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In-Class
Presentations and Discussion Leading
Oral
Presentation
Outline of Presentation/Discussion
Discussion Leading
Each group will
give a 15 minute presentation on the reading and will lead discussion
on the reading/presentation for the rest of the hour.
Leading
discussions will:
a)
give you practice in public speaking,
b) give you a chance to pick out the topics you think are important,
c) share your ideas with the whole class (not just the professors),
and
d) highlight the challenges of leading a good discussion.
•
Oral presentation (modified
from Peter Suber, Philosophy Department, Earlham College)
Your
presentation should discuss the readings assigned for that day.
In your presentation, you should take a stand on what the author
is saying and how the author argues it.
Class
Presentation Tips (also please see How
to Give a Great Presentation):
• Aim for
depth over breadth. Don't list all the topics discussed in the
reading for that day (there's no depth here). Don't even summarize
the author's position on all those topics (there could be depth
here but the time limit will force these readings to be superficial).
Decide what the important topics are, using your own standards
of importance. Then offer a statement of the author's position
on those topics. Master the detail and give us the perspective
on the author's position that results.
• Tell us on which topics you've chosen to focus. This will
help orient us. Then when you start to give fine-grained detail
on the author's arguments and conclusions on those topics, we'll
know what to do with them.
• Similarly, tell us what the author's conclusions are on
the questions in the day's reading. This will help orient us.
Then when you start to give
detail on the author's supporting arguments, we'll know where
you're going with them.
• When the author's conclusions are unclear, and when the
author's arguments for those conclusions are unclear, then clarifying
them is a good use of your time.
• Because conclusions are usually clearer than arguments,
plan to spend most of your time on the arguments.
• Find the key terms and define them. Find the key distinctions
and explain them. Find the key arguments and present them. Decide
what's primary and what's secondary, and focus on what's primary.
The point is to help us understand the author, not to offer your
own views in place of the author's. Criticism should come out
(if at all) in the discussion phase. The presentation is all about
what the author said.
• You may consult your notes, of course, but please do not
read your presentations. That is not only dull for your audience;
it forecloses the opportunity to practice public speaking.
•
Outline of Presentation/Discussion
On the day of
your presentation, you will turn in a short outline of the issues
in your presentation and the questions or plan for your discussion
afterwards. You should email this to me the day of your presentation
(Email to Sharon).
Make sure that your outline includes
(1) your questions on the interpretation of the author's position,
(2) your questions on the merits of that position and argument,
and
The
questions should be those on which you plan to focus discussion
after
making your initial presentation.
• Leading Discussion
When your presentation
is over, you will lead the class in a discussion of the issues
raised in the presentation for the rest of the period.
Visit
the following sites for advice on how to lead a great discussion:
Vanderbilt
University College Writing Program
UW
Center for Instructional Development and Research
University
of Carolina Center for Teaching and Learning
Indiana
University, Teaching Resources Center
Illinois
State, Center for the Advancement of Teaching
Stanford
University Center for Teaching and Learning
Some
more hints:
•
Don't assume that discussions lead themselves, or that your fascinating
subject matter guarantees success. Do not simply ask questions
and hope that someone answers them. Plan the discussion. What
topics do you want to cover? In what order? What will you do if
nobody says anything? Use your own experience in good and bad
discussions as a guide. What tends to silence people? What kinds
of questions are intimidating, off-putting, unanswerable, patronizing?
What kinds invite good discussion? How do you build on previous
comments and help the class to do so?
• You need not have answers to every question you raise,
but you should raise good questions, know where in the text to
look for answers, and have a plan for leading a discussion that
might discover answers. Plan the discussion as carefully as you
plan your presentation.
•
Don't limit the discussion to questions on which you have answers.
Use the discussion as an occasion to inquire jointly with other
prepared students into questions you find interesting and important.
• As in the presentation, begin with questions about meaning
and move only later (time permitting) to questions about merit.
It's difficult and unwise to try to discuss the merits of a position
we do not yet understand.
•
Help your peers who are presenting and leading discussion; they
will be nervous but knowledgeable. Listen closely, speak voluntarily,
follow up points of interest.
•
Be creative! Do something different. Make it interesting. Use
small groups, use the board, use a computer, use props, use dramatization.
Use your imagination. There's lots of room for creativity in this
assignment. (Try to make sure that your innovations enhance, or
at least don't detract from, the content.)
•
It's hard to discuss conclusions, but it's easy (and fun and useful)
to discuss arguments for conclusions.
•
Don't ask yes-or-no questions or questions with obvious factual
answers.
Ask small, detailed questions (like "what's the argument
for this conclusion?") before large, abstract questions (like
"how does this compare with what so-and-so said?").
•
Ask interpretive questions (like "what does the author mean
here?") before evaluative questions (like "is the author
right about this?"). Let your earlier questions lay a foundation
for your later questions.
• You don't have to be experts who lecture or who have all
the answers. If after a while you feel under pressure to expound
or expatiate, then something has gone wrong. Back out of it rather
than give in to it. This should be a discussion.
•
Remember all the bad discussions you've had to sit through. Don't
repeat their mistakes!
• In both the presentation and discussion portions of the
hour, address the class, not us.
• We will not instantly bail you out a bad discussion. There
is some instruction in living with the consequences of poor preparation,
backing out of a bad question, or dealing spontaneously with a
tired or unmotivated class. We will try not to intervene unless
we think we have already taken the benefit of that instruction
and are wasting time.
Apart from that kind of intervention, we will love to participate.
We will try to say much less than usual in order to give the student
leaders a chance to shape the discussion
This page last updated:
March 13, 2002
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