Group Presentations
CommRC 1125 – Media Theory
Jonathan Sterne, Professor
Purpose: Presentations are basically student-run class meetings. This is your chance to present ideas, media documents and questions to the whole class and discuss them.
Your Task: Your group is charged with the task of running class for the day that your reading is assigned. I don’t care how you do it, but you do you need to accomplish each of the following four things:
1. Make sure the class understands the reading for the day. You can choose to present a summary or brief explanation of the reading for the day, lead a discussion, or come up with an exercise to accomplish this.
2. Relate ideas in your reading to other ideas we’ve discussed in class. What themes in this article connect with ideas we’ve considered from other articles? Does your author agree or disagree with other people we’ve read?
3. Take a position on the author’s major arguments. Your group may reach consensus on the interpretation of the text, or not. Do you agree or disagree with the author? Why or why not? If you have major disagreements about the author or interpreting the text, present them to the class for discussion.
4. Bring in media materials that illustrate the reading and give the class something to discuss. Feel free to bring in news articles (make hand-outs for the class), videos, TV shows, magazines, books, zines, comics, music and any other kind of media documents. In addition to presenting the media materials, you also need to present at least three discussion questions for class discussion.
Groups should spend about a quarter of their time on each activity.
Grading: Group presentations comprise 10% of your final grade. You will be graded as a group. Within one week of your presentation, each student is required to turn in a brief evaluation of your group experience: how did it go? Was the workload shared? Were their problems? What worked well? This can be submitted to me in class, or left in my mailbox in 1117 Cathedral of Learning.
Evaluation: Groups will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
· Bottom Line: Was it a good class? Did people learn stuff, have a chance to make sure they understand the reading, and think about some of the issues it raises?
· Does the presentation effectively cover the main issues in the reading? Is it clear and to the point?
· Are your examples appropriate and effective? Are your arguments fair and intellectually responsible?
· Is the presentation well organized and well executed?
· Did you cover all four points of the assignment?
· Did you make me think about the material in a new and interesting way? Did you do anything particularly cool or creative?
A Few Words of Advice:
· Divide and Conquer. In preparing your presentation, use the division of labor to your advantage. Is someone in your group a particularly good graphic artist or public speaker? Are other group members particularly knowledgeable in the area you are discussing? Everyone has talents and weaknesses, so use your group’s combination to your advantage.
· Keep your audience in mind. Your presentation should be useful to your classmates: it should get them thinking and talking, and they should be able to take something away from it for their later writing.
· Meet with me. Your are strongly encouraged – though not required – to meet with me as a group (or to send representatives) beforehand to discuss your presentation.
· Bring in resources. I can make a reasonable number of photocopies for you but I will need the originals at least 2 business days before your presentation to have them copied. You can also bring in videotapes, CDs or audiotapes for the class if you let me know ahead of time.
· Have fun with it, be creative, and take time to think about what you’re doing. Your audience can tell and will appreciate it.
Monday, January 29th will be a class day dedicated for your group to meet and plan for your presentation. To prepare for that class meeting, you should plan on doing the reading that your group will present.