Each of you will sign up for one report during the semester based on the topics provided, which you will present with two or three of your classmates and for which you will write up in a corresponding handout. Think of yourselves as the knowledge base on that particular topic—you become the expert and impart your wisdom to us. Below are guidelines for both the presentation and the handout.
Presentation
The week before your presentation, choose and announce to the class least one piece you want the class to read. These should be selections that your group thinks is integral to gaining a further understanding the topic (note that this requires that everyone in your group has read about the topic thoroughly and has come up with one or two pieces s/he thinks are vital). I will gladly offer advice and I encourage you to see me about what pieces might work best in this format—and in fact, in a couple of instances, I’ve chosen them already; they’re on the syllabus. You should assume that on the day of your report, everyone in the class will have read those pieces and will be able to discuss them with you.
The presentation should be about 10-15 minutes, with additional discussion time. As a collaborative project, you should divide the presentation equally and go over it beforehand at least once. Regardless of how each group divides up the presentation, each person in the group should play a part in:
• Providing a topic overview and being able to provide a general sense for the class of the topic’s importance to the Victorians
• Leading discussion about the additional piece(s) you have had the class read
• Relating the general topic in a clear way to any other related pieces on the syllabus
• Contributing to the presentation equally
Emphasis in the oral presentation should be on identifying the topic’s main ideas and presenting them to the class in a clear manner, making connections for the class on how the topic relates to what the class has already read, and discussing its relevance to the time period and to British literature/history. Be creative with presenting the material—I encourage you to play video clips or audio clips, create some kind of dramatic rendering, and/or use the computer to guide and organize your presentation. Focus on the question: what particular aspects about this larger issue are important to the Victorians and why? I'll be using this sheet to score your presentation
Some other ideas: think about the topic in a cultural studies framework, using language relevant to the field to help us understand it from this theoretical viewpoint. You can bring in competing discourses to flesh out the issue; compare sides of the issue; relate the ideas raised to other pieces we're reading in the class.
Handouts
In conjunction with your presentation, prepare a handout for the class which includes:
key points in on the topic
quotations from various texts as deemed appropriate for our understanding of certain texts or concepts
questions you might raise for class discussion
a complete list of texts you consulted in MLA format that give a sense of the topic’s importance
You might want to use your handout as an outline for your presentation, and you should hand it out at the beginning of the presentation. BUT your presentation will most certainly contain more information than the handout. I’ll post your handouts on the course’s website for the class members to use as a reference, so you might want to think of your handout in that light: what is most useful for your classmates to know if they wanted to use this material for their papers?
After class discussion, you will revise, edit and finalize your handout as a contribution to the course’s web page. Include any suggestions from the class or insightful questions that were raised. Final edited versions of the handout are due to me over email within one week of the class in which you presented the material.
Where can you find sources?
Websites
Books and articles on reserve in the library
Appendixes to our texts
MLA databases
Me! I have a ton of stuff in my office
HANDOUTS: Chancery | Sensation Fiction | Victorian Art| Medicine and Women| Women's Rights| Science and Nature | The 1890s