Presentations are often a lot of work, but certain strategies can make them easier to create and give. This week I discovered the best way to do well while presenting, preparing. Lindsay and I presented on Thursday, but before we could present, there was lots to do. First, we finished analyzing our short stories by finding the symbolism in A Rose for Emily and Once Upon a Time, and decided whether or not Blackie fit the criteria of a good character from The Destructors. Then we made a claim that highlighted what we found out about our stories and our elements of fiction. Finally, Lindsay and I created our What is Literature presentation. The words easily fell into place since we had done so much preparation beforehand. It was easy to explain what was important about characterization and symbolism because we had spent a lot of time reading our our literary texts. The elements of fiction in all of our short stories was clear in our minds since we had analyzed them through close reading. Our big question and claim were clearly stated because we had a table that centered our thoughts to refer to. When it was time to give our presentation, we didn't have to read each slide word for word because we still remembered all the information from our sources. Lindsay and I were confident while presenting because of the preparation we had done. http://www.skillsyouneed.com/present/prepare-presentation.html
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Presentations can be tricky. There are many problems that can occur. For example, the listeners may not understand the meaning by the end if the "so what" question is left out, or they may have trouble keeping up with your thought process if the transitions are too harsh. To fix these problems and others, in class this week we were given tips on presenting that will help with our "What is Literature" presentations next week. One of the tips that I need to work on is an aforementioned tip, to transition smoothly from topic to topic. This helps the readers follow the "story" of the presentation which, in effect, keeps them interested. If the transitions are too harsh, they may get lost in what I'm are trying to convey to them and lose interest. Another tip I found helpful was to focus on the main topic. If too many tangents cloud what I'm are trying to say, the main topic will fade into the background. This will confuse the listeners as they try to follow my words. A "so what" question will help the listeners apply the message into their lives and help them understand what they can get out of the presentation. Finally, if I pick out the points that were interesting to me as I studied my topics, they will post likely be interested as well. These tips helped me pin point what changes I want to make to my presentation and made the final goal more clear. Now that I know what makes a great presentation, I will be able to explain to my audience what I have to say in the most effective way. http://www.skillsyouneed.com/present/presentation-tips.html The book I read this marking period was White Noise, by Don Delillo. It followed the life of a man named Jack and his family. The book was extremely stark with its descriptions and talked a lot about the natural evil inside of everyone, including the main character. As a result, most of the characters were fairly well rounded since the reader could see both the good and bad in each character's life. It also discussed different mentalities and thought processes that gave me different insights on how people interact. However, White Noise was a little descriptive in some situations for my liking.
In the beginning of the marking period, I was too relaxed about reading the SSR book I chose. I regularly read in class but never spent very much time reading outside of class. By the last week of the marking period I was only halfway through my book. As a result, I spent tons of time trying to catch up and barely finished White Noise the night before. However, because I had to speed read around a third of the book, I did not understand as much of it as I could have. For the next marking period, I will try to spend much more time reading outside of class. By doing this, hopefully I will understand the book at a greater level. http://www.booksbuyer.com/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-reading-books-fast/ In class this week we picked groups for our presentations and were given materials to study. When reading those materials, we were expected to close read them and take detailed notes. Lindsay Moore and I chose characterization and symbolism as our themes. The pieces we were given to read had many detailed and interesting thoughts. In the chapter on characterization I learned that creating a “real” character is harder than it seems. They need both good and bad impulses and all of their actions must be dramatized to help the readers understand their personalities. To do this, writers use either direct or indirect presentation; direct meaning telling the readers straight out what a character is like and indirect meaning showing instead of telling. Overall, the passage also stated that the quality of any book relies on its characterization. The chapter on characterization helped me as a writer. My characters never feel up to par; they always seem underdeveloped. The piece helped me understand what I was doing wrong in my writing and gave me ways to fix the problem.
The other theme Lindsay and I chose was symbolism, which is closely associated to allegory and fantasy. Those three themes together help compress a story by carefully selecting each word. The passage gave two major examples and showed how to analyze them to find the symbolism contained. This chapter taught me how to find symbolism in a story, which is something I tend to skip over. However, near the end of the part on symbolism the piece also gave a word of caution. When most people first learn about symbolism they tend to overanalyze parts of the story and are meant to be taken literally. Considering this fact, my goal for next week and on is to use “perception and tact”, as the piece described, when trying to find symbolism. http://nieonline.com/tbtimes/downloads/CCSS_reading.pdf |
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April 2017
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