Guidelines for Critical Presentations
These oral-written-visual assignments are designed to provide an opportunity to engage in critical writing and presentation skills with a group of colleagues that requires negotiations of positions, perspectives, roles, and styles. They will also provide opportunities to practice presentation skills, and emphasize the protocol necessary in oral communication at the small group and large group levels. Since you will be working with your group, your group may be able to help you with concepts you may not have understood in the unit which you will be addressing . The group is designed to provide support and a safety net throughout the quarter.
Your group will meet with the professor more than 1 week in advance to go over the materials to be covered, your plan for collaborating, and the equipment that you will need. Please draw from your daily notes in the preparation of your presentation. Please make sure to edit your contribution before submitting it: distribute copies so that each one of you can revise (accuracy of dates, accuracy of information, accuracy of names of characters, etc.). Revise for consistency of argument; try to catch contradictions, or ways to strengthen the main points you want to make. Please make sure that you do keep copies of the material you submit.
Your presentation must be Power
Point.
Critical Presentation Guidelines:
The critical presentation will be a critical, thematic summary of the unit that draws upon the issues covered in class, the texts assigned for the presentation, and any additional cultural texts that your group includes. (Please include images, film shorts, music, etc that helps to illustrate the point that your presentation outlines). Please structure your presentation in away that will engage the class and promote discussion respectfully.
The following guidelines describe the critical textual readings that will have to be included in your presentation. Presentations that adhere to these criteria will have the potential for earning full credit for the textual reading component. The cohesive development of your argument according to the following structure will meet the minimum requirements for an A.
A) Simple plot and characters:
In this section you will chose concrete textual information that supports the argument you propose in sections B and C. A complete writing assignment will address the most salient and significant points and events in the all the texts covered in the module, and will make use of textual quotes that exemplify those points.
B) Textual conclusions:
By drawing on the information that you selected for section A, and explaining the symbols, the allegories, the resolutions of the plots, and the framing of historical chronologies, you will identify the author's perspective and ideological position vis-à-vis the the major issues of the period. Major issues that tend to surface may include race, ethnicity, the role of women, class, economic systems, US imperialism, cultural assimilation and gender.
C) Your own opinions and critical judgments of the material read.
Discuss how you view your findings in section B. Step back and
examine
the context of the work. Do you agree with the perspective,
symbolism or
characterizations the writers uses? For
example, if you conclude in section B that in the Discovery Channel
Documentary The
Battle of the Alamo the producers favor an Anglo-American claim to
the
heritage of Texas and you do not agree with it, point out the problems
that you
find in that position. You may address inconsistencies in the
author's
presentation, over-arching generalizations,
hasty conclusions, lopsided reasoning, or an ideological disagreement
that you
have with the author's position. You need to draw upon the
analysis that
you made of the textual information in parts A and B in order for this
section
to be effective.