A. How the presentations will work:
- Your book club presentations will take place on Monday, May 13, and Wed., May 15. Check the schedule below to find your book club’s presentation date:
Monday, May 13
- Bird Box
- The Fault in Our Stars
- The Hate U Give
Wed., May 15
- The Hunger Games
- Winter’s Bone
2. Each book club will have 25 minutes to present. (At the 25 minute mark, your presentation will be done. So, Assign a club member to be a ruthless timekeeper and time manager.) Budget five minutes to field questions. One sign of a successful presentation is the number and quality of questions that it solicits from your audience.
3. Every book club member must present. Be sure you have arranged the order of presenters. And, try to make sure that each member rehearses their presentation – – this will make things smoother and help manage the time constraints. Remember: you have a total time of 25 minutes; if a group member takes up too much time, that will be less time for other members.
4. Make your presentation engaging. I.e. feel free to use the whiteboard or audiovisual aids to enhance your presentation experience.
5. Submit the write-up of your individual presentation at the conclusion of your group presentation. Your write-up should summarize what you presented. The write-up is not necessarily a script; instead, think of it as a report of what you presented. It should be typed, double-spaced, no more than two pages and error-free. This is not an essay – – so don’t worry about introductions, conclusions etc.
B. What a good presentation accomplishes
A good book club presentation should:
- demonstrate how your book belongs to “American literature.” This is best done by connecting your book to the texts we’ve already read in class. These connections should be coherent, clear, and persuasive. Use concrete examples from your narrative to illustrate your points. (I encourage you to organize your arguments here around motifs – – the house, confinement, nature, etc. – – that we’ve discussed throughout the semester.)
- be well-organized. Map out your argument and your connections before you present. Have a set of talking points with examples in hand as you present. Make sure that your presenters don’t repeat each other.
- spend a brief amount of time (one or two minutes maximum) introducing your narrative. This will help your audience to understand your arguments. But, this introduction shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes. Think about the introduction as a kind of blurb or the kind of very brief description you might find on the Amazon page for the book.
- encourage your audience to read your book. Don’t implore your audience. Don’t plug or sell your book. Instead, think of your presentation as a demonstration of why your book is interesting, exciting, deep, engaging, etc.
Questions? Let me know.