Each student will present on a poet or poem from the syllabus and pose guiding question one day of class. Review the presentation sign-up sheet to identify which day most interests you: you might choose a poet you have some familiarity with or make your selection based on a title that intrigues you.
You have two options: 1) you can focus your presentation on the poet as an author or 2) you can focus more exclusively on the form, publication history, and back story of the poem itself. You might find it most informative to do a combination of both.
Regardless of which poem or poet you choose, I will ask you to update the class map to represent all the poets who appear on your presentation day.
Your 10-minute presentation should include:
- A PowerPoint presentation or visual aid, set up and ready to go at the start of class
- Biographical and historical information on your poet
- Information on what the poet is known for. This might include themes/topics that the poet often focuses on, poetic forms, major contributions, or perhaps ideological/political investments.
- If relevant, other poets associated with your poet
- Publication history (Depending on what your research reveals, this might include the poet’s book titles, publishers, place of publication, original presentation, literary journals, etc.)
- List of sources formatted in MLA style on your last slide (See the Purdue OWL for guidelines.)
- 2-3 guiding questions to begin our class discussion
Your presentation will be evaluated based on the quality of your research and your professionalism in presenting (see best practices below). This presentation is also a chance to practice and get feedback from your instructor before your final presentation of your mock exhibit at the end of the semester.
Best Presenter Practices:
- Be your most intentional professional self
- Practice your presentation in advance
- Project toward your audience with generosity
- Use a strong, authoritative voice
- Speak forcefully, clearly, and intentionally
- Avoid empty, diminishing words such as “like,” “uh,” “sort of,” “kind of”
- Engage with your audience through your face, eyes, and hand gestures
Best Technology Practices:
- Before class begins, load your presentation onto the desktop
- Use strong visual contrast for visual accessibility
- Describe images to provide necessary information
- Use no more than one or two images per slide
- Caption all images
- Avoid loading too much text onto a single slide (Ideally, limit the number of words per slide to under 20, excluding captions)
- Avoid unnecessary visual clutter
Please email me your Powerpoint before the start of class on your presentation day.
Schedule:
9/5: Katelyn Flaherty
9/7: Daniel Bujnowski
9/12: Navneeth Perumal
9/14: Devon Bombassei
9/26: Eric Leng
9/28: Meng Zhao
10/3: Laura Santangelo
10/12: Claudia Tung
10/17: Wade Marshall
10/19 Ryland Marcus
10/24 Qinyan Shi
10/31 Simon Brooke
11/2 Colleen Su (Kexin)
11/7: Justin Moore
11/15: Sarah Shon