Today we’re going to finish analyzing some videos from a Pomo perspective (that’s short for Postmodernism). Then we’re going to move on to talking about effective speaking strategies and presentation strategies:

In the above video, the poet (and former teacher), Taylor Mali makes fun of a particular dialect of speech that he regards as being problematic because it conveys uncertainty and lacks conviction. Do you agree with this?

What do each of the following speakers do well?

Using Visuals

One of the more common formal speaking scenarios in both school and work is delivering a presentation. You’ve probably all encountered (and perhaps given?) “powerpoint” presentations that are… less than inspiring. Delivering an effective presentation with engaging slides can be tricky if you haven’t learned strategies for creating effective visuals. Read these tips from the experts at TED Talks:

1. Think about your slides last. Building your slides should be the tail end of developing your presentation. Think about your main message, structure its supporting points, practice it and time it—and then start thinking about your slides. The presentation needs to stand on its own; the slides are just something you layer over it to enhance the listener experience. Too often, I see slide decks that feel more like presenter notes, but I think it’s far more effective when the slides are for the audience to give them a visual experience that adds to the words.
2. Create a consistent look and feel. In a good slide deck, each slide feels like part of the same story. That means using the same or related typography, colors and imagery across all your slides. Using pre-built master slides can be a good way to do that, but it can feel restrictive and lead to me-too decks. I like to create a few slides to hold sample graphic elements and type, then copy what I need from those slides as I go.
3. Think about topic transitions. It can be easy to go too far in the direction of consistency, though. You don’t want each slide to look exactly the same. I like to create one style for the slides that are the meat of what I’m saying, and then another style for the transitions between topics. For example, if my general slides have a dark background with light text, I’ll try transition slides that have a light background with dark text. That way they feel like part of the same family, but the presentation has texture—and the audience gets a visual cue that we’re moving onto a new topic.
4. With text, less is almost always more. One thing to avoid—slides with a lot of text, especially if it’s a repeat of what you’re saying out loud. It’s like if you give a paper handout in a meeting—everyone’s head goes down and they read, rather than staying heads-up and listening. If there are a lot of words on your slide, you’re asking your audience to split their attention between what they’re reading and what they’re hearing. That’s really hard for a brain to do, and it compromises the effectiveness of both your slide text and your spoken words. If you can’t avoid having text-y slides, try to progressively reveal text (like unveiling bullet points one by one) as you need it.
5. Use photos that enhance meaning. I love using simple, punchy photos in presentations, because they help what you’re saying resonate in your audience’s mind without pulling their attention from your spoken words. Look for photos that (1) speak strongly to the concept you’re talking about and (2) aren’t compositionally complex. Your photo could be a metaphor or something more literal, but it should be clear why the audience is looking at it, and why it’s paired with what you’re saying. For example, I recently used the image above—a photo of a container ship about to tip over (it eventually sank)—to lead off a co-worker’s deck about failure preparation. And below is another example of a photo I used in a deck to talk about the launch of the new TED.com. The point I was making was that a launch isn’t the end of a project—it’s the beginning of something new. We’ll learn, adapt, change and grow.

Some additional tips from the TED website include:

1. Go easy on the effects and transitions. They usually don’t add anything to your presentation
2. If you’re going to use a chart or graph, use a simplified version like this:

Adapted from: “10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea, from TED’s in-house expert.” TED Blog. TED Conferences, LLC, 01 May 2015. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.

Today we’ll discuss the literary theory presentations and then I’ll have you apply what you’ve learned about Postmodernism by watching and writing about any 5 of the following clips:

For each clip you choose to write about, identify

1) What aspects of this are “Postmodern”

2) What comment do you think is being made about this particular aspect of postmodernity?

We are very excited to welcome Mr. Flumerfelt back for another guest lecture today. Today’s topic: Postmodernism.

Please click the link below to download the powerpoint presentation

Postmodernism Presentation

We’ll start today by getting back groups for five minutes or so to make sure you have your answers ready to bring to your group.

Then you’ll return to your home groups to share them.

Any remaining time will be used for reading your literature circle novels.

We will continue with what we were working on yesterday.

If you have completed the formalist analysis, then go ahead and read this:

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was born on July 3, 1860, in Hartford, Connecticut. She published her best-known short story “The Yellow Wall-Paper” in 1892. One of her greatest works of non-fiction, Women and Economics, was published in 1898. Along with writing books, she established a magazine, The Forerunner, which was published from 1909 to 1916. Gilman committed suicide on August 17, 1935, in Pasadena, California.

During a period in her adult life, Gilman became depressed and was prescribed the “Rest Cure” developed by a doctor named Weir Mitchell. The cure, which was prescribed almost exclusively for women, had three core elements: isolation, rest, and feeding, with electrotherapy and massage added to counteract muscle atrophy.  The patient was instructed to lie in bed for 24 hours each day, sometimes for months at a time, with a special nurse who would sleep on a cot in the room, feed her, and keep her mind from morbid thoughts by reading aloud or discussing soothing topics. Visits from family and friends were forbidden. The day was punctuated by electrotherapy and massage, sponge baths with a “rough rub” using wet sheets, and frequent feedings. The diet consisted of milk alone for the first week, or, if milk was not tolerated, 18 or more raw eggs per day.  The patient would pass into a state of placid contentment, described by several contemporaneous textbooks: “Brain work having ceased, mental expenditure is reduced to a slight play of emotions and an easy drifting of thought” (2, p. 44). The fat would “roll up in the face, and subsequently over the body” (3, p. 140). When restlessness set in, exercise would be gradually introduced and the patient would eventually resume communication with her family and return to a healthy lifestyle. For Mitchell, at least, “healthy” for women included strict limits on “brain work,” which he felt imposed nervous strain and might interfere with “womanly duties.”

Reading_Questions_for_The_YWP

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Welcome back!

Today I’m going to briefly review the concepts of Formalism and then you are going to read the short story The Yellow Wallpaper and analyze it from a Formalist point of view.

If you are away, you can read the short story online here. When you are done, complete the following: Yellow Wallpaper Formalist

Please check the updated calendar as we’ve made some changes. Note: the literature circle meeting has been moved to next week.

You’re welcome.

First, I’ve made updates to the calendar again that I want to talk to you about. Then I’m going to introduce Formalist literary criticism to you  and you can add it to your notes, but you should know that this type of literary theory is exactly what you’ve always been doing in terms of analyzing texts.

Formalist Literary Criticism by Danika Barker on Scribd

Then we will use the rest of the period for reviewing any concepts or issues you’re struggling with in this course.

Blogging day in 211! Remember to check your feedback on Sesame before writing your post.

Clarity: write clearly. Err on the side of simplicity even if you think it means your writing won’t sound “scholarly.” Blog posts are informal but I need to be able to understand what you’re saying. Pay attention. Re-read your writing. You can always edit a post after it’s published.

Evidence from the text: Use quotations and include page references to show me that you’re incorporating your reader’s journals.

Make references to things discussed in your literature circle meeting.

Keep the end in mind. You are trying to find interesting things to discuss in your comparative essay that you write for your CCA. So if you want a level 4, it’s not enough to just answer the prompt. You need to use the prompt as a jumping off point to develop your own ideas.

The Power of Moms – Disney Princesses