Comments on Formal Presentation #1

Hi students,

I'd like to say that our first round of formal presentations was quite successful. In fact, I was very happy with each presentation, and more importantly, I learned  A LOT from your presentations. However, there is always room for improvement! Below you will find a few comments I have about the presentations in general.

The Positive:

• Everyone seemed well prepared.
• The use of technology was great.  I liked that some students chose to try a new presentation technology (Prezi), while others used Power Point in both effective and new ways.
• All presentations were incredibly informative. As I said above, I learned a lot; our class visitors (Vera and Laura) also mentioned how much they learned from the presentations. 
• Your presentations were very well organized. 
• In general, pronunciation was clearer than the first News Presentations. 
• Students asked great questions at the end of each presentation; indeed, discussions that followed were often so good that I wanted to let you all continue talking rather than interrupting the discussion due to time limitations. 
• On a similar note, students did an excellent job of responding to their classmates' questions.

To be improved: 

• Only a few students did a thorough analysis of the cultural values/factors that underlie each of the cultural topics discussed in the presentations. This was an important component of the first presentation, and I felt that some students could have spent more time analyzing and/or explaining the question, "Why do we do this in our culture?"
• Introductions could have been a little more "attention-getting." Therefore, students might consider starting their presentation a short (but funny/interesting) anecdote or surprising statistics.
• A few students spoke a little too slowly; other students talked a little too fast. 
• There were some students (not all!) who read too much. This often resulted in pronunciation that was choppier and less natural than those students who only glanced at their notes now and then rather than reading large parts of the presentation. 
• This isn't something we have worked on in class (maybe we will now!), but hardly any students used gestures (body movements) during their presentations. 

To be continued.....