Instructions for "lecturas" Spoken Assignment

For chapters 2 and 3, you will do a short spoken presentation about the rincón cultural topic you researched.  The content of the presentation will be similar but not identical to the written assignment.  You will present in front of a small group of classmates (5 to 8 group members), and your presentation will be tape-recorded for a grade.  This is the grade listed as "Oral grade: In-class activities" on the syllabus.  Each of the two presentations will account for 2.5% of your final grade.

Your presentation should be a minimum of 3 minutes and a maximum of 5 minutes long.  You are NOT allowed to use any notes of any sort, in any language.  You may use pictures or other visual aids (simple pictures can be very useful to help your classmates understand special vocabulary, for example), but your visual aids should not include text.

Your presentation must be entirely in Spanish.  Do not use any English, except for proper names.  If you need to use vocabulary that you don't think your classmates will know, define the words in Spanish or illustrate them with your visual aids.  Don't give the English translation.

Your presentation should cover at least four of the following major points (not necessarily in this order):

D Describe the place/event, or the person's work  (the main body of what you read/learned).

C  Compare the person/place/event you're talking about to something the other students will be familiar with.  This should help them get a better perspective on your topic.

P Give a brief history of the place/event or a brief biography of the person, and a brief explanation of how you researched it and what problems or successes you encountered along the way.

G Tell why your topic is interesting to you and what you liked about it.

R Give suggestions to your group members about how to find out more information and/or what to do if they go to the place you're talking about.

At the end of the presentation, allow time for questions from your group, and keep the tape recorder running while you answer them.  Some students do better at answering spontaneous questions than they do in the presentation itself, and in those cases I will take that into serious consideration when grading.  I will NOT grade the presenter's responses to questions unless doing so will RAISE the presenter's grade.  (In other words, this part cannot hurt you; it can only help you.)

Asking questions of your classmates after they present is also an important part of your participation grade.  As you read the "rincón cultural" section in the book, think about questions you want to ask the person who researches the topics you haven't researched.  Questions should be asked and answered IN SPANISH.
 

The primary goal of the presentation is to share information about the topic with your classmates in a memorable way.

Think of the presentations as being like an upper-division or graduate seminar class.  You've all read a little about each topic, but you divide the work of the additional research and share your findings among the whole group, for the mutual benefit of everyone.


The tape of the presentation will be graded according to these criteria.