Homework for February 15

For the past few weeks, we have been working on your process presentation. Everyone has an outline and the script of their presentation and the PowerPoint slides. Today in class we took time to practice the presentations in small groups. I hope that the practice gave you an opportunity to see if your notes are good and clear and if your slides are well-organized for the presentation.

Remember that there is no exam in this course. Your grade will be based on your class participation and, most importantly, on your presentations during the semester. We will use the class of the final exams week for our presentations. :)

I would like you to do the following for the next class:

PowerPoint Slides

1. Look at your PowerPoint presentations (PPP) and make sure that the slides  provide you enough visual information. I encouraged you not to put too many words on your slides, but it is totally fine to put key words on your slides to help you recall the information. So if necessary, make changes to your PowerPoint presentations.

2. Make sure your PPP have a slide with a preview of the stages of the process and the final slide that either contains Suggestions for Further Research or some sort of concluding remarks (e.g. Thank you! Thank you for Listening)

Note Cards

Review the notes on your note cards. See page 16 in the textbook to review the "dos and don'ts" of making and using note cards.


Pay attention to these two points:
1. Do leave lots of space on each note card between the entries.
2. Don't write too much on each note card.


Practice

At home, practice giving your presentation. Remember to look at your audience (not down at your note cards or the slide all time). You are explaining a process to the audience, not your note cards or PowerPoint slides!

Remember that you have to speak, not read your notes. So, make your sentences simple and short. Keep in mind that your audience may not know about the topic you are talking about, so it is your responsibility to explain things clearly. Use simple and understandable language!

See you on February 15 and gambate on your final exams! :)

Homework for February 1

I am very pleased with your chosen topics for process presentations. Everyone has done great research and has managed to explain quite difficult processes in simple, understandable ways. Great job, everyone!

I would like also to commend you on your PowerPoint slides. I liked what I saw today in class. Everyone has tried to find appropriate images for their presentations, and slides you have made did not contain too many words. Remember that our goal is to have mostly images and as few words as possible on the slides.

For next week, I'd like you to do the following:

1. Finish your PowerPoint presentations.
2. E-mail your finished PowerPoint presentations to me by next Tuesday 10am.

3. Practice your presentation at home.

In our next class, we will take time to talk about using visuals in presentations and practice delivering presentations using visuals.
We will also practice asking and answering questions after a presentation.

See you in class next Wednesday!

ATTENTION!

Please, bring your computers to class on Wednesday, January 25, to work on your PowerPoint presentations.

See you in class tomorrow! :)

Homework for January 24

Today in class we continued working on our process presentation. The new presentation skill in this unit is inviting audience questions. This morning we looked at various ways  of inviting audience questions. We also looked once again at the structure of the presentation (Nicole's Outline on p. 49) and noticed a new element in the presentation that we have not encountered before : recommendation for further research.

For the next class on January 24, you need to do the following:

1. To help you prepare a presentation, please do Brainstorming (brainstorming map) on p. 54. The brainstorming map will help generate ideas and put them on paper. If necessary, please do research about your topic - use books, magazines, the Internet, or other sources. It is better to use sources in English rather than in Japanese as sources in English will help you with necessary vocabulary.

2. After you have generated ideas, it is now time to organize your ideas. Please, use p.55 to help you write an outline of your presentation.

3. After writing the outline, write a draft (script) of the presentation. When writing the script of the presentation, make sure to use appropriate transitions used in describing a process and other language expressions that we have learned in this unit, such as expressions used to preview a presentation, inviting audience questions, and giving recommendations for further research. Refer to Unit 4 Language Summary for a list of useful language expressions.

4. E-mail your outline and the script to me before Tuesday 9am. E-mail the two documents as attachments in one file. When composing your e-mail, write your name in the Subject field.

NOTE: If you were absent from the class on January 18, you need to have your presentation topic approved by me before you can start working on your outline and script of the presentation. You can either send your topic to me via e-mail or see me in the office.

Late submission of the assignment will not be accepted! 

See you in class next Wednesday! :)

Homework for January 18, 2012

HAPPY 2012!

In class today we have started a new unit about how to make process presentations.

For next class, you need to do the following:

1. Work through pages 48-51 in your textbook.
2. Think about 2 topics you would like to talk about for a process presentation. Bring the topics with you to class.

In our next class, we will first of all look at the useful expressions used in a process presentation and then will start brainstorming the ideas for the presentation and working on the outline of the presentation. 

See you next Wednesday!