Presentations work today; Homework for Monday. From Mike Lohre

Students, I'm sorry I won't be there in person today, as I broke down on 71 this morning, had to get towed to a shop, and don't have a way to travel to Marion in time for class right now.  They say it's a mass air flow sensor, so I do know the problem but it's going to take a day to fix.  So I'm connecting electronically and am thankful for the blog.

Ben or Stuart, my colleagues, likely will come in at the start of class to get you going, but here's your assignments and some advice and instruction for the Presentation Projects.

1.  We will  move our first day of Presentations back one day so the three Presentation days will now be Wednesday, Feb. 25, Monday, March 2 and Wednesday, March 4.  We will draw groups from the hat on Monday to determine order but everybody should work hard and be ready to go Wed. Feb. 25 as that may be your day.  Make sure you have each other's emails and phone numbers so you can get together and organize and practice outside of class.  A trial run will be crucial.

2.  For your Presentations work today, ORGANIZE.  Make an Outline.

These are short presentations and should have an Introduction, Body, and Conclusion.

You are not trying to present a list of facts.  Anybody can do that and that is quite boring.

What we want is for you to successfully teach us the value of this place, with a focus on the ideals, practices and values that are being held onto, and what that can mean for our lives as well.

Your Introduction should provide context and background so we all have a both a geographical and cultural context for the subject you are presenting.  You should also have a thesis statement at the end of your introduction so we understand your purpose and intent clearly.

Your Body should reveal a few main conclusions you have drawn from your analysis of this place.  You might have time to cover two or three main ideas that you want to teach us about in this section, but it depends on how you develop these points.  I would write and then memorize clear topic sentences for each of your main Body points.

Your Conclusion should include a short review of your main points, and also a CALL TO ACTION.  A call to action means that you must think of a way to make this real and usable in today's world.  It's one thing to talk.  It's another to act or do.  So think about it.  What actions could we take based on the skills, ideals, dreams and values held in your subject?  For example, if there is a value of connecting to nature, or slowing down and being less dependent on technology, how might we do this?  Use your own creativity to figure out a useful (and maybe even fun?) call to action.  We will talk about this more Monday, but see what you can come up with.

3.  Remember to read your prompt.  It's your map for this assignment.  Don't rely too much on media, video, etc.  PowerPoint is great, but use it in context, and you don't want to just read off of slides.  Make what slides you do use go smoothly with the content you will be speaking about.  Don't overload slides with text.  Use images that really capture us and help tell your story.

4. Status report from partners:  Before you leave class today, one of the two partners should write a Comment on this post and just let me know how things are going for the both of you.  Will you meet this weekend or get together outside of class?  How did things go working together in class today?  Any questions?  Just tell me how it's going in the Comments section of this post.

5.  For Monday, read actively in Holding On to the end of the Lucca's profile on page 166.  See you Monday and have a good weekend.  Please email me at mikelohre@gmail.com with any questions.