Next year, it will have been completed in the junior year. | We have had outside readers before, but it was cumbersome. So, they work directly with a thesis teacher. | min sources; each students | Mostly; they turn their paper into a speech, so it's more conversational | Yes | 20 minutes, that includes defense (which is usually not very long, although, my last group had alot of questions from the panel) | 50%, but some had 100% | 5-7 minutes | panel (school board members & teachers) | just the teacher | the struggle :) They start completely overwhelmed, but by the end, they are confident and mature | 5 | 7 | No | Getting going with each group. It's alot of work! It's a challenge, too, to guide when every student is doing a completely different topic. | We are still giving structure to it, so I'm not sure how to answer this as the improvements just mean we've made a little progress each year... Some things for us that have helped is making sure that each panel member has a copy of each student's thesis statement and a brief map of their arguments (whole thing is about 3 sentences). In the past, we've also had panel members contribute to the grade, but I don't think this is fair if the panel members don't really know how to grade. I'd rather them just give feedback. | ||
51 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 8 | Deliberative topic, argued from biblical worldview, impacts community | Junior year 4th quarter - students leave with a research topic | 18-22 pages | 6 | 1st quarter invention and research 2nd quarter confirmation and begin refutation 3rd quarter exordium, conclusion, and style 4th quarter memory and delivery | Rhetoric, 3 hrs/week | The senior thesis teacher is the only one involved most of the year. Students are required to get their full rough drafts edited by 3 adults (staff members often help with that). Advisors are mostly outside the school. | Training on primary/secondary sources. They usually read 2-3 main texts and the rest of their research is online. | Similar but the tone of the speech is a bit less formal | Yes | 20 minutes | They are allowed a powerpoint presentation and one sheet of paper | 10-15 minutes | A panel including advisor, senior thesis teacher, one administrator, and two people of the student's choosing. | senior thesis teacher (takes into account the feedback from panel) | Evaluating a controversial topic from a biblical worldview, looking at both sides of an issue, learning they won't have all the answers. | 5 | 7 | No | Grading, time in reading/editing each thesis | More organization, using google drive for drafts and to track comments. | ||
52 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 2 | We use an alternating Apologetics/Theology emphasis with a Literary/Historical emphasis . This oscillation allows us to offer the course for juniors and seniors (with adjusted expectations/guidelines/etc.). | Per #3, they do write one junior year and then write another senior year, albeit with a different emphasis. As our program develops, we’ve paired PSEO course offerings with our Thesis course to make a year-long study, and that experience—for sure this 2023-24 year—allows them to write several lead-up papers of shorter length that they have the option to expand. | It’s been 12-15 pages, though we’ve only had one graduate thus far. | 7 | Usually we begin halfway through the year (around week 18) with generative/brainstorming exercises, then move to research strategies and thesis statement writing, and continue with the process from there. Were a 12-week trimester school. | It’s usually titled Apologetics/Thesis (or Literature/Thesis), though we’ve modified the course title based upon concurrent PSEO offerings before. In its inaugural year, the course was called “Topics in English.” The course meets 2 hours and 45 min per week currently. | I’ve taught our thesis course before and am in year 2 of doing so. They’re encouraged to seek other sources and perspectives (like interviews), but don’t formally work with those parties. | They read works from our Omnibus studies (Theology, History, and Literature) and then conduct their own research. I teach through a unit on research evaluation, helping students understand terms like “peer reviewed” and how to navigate databases, especially when we’re partnered with local collegiate library resources in a PSEO partnership. There is also some mandating of types of sources to use so that they’re well varied to help the ethos of the piece. | No, they’re distinct, though related. I do this because I want students to learn and become proficient in the differences between written and oral rhetoric, and to tailor their presentations for the needs of the occasion/audience. | Yes, they are. | We’ve styled our defense as an open colloquium with open Q&A to follow each presentation. We arrange for prepared questions/“panelists” as well as leave room for organic curiosity. I simulate this exercise with students to help them learn to think on their feet and handle difficult questions. | None, currently. | Typically 5-10 minutes, provided no audience members come forth. | Pre-prepared panelists. Ideally not current teachers but community or parent voices. | I do as the teacher of the course. | Preparation for collegiate study and a culmination of rhetoric training. | 4 | 5 | No | We struggle to advertise it and make it a well-attended and cared about event in our wider community. Parents want to attend grammar school events, but not so much this. How to create a culture of valuing high level academic endeavors for families who don’t really care or just don’t know about them. | We’ve adjusted timelines, brought in experts to guest teach on PowerPoint presentations, and designated a day on the calendar for the defense/colloquium so that it easily allows for attendees that work during the day. | ||
53 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 10 | Debatable, must incorporate three Classical sources, usually more philosophical, avoid boring topics with lots of statistics | We have a Jr. thesis in 9th grade and a preparatory essay in 11th grade. | 12-15 pgs | 5 | Q 1 - Paper Q 2 - Paper Q 3 - Presentation Q 4 - Presentation | Senior thesis class - An hour and thirty minutes | I advise it; other teachers are more particular advisors. We've had advisors outside of the school before too. | They use a minimum of fifteen sources. They read classical sources, academic journals, and approved internet articles. | No. An academic essay is an academic essay. A speech is a different medium. The former is more structured and more about logical proof. The latter is more about holistic persuasion and involves pathos and ethos. | Normally they are all the same unless a particular student needs particular interventions | I'm a bit confused by this question. They present for 12-15 minutes and then are examined publically for 5 minutes. | It depends on the students. Some have memorized basically everything; some have memorized practically nothing. | Five minutes. | Three teachers. | I do with input from the judges. | Public relations; a capstone for the students. | 4 | 7 | No | I'm not the best at teaching writing. 45 minute clear, efficient slamming, philosophically pristine and pedagogically helpful tools to aid kids to write for teachers who already teach a heavy load of classes and have other administrative responsibilities. | Our kids are pretty good at hitting the standards. I've tweaked the standards over the years to make the thesis better and better. At this point, I consistently see what I'm looking for, but it has taken three years. | ||
54 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Panel Q and A | 10 | The topic should connect to the student's classical education and biblical worldview, and should result in a call to action that encourages people to take steps toward godliness. | Nothing specific, but training students in classical education and formal writing is an indirect preparation that our school uses. | 20-25 pages | 6 | Q1 - Topic choice and what thesis basics; Q2 (into early Q3) - Research and writing of the thesis; Q3 - Creating the speech; Q4 - speech and defense of thesis practice, and final presentation | Each week, students have two 1:45 study halls and a 1:45 class on Fridays. So, just over 5 hours of class time per week. The study halls are supposed to be for senior thesis work, but we know that other work is also being done. So, it's more likely that most of the work is being done at home, with part of it being done in the study halls. Class time is usually for discussing the work and/or sharing the work they've already done. | There is a classroom teacher, who is present for the class on Friday and available throughout the week on an as-needed basis. Each student also has a staff mentor, who is reviewing the student's progress, giving general advice, and keeping the student accountable. | The students have wide latitude on the sources so long as they are original sources and not just commentary on other sources. For instance, Wikipedia is not a valid source, but the student could find a good original source from the Wikipedia site. | They are not identical, but they are very similar. We required a 20-25 page paper, which would translate to a 90-minute speech. We want the students to narrow the speech down to approximately 20 minutes. This is another skill that students should learn, namely, how to condense large amounts of information to make it more palatable for the listener. We provide copies of the papers for people to take if they want the full document after they hear the speech. | Same for all. | They give their 20-minute speech, and then they do a defense that lasts about 20 minutes more. | This is student-by-student. We encourage them to be able to present the speech without any notes or slides, but also encourage them to use notes and slides because (1) there's nothing shameful about that and (2) slides help the audience stay engaged. | About 20 minutes per student | A penal of staff members chosen by the administration. | The Sr. Thesis teacher (me) | It is the culmination of everything learned throughout the primary, middle, and high school years. Students are required to research, learn, compile, and organize facts. They are to use those facts in a reasoned argument to persuade people toward their position. The topic is one that students connect with at the heart level, so they are learning how to use their thinking skills to change the world in ways that are important to them. Combining formal writing with formal speaking is what we desire all of our high school graduates to be able to do well. | 4 | 6 | No | Two key issues we've seen: (1) How to keep students from choosing a topic that will lead to a dead end in their mind, such that they change topics months into doing the work; (2) how to keep students on track so they finish strong, knowing that the last 20% of just about anything is always the hardest part. | We added staff mentors; we change the pace to be a little faster so that the students have more time to work on the speech aspect of the project. This pace has also helped prevent students from feeling the project is dragging on too long. | ||
55 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 23 | 1. It must not contradict the school's statement of faith. 2. It should be something that is debatable/controversial (theyr'e not preaching to the choir) | There is a shorter junior thesis. | 20-25 pages | 4 | 1. Finding a topic and beginning research 2. writing the Narratio. 3. Writing the Confirmatio 4. Writing the conclusion and introduction. | Senior Rhetoric. 3 hours per week. | Comp/Rhetoric Teacher mainly. Students are required to find an advisor (teacher, admin, or outside) | Students are guided in how to find good resources, but the amount of reading and research is up to them. | Not exactly. The speech is a bit shorter and hopefully edited for presentation. | Yes unless they have an accomodation plan that says it should be different (i.e. not present before the whole school). | 20 minutes. | They are advised that it should be mostly memorized. | 15 minutes. | A panel of community members (teachers, parents, and others) | Comp/Rhetoric Teacher | It is a capstone of the Rhetoric stage. Writing and presenting well. | 4 | 6 | No | Seniors are stressed even though they are right on track. Having a balance between getting students to make progress, but not making them feel overwhelmed with check-ins or assignments perceived as busy-work. | I am pretty new to our program. But it sounds like we are now giving students more direction through the Rhetoric Alive curriculum. | ||
56 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 3 | A meaningful topic that reasonable people can disagree on | Students participate in a speech program that trains them to pick meaningful topics and write persuasive pieces on them. They do write papers for other subjects as well. | Around 15 pages | 8 | first quarter is brainstorming, second and third is writing, fourth is finalizing | They write during senior thesis class and at home. We meet two hours a week with a weekly optional check in for 30 minutes | I am the classical languages and rhetoric teacher and I run the program and act as an advisor in school. | Students are encouraged to use peer reviewed journal articles or substantive sources by credible sources online. They determined the source based on the credentials of the author or the publishers. They read a fair amount initially and continue to research through the writing process. | They are different because a paper and speech are presented differently and have different goals. | The requirements are the same for each student | We plan to give 15 minutes to present and 30 to defend | I am not going to require memorization as much as requiring students to be comfortable enough with the material to maintain eye contact as much as possible | about thirty minutes | The judges | I am doing the grading | Teaching students to articulate themselves and defend their positions | 4 | 7 | No | My challenge is that I haven't done it in this way before so I am still working out the kinks | I have added some exercises and skills I learned from debate | ||
57 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 35 | Must include theological and philosophical underpinning, but topics are given freedom to choose (within the guidelines of school mission) | not particularly | 3000-5000 words | 3 | Writing skills in Q1; Research in Q2; Polished writing in Q3; Presentation in Q4 | Rhetoric - | Rhetoric teacher with senior faculty advising | Source bank curated by department, recommendations on advisors | No - Speech is shorter so that all can be presented in a single evening event. | yes | 12-15 minutes | 5 minutes | 5 minutes | parents and faculty | Rhetoric teacher | research, genuine academic inquiry, community buy--in | 4 | 6 | No | specialized feedback to each student; incentives for weaker students | substantial school community support | ||
58 | Yes | Considered the capstone to a classical education using grammar, logic, and primarily rhetoric to explore a topic of the students choose related to truth, goodness, and beauty focused on Christ. | Paper, Presentation | 10 | Open-ended, encouraged to be directed at the Christian community | Students take Rhetoric 9-11th grade to prepare, and they write a mini-thesis their junior year. | 20 Pages on Average | 4 | I am uncertain what this question is asking. | Rhetoric IV (Senior Thesis), Hours would be 5 + per week | There is a Rhetoric IV teacher and each student has two advisors. | Students read several books in preparation (2 on average), sources are guided by advisors and teachers | Similar, not identical | Yes | About 45 minutes | Majority, not all | 20 Minutes typically | Panel, usually of faculty and staff | Rhetoric IV teacher | Students accomplishing something difficult, seeing students apply classical thinking (rhetoric and logic) to a topic of interest, helping younger grades and families to see what classical education can to do a student. | 4 | 6 | No | The tension between letting the student fail and writing the thesis for them. Also, the proper preparation prior to 12th grade is needed, we are actively seeking to improve that. How do you prepare students prior to senior year? | Yes, having two teachers teach the class some years. This gives students more attention. Also, adding Rhetoric 9, 10, and 11 prior to 12th grade thesis. | |
59 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 5 | We do not have specific guidelines, aside from committing heresy, but here is part of the letter I wrote to parents and students about choosing a topic wisely: "This Senior Thesis ought to reflect you, the interests and gifts that God has purposefully given you. How can they contribute to God’s kingdom? How can they lead to genuine human flourishing? Remember that—unlike the sophists with their self-interested, eristic debates—the Christian writer will be animated not by a desire to win arguments or trounce the opponent, but by a desire to discern and assist the truth. Such rhetoric is grounded in charity, not in pride. Knowing these things, avoid petty controversies, axes to grind, or topics that you think will make you look good. On the other hand, do not avoid a topic out of fear either. Instead, consider a topic that captures your thoughts, something that you would love to spend hours reading, talking, and writing about (because, indeed, you will spend hours doing so). Even if this topic is not deeply personal, there should be something at stake in it. It should not seem hypothetical and far-off but real and urgent. That being said, “real and urgent” does not equate to an au courant political debate. Topics like the reality of divine inspiration and genius; Jane Austen’s view of marriage; interpretations of the creation story in Genesis; and the problem of consciousness are all real and urgent in varying, if less obvious, ways. They may not be as flashy as topics like abortion, transgenderism, and race relations. However, they might also lend themselves to a richer research, writing, and presenting experience.” | Not historically. However, last year I started a "Junior Thesis" that juniors complete in their last quarter. It's a smaller-scale research project that prepares them for the Senior Thesis project. This year we will try to have students choose a topic before the end of the year so that they can begin researching over the summer. | 15-25 pages | 6 | This year, we chose our topics and began research first quarter, continued researching and began drafting second quarter, are finishing drafting and revision third quarter, and will devote fourth quarter to presentation and Q&A practice. | We have a Senior Thesis class (it's their final class in our grammar/composition sequence). It meets three days a week for approximately 3 hours. | One teacher is assigned to the course (I teach the whole grammar/composition sequence for our Rhetoric Hall). Students are also asked to consult an expert outside of the school to interview. | This varies. The textbook we use (Alyssan Barnes's Senior Thesis Workbook, put out by Classical Academic Press) devotes a section to evaluating sources and compiling research. It helps them understand the difference between popular, substantive, and scholarly sources, and it asks them to compile 20 sources for an annotated bibliography. This year, however, I experimented by adding phases to our research. Our first phase was biblical research and students were only to read Scripture and commentaries to help inform them on biblical foundations for their topic and issue. Then we moved to what I called "Classical foundations," where they could only read pre-19th century sources that spoke to their thesis topic (we also provided them with curated lists of pre-19th century sources to help them). Then we moved to scholarly research, where they were limited to reading modern academic articles, and then finally we moved to journalism and multimedia. This method was not perfect, but it did help diversify their sources and make the papers more truly classical. It's something that needs tweaking. | No. The paper is usually longer and more academic. The speech is revised for time (20 min max) and for tone (more informal). | They are the same. | They are given 20 minutes to present their speech and then approximately 15 minutes to answer questions from a panel. | I've had the seniors memorize their introductions and conclusions. The rest is not memorized, but should be thoroughly familiar as to allow frequent eye contact. | About 15-20 minutes. | Our head of school, a member of the board, and a guest panelist. | The senior thesis teacher. | I think it's incredibly rewarding for the students. It's a beautiful capstone that is a culminating achievement of their education at our school, and it equips them for entering the world with rhetorical skill and grace. | 4 | 6 | No | I have found it difficult to direct the students in their topic choice (helping them narrow it and keep from changing it, but also avoiding contentious topics simply for the sake of being contentious—maturity is sometimes an issue). It's also challenging to manage the time that they need to research, draft, and present in a single year. | This is only my second year teaching it, but this year I tried expanding our research time and adding phases to it. I also intend to have the juniors pick a topic at the end of this year so they have more time over the summer to research. | ||
60 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Artifact or creation - e.g. artwork, business plan, planted garden, working model, illustrated novel, blueprints, training or certification in a skill. | 4 | Loose - dependent upon their interests into the future, college thoughts, parental involvement. | Our Capstone Project begins in the Sophomore year, with students creating a proposal for their written paper and what they will create/design. They deliberately are given two summer vacations in which they can spend time outside of the classroom working on a practical project (e.g. building, travelling, taking a course) | Dependant upon the artifact element - 5-20 pages. Needs to show mastery of the topic area. | 8 | Sophomore Year - in 2nd semester complete proposal. Junior Year - students meeting regularly with advisors to plan out month-by-month progress; researching their topic | Capstone class - one hour per week | One to supervise overall progress; individual teachers assigned to each student to help them plan out timeline, progress, and keep them focused and on time. | Varies. The primary objective is that they learn about a new subject/topic/skill and be able to demonstrate their mastery of it. This is both through their paper and through their created artefact/demonstration. | No. The oral presentation - to all Logic and Rhetoric students - is more of a personal reflection on the process that they went through. What did they learn about themselves? What was the hardest part for them? What was easy? How did they grow? | Largely. There are three main requirements: paper; presentation; artefact/demonstration. Since the artefacts are of such varying size, the papers are modified to fit. | 10 minutes - again it is given to all the upper level as their chance to demonstrate Rhetoric: the presentation and teaching of what they have already mastered. | None | 5 minutes | Any audience members: teachers, students, family members | A group of three teachers - including the advisor | Independent research and learning into an area they themselves choose; having to be independently motivated and keep to deadlines; not procrastinating; interacting with other adults/professors/business owners. | 4 | 6 | No | Since this year represents only our fourth graduating class, we have only had eight students complete their Capstone Projects. Given the variety of projects and interests they have, the guidelines are still being tweaked to give every student helpful support and useful deadlines. For example, we have had: - Robotics and automation - Benefits of grass-fed cattle - Painting a mural - Illustrating a children's book - Writing a fantasy novel - Becoming a pilot - Building a chair - Movie making | The primary thing over our short time doing it has been to tighten up the timings for the students and ensuring that they have time in their sophomore year to choose a project proposal that will benefit them as well as being something stretching and attainable. | ||
61 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, We also have a senior project connected to what they wrote their thesis about | 7 | The guidelines are very broad. We push for their topic to be controversial in some way, not something everyone would immediately agree with. But the guidelines they are given is as follows: "Your subject may be social, literary, biblical, educational, athletic, or historical. You want to choose something that you care so much about that you would naturally love to spend time to learn more and get personally involved." They are required to work within a biblical worldview. We also give them examples from different categories: "SOCIAL: Today’s fragmented, institutional culture in America is neglecting and abusing our elders; we must learn how to better care for our elders as long as possible in our homes. This research involves elder-care visits and plans for our family. LITERARY: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights provide striking contrasts in their presentation of love and marriage, views which develop from opposing literary springs in Classical and Renaissance literature. This research will culminate in the formation of a wise, biblical approach to youthful romance. ATHLETIC: Building a training regimen to address specific improvements in particular sports is a well-established requirement for achieving high performance, but building one’s program so that the body grows in a balanced manner is vital to enjoying a long and healthy career. SOCIAL: Many poor families have no parents home when children return from school (as the parent(s) must work late hours). This puts many students at a sad disadvantage, especially when they feel unloved. This project involves locating the poorest section of Salinas with the highest concentration of “latch-key kids.” An Easter day celebration will be organized to give them a full, wonderful day of activity during their break while their parents are working (full permission will be gathered ahead of time, etc.). BIBLICAL: Church leaders must learn to discern between physical and spiritual mental diseases so that hurting people are guided to appropriate care." | We actually have a 2 year program. The first year (junior year) they research, draft, write, and finish their paper (part of the reasoning for this is so they can use their thesis in college applications or scholarship applications). The second year (senior year) they have a thesis project associated with their paper and they prepare to present/defend their thesis. | 2,000–3,500 words, or roughly 8 to 14 double-spaced pages | 7 | Semester 1: Gather (research) Semester 2: Compose (write) Summer and Semester 3: Practice (project) Semester 4: Present | They have a shorter class called thesis prep. This class is roughly 100 minutes - 2 hours a week. This is also called "advanced rhetoric" and is required to graduate. | The lit teacher (me) runs the class. the class is almost entirely a work period where the teacher can meet with student in the class to discuss their work. They also have a lot of deadlines (sources due by a certain date, outline due by a certain date, ect) which help keep them accountable and receive plenty of feedback. | The source requirements are as follows: Ten sources total; at least two must be from peer-reviewed journals. Additionally, Significant use of a specific biblical passage or passages in their work. Students gather sources from local libraries or online databases. The teacher also helps give them advice on where to look/ what kind of sources they are lacking. | The content is the same but they have to shorten their paper into a speech format,. They have to highlight the main points, discuss what issues they ran into while they where researching, and what they would do if they had another 6-12 months to research. All within 10 minutes. | Yes. | 10 minutes | Its not required to be memorized but they are trained on how to speak off of bullet points, flashcards, or an outline. | 10-15 minutes depending on the content and controversy of topic | An assigned "board" usually includes the headmaster and the history teacher as well as a few other willing participants/leaders at the school | The English teacher/ thesis prep teacher grades it but the presentation includes grades from the thesis board who are the ones who ask the questions | Learning how to deep dive into a research paper, learning how to read sources, learning how to speak well/ utilize the rhetoric they have learned in other classes. Defend something from a biblical worldview | 4 | 5 | No | How to grade a thesis paper? maybe suggested rubrics for grading one? also suggested prompts for the kids? our prompt is so vague that some students struggle to come up with ideas..... We also don't have a library or online resources/databases so there its hard to help them find sources, they often end up buying books they want to use. | This is my first year teaching.. Im just using the guide they gave me but I have been able to bring in some instructions on how to write an outline, how to research ect... | ||
62 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Adjudication process | 13 | We have a thesis committee that discusses and approves topics. | Yes, as juniors they begin researching topics. | 10-12 pages | 9 | Senior Rhetoric | The rhetoric teacher along with advisors inside the school | no | yes | 4 | 7 | No | ||||||||||||
63 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Defense with four adults | 3 | Consequential, debatable, defendable. We wanted something not everyone in the audience would agree on. | No | 15-20 pages | 3 | Quarter 1 = topic & research, quarter 2 = finalizing the argument & research, quarter 3 = writing the narratio, partitio, confirmatio, & refutatio quarter 4 = peratio, exordium, editing, defence, & presentation | Senior thesis meets one day a week for 1 hour. 4-6 hours is expected outside of class time. | Senior thesis teacher during school and one advisor per student outside of school. | We gave clear requirement regarding the number and types of sources that must be used. | No. The paper is about each word. The speech will be a delivery of ideas (not a reading of the paper). | yes | TBD | We will allow notecards. | TBD | 4 adults for the defense. Fellow students for the school presentation. | Senior thesis teacher. With consultation from defense adults. | The opportunity to work all year on one topic. The ability for the teacher & advisor to coach 1:1. The accomplishment they will have at the end. | 4 | 7 | No | This is our first year. | See above | ||
64 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 7 | Students have choice in the topic decision but it must follow certain guidelines: Scripture/moral message, must be able to find enough resources to support topic, must fit within the scope of the mission of the school (although students do not have to agree with the required counterarguments that exist, as some may not be Christian), must have a call to action, must use verifiable and accurate sources. | towards the end of the year, 11th graders start thinking of a topic for their thesis and can use the summer to do research. 6-11 graders do an Expo, they choose the project, and they can use this for their senior thesis. | 45-60 paragraphs (15-20 pages) | 9 | 1st quarter: choose a topic, create thesis statement, continue research (research for 32 sources (25 online, 7 physical, 2 must be primary)) span the first two quarters. 2nd quarter: Use time to read/listen to sources, ask questions, develope outline, research counterarguments. 3rd quarter: type 45-60 paragraphs (writing mentor chosen to help students stay on task and help with grammar and/or presentation practice. 4th quarter: focus on presentation practice before peers and teachers before their thesis defense before the judges. | We have a class called Senior Thesis. This is what they do throughout the week. Meets whenever class is in session. | English teacher is the primary person involved, however, administrators, other teachers, leaders in the community, and parents are actively involved. | Each source is approved/denied by the English teacher. Most sources are secondary sources, but there must be two primary sources. Websites that end with .com are denied. Students are asked to locate sources with .gov, .edu, .org. They are also guided to the Library of Congress and JSTOR as research tools. Videos can be used as well. Students are discouraged from using the same author over and over, to get several different perspectives. 10 out of the 32 sources must be sources that go against the student's thesis. The Bible is considered a source. | The paper is 45-60 paragraphs (15-20 pages). Presentation is a max of 15 mintues, as it is only a defense. The judges have the opportunity to read the student's work before the defense (for context). We do not want students to just read the report. Instead, we want them to learn how to summarize their main points and to use rhetoric (critical thinking skills) to formulate quick responses to questions from the judges to defend their thesis. | Yes, they are all the same. | 15 minutes, max of 20 min with a penalty of going over 15 mintues. They are cut off at the 20 min mark. | All of it | Unknown. No time limit. | Judges | English Teacher (judges comments are considered for grading) | Being able to honor the Lord with your mind | 3 | 7 | No | Unknown at this time. | Better communication with all that are involved, a syllabus and gradding rubric that is detailed. | ||
65 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 9 | Topics must lend themselves to a controversial, defensible thesis statement. | 7th-12th grades write a year-end six-parts paper as the final project for their Humane Letters courses. They present their paper to their class and select students present to the school community. They create an accompanying true, good, and beautiful display. | This year 8-18 pages, with 8 page papers eligible for a C, 10 page papers eligible for a B, and 12+ papers eligible for an A. | 8 | Sr. Thesis now begins in the Fall and lasts about 24 weeks. Students read, research, and take notes during the first 10 weeks; write outlines and complete mini-assignments focused on biblical theology, clear definitions, and classical and Christian perspectives over the next few weeks; write and edit rough drafts over the next few weeks; write abstracts and condensed 15-minute speeches over the last few weeks; and present to the BCS community. | It's a separate class called Senior Thesis. Meets 4 times a week for 45 minutes each time. Total expected work-load for Sr. Thesis is 6 hours/week. | I have asked two other teachers to serve as advisors and we have divided the students into three groups. I lead all the students and meet with them during the class period, but I give detailed feedback primarily to my own assigned students. | Too little. :) We are working toward helping students focus on classical and Christian perspectives on their topics. The best students read maybe 200 pages. | No. The paper is 8-18 pages long. The speech is 15 minutes long, which adds up to approximately 5 pages of text. So we practice abbreviating. | Yes, though the sliding grade scale allows students who are weaker to still complete the assignment although they read and write fewer pages (and have less to do in condensing their speeches). | 15 minutes | Depends. The best students have memorized most of the presentation. Students are allowed to have a script with them. However, the expectation is that students will make prolonged eye contact with the audience, looking down only a few times each paragraph. | 15 minutes. | Panelists who have read the student's paper, chosen from among the school parent community and faculty (if necessary). | Each advisor grades his own students' papers. I have graded the presentation/defense independently or in consultation with another faculty member who attends all of the presentations. | It is a demonstration of the student's learning to interact with classical and Christian/biblical sources to support a thoughtful and controversial thesis on a topic of interest. It gives the student the chance to practice the tools of life-long learning. It allows students to begin to bless the Church by doing the careful thinking and application to life that we have trained them to do. | 3 | 5 | No | Students who have trouble with reading comprehension have trouble interacting accurately and effectively with senior thesis classical and Christian sources. | Created a 15-step process that allows students, by the end, to address every aspect of the thesis that we will be grading in the end. Also, we've implemented humanities projects in the earlier grades so that the type of research expected and structure of writing a thesis become familiar to students. This approach bore good fruit at another ACCS school and we are implementing a similar approach at BCS. | ||
66 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 9 | Needs to be a current issue that ties into what they've been talking about in their classes. | In 10th grade during rhetoric 1, we discuss building blocks for their thesis. Then they write a "tiny thesis" that year. In 11th grade, they give another "tiny thesis" during quarter 3 and I introduce the senior thesis during quarter 4. | 2000-3000 words | 9 | Quarter 1 is research and narrowing. Quarter 2 is writing (done by Christmas break). Quarter 3 is revising/editing. Quarter 4 is final products (papers and defenses). | Rhetoric 2 meets 3 hours/week. | There is one main teacher (myself), but I have begun to include the upper school dean and the headmaster. They do work with advisors that they get to choose. | We have an intensive week of how to do research, but this is something I'd like to learn how to do better. | Yes for ease on the student. | Yes, they're the same. | 15-20 minutes | I ask the students to be so familiar with the text that they don't read off the paper. | 10-15 minutes | I select a panel of content specialists as well as the upper school dean who has worked with the students through the whole process. | I do. | It teaches students to think on their feet about a topic they've spent a year becoming familiar with. It also forces them to think through questions that they normally would not think through. | 3 | 6 | No | My headmaster's vision for the program keeps changing, so I would like to hear other people's purpose for the thesis. I'd also appreciate some concrete "how to"s for the program. | I've been teaching it for four years and I've worked on narrowing focus, shoring up expectations, and being tighter on timelines. | ||
67 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Defense Panel | 4 | We want students to pick a topic they are interested in working with throughout the project. There is an expectation of Biblical integration as well as other aspects of their previous courses. | Our progression with Rhetoric is the following: 1. 10th grade year (Rhetoric I) grammar of Rhetoric 2. 11th grade year (Rhetoric II) Junior Thesis, review of Rhetoric I 3. 12th grade year (Rhetoric III) Senior Thesis | 12-15 pages | 3 | 1-Research 2-Writing 3-Writing/Presentation 4-Defense | 1 course-4-5 hours per week | Currently, one teacher is involved. I would like to this grow to include others. | We don't typically allow websites. We require books, peer reviewed journals. | No. We want the speech to be a summary of the paper. | Same | 10 minutes | Some, not all. | 20-30 minutes | panel of teachers, board members | teacher with assistance of panel, admin | The culmination of the project with students realized what they were able to accomplish. | 3 | 6 | No | Continuity of staff leading the program | We try to increase the expectation every year. | ||
68 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 5 | Topics selected must reflect a Christian worldview and relevant to the Great Conversation of the Western world. | Junior Thesis in 11th grade | 15-20 pages | 6 | Quarter 1: Find and Explore General Topic, Identify Specific Thesis Statement, Research Quarter 2: Research, Outline, Narratio Writing Quarter 3: Confirmatio 1-3, Refutatio, Exordium, Conclusio (Writing and presenting individual sections) Quarter 4: Complete Draft, Prepare for Thesis Presentation/Defense, Revisions to Final Written Draft, Thesis Presentation/Defense | Senior Thesis, 2.25 hours/week | Senior Thesis teacher, Faculty Advisors (assigned by Thesis Committee); Students are permitted to have external advisors | Students read primarily peer-reviewed sources, primary sources, and other academic secondary and tertiary sources. Students can anticipate having to read between 500-800 pages. Students are given guidelines for how to determine whether a source is scholarly or not. | No. The paper is 15-20 pages in length, while the speech is only 20 minutes. Students must therefore condense their paper in order to "fit" the presentation into this limited amount of time. This challenges students to identify the core elements of their argument and craft their speech in a way that will prove most informative and persuasive for their audience. | Yes | 20 minutes | The entire presentation should be memorized, though students are permitted 1 sheet of paper (front and back) with notes, reminders, or direct quotes. | 20-25 minutes | Thesis Panel (Senior Thesis teacher, Faculty Advisor, Third Examiner [either additional Faculty member or external examiner]) | Senior Thesis Teacher, in consultation with Thesis Panelists | The Senior Thesis serves as the capstone of the Classical Christian education, the "peak" of the Rhetoric stage, allowing students to put into practice all that they have learned throughout the Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric stages. | 3 | 6 | No | 1. Insufficient time/manpower (Faculty are already carrying very full loads, so the added burden of serving as Faculty Advisors can be additionally taxing, and even result in less-than-stellar participation on the part of these Advisors) 2. Lack of preparedness of seniors for undertaking a research paper (related to need for further improvements in lower grades in skills of writing, rhetoric, presentations, and research) 3. Lack of easy access to resources (our school doesn't have a library) | This is our second year, and I would say we have improved in many ways since year 1. First, we have done a better job of hitting clear deadlines throughout the year so that seniors can stay on schedule. Second, we have assigned faculty advisors to each student and required them to regularly check in with these advisors, in part because the Senior Thesis teacher can only notice so many issues with a class of multiple students writing on varied topics. Third, we have continued broader conversations among the Faculty on how we can better prepare students in earlier grades before they get to Senior Thesis (One change we made along these lines was to begin the Rhetoric sequence in 10th grade rather than 11th grade in order to give more time in 11th grade to the Junior Thesis, which serves as a kind of "practice" Senior Thesis) | ||
69 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 3 | They come from our Wonder Project. | They take writing classes and have been working on the same subject (say an "apple") each year since kindergarten. | 15 pages | 3 | First half is Rhetoric 3, working on oratory skills. The second half of the year is working on the thesis and refining its points. | Rhetoric 3. Two days a week for an hour each. | Rhetoric teacher. If their topic takes them outside the school to converse with other experts, we encourage it. | The students are told to pull from across disciplines and need to show. evidence of that work. Students read many scholarly articles and books on their topics. | They are essentially the same, though the speech is not simply reading the paper. | Yes. | The students are given enough time to cover their 15 page paper plus 20 minutes of Q & A. | The students are told to memorize the detailed outline of their speech, which can contain any specific quotes they want to have verbatim. The rest is memorized. | 20 minutes | All upper school faculty. | The upper school faculty, with the rhetoric teacher weighing the rhetorical section himself. | It is seen as a capstone experience that allows them to show what the Wonder Project can do over the long term. | 3 | 6 | No | Scheduling time and teaching them how to truly go across disciplines. | Yes, we changed the subjects from what the students pick (in an attempt to address a current social issue) to being a culmination of something that they have been wondering about for 13 years. It shows that every aspect of God's creation is filled with God's wonder. | ||
70 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Defense | 5 | More guidance than guidelines | We do a junior thesis that is shorter and less rigorous to help students get experience in the process. Starts over with senior thesis. | Ranges 8-15 pages. | 5 | 1st and 2nd quarter (Research and writing) 3rd and 4th quarter (Presentation and Defense) | 4-5 | One upper school teacher. Goal will be to develop advisors | We want peer reviewed articles, books. Less emphasis on websites, internet. | Speech is a summary of the paper | Yes | 10 minutes | Some, not all | 15-30 minutes | Panel of teachers, board members, potential experts in the field | Teacher, advisors | Challenges the student, provides assessment for the school to evaluate overall student development | 2 | 5 | No | Best practices | developed handbook | ||
71 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Defense | 3 | Anything related to the Christian experience | We are making a concerted effort to gradually work our way up to the senior thesis by starting in 9th grade with a small one, but we just started that. | Last year, both of my students finished with about 35 pages. In previous years when I was not the teacher, pages ranged from 15 to 60. | 7 | This is the first year we have had a full year for senior thesis. We spent the first quarter watching videos of the previous year's Chrysostom entries, reading thesis papers, and analyzing work from published authors. Second quarter was spent on smaller writing and speech projects, focusing on style and development of the arguments. We narrowed down topics that the students were interested in for the big thesis paper. Now, in third quarter, we've begun writing and researching. I'm hoping they will be finished with their paper by the third week of March so that they can edit the papers to a speech format and memorize the speech in time for the Chrysostom oratory contest. | Rhetoric IV meets for 3.75 hours per week (I wish it was more!) | Just me, the rhetoric IV teacher. Last year, I paired the students with an advisor (a humanities teacher). Trying to determine if that was fruitful. | We talked about different kinds of sources. It is very difficult to use anything in print form because we do not have a school library and there is no university in easy driving distance. I told the students to aim for academic journals if they can. No blogs or .coms. | I have the speech scheduled for about a month after the paper is due. I am wondering if it would be better to write the speech first, then expand upon that for the paper. | Yes. | 10 - 15 minutes | In the past, it has not been memorized. This year, I'm hoping for at least 90% memorized. | 10 - 15 minutes | We have three judges who are usually prominent community members, but who are usually not connected with the school. | Me | It is the best way for students to "put it all together;" to do something meaningful. | 2 | 4 | No | The biggest problem is that I really have no idea what I'm doing, haha. It's nice to start with a textbook to follow, but the textbook isn't going to walk alongside these kids as they do this really difficult task. Helpful things: how to schedule the year, what sequence to do things, how much time to spend on each thing, where should the teacher invest energy and time. | Last year was my first year as thesis teacher. After trying to accomplish everything in one semester, I knew that wasn't sustainable. Now, for the first time, rhetoric IV is a full year class. | ||
72 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 5 | Their paper and presentation must engage the assigned book. They have a great amount of flexible within that assigned reading. | The junior class also does the project with fewer requirements regarding the assignment. | Our seniors are expected to have a 10 page paper. | 8 | We start reading the book in the third quarter and will focus on writing and presentations in the fourth quarter. | Humanities, 5 hours | The Humanities teacher is their advisor and aid. Other history and humanities teachers will be the ones that read and question the seniors. | This is our first year doing this so we don't have many plans or prerequisites established yet. We have an assigned book by C.S. Lewis and then numerous books by him and others in our library available to them for sources. | Yes. Our Head asked for the speech to be more of an oral defense than a speech over their paper. This is our first attempt, so plenty to learn about the process. | Yes. | We were thinking roughly 15-20 minutes. | We were hoping that about 50% of it would be presenting their arguments and the rest would be Q&A. | We were planning on about 10 minutes. | We have two teachers (not their humanities teacher) that will question them. | Their humanities teacher will grade their paper, while the other two teachers will grade the defense. | I believe that it will allow our seniors a chance to put all of their education together in a cohesive project. It is a fantastic preparation for those that are furthering their education at the college level. | 2 | 7 | No | Right now the greatest challenge is getting it up and running with it being our first year. I would love to hear some key steps to establishing a thesis program. | N/A, first year doing program. | ||
73 | Yes | Paper, Presentation, Working with a secondary mentor in the community to develop a "product" beyond the paper and presentation. | 5 | It needs to be something that is of interest to them and/or something they believe they would like to pursue even after graduation. | No | This has varied and needs tweaking. On average, 5-7 pages. | 10 | With regard to senior thesis, first semester is research and paper writing; second semester is work with a secondary mentor and presentation/defense of their essential question. | We consider this a seminar course and our seniors meet with our guidance counselor once a week to maintain progress. Otherwise, they work more independently on this project. | Guidance Counselor and Head of School. The Language Arts teacher has been involved in the past, but not in the last few years. Students do have an outside mentor for the second semester as well. | This varies by student and their individual essential questions. They are instructed on how to choose reliable and scholarly sources and are required to use those types of sources only. | No, parts of the paper can be utilized in the speech, but the speech encompasses the full project, not just the first-semester research paper. | The basic requirements are the same, but the main crux of the entire project can vary from student to student depending on the topic chosen. | 30 minutes | The students are encouraged to memorize as much as possible for presentation purposes, but they are also required to do a PowerPoint to guide their presentation. | About 10-15 minutes. | Each student has a panel made up of their inside and outside mentors, other current teachers, and one upper school student. | Guidance Counselor with input from Head of School | It should be an evident culmination of what a Trinity student has learned and should help students to display that learning well. | 2 | 6 | No | Setting up a thesis to be rigorous and to elevate the outcome for both student and school. We have also had trouble training an inside mentor to make sure that this is done with excellence. | No. We have tried but quite frankly, I believe the quality of our senior thesis has actually regressed over time. | ||
74 | No, we have never had a senior thesis program | We only go to 10th grade. We would like to implement this when we add a 12th grade. | 1 | No | ||||||||||||||||||||||
75 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | They are mostly non-existence. The general idea is that it is something they can research and something loosely related to classical education. | No | No specific guidelines | 7 | Not specifically scheduled | English; 4 hours/week only 1 designated to thesis | English teacher; no | Depends on the student and their topic | No; the speech is supposed to be a "summary" | No because there are not clearly outlined requirements | Untimed | Determined by student | Untimed | A teacher selected panel | Getting students to wrestle with great texts, ideas, and truths and apply it to how they think life should be lived | 1 | 5 | No | Teacher understanding of what the program is hoping to accomplish; equipping/training teachers who are unfamiliar with thesis | Connecting with schools that have more developed programs | ||||
76 | Yes | Paper, Presentation | 15 | any appropriate (teacher-spproved) | Junior paper | 20-25pp, 6500 words | Rhetoric | Rhetoric teacher(s) and librarian | read 20+ scholarly articles/book segments | relatively (speech condensed) | yes | 20-30 minutes | none | up to 10 minutes | faculty, upper school students, community members including parents | Rhetoric teacher | No | |||||||||
77 | No, we have never had a senior thesis program | We are new and have not yet developed the program. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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79 | No, we have never had a senior thesis program | We would like to have one, just have not had the time or clear direction to get it started. | 10 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
80 | No, we have never had a senior thesis program | The highest grade we currently go up to is 10th. We intend to add a grade a year, so we plan to have 12th in 2 years. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
81 | No, we have never had a senior thesis program | We are a new school and our first graduating class is not until 2031! However, it is part of our strategic plan to have a senior thesis and so I am very interested in staying in touch with this conversation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
82 | No, we have never had a senior thesis program | We currently serve K-11th grades and do not yet have a senior class for a thesis project. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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