Oral Presentations/Individual Or Group

AP Literature and Composition Oral Presentations/Individual or Group

1. Presentations—generally-- must be between 10-15 minutes for individuals, 40-45 for groups. Your grade will be reduced for going over the allotted time or going under it. Time it before you do it. This does not include the question and answer period after your presentation. 2. Presenters must include media that can be loaded on turnitin.com. PLAGIARISM in a presentation is equal to plagiarism in a paper. 3. Presenters must have an alternative plan in case the media fails. 4. Special effects should directly enhance the material presented and should not substitute style over substance. 5. Presenters should include a Works Cited page as well as your media presentation. Select ONE person from your group to submit this outline to turnitin.com. 6. Presenters must explicitly relate the historical, social, artistic, and other cultural information to the text. The information should deepen the twenty-first century reader’s understanding of the text and influences on the author. Without this connection explicit in your presentation, you can expect a grade no higher than a C-. 7. Presenters should provide at least three specific examples in the text that are illuminated through the contextual information. 8. Presenters should not merely read a script, but rather, actively engage the audience. 9. Presenters’ body language should reflect confidence and competence. Perhaps half of communication is visual. 10. A portion of your individual grade will be based on your individual contributions to the group and the evaluation of how you performed in the group process. Freeloaders beware. 11. Presenters should practice elocution and intonation so that they can deliver an interesting, clear message. a. Practice so that you do not speak too quickly and your cadence sounds natural. b. Make eye contact with your audience. c. Know your material well enough to convey your comfort level with the ideas.

12. To help with the inevitable nervousness of public speaking: a. prepare a clear structure for your presentation. Your outline will help with this. b. practice breathing as you speak to help control your nerves. Your breathing naturally becomes more shallow when you are nervous, so you may want to write “breath” in your notes to remind you to take a deep breath periodically. c. recognize that you are doing something very helpful for your classmates. Show them in the first few sentences that you know what you are talking about, and they will listen. d. consciously speak more slowly as you begin speaking. Your extra adrenaline will make you tend to speak too quickly. e. project your voice so that you project confidence. The 10 Commandments of Media Presentations

1. Thou shalt not substitute bling to disguise your lack of substance. 2. Thou shalt not face the screen instead of the audience. 3. Thou shalt not create illegible text. 4. Thou shalt not assault your audience with rapid-fire images. 5. Thou shalt not incorporate every media special effect you know into the presentation. 6. Thou shalt not insult your audience by reading aloud every word on the slides as if the audience is illiterate. 7. Thou shalt not include cutesy, silly images that trivialize your ideas. 8. Thou shalt not use every font available nor every garish color in your template. 9. Thou shalt not begin your presentation with “I am going to talk about….” or “My subject is….” 10. Thou shalt not end with the words “the end.”