Presenting in English (1)
A special note to presentation students: I had to replace both Tuesday and Thursday class blogs after some spam problems. The new blogs are in place with the same email "secret words" as before.
I replaced the links down below in Week 3, but they are also linked here:
Tuesday Classes Blog Thursday Classes Blog
Week 14 (2017.05.30/06.01)
Week 14
This week, the usual post-major assignment schedule:
First, of course, a word, quote and joke of the day.
Then, after groups decided whose presentation videos would go on the big screen, we watched a few together and gave feedback live.
We also talked about the upcoming week’s plan, starting with a quick overview of Unit 6 and putting together one last optional video for bonus points should we so desire.
We finished off our session this week with a few excellent impromptus.
Next week, be ready to possibly talk a bit more about everything related to public speaking, perhaps watch one more example of an excellent presentation, and wrap up the semester with a bang.
Because of the blog problems, I asked you to upload all of the presentation YouTube links you have done so far to your class’s latest blog so I can give things one last look. Also, using the evaluation suggestions linked here, please give feedback to five blog posts by classmates. Please comment on different classmates’ presentations. I want you to make sure you give feedback to five different people; no more than one for each person. That all should be finished by midnight Thursday night, June 8th.
If you choose to do the optional presentation from Unit 6, please have it uploaded and the link posted to the new class blog before class time exam week. You do not need to give classmates feedback on the Unit 6 presentation, but I would like you to email me a self-evaluation guided by the Self-evaluation questions on page 106 of the text.
Hope you learned something about presenting this semester and that you have fun with all your exams.
Be sure to say hi next semester!
JBH
Week 12 (2017.05.16/05.18)
Progress continued this week on Unit 5 and we also continued getting our presentations ready for Week 12 and Week 13 Saturday night deadlines. The classroom is yours if you wish to use it for video recording presentations during week 13 (May 23 and 25). We will not have regular class week 13; you need to be delivering and uploading presentations so we can watch them in class week 14.
Some additional material that can help when thinking about the power of presenting ideas in public can be seen in TED's "Secret to Great Public Speaking."
You can get some help organizing your speech for the Major Assignment by thinking about these main points:
The best speeches are those that have been carefully thought out and organized. The
audience will appreciate the time you took to make their experience pleasurable.
Speech organization is effectively taking the information one wishes to present and arranging it in
a logical order. Start with main points or smaller chunks of information to break down the overall
purpose. Then, use supporting materials, like examples, statistics, testimony or a narrative, that
backs your claims.
There are several methods of organization.
-Chronological order means arranging the information on a timeline.
-Spatial organization follows a pattern of direction.
-A causal relationship is a way to demonstrate the relationship between two things.
-Speeches can solve a problem by stating the problem, its seriousness and then the possible
solutions.
-Topic works well if your speech is about a single topic with several subtopics.
-Finally, signposts are used to tell the audience where you are going.
In the end, an organized speech will be more memorable and enjoyable for your audience.
Have fun with your major project and get in touch if you want to ask a question or talk.
See you soon!
JBH
Week 11 (2017.05.09/05.11)
Although class didn't meet on Tuesday because of the election, progress continued for both the Tuesday and Thursday presentation class this week. In class we looked over the beginning of Unit 5, watched a presentation on Ted.com that showed great organization patterns, got some time to enjoy presenting impromptus in class, and returned evaluation and feedback from midterm presentations.
In addition to planning for the end of term major assignment you'll be presenting on video during Week 13, you have another video presentation to prepare, not for quality points, but one that is "just homework." Still, do your best and give your classmates and me something that is worth watching and worth evaluating. It's much better for us to give feedback when you are really trying to show us what you can do.
The "just homework" assignment, based on an opinion topic from Unit 5, is due by midnight Saturday night of week 12 (May 20). You should upload a video recording of yourself doing a 3- to 5-minute opinion presentation on any topic. It does not need to be long, but it should include an introduction with a hook, a body, and a conclusion. The second major project, which I will evaluate for quality points, is due at midnight May 27.
Please give helpful feedback on the blog to two classmates for both these assignments after they are turned in and before the next class meeting. For the week 12 assignment, use the feedback form in the back of the book. For the major assignment, use the evaluation criteria on the Toastmasters Instruction page.
See you in class!
JBH
Week 10 (2017.05.02/05.04)
1. W-Q-J
2. Viewed and gave feedback to selected students on homework videos.
3. Presented next major assignment ("Organize Your Speech") to be completed Week 13 (deadline midnight May 27th). Lots of helpful info and examples from the Six Minutes website on that project is linked here. Instructions and evaluation form from Toastmasters is here.
4. Impromptus. Expect more of them as we continue.
5. Please pre-read and pre-answer all individual questions in Unit 5 before class next week. In addition to our final major assignment, we will continue doing homework presentations once every two weeks. This week is an off week, which gives you a chance to start working on your major assignment.
See you in class!
JBH
Week 8 & 9 (2017.04.18/04.25/04.27)
1. W-Q-J
2. Viewed interesting icebreaker videos on screen and gave feedback in class.
3. Informed students of their homework assignments for next week: Complete the presentation assignment from either Unit 3 OR Unit 4 and upload it to YouTube. Post the YouTube link tot he class blog before your early class deadline. Then, use the appropriate feedback format (Unit 3 or Unit 4) to review and give feedback on the blog as a comment to two of your classmates from the 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. class. Try to watch someone different than you have watched and given feedback to before.
For ideas about what to comment on with feedback, use the self-evaluation questions for Unit 3 or Unit 4 in the back of the textbook. Take time to watch yourself too and give yourself honest feedback, even if it's only in private.
4. Talked about how important it is to not suck by being average.
5. Be ready to move on in the text next week and to hear about your next major assignment to be graded for quality points before semester's end
6. I will be getting feedback to you by next week on your first major presentation.
See you in class!
JBH
1. W-Q-J
2. Viewed interesting icebreaker videos on screen and gave feedback in class.
3. Informed students of their homework assignments for next week: Complete the presentation assignment from either Unit 3 OR Unit 4 and upload it to YouTube. Post the YouTube link tot he class blog before your early class deadline. Then, use the appropriate feedback format (Unit 3 or Unit 4) to review and give feedback on the blog as a comment to two of your classmates from the 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. class. Try to watch someone different than you have watched and given feedback to before.
For ideas about what to comment on with feedback, use the self-evaluation questions for Unit 3 or Unit 4 in the back of the textbook. Take time to watch yourself too and give yourself honest feedback, even if it's only in private.
4. Talked about how important it is to not suck by being average.
5. Be ready to move on in the text next week and to hear about your next major assignment to be graded for quality points before semester's end
6. I will be getting feedback to you by next week on your first major presentation.
See you in class!
JBH
Week 6 (2017.04.04/04.06)
- W-Q-J
- Talked about icebreaker next week. Don’t forget, you need to have an audience of at least three or four people. You don’t need to put the camera behind the audience, but you can have the camera person show the audience before you speak.
- Watched a couple sample icebreaker demonstrations. Yours should be better than the ones we watched ;-)
- Next week (Week 7 -- April 11th and 13th) class time will be yours to use for producing your Icebreaker speech videos, if you choose to use that time. We will not meet for regular class Week 7. Please use your time wisely and make sure to get your speech uploaded before the deadline at midnight April 15th.
- Email your YouTube link to the class blog by that midnight April 15th deadline. Then, be sure to post feedback using the evaluation criteria from the speech instructions to two classmates. Make sure you give feedback to different people on your class day (Tuesday or Thursday) than you did before. You DO NOT have to give feedback to people only from your class, although you may do so if you haven’t given them feedback before. Also, use the evalution criteria to write a self-evaluation report and email it to me at [email protected].
See you in class mid-term week!
JBH
Week 5 (2017.03.28/03.30)
This week, after our Word, Quote and Joke of the Day, we watched a TED speaker from Peru tell us about a boiling river in the Amazon. We used the "sandwich" technique to think about the good points and possibilities for improving the talk on an interesting faraway place. One important point we talked about as we critiqued this talk was about it's significance. Remember when you are giving a presentation to think about the audience and answer the important question --"So what?" -- in some way.
We continued by moving through the points of Unit 2, going over ideas about how to talk about travel destinations, activities, and great vacation ideas. The unit also covered some ways to open and close presentations, as well as tips for using PowerPoint or other presentation visuals and body language when we are speaking.
Use these tips and ideas in the chapter as starting points to build on. Hopefully, they will be helpful for your presentation, but don't feel like you have to follow the book's template exactly. Do your presentation your way. Take what you can use and leave the rest.
This week, please prepare and present the talk assigned on page 31 of the text. You should present your talk in front of people (at least two or three) if at all possible and upload a viderecording to YouTube for homework credit. Please prepare and upload your Unit 2 presentation to YouTube by the class early deadline (midnight Saturday for the Tuesday class, and midnight Monday for the Thursday class). Comments should be complete before class time. Please use the attached form to comment on classmate presentations. Answer as many questions as you can, as completely as you can. Thanks!
After you've completed your Unit 2 upload, be thinking ahead about your major assignment due April 15th. You will have time be able to use the classroom and class time for your presentation during Week 7 (April 11th and 13th), but it might be better to do the assignment earlier in another location if you can.
We will be meeting as usual Week 6 to talk about our great vacation idea videos, brainstorm a bit for our major assignments, and move on to Unit 3.
See you in class!
JBH
Week 4 (2017.03.21/03.23)
Week 4, we wrapped up Unit 1 by looking over a few videos about A Person I Admire along with some class feedback after talking over what we had seen on our own as we viewed each other's speech videos.
We then took a look at our first major assignment. For that assignment, you will also be doing another YouTube presentation to a small audience to share with the class and to watch yourself presenting. Your Icebreaker will be completed before or during week seven (April 9th-15th).
You should also be looking ahead at Unit 2 and thinking about that presentation, which will count for homework points, and give you more practice presenting. More details will be coming soon about that assignment, as well as some video examples. Feel free to start looking things over for yourself with help from Six Minutes public speaking website. Info on the Icebreaker is linked here.
See you in class!
JBH
Week 3 (2017.03.14/2017.03.16)
In class this week, we saw some really bad Bad Speeches along with some amazing Visions of what is to come. We also got ready to post our first homework assignment to the class blog, a link to our YouTube performance of "A Person I Admire" from Unit 1 (page 19) of the course textbook. In addition to the guidelines in the book, remember to make a connection between yourself and the person you admire. What is the reason for you to tell us about this person? How have they affected your life. Don't just make it a report on the life of the person you admire.
Please record yourself presenting this speech using a video camera (phone), upload it to YouTube, and share it to the class blog using the instructions linked here. You should also comment on the blog posts of two other speakers on the blog from your day's classes (Tuesday classes comment on each other and Thursday classes comment on each other). Hopefully, everyone will get comments from two peers, so try not to comment on a post that already has comments from two people.
When you make comments, for this speech, I suggest using the "sandwich" approach. Make a positive comment about a specific thing or two that you liked about the speech, then suggest something specific that could be improved, and conclude with an overall positive comment about the speech as a whole. This is good practice for a general way to give constructive feedback that can be useful and appreciated.
To comment on your classmates' speeches, you can access the appropriate class blog at the link below. YouTube links should be emailed to the blog by midnight Saturday for the Tuesday class, and midnight Monday for the Thursday class. Comments should be complete before class time.
Thanks!
JBH
Tuesday Blog Thursday Blog
Week 2 (2017.03.07/2017.03.09)
We got to know each other a bit better this week using the "Getting Ready" chapter in the book.
We also got started talking in front of the whole group.
Next week:
1. W-Q-J
2. Present your Bad and Vision Speech. For your topic, use the ideas from the rest of the "Getting Ready" chapter and be creative. Have fun!
3. Pre-read and be ready to discuss Unit 1.
Week 2 (2017.03.07/2017.03.09)
We got to know each other a bit better this week using the "Getting Ready" chapter in the book.
We also got started talking in front of the whole group.
Next week:
1. W-Q-J
2. Present your Bad and Vision Speech. For your topic, use the ideas from the rest of the "Getting Ready" chapter and be creative. Have fun!
3. Pre-read and be ready to discuss Unit 1.
Week 1 (2017.02.28/2017.03.02)
Our first day got off to a good start with students and the instructor introducing themselves to each other.
The second item on the day's agenda was demonstrating our regular daily routine for starting class with a Word, Quote, and Joke of the Day. Don't forget, someone needs to present those at the beginning of class each week. Please write the Word and Quote of the Day on the board or have them ready to go on the classroom computer when class begins on the hour. If one of these is your job and you are going to be absent, please find a replacement. If there is no replacement the week after you have taken one of the roles, it will be yours again.
Where to look?
For Words of the Day: www.nytimes.com/column/learning-word-of-the-day
For Quotations of the Day: www.quotationspage.com
For jokes of the Day: Google for "ESL jokes."
Detailed instructions are on the "Resources" page linked here.
FOR NEXT WEEK:
Please get the book (Present Yourself 2, second edition, Gershon, Cambridge); pre-read and be ready to discuss the first “Getting Ready” unit (pages 1-7) when we meet week 2.
See you in class!
JBH
