Reading Presentations

The student(s) assigned to present has misunderstood a significant part of the assigned reading or reading section. There is an inherent risk in asking students to present course material: academic texts can be challenging and analyzing them is often difficult. While it can be good to let students work through these challenges, you don’t want your section to be misinformed about the contents of some relevant material.

• Meet with the presenter(s) ahead of time. Before section, schedule a meeting with the students assigned to present. Have a conversation about the material and encourage them to ask any questions they have. This will give everyone a good chance to catch any major confusions before they make it into the class presentation.

• Provide the presenter(s) with guiding questions. When presentations are assigned, provide the presenters with questions about the relevant materials. Use these questions to direct the students’ attention to key ideas, distinctions, arguments and so on which are worth presenting. Questions like this can help provide structure to a student’s analysis of a section without doing the analysis for her.

• Gently intervene. If a misunderstanding does make it through to the in class presentation, you can address the error as a useful opportunity for clarification or elaboration on difficult academic material (rather than presenting the error as a flaw in the presenter’s work). Consider phrases like, “Oh, that’s actually a tricky part to follow, we should clarify what the author says,” “We should pause here to elaborate the author’s view,” and so on.

Students are especially nervous about presenting. Many students are already uncomfortable participating in group discussions, and the idea of being the center of attention for some portion of a discussion section can feel especially nerve-wracking.

• Do group presentations. Assign students to present in pairs or small groups. This will not only keep anxious students from having to be alone in the spotlight, but it will also provide students with an opportunity to engage in collaborative analysis and interpretation as they prepare their presentations.

• Meet with students ahead of time. Pre-presentation meetings can not only help clear up any misunderstandings about the material, but provide you with an opportunity to help students think through and structure their presentation ahead of time. Having a solid, TF-approved plan for presenting can help cut down the anxiety of public academic presenting.