GROUP STUDY & REPORT:
Panel Presentation of a More Specialized Text
Learning Objectives:
- To sample the diversity of scholarship appropriate to this course.
- To develop some expertise in a more narrowly focused than the course itself.
- To work collaboratively as part of a group in pursuit of a common goal.
- To communicate your expertise effectively to the larger group in a multi-media presentation.
Assignment in Brief:
Panels of two to four students will work collaboratively to prepare a multi-media presentation that will effectively communicate the substance of one of the course's supplementary texts. For the schedule of presentations consult Course Calendar & Assignments.
Preparation:
- On the first day of class students will be assigned to one of the panels.
- The resulting groups will have leadership responsibility for the corresponding class meetings.
- Each panel will need to meet regularly to plan and prepare its presentation. Groups can meet at their own convenience, but I have reserved many hours during the regular class day to be sure that there are times free of schedule conflicts.
- Prior to your presentation (see Course Calendar & Assignments) your group will meet with me in the classroom. At that time, I will want you to show me your slides and explain what you will be doing and how.
- Prior to your meeting with me (see Course Calendar & Assignments) your group will e-mail me two thoughtful assignments/questions, suitable for use in an essay-style examination. Each assignment/question should allow respondents to engage intellectually with the central messages or core concepts from your book. Of course, it is your obligation to present those central messages or core concepts effectively to the class. Indeed, I hope that being required as a group to formulate questions/assignments about your presentation will help you to think more clearly and carefully about what is important and how it should be presented.
Things to think about:
- Your fellow students have not read the book upon which you are reporting. They are your target audience. It follows that you must take special care not to lose the forest among the trees.
As you approach this task as yourselves, (1) what are the main ideas? (2) how are the main ideas connected to each other? and (3) how can we, as a group, best illustrate those ideas and connections for our audience?
- Know what the major points are. Can you express the book's thesis in a few clear sentences? Can you reduce the book's substance to three to seven major lessons?
- Emphasize the major points in the introduction, body, and conclusion of your report. In other words, preview the report at the beginning and review it at the end. "Tell 'em what you're gonna tell 'em. Then tell 'em. Then tell 'em what you told 'em."
- Reinforce the main points and important subordinate points with audiovisual aids wherever appropriate. The use of visual aids will materially affect the ability of your listeners to absorb the points you wish to communicate. We have the benefit of digital projection equipment suitable for PowerPoint presentations, among other things. Take advantage of the technology, but don't make the technology an end in itself. Make sure that the technology reinforces the substance of your presentation rather than distracting your audience from it. See also POLICY PRESENTATION: How to Succeed, which is directed specifically at your individual presentations but contains recommendations about the use of presentations software that are equally valid for your group report.
- Be extraordinarily careful about subordination. Does the listener understand why you are reporting what you are reporting? What's the big point to which this lesser point attaches?
- Your presentation will obviously require some specialization and division of responsibility, but each member of the panel must have a comprehensive understanding of the the whole book, its parts, and how those parts are integrated. The best way to arrive at that understanding is to read and discuss the book in its entirety before any decisions are made about how to allocate responsibilities for the presentation.
- Responsibility for both preparation and presentation should be apportioned in approximately equal shares among members of the group.
- Class lasts about two hours. I am reserving the final 15 minutes for a class critique of the reporting panel. That leaves about 1:30 for your report and your responses to the questions of the class if you schedule a break. It follows that your presentation should not exceed an hour if questions are reserved for the end. It should not exceed 1:30 if question opportunities are integrated into the presentation.
- Be prepared to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the volume on which you are reporting.
- No one wants to listen to you -- or to me for that matter -- for an hour and a half. Develop strategies to involve class members in their learning.
- The best way to know that you are properly prepared is to hold a dress rehearsal.
Grading:
As a faculty member and former student, I know students often deplore collaborative projects, especially when grades may be affected. The group grade is a collective good. Students who care passionately about the material (or their grades) may carry more than their fair share of the burden and resent less committed students for dragging them down. Less committed students may see group work as an opportunity to be a free rider, benefiting from the labor of others.
On the other hand, we live in a world where intellectual and other work is increasingly done in collaborative settings. Modern public policy (e.g., environmental policy or urban policy) typically requires disciplinary experts to work together to achieve an interdisciplinary goal. It is important that you have the experience of collaboration with others to achieve collective goals. Collaboration requires leadership, followership, negotiation and compromise in addition to all the higher-order intellectual skills required for your individual assignments. It is a learning experience and an important part of this course.
Ideally, grades given in a collaborative assignment would achieve some sort of cosmic justice to the group and every individual in the group. That's a tall order, especially because the preparation for your final report is invisible to me.
In this class your individual grade for the group project will reflect both group success and individual contribution.
- Group Success: My assessment (informed by student evaluations) of the success of your group presentation. Success is defined in terms of substance and presentation as embodied in the group collectively. Among the characteristics of an excellent presentation are:
- Comprehensive knowledge of the subject
- Clear organization of main ideas
- Careful
subordination of secondary ideas, explanations and examples
- Close attention to logical transitions
- Unified visual aids that support your presentation without becoming a distraction
- Orderly rotation of individual presenters
- Relatively equal distribution of responsibilities among group members
- Skillful use of notes
- Good time management
- Clear enunciation, appropriate volume, and listenable pace
- Animation and enthusiasm
- Regular eye contact and interaction with you audience
- Individual Contribution: My assessment of your individual contribution to the group project--both the presentation and the preparation.
- Presentation: This component will reflect my assessment (again informed by student evaluations) of your contribution to the success of your group's presentation. This is an assessment of what I (and your classmates) see in class, and the characteristics of excellence are those listed above with regard to group success.
- Preparation: This component will reflect your contribution to the team's preparation as assessed by the team members themselves. In evaluating each other I will ask you to consider the following four categories of performance. Please use this form.
- Intellectual Contribution as measured by:
- Meaningful contributions to the intellectual content of the project
- Meaningful contributions to the methods of presentation
- Contribution to Good Group Dynamics
as measured by:
- Efforts to ensure that all voices were heard
- Efforts to achieve consensus
- Willingness to compromise
- Willingness to take on responsibilities
- Commitment to stay on task in group meetings
- Effort as measured by:
- Completing a fair share of the work
- Striving for high quality in the final product
- Dependability as measured by:
- Attendance at group meetings
- Timely response to group communications
- Timely completion of assigned work
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