October 18th -- Lindsay Merbaum on Sociobiology
October 23rd -- Jenny Kirsch on Keller, Feeling for the Organism
December 11th -- Katie Denney and Sarah Celentano on Gender and Culture in Ecological Knowledge
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A few words about group presentations:
The group presentations are an in-class discussion exercise, designed to get you directly involved in running the seminar. Ideally, doing a presentation will sharpen your sense of connectedness to this course through intensive academic interaction with fellow students; in-depth acquaintance with both class texts and background material for one thematic topic; and development of your own observations and individual questions about the readings into a shared platform for group discussion. Presentations also give you a chance to further develop your verbal communication skills.
Some Questions You May Have -- and the Answers:
Ultimately, what is required for a group presentation?
The day of your chosen topic and readings, your group will be responsible for leading discussion in the seminar. First, this means that you should come collectively prepared to give a 20-30 minute introductory presentation that includes each of the following elements (How much of each? It is up to you to determine the most useful balance for your topic):
BACKGROUND and CONTEXT, for which answering some of the following questions will be relevant:
What historical period and/or thematic area do the readings address?
What about this period and/or area do we need to know more about in order to understand their arguments and/or linguistic references?
How does this period and/or area relate to other possible areas or periods we've studied? In other words, why might these particular readings be important ones for the subject of our course?
Who are the authors? What relevant biographical information that we should know about them?
This may require additional library research, so you should plan your preparation accordingly. If you need additional guidance along these lines, please ask the teacher or an SLC reference librarian.
SUMMARY of READINGS: a brief, straightforward summary of the main arguments or claims made by each author in each chapter or section of the reading. Here you might include discussion of any sections in which you found it difficult to discern (or perhaps group members disagreed about) what the author(s) were saying. Ultimately, your summaries need to be careful but not exhaustive. Everyone at the seminar table will have read the same material, and you can assume we already have some command of its finer details.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: This is the 'chewy nougat center' of your presentation, because it is the means through which your group sets the agenda for discussion. You should collectively prepare a list of questions to direct at your fellow seminar participants (including the teacher!). This list should reflect the way in which you've thought through and made sense of the readings, especially in light of what we've done in class thus far and also what you think we ought to accomplish. Ideally, these questions would represent the signposts on your evolving intellectual journey through the themes and concerns you found important in the material.
Some general pointers:
n Avoid 'yes-or-no' questions in favor or open-ended queries that allow your fellow seminar participants some leeway for expressing their opinions and introducing their own concerns -- that's what makes discussion fun and that's how we learn from one another.
n Avoid merely attacking or merely validating the readings under question: while you’re entitled to whatever opinion you wish to hold, wholesale condemnation or endorsement are not effective strategies for opening up the collective space for discussion
Still stumped for ideas? Ask yourselves the following questions about the material:
Is there some new idea from discussion or the reading that you found really interesting? Discuss it.
Has the class material presented some new ways of looking at things you already took for granted? Say how.
Is there a passage in the reading with which you absolutely agree or disagree? Say why.
Is there a connection between the class material and your own experience? Describe and discuss it.
Is the reading honest or is it merely a polemic? Say why.
Are there obvious or subtle biases in the author's statements? Make them explicit, and discuss the relationship between the main argument and possible implied arguments.
What might a compelling counter‑argument to the author's own look like? Try to flesh out the details ‑ and their implications.
Is the author's point unclear or inconsistent? Try to imagine what the point could or should be.
How does this reading or discussion tie into to others from earlier in the semester?
You are expected to end your formal presentation by asking the seminar the questions (though not necessarily all at once!) your group formulates, and then you are expected to lead the discussion that ensues.
How do we get started?
Now that you have chosen your topics and partner(s) in-class, the first thing to do would be to set up a preliminary meeting (at least one week before you give the presentation in class) to determine your work schedule. At minimum, you should use this meeting to set a deadline by which you will all have the readings done, agree upon a rough division of labor (i.e. who will focus on what parts of preparing the presentation and giving it in class), and set up the time and date of your first actual meeting for discussing the presentation's contents.
How will the presentations be evaluated?
A successful presentation will carefully and thoughtfully convey your group's ideas, questions, comments, and concerns about the material, while also fulfilling your obligation to advance our collective seminar endeavor -- i.e. original discussion and analysis of class themes. The group must submit a one page type-written outline of the presentation to the teacher before they begin. Each individual member should submit a brief one-paragraph worksheet indicating the work s/he did for the presentation. Your fellow seminar participants will be asked to listen carefully and evaluate your presentation for effectiveness. Their written comments (provided on a sheet such as attached), the written outline, and the individual worksheets will be taken as the starting points for a brief written evaluation, which the teacher will provide for each group within one week of the in-class presentation.
Rader 9/19/99