Presentations

The group presentation is an opportunity for you to introduce the class to a topic/debate/issue that you are interested in researching. The topic is of your own choosing but should be something related to the class and something you are personally interested in. 

Requirements of Presentation:

You can be creative in how you integrate these 7 components below. Your job is to put forth an engaging and informative presentation that challenges your classmates to figure out where they personally stand on the topic/debate/issue. However, it must include the following components:

  1. Be educational. Clearly state and answer your research question during the presentation. Show that you did academic research on your topic. Verify the accuracy of data and facts you present. Please interrogate your topic and research question by asking, "So what?" "Why is this important?" answer that in your group and then ask and answer the same question again with a different answer. See if you can defend your topic. If you can't defend your topic, it may be that it is not that important.
  2. Be entertaining. If you put your audience to sleep, they won't learn anything.
  3. Orientation to the topic/debate/issue - The orientation to the topic/debate/issue must include a clear introduction to the context and content of the debate based on academic research including the key questions, main points, central arguments, and supporting details. Don't assume your audience is familiar with this issue or even knows the definition of key terms.
  4. Clearly connect your topic where you feel appropriate with race, racial formation, racism, racial identity,  or racial inequality. Address the following questions if appropriate: What role does race play in my topic? How does your topic construct race? Is your topic a part of racial formation? Does racism play a key role? If so, what type of racism, please elaborate. Does your topic produce racial inequality? Please explain.
  5. Interactive Learning Experience - The interactive learning experience must involve all your classmates in an activity (small group discussions, structured debate, skits, games etc.) that gets them to reflect upon the key issues presented by the topic/debate/issue. Get them out of their seats if possible. Be sure to describe the activity in your Group Presentation Plan.
  6. Sharing Personal Stance and Your Reasoning - Each group member must share where s/he stands on the debate (where you agree and disagree), reactions or responses to the readings, critical questions you think need to be asked, critiques of authors' arguments, and any recommendations on the topic/debate/issue.
  7. Propose solutions and strategies to resist and solve this issue at an individual, community, or larger level. This may not be necessary depending on the topic. How would you implement these solutions? Who will pay for them? Make sure your solutions are realistic and achievable.

Other requirements

  1. Time: The group will present for 45-55 minutes.
  2. Access to files: Post your powerpoint file on your group page. If you're using Prezi include a link to it. If you're using Google docs, include a link and make sure leeethan@deanza.edu has permission to view it
  3. Sources: Be sure to use primary sources whenever possible and not secondary sources. Include a sources cited page on your powerpoint or prezi at the end of your presentation. If you are not using powerpoint or prezi just post your sources to your group page. Links are fine, book titles, author, page etc. APA or MLA formatting isn't necessary.
  4. Outline: Post an outline or plan of what you plan on doing to your group discussion forum. Title the discussion - Group Presentation Plan.
  5. This is a group effort: Each member of the group should play an active role in the research, preparation, and presentation. Verbal participation during the presentation should be divided equally among group members.

Group Work and Accountability: Group work can be both challenging and rewarding. Often, group projects benefit from multiple perspectives and that takes group work. Group work involves a process of collaboration, listening, asking questions for clarification, speaking one's mind, negotiating different points of view, disagreeing, and coming to agreements.

You may find preparing for the presentation quite challenging. Some students are anxious about others trying to do everything and make all the decisions.  A common problem is a group member not participating, not showing up to meetings, not answering emails, and not contributing anything of significance. They then may or may not show up the day of the presentation and ask if they can read some powerpoint slides that someone else created. Prepare for them not to show up. If they do show up, it's up to you what to do. As part of a group, you are expected to participate in the process of the work, including meetings, discussions, readings, and presenting. Your group should try to work through any difficulties that you have.  If you have problems, please email or talk to me about them.

Grading:

  1. Your presentation will be graded on the 7 requirements above. 
  2. Particular excellence, creativity, audience reception, and overall quality of presentation (e.g., well-rehearsed, sustained consideration of arguments/viewpoints presented in readings, effective facilitation) can also raise your grade. If verbal participation is uneven, your grade may be lowered.  Don't stress out about small mistakes, forgetting a particular line etc. Groups who read over this assignment page and the success strategies page do much better than those who don't.
  3. Regarding group communication, please do it through this website in your group page so I can see how much each individual contributes. If you text etc I won't see your contributions.
  4. If 1-2 people do most of the speaking during your presentation, or the posts and contributions on your group page are significantly unequal, I may grade each student separately.
  5. Your grades will be posted in the Discussion Forum section of your group page with the title Feedback and Grade. I usually post your grade 1-3 days after your presentation.

Notes:

If you change your topic any time during the quarter, please let me know and update the homework #2.

Most of the interview questions I've read are a bit too leading. For example, if my main research question is, "Why do students attend De Anza College?" and I know from research that the majority of our students come outside of our service area. I should ask:

  • What city do you live in? (to determine how far they drive) You could also ask, "How many miles/minutes do you commute to De Anza?"
  • Why did you choose De Anza College?

Instead of:

  • Are you attending De Anza due to our high transfer rate?
  • Are you attending De Anza due to our ICS department?

These may seem like okay questions, but you are leading the interviewee into a particular direction and you should really avoid that to get accurate data. The student may not know anything about the high transfer rate or ICS dept. The first two questions are open ended and lets the student explain why they chose De Anza which is the data that you want to get at.

Presentation Dates and Due Dates:

There will be different due dates for presentation outlines and plans. We will discuss in class and I will update the schedule. After the groups are determined, I will create a group on this webpage for each presentation. I will then determine the presentation dates for each group. If your group needs to change your presentation date, you will need to find a group that is willing to switch with you and okay it with me. No exceptions. If a group member can't make the date, figure out a way to incorporate their part into your presentation like a video etc. You are expected to present on the date listed in the schedule. If any member fails to appear for their presentation they will receive a 0/100 unless they discussed with me beforehand.

Good websites for information:

  1. scholar.google.com
  2. http://deanza.edu/library/distance.html
  3. http://deanza.edu/ir/ for demographic infor on De Anza students
  4. cdc.gov
  5. census.gov
  6. colorlines.com
  7. http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/
  8. http://www.sccgov.org/sites/sccphd/en-us/Pages/phd.aspx
  9. A Fact-Finding Report of the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission March 1995
  10. http://www.whitehouse.gov/aapi
  11. pewresearch.org
  12. nimh.nih.gov
  13. deanza.edu/ir For demographic info on De Anza students
  14. liver.stanford.edu
  15. teamhbv.org
  16. youtube.com
  17. wikipedia - don't use as your sole source of info. Look at the references/sources too


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