Your (SOON TO BE FANTASTIC) presentations

Hey all:



Okay, when I told you during midterms that you should think of it NOT as a test but rather as a "celebration of knowledge," I was afraid that some of you would have to see an eye doctor because you rolled your eyes so hard to the back of your head. But, and I am being serious here, I do not think that tests should be "gotcha's" as in, "You thought you were doing well in this class but "gotcha" you didn't know I would ask you this question (and then I would do a long evil laugh). Not my style. I really think that a Humanities class is about communal learning that allows you to take your own paths through the material helping you grow and mature as a critical thinker. Now I do expect you to do certain things--I expect you to read the material, to think through it and to come to class ready to talk through your ideas. In this class I also expected you to write three weekly blog posts that offered insights into the readings of that week but also some thoughts about your experiences and ideas about 21st century literature.

And many of you did a FANTASTIC job . Seriously. And so you should think about the presentation on Wednesday as a celebration, a coming out show that allows the rest of the class to see what you have been doing all semester.

Besides celebrating, there is an incentive to do a really good job. 10% of your final grade will be about this presentation. So take it seriously and do a good job. I want you all to do well in this class, so make sure you put forth your best effort here. There are TWO things you must do to do well on this presentation: 1)YOU MUST FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS EXACTLY and 2)YOU MUST BE AS CREATIVE AND ENERGETIC AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN.

Here's what you must do:

******Before coming into class. I want you to write a two page summary of your experiences writing a blog. This can take any form that you want but you must have the following ingredients: a)your feelings at the beginning of the semester about blogs in general b)your feelings about your blog at the end of the semester c)the usefulness of blogs in a 21st century literature class d)something you found surprising when writing your blog this semester and e)something that you would have done differently with your blog if you had to do it again.

This needs to be uploaded onto your blog by the day of the presentation AND you must bring in a printed out copy to class to hand to me.


******The night of your presentation. You need to have a printed out sheet that has the following details: 1)Your name. 2)The name of your Blog with it's link. 3)The exact number of posts that you have done all semester. 4)Anything that you want to tell me to look for specifically in your blog. 5)The Phrase "Comments." So it looks like this:


**************

John Lennon

21st Century Literature Class http://21stcenturyliteratureclass.blogspot.com/

53 posts (as of November 24)

Dear Dr. Lennon: As you can see, while I did all of my posts the first three weeks of class and I think I did a really great job my last seven weeks of class, during three weeks at the end of September and the beginning of September I didn't do three posts every week. Things were crazy and, as I told you already, I was really sick with the flu. But as you can see, I made up for it the last few weeks posting five posts and responding to three other people.......



COMMENTS:






**************

This all goes on a piece of paper and you hand this in BEFORE you begin your presentation.

For your presentation, then, you will have five minutes to show us your blog and impress upon us what you have discovered while doing this blog over the course of the semester. How you do this is up to you but be professional and creative. Here are somethings that you want to make sure you do in this presentation:

1)You want to creative a narrative for your blog. Give us insight of what you thought about blogs in the beginning of the semester and at the end (be honest--if you hated blogs in the beginning and hated them at the end, tell us. But make sure you explain WHY). Be clear in your thoughts and detailed.
---Show us specific blog posts that will hep us visualize this narrative.

2)What did you learn about yourself when writing these blogs? (If the answer is, "I hate doing blogs," think harder. Did you learn that by writing these blogs it forced you to think about the literature three times a week in a concrete way? Did you realize that you started reading other people's blogs because you found yourself confused when you were doing the reading? Did you find that you became a lot more personal in your blogs than you thought you would? Did you find that while at first all you were writing about was the reading, you started connecting it to your everyday life in ways that you never thought about before? Be creative and thoughtful here).

3)What was your blog personality? Was it sarcastic? Funny? Serious? Angry? Forthcoming? Did you feel loose when writing or restricted? Did you just talk about the material or did you talk more about your life outside of the classroom? Does your blog personality fit your personality or do you find that it is somewhat different (i.e you are fairly quiet but your blog was opinionated and loud)?

4)Was there a blog that you followed and that you learned from? The blog that you would visit every week to see what s/he was doing? Why? What was it about that blog that made you want to read it?

5) What was your best blog post? What did you do really well here? Did you have any cool links that you think were surprising/ interesting? What was your worst blog post? The one that after you sent it you wish you hadn't? The one that you have thought about erasing? (You don't have to do both but again, be imaginative and creative here).

6)Any closing remarks on 21st century literature and its relationship to your blog?
**********
Again, you have five minutes and you want this presentation to be snappy, exciting and informative. You do NOT want to just go down the list of six questions and answer them one by one. Be creative! If your blog was an image, what would that image be? If your blog was an animal, what type of animal would it be? Have your links and images ready. Do you want to have music? Do you want to have powerpoint? Do you want to have video? Do you want to have another person collaborating with your presentation? Do you want to sing a song? Do you want to have anarchist cheerleaders (ala Nirvana's Smells like Teen Spirit video)? Again, it is up to you.

I will be in my office Tuesday and Wednesday. If you want to stop by those days and talk about your presentations and work through some ideas with me, feel free. But, also, help each other.

I am very much looking forward to your presentations. Do a good job and good luck!
!!!!!!HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING!!!!!