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Persuasion in Ancient Greece

Andrew Scholtz, Instructor

Informational Pages. . .

Group Oral Reports

Overview

Each of you will participate in one group oral report this semester. Reports — 15 mins. tops, not including Q&A — will, with the assist of a PowerPoint visual aid, address key issues of primary readings assigned for a given class day.

Your mission: to get across to your audience a select set of key issues that you regard as pertinent to the reading assigned for that day and to the course.

The slection of passages/issues is up to you! Pleaser,, though, do not attempt to lecture the whole assignment (that's my job!). Rather, pick out a few passages and/or issues that you as a group feel are compelling, relevant, and capable of being handled in a limited amount of time.

Teams will number 2-4 people, but you will be graded individually:

  • Based on final result, i.e., the presentation as presented in class
  • Based on myCourses "Group Report Personal Journals," as per below

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Topic & Team Selection

At your earliest convenience please let me know which days you're particularly interested in. You don't have to express a preference, but you're encouraged to.

In short order I'll be contacting you to let you know about teams and assignments. That's when you get to work!

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Preparation

Schedule at least 2 (two) face-to-face meetings (not remote sessions).

  • That's live and face-to-face. If somehow live and face-to-face won't be humanly possible, I will need a well documented excuse to explain. Without that, points will be taken off for the group.

Note that all of you must do all reading, both that assigned for the class and that covered by the report. Meetings must be conducted collegially.

REHEARSE the presentation multiple times; critique (in a friendly, collaborative fashion!) fellow team members.

  1. Do not leave the first dry run for class.
  2. TIME THE SHOW! You will lose points if your presentation, not including Q&A, which we'll play by ear, goes over fifteen minutes. (There is a "timings" function in PowerPoint you can use for practice purposes.)

POWERPOINT PREPARATION. Prepare in team fashion a PowerPoint as a visual aid. Do this as per PowerPoint page.

PERFORMANCE SCRIPTS. You should write out your performance script. That can be recorded to the notes of your ppt, word-processed document, whatever. Whatever you do, don't improvise. Prepare!

COME TO CLASS PREPARED, i.e., make sure your presentation is ready to roll at zero-hour, preferably on a memory stick. I will also need to keep a copy of it. DO NOT BE FUSSING WITH E-MAILING YOURSELF OR DOWNLOADING THE THING IN CLASS!

EXPLAIN THE "WHY" OF WHAT YOU ADDRESS. You're not going to talk about everything in the texts at hand. Why is it, then, that you're addressing what you do? What is interesting/pertinent/whatever about it? What do you hope to do with it?

  • A good place for that is either while you've got your Agenda slide up or on a second, introductory slide.

CRITICAL THINKING DIMENSION. It will be important that group reports not just summarize but analyze texts, especially in light of assigned theory readings.

NOTE THAT we don't expect "expert" insight from the critiques you be producing. Still, go for a good faith effort to leverage your base knowledge (however limited at this point) in synergy with sound principles of CRITICAL THINKING as per "Writing Issues" page.

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Structure of Presentation

  1. INTRODUCTIONS: of yourselves (you have names!), of your readings, of your topic.
  2. AGENDA. Quick, executive summary of main content (see below).
  3. MAIN DISCUSSION.
  4. Q&A. You'll lead it, but the idea is to get the audience involved.

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Structure of PowerPoint

  1. Title slide. (Announces topic, participants.)
  2. Quick, executive summary of main content. That is to be handled by an "Agenda" slide plus brief comment from presenters.
  3. More in-depth discussion, analysis.
  4. Q&A prompts slide.
  5. Bibliography slide. ("Works Cited," MLA.) Prepare just one PowerPoint, not separate ones for each team member.
  • More on PowerPoint here.

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Presenting: Practical Pointers

  1. REHEARSE AND TIME the presentation multiple times.
  2. CONCISE, USER-FRIENDLY EXECUTION. Oral presentation differs from written in a lot of ways. To present orally, don't just read a paper. Rather,
    • Try as best as possible to spare us the details. I.e., cut to the chase, limit your quotations in number and length. One good example concisely presented can speak for a hundred.
    • Signpost so that your audience doesn't get lost. ("Now we're going to take up the subject of. . . .")
    • Look at, and make contact with, students, not me.
    • Use voice level and inflection, physical gesture, overall pacing to assist your listeners in absorbing the structure of it all.
      • Highlight what needs it
      • Flat presentation can confuse
  3. USE POWERPOINT EFFECTIVELY.
    1. Speak to the class, not to the screen.
    2. PowerPoint should deliver structure, not content; more here.
  4. Avoid!!. . .
    1. "Like" as filler/narrative marker ("Like he was like, OMG! And she was like LOL!")
    2. Dead-air fillers or similar:
      • "Um"
      • "Uhh"
      • "OK?"
      • "Right?"
  5. PROJECT A "PRESENTORIAL" PERSONA, or ethos, key to all persuasive speaking and teaching, as Aristotle correctly surmised. Project that more engaging, clear-voiced, "public" version of yourself, not the mumbling private one. FACE THE AUDIENCE, ENGAGE THEIR ATTENTION. DON'T BURY YOUR FACE BEHIND YOUR SCRIPT.

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Audience Responsibilities

General

Your receptivity as audience to these presentations counts toward your overall class participation grade.

During presentations, please do not interrupt presenters. Jot down thoughts en route, then offer them at end in the form of comments or questions.

As these presentations will in most cases represent first encounters with novel material, we should be reasonably tolerant on the accuracy front and similar. You are indeed encouraged to offer corrections and/or differing views during post-presentation discussion, but wait and be courteous.

(I may myself chime in, but will try to wait until everyone's had a say.)

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Audience Response Surveys

Immediately after each oral report (not epideixis), you will respond in class to a paper survey. This is to heighten your awareness of challenges associated with oral presentation: what seems to work and what doesn't. The questionnaire will be based on the "Group Oral Reports Audience Comments Rubric." The filling out of these questionnaires forms part of participation but isn't separately graded.

  • You're not grading presenters, you're educating yourself
  • My grading is independent of your comments

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Group Report Personal Journal, Group- / Self-Critique

WITHIN 24 HOURS OF YOUR GROUP ORAL PRESENTATION, file a report in your myCourses > "Group Report Personal Journal." Please report fully all that happened: when you met, what was done at meetings, who was assigned what role, how you felt it all went, both preparation and final presentation, both for yourself and for others.

Indeed, this last part is important: I will need you to rate your own performance overall, that of your colleagues, and that of the group as a whole. Do so via the that same myCourses "Group Report Personal Journal." Base comments on the Group Oral Reports Comments Rubric, this site. If you think it went well, explain. If not, likewise explain. THIS IS A PRIVATE JOURNAL. I EXPECT YOU TO REPORT FULLY BUT FAIRLY.

  • I'd rather not assign a strict word-count to this, but it's hard to imagine how one could cover all bases in fewer than 450 words.

Please note that the quality of reporting will figure into your grade. If, say, you felt somehow less than fully satisfied with the result, astute analysis in your Group- / Self-Critique will show me that you learned and deserve credit for that.

Please note these Group Report Personal Journals (Group- / Self-Critiques) are to be done by you individually, not in collaboration or collusion with others.

BE FRANK, whether about yourself or about teammates. Don't unfairly or without reason under- or overrate your or another's contribution.

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Instructor's Assessment

I will grade the presentations as follows:
  • Each presenter receives a separate grade
  • One third of that grade based on overall success of presentation — a "group" assessment
  • Two thirds of grade based on individual contribution of each presenter as evidenced by. . .
    • Final Group-/self-critique
    • Part played in final result

For criteria, see Group Oral Reports Audience Comments Rubric.

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home | ascholtz@binghamton.edu || © Andrew Scholtz. Last modified Last modified 13 February, 2017