This post is for my HST 101 MW sections. If you are in the T night section, ignore this.
After having watched your flash reports for module #1, here is my generalized feedback for those that want to improve their presentations for future reports. These are not specific to any individual report and are in no particular order.
1) Please be aware that you are presenting material to your classmates. This means you need to be mindful of *how* you are presenting. This means speak clearly, loud enough for everyone to hear, and speak to the class, not the display on the board. You should also do more than simply read directly from a script or read PowerPoint slides. It is stilted and deadens the impact of what you are saying if you spend the entire time reading.
2) Regarding organization, you should be structuring your reports around a question that you are attempting to answer, in this case the issue of historical significance. For this, you can rely on the prompts I have given you. Do not simply info dump all over your classmates; have a point to what you are presenting. Along with this, be mindful of merely tossing out random, pointless facts that are not relevant to your overall purpose (this was a problem for those who had not bothered to answer a question).
3) Be careful about stepping on other people’s topics. If you see that another group has been tasked with reporting on a battle that is connected to your prompt topic in some way, briefly mention it, but do not spend half your time describing the battle and taking away from the other group’s presentation. Stick to your prompt.
4) For those that have prompts related to battles, keep in mind that your topics would benefit the most from visual aids and maps. Simply describing combat maneuvers without a visual aid does not help anyone understand what you are talking about.
All in all, your flash reports for module #1 were not bad for first-timers, but there is definitely room for improvement.
