{"id":1175,"date":"2017-12-29T18:18:50","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T18:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writing.wisc.edu\/wac\/?p=1175"},"modified":"2019-07-23T03:20:55","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T03:20:55","slug":"works-in-progress-presentations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/wac\/works-in-progress-presentations\/","title":{"rendered":"Works in Progress Presentations"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Elisabeth Miller\n(English 201)\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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I hate to admit it, but I came to dread student presentations in my composition courses. Students, though, were doing what I asked of them: sharing their capstone research projects, talking for 8-10 minutes, clicking through clear PowerPoint slides. Under these conditions, though, of reporting already completed research, for the sake of sharing, even the richest research topics flattened and dulled.\u00a0<\/p>

In contrast, I wanted students to learn to concisely share the highlights of the findings and challenges in their work, to engage in a real discussion about their successes and stumbling blocks\u2014and to get feedback from peers (and even to hear about other peers\u2019 work) while they were still in the middle of their projects and could make substantive changes.<\/p>

Based on these new goals, I began assigning \u201cWorks in Progress Presentations.\u201d Here\u2019s an example assignment sheet that I gave out to English 201: Intermediate Writing students. Students presented on their in-progress research about 3 weeks before the final due date for a several-week ethnographic research and writing project:<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

Works in Progress Presentations: Assignment Sheet<\/strong><\/p>

You will be presenting your in-progress ethnographic research projects in class. For 3-5 minutes (no more\u2014I\u2019m timing you and will cut you off at 5 minutes)<\/strong>, explain the following:<\/p>

  • your research site and what\u2019s interesting about it<\/li>
  • your positionality in relation to that site and how it might affect your research and writing<\/li>
  • what claim you\u2019re making about that site and what key evidence you\u2019re using to support that claim<\/li>
  • especially useful secondary sources you\u2019ve found (or what you wish you could find)<\/li>
  • and\u2014this is most important!\u2014a couple of questions that you\u2019d like to discuss or get advice about from the group<\/li><\/ul>

    Example questions might include \u201cDoes my main claim make sense to you? What evidence would you need to believe me?\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve gotten stuck finding secondary research about x; does anyone have any ideas on where else to look\u2014or what other secondary research might help to support my ethnography?\u201d \u201cI\u2019m having a hard time organizing my primary data and secondary research into a coherent whole. Does anyone have any organizational tips for this project?\u201d<\/p>

    As your fellow students present, jot down notes on their research, the questions they have, and the ideas and questions you have for them. After 3 or 4 students present, we\u2019ll have a brief, 5 \u2013 10-minute Q&A session.<\/p>

    You will be graded on the clarity of your explanation of your project, thoughtfulness of your explanation and questions, and thoughtfulness of responses to your fellow classmates. Try to avoid too many \u201cahs\u201d and \u201cuhms,\u201d maintain eye contact with the group, and just talk to us like you\u2019re having a conversation. But since this is not a formal speaking course, you will not be graded on your delivery style.<\/p>

    This exercise is designed to 1) provide you with useful feedback as you\u2019re in the middle of your research and writing, 2) give you practice clearly, concisely describing your work\u2014a useful skill in college, graduate school, and future careers, and 3) offer you a chance to share your interesting work and to be inspired by the work of others as we all share challenges and ideas.<\/p>

    \u00a0<\/p>

    Results<\/strong><\/p>

    I\u2019ve consistently been impressed with the way students have risen to the challenge of concisely explaining and asking generative questions about their in-progress work. What\u2019s more, unlike my previous experiences with slow, repetitious presentation class sessions, I\u2019ve found these days to be some of the liveliest of all semester. Even some of my usually quiet classrooms have sprung into rich discussions as students pose thoughtful questions to one another, suggest research strategies, help one another refine central claims, and share drafting strategies.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Elisabeth Miller (English 201) I hate to admit it, but I came to dread student presentations in my composition courses. Students, though, were doing what I asked of them: sharing their capstone research projects, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teaching-oral-communication-skills"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/wac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/wac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/wac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/wac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/wac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/wac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1177,"href":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/wac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions\/1177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/wac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/wac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dept.writing.wisc.edu\/wac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}