Eighteenth-Century Literature
Spring 09
Guidelines for Student Presentations See Syllabus
for Your Presentation Day
Presenters:
You will have a timed 15 minutes of class to begin a class on a topic of your
choice. You may choose to present the material in whatever style you feel will
be comfortable for you and effective for the class. Do not assume you can pack
a complete class into 15 minutes; rather, assume that you are showing to us all
how you would begin to help us all understand the work(s) of your choice
from the syllabus. You should pick one particular topic. It may be drawn from a
formal, close-reading of the text; from relevant biographical information; from
relevant cultural contexts; from whatever you think will allow you to
illuminate some particular, significant aspect of either one or several texts.
If there are multiple texts on your presentation day, you do not have to
address them all, but you may do so if you wish to pursue a topic that
synthesizes several works.
Although you have less talking time than you might wish, you
do have at your disposal all of the teaching tools you might wish to use in a
full class, and are encouraged to use any handouts or study guides you see fit.
By all means it will help to direct the class ahead of time, in the class preceding
yours and/or via email (see below) concerning what questions to consider about
a text, what sections of texts to focus on. If you have electronic files or
sites you wish to use before/and or in your class be sure to get those to me at
least one class session in advance of your teaching day. Any power points, HTML
files, web pages, URLs, are easy for me to post to the server space your
syllabus is in if you give me some lead time.
The most important advice is to not try to do too much. Aim
to present one focused topic well.
You will be graded on teaching fundamentals, including: organization and
preparation; clarity; command of material; ability to engage and energize;
appropriateness of pitch to your graduate student audience. Your peers are your
main audience; don't just direct the lesson at me. I do recognize that for some
of you this may be the first teaching you've ever done, and will indeed take
that into account.
Written Component
Every presenter will turn in a one-page summary of your
presentation plan. Summarize the
topic you chose to present and what you found interesting enough about it to
tell others. Indicate if you have or have not had prior teaching or
presentation experience.
For sending teaching instructions, materials:
morillo@unity.ncsu.edu
Return to Syllabus