Reading for Freshmen: Presentations

syllabus | schedule | readings | homework | presentations | class wiki | home

Instructions

This activity is quite simple, but it will require a good deal of planning on your part.

  1. Work in groups of up to 4 students, i.e., you can work with up to 3 other people.
  2. Find an article, short story, essay, transcribed speech, or other type of reading that you find interesting. We will discuss in class where you can look for such material.
  3. To prepare for your presentation, read your article and identify those words and phrases that you think are most difficult and that are probably new for your classmates. Highlight those items in the article either by making them bold or by adding them to a list at the end of the article. Also, either provide definitions as an attachment for the words and phrases, or be prepared to explain them during your presentation.
  4. Write at least three discussion questions related to your article. We will discuss your article in small groups after your presentation. Write discussion question, not reading comprehension questions.
  5. If you wish, you can prepare a different type of activity for the class (i.e, role play) instead of preparing discussion questions, but this is not a requirement.
  6. Your presentation should be at least five minutes long but no longer than fifteen minutes, not including discussion time.
  7. Do not read your article to the class. We can read your article ourselves. You should summarize the article, introduce some, but not all, of your vocabulary, and lead us into your discussion and/or activities.
  8. You can distribute your article to classmates either by making copies of it or by projecting it in the classroom if a projector is available.

We'll be talking about this project in class well before it is due. Have fun with it!