Group Presentation Guidelines

For Intercultural Communication

CCA 2043The purpose of the group presentation is to give you an opportunity to

1. explore in more depth certain topics the textbook touches upon

2. teach each other

3. work together in a group

4. create an extended presentation with opportunities to put media and public speaking skills to work.

Format: There is no set format for the presentations. You are responsible for filling the entire class period with a presentation based on the supplemental readings below and the suggested exercises attached. Your goal is to convey key concepts contained in those readings to your classmates who have not read them, relating the supplemental readings to material from the textbook that the entire class has read. You might want to give summaries of the readings, compare and contrast them, discuss how they relate to your central issue, then demonstrate the concepts, or do a group activity, or have a debate, or act out a skit, or have a class discussion whatever works for your group. Be creative, informative, and challenging. This is what it feels like to teach this class, except there are five of you to do it! It is not required that you use media (t.v., overhead, computer, hand-outs) but if you want to, I'm happy to show you around the media altar in the classroom. The group is also required to submit to me a 3 page outline of their presentation, detailing the main concepts presented.

Grading: All group members will receive the same grade for the outline and presentation. Part of this project involves using interpersonal skills to work effectively in a group. If there are problems with unequal amounts of effort or contribution by a group member, please try to address them in the group or talk to me about them. If we are unable to work things out with a group member, the group can unanimously decide that that member earn a lower grade for the assignment. I do NOT anticipate this happening, and we'll try to practice conflict management long before arriving at this extreme step.

The presentations will be evaluated according to:

CONTENT: How well do you address your central issue? explain the key concepts of the readings? relate the readings to each other? relate the readings to the textbook? demonstrate the concepts through examples and class activities?

ORGANIZATION: How easy is it to follow? Is there an introduction, body, and conclusion? Does the structure fit the content in a sensible way?

DELIVERY: How engaging are you? Do you seem to succeed in conveying new ideas to your classmates? Is your verbal and nonverbal communication easy to understand and compelling to follow? Do you maintain your classmates' interest?

WORKING TOGETHER: Do you function smoothly as a group? Does the presentation flow smoothly from speaker to speaker? It is not required that all members participate equally, however no one person should do all the talking and no one should be completely left out.

All five group members should read (at least be familiar with) all of the supplemental readings for your group (listed below), though you may decide to have certain people become specialists on certain readings. You DO NOT have to cover every reading in your presentation; this list is intended to give you other sources to turn to. You may also draw on other information you have available (other books, articles, films); list them on the outline you hand in to me.

Supplementary Readings (all from Martin, Nakayama, and Flores, Readings in Intercultural Contexts.