Group Presentation Guidelines

Political Science 310

A group presentation should familiarize you and your fellow classmates with the important themes and concepts from a particular section. You should assume that the rest of the class has read the articles/chapters, and build on that shared knowledge. A group that merely summarizes the readings will receive a lower grade. A group that analyzes and applies (theories from) the readings will receive a higher grade. A group presentation should perform (at least) three functions:

You are encouraged to be creative. You can use video clips from news programs or movies to illustrate a particular point. You may want to use music that expresses the same themes found in the readings. You may want to involve the class in activities that exemplify the themes/topics. The class period belongs to you. You are responsible for helping us to understand why these theories and the questions they raise are such persistent patterns in American politics.

Sixty percent of your grade will be based on my evaluation of your presentation. Forty percent of your grade for the group presentation will depend upon the evaluation of the other members of the group. If the other students do not think that you contributed significantly and meaningfully to the presentation, they can penalize you. I will be looking for three features:

You have 45 minutes for the presentation. A presentation that fulfills the functions above in an uninteresting manner will receive a B ("good"). A presentation that fulfills the functions above in an interesting and creative manner will receive an A ("excellent"). A presentation that fails to fulfill the functions above, no matter how interesting, will receive a C ("satisfactory") or lower.


Back to syllabus.