Descriptions of presentation assignments

Dialogue between two texts

As in the final exam, the idea is to “make the texts talk to each other”—in these cases, texts from different cultures that meet in the context of colonialism. On days of these presentations, all students should bring both texts.

Presenter: The presenter chooses one or two scenes or passages in both texts that are worth reading together for any relevant reason. The scenes may involve similar situations seen from different perspectives, or they may show contact, conflict, or change (for good or bad) in the cultures involved. Or the scenes may simply involve a similar theme or motif, such as religion, exchange, gender, place, etc.

Format:

·        The presenter announces the basic subject of the dialogue—the reason or pretext for reading the scenes or passages together.

·        The presenter directs the class to the pages on which the scenes occur, sets the context, highlighting language or motifs, then repeating the process in the second text, making comparisons and contrasts.

·        The presenter summarizes the point or insight that emerges from the dialogue.

·        The presenter begins discussion by asking a question based on the presentation, then leads the discussion.

·        At some point during the presentation or discussion, the presenter and respondent are both expected to refer to previous course discussions of the poem on the course webpage.

·        At the end of discussion, presenter may be asked to summarize highlights.

Respondent: Presenter and respondent should confer beforehand, either by phone or email or around class-time, at least to the extent that the respondent knows what scenes or pages from the books will be discussed. The respondent is expected to speak for a few minutes during discussion, either supporting the presentation or diverging from it. The respondent may support the presenter’s interpretation of the dialogue and re-emphasize passages that the presenter highlighted, but he or she may just as likely offer alternative interpretations that direct the class’s attention to other brief passages in the scenes. The respondent may read portions of these passages to the class or refer to other passages in the text(s) that develop the presentation’s themes.

            As in the other presentations, the respondent should hesitate to jump in immediately so that a larger seminar discussion may develop. The respondent may speak for a minute or two at once or may make two or three briefer remarks during discussion.  The respondent is encouraged not to bail out of his or her duties by shrugging that “They’ve already said it.”

Recorder: The recorder is responsible for making notes of the class discussion for use in the web summary. Where possible, class participants should be identified by name. Discussion records do not need to be comprehensive and verbatim—highlights are acceptable. Tape recording is permissible.

Web summary: Both the poetry presentations and the textual dialogue presentations require written summaries to be emailed within a week of performance to the instructor, who will post them to the course webpage.

The web summaries should including a 3-4 paragraph synopsis of the presentation, including references to previous web summaries and the discussion question(s), followed by the respondent’s comments and the discussion notes. A record of the respondent’s contributions may be provided by the recorder and/or the respondent.

The ultimate responsibility for the web summary and its quality belongs to the presenter, but the respondent and recorder are responsible for cooperating and helping. If the presenter does not receive the necessary help from the recorder, the presenter should inform the instructor as diplomatically as possible to avoid discredit.